History of England/Timelines

(Sources (in addition to those shown): 1700-1899 Norman Davies: The Isles, A History", Appendix 42, Macmillan 1999.
          Key Dates of Parliament, House of Commons, 2008.[[1]] Chris Scarre (ed) The Human Past, Thames and Hudson, 2005)

Prehistory

c 6000 to 4000 BCE  "The Sleeve" (La Manche)[2] separates Britain from the European mainland.

c 4000 BCE  Farming in Britain and Ireland

c 3000 to 1500 BCE   Stonehenge.

500 to 0 BCE

"Celtic" immigration

563 St Columba lands on Iona and founds a monastery

0 to 400AD

Roman occupation

Martyrdom of St Alban[3] (3rd century)

401 to 800

Saxon Britain

Saint Augustine [4](597-604)

Synod of Whitby (664)[5] - agreement between Saxon and Roman churchmen.

801 to 1000

Danish invasions

Alfred the Great, King of Wessex (871-899)

11th century

Norman Conquest

Feudal system.

Domesday Book (1086)[6]

12th century

Norman invasion of Ireland [7]

13th century

Magna Carta(1215) - the founding principles of the British constitution.

Model Parliament" (1295) - summoned by Edward I and generally regarded as the first representative assembly.

15th century

1413    Henry V (1413-22)

1415    Agincourt

1422    Henry VI (1422-61)

1461    Edward IV (1461-83)

1483    Richard III (1483-85)

1485    Henry VII (1485-1509)

16th century

1509    Henry VIII (1509-47)

1547     Edward VI (1547-53)

1553     Mary I (1553-58)

1558    Elizabeth I (1559-1603)

1559    The Armada

17th century

1603    James I (1603-25).

1625    Charles I (1625-49)

1642     Charles I enters the Commons to arrest dissidents and the Speaker replies:

"May it please Your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here, and I humbly beg Your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what Your Majesty is pleased to demand of me".

1643-46 Civil War.

1660    Restoration. Charles II (1660-85)

1673    Test Act. Catholics excluded from office.

1685    James II (1685-88)
      Monmouth Rebellion.

1688    "The Glorious Revolution" and Bill of Rights [8] - limited the power of the king over Parliament.

1689    William and Mary.

1694    The Bank of England

18th century

1707    Act of Union - with Scotland [9].

1713    Treaty of Utrecht.

1714     Hanoverian succession.
              George I (1714-27)

1727    Geoge II (1727-1760)

1715    First Jacobite Rising

1739-48    War of Jenkins Ear - with Spain.

1744-8 War of the Austrian Succession.

1745    Second Jacobite Rising - "the '45"

1746    Battle of Culloden.

1756-63 Seven Years War - acquisition of India and Canada.

1760    George III (1760-1820).

1775-81 War of American Independence - the creation of the United States of America.

1787     Kingdom of Ireland granted autonomy.

1789-1815 French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

19th century

1801    Act of Union - with Ireland.

1805    Battle of Trafalgar.

1815    Battle of Waterloo.

1820    George IV (1820-30).

1830    William IV (1830-37).

1832     Reform Act Raised the proportion of adult English males entitled to vote to 20 per cent.

1837     Queen Victoria (1837-1901)/

1845-50 Irish Famine.

1846    Repeal of Corn Laws.

1833-36 Crimean War.

1857-58 Indian Mutiny.

1874    Disraeli's First Conservative Government (1874-80).

1880    Gladstone's Liberal Government.

1898    Battle of Omdurman

1899-1902 Boer War.

20th century

1902-05 Balfour's Conservative Government.

1902    Edward VII (1902-10).

1905-08 Campbell-Bannerman's Liberal Government.

1908-1915 Asquith's Liberal Government (Lloyd George Chancellor of the Exchequer)

1911    George V (1911-36).
           Lloyd George's National Insurance Bill.

1914-18     First World War.

1915-16 Asquith's Coalition Government.

The inter-war years

1918     Representation of the People Act - gave the vote to men over 21 and women over 30 - increasing the electorate from 8 million to 21 million.

1919    Treaty of Versailles.

1919-23 Lloyd George's Coalition Governments.

1920    Ireland gets Home Rule.

1922-23 Bonar Law's Conservative Government.

1923-24 Baldwin's First Conservative Government

1924     Macdonald's First Labour Government.

1924-29 Baldwin's Second Conservative Government.

1926    General Strike.
           Baird's television system.

1928    Fleming discovers penicillin

1929-31 Macdonald's Second Labour Government.

1931    Britain leaves the gold standard.

1931-35 Macdonald's National Government.

1935-37 Baldwin's National Government.

1936    Abdication of Edward VII.

1937    George VI (1937-52}

1937-40 Chamberlain's Conservative Government.

1938    Munich Pact with Germany.

1939-45    Second World War

1940-45 Churchill's Wartime Coalition Government.

Post-war Britain

1945    Churchill's First Conservative Government.

1945-51 Atlee's Labour Government

1948     National Health Service.

1951-55 Churchill's Second Conservative Government.

1953    Elizabeth II.
       Crick and Watson establish the structure of DNA.

1955-57 Eden's Conservative Government.

1956    Suez war.

1957-63 MacMillan Prime Minister of Conservative Government.

1963-70 Home Prime Minister of Conservative Government.

1970     Heath Prime Minister of Conservative Government.

1973    Britain joins the European Community. European Communities Act[10] makes EC law enforceable in the UK.

1979-1990 Thatcher's Conservative Governments.

1986    Single European Act - introduced Qualified Majority Voting to most European Union decisions [11].

1982    Falklands war.

1990    Major's Conservative Government