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The Bronze Age and the Iron Age
3000-2500 BC Stone henges start to appear. Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric, man-made hill in Britain is built. During the next 1,000 years most of the stone circles in the British Isles are built, including Avebury, the largest in 2300 BC.
2500BC First evidence of copper working in the British Isles
2300 BC The first examples of Bronze grave goods are found in Europe
2000 BC Metal objects are begun to be widely made in southern Britain and simple jewelry for use in pinning cloth appears. Defensive enclosures appear in Southern Britain. Stonehenge is erected.
2000 BC The White Horse at Uffington in Oxfordshire is carved into the chalk hillside
1850 BC Carts are first pulled by horses on the Western Steppes of Asia
1800 BC Scandinavian bronze artifacts indicate that people worshipped the sun. In Egypt the horse is introduced.
1800-1200 BC The priest who have controlled society for so long lose their grip on power.
1750 BC Use of linear script first appears in Crete
1570 BC Egyptian Kings buried in rock face tombs in the Valley of the Kings
1500 BC Farming, as opposed to hunting, takes on a new importance and the use of henges seem to lessen in importance. In Peru there is the first evidence of metalworking, in the Sahara region copper is worked.
1200 BC Warriors and the warrior class become the real power
1166 BC Death of Ramses III, the last great Egyptian Pharaoh
1100 BC Hill forts began to appear as well as more sophisticated jewelry and crafts.
1000 BC Ironworking arrives in central Europe from the Near East
850 BC first settlement on Rome’s Palatine Hill
800 BC First iron is worked south of the Sahara
776 BC The traditional date for the inaugural Olympic games in Greece
753 BC The traditional date for the founding of Rome
750 BC First examples of the Greek alphabet being written down, including Homer’s Iliad.
c. 700 BC The first European coins were made in Anatolia but they were not used in Europe for trade for another 200 years
600 BC Iron takes over from Bronze in Britain, the Iron Age begins.
C 600 BC The first coins specifically for use in trade were minted in China. First Greek coins appeared.
505 BC Greek democracy is established
500 BC The Hebrews establish the concept of the seven-day week
483 BC Death of Buddha
479 BC Death of Confucius
450 BC The power of Athens is at its peak. The Celtic ‘invasion’ as they begin to arrive in the British Isles
390 BC Celts sack Rome
360 BC In China it’s the Crossbow that dominates warfare
336 BC Alexander begins his conquest of the Persian Empire
323 BC Alexander arrives in Babylon where he dies.
312 BC The Appian Way was built between Rome and Capua in the south. The road ran for 132 miles.
300 BC First Celtic coinage appears in Europe
264 BC The first Gladiatorial contests take place in Rome.
150 BC Coinage first used in Britain as widespread contact with continent takes place.
4 BC-43 AD – The influence of Rome is felt in Britain through trade and cultural links with the Continent.
5 AD the Romans acknowledge Cymbeline, King of the Catuvellauni, as King of Britain
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The Roman Era
51 AD The Romans capture Caractacus
63 AD Joseph of Arimathea’s Christian mission to Britain
85 AD Roman forces under Agricola circumnavigate the British Isles
98 AD Spanish born governor Trajan’s becomes Emperor.
117 AD Rome’s power is awesome, ruling 50 million people in some 5,000 AD ministrative units including England and Wales.
122 AD the construction of Hadrian’s Wall begins, completed in 128 AD
143 AD The Antonine Wall was completed, it was abandoned in 164 AD
184 AD Lucius Artorius Castus, a Roman commander takes his troops from Britain to defeat a Gaullish revolt. Some believe this man to be the start of the King Arthur tradition.
208 AD Severus arrives to defend Britain and repair Hadrian’s Wall
210 AD Peace is made with the Scots.
235 AD Military anarchy takes over in Rome and in a 50-year period there are almost 20 different Emperors
287 AD Carausius, Admiral of the Roman British navy revolts and declares himself Emperor of Britain and Northern Gaul.
306 AD Constantine I declared Emperor at York.
313 AD Christianity made legal in the Roman Empire
324 AD Constantine founds Constantinople, the new imperial capital at Byzantium
337 AD Constantine dies and his three sons take control
353 AD Constantine II becomes sole emperor
360 AD Sometime in this decade Pictish forces invade the empire from Scotland
395 AD Theodosius I dies, he will be the last Emperor to rule an undivided Empire.
397 AD More Roman troops sent to Britain to repel attacks from Pictish forces
402 AD Roman legions are taken from Britain back to Rome to defend against the attacks of the Alaric and the Visigoths
407 AD Constantine III, declared Emperor by his own troops, leaves Britain to retake Rome’s lost lands in Gaul.
410 AD the Goths sack Rome.
440 AD Romano Britain is in turmoil and a return to tribal rule is inevitable.
444 AD Attila becomes king of the Huns
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The Dark Ages
408 The Roman field army withdraws
410 Irish raids into Wales
425 Vortigern becomes High King
429 Angles, Saxons and Jutes rid southern England of the Scots and Picts
c.434 St Patrick captured and taken to Ireland
436 The last Roman military forces leaves Britain
444 Attila becomes King of the Huns
455 The Vandals sack Rome
c.456 St Patrick’s mission to Ireland begins
493 Death of St Patrick
496 The Battle of Mount Badon
c.500-544 King Stuf & King Wihtgar (Wessex)
563 St Columba brings Christianity to Scotland
c.585-597 King Ceolric (Wessex)
c.590 King Aethelric (Northumbria)
597 St Augustine is sent by Rome to convert Britain to Christianity, he founds the monastery at Canterbury
c.600-616 King Saeberct (East Anglia)
603 The Scots defeated by the Northumbrians at Degsastan (possibly Liddesdale in the Scottish Borders)
613Northumbrians defeat southern Britons at Chester, a second battle at Bangor results in 1000 monks being massacred by the Northumbrians
616 King Aethelberht (Kent)
617-633 King EadwIne (Northumbria)
c.624 A ruler is buried at Sutton Hoo in a boat, it will be the greatest ‘find’ of this period.
627 King Eadwine becomes a Christian
638 King Oswald of Northumbria captures Edinburgh
626-655 King Wibba (Mercia)
635 Lindisfarne Priory is established
640 Coldingham Priory is founded
642 Oswald, a Christian killed by pagan King of Mercia at Maserfelth (Mackerfield between Wigan and Warrington)
653 Monastery at Bradwell on Sea founded
655 The pagan Mercians are defeated by Northumbrians at Winwaed (probably Whinmoor, near Leeds)
c.660 King Aedilwalch (Sussex)
664 The British Isles are ravaged by a plague
664 The Synod of Whitby adopts Roman Christianity of Celtic
672 The Council of Hertford brings order out of chaos in establishing the English church
679 After the Battle of Trent Mercians take Lindsey from the Northumbrians
682the Saxons of Sussex converted to Christianity by St Wilfred
687 The Isle of Wight converts to Christianity, the last area of Anglo-Saxon England to do so.
688-726 King Ine (Wessex)
693 King Ine establishes the West Saxon law codes
c.700 The Lindisfarne Gospels are produced; they are the best of all Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf was composed around this time; the oblly manuscript that preserved this oral tradition was written around 1000 AD.
716-757 King Aethalbald (Mercia), murdered by his bodyguard he is succeeded by Offa
c 716 Aethalbald dominates England south of the Humber
719 St Wilfred sent by the Pope as a missionary to Germany
c.720 Stone church built at Glastonbury
725 De Temporum Ratione by the Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian monk, establishes the AD system of dating
726 King Ine abdicates and goes on pilgimage to Rome where he dies
731 Bede’s Ecclesiastical History is finished at Jarrow
737-758 King Eadberht (Northumbria)
757-796 King Offa (Mercia) He was the first King to issues coins on a significant scale
771-814 Charlemagne becomes Emperor of the Franks
774-779 & 789-796 King AetheIred I (Northumbria)
c.780 King Ecgberht (Kent)
784 The building of the 130 mile long Offa’s dyke that marks the border of his Kingdom in England and Wales
796-821 King Coenwulf (Mercia)
800 Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor
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The Vikings into the Saxon period
789 – First recorded Viking raid on England
793 - Vikings raid Lindisfarne Priory and England’s north east coast
795 – Vikings raid monastic community on Iona, and Ireland
796-821 – King Coenwulf (Mercia)
798-807 – King Cuthred (Kent)
802-839 - King Ecgberht subdued the South Welsh of Cornwall, took Mercia, Kent, Sussex, Essex and North¬umbria. He is regarded as the first king of England
c.825-840 – King Aethelstan I (East Anglia)
827-829 & 830-840 – King Wiglaf (Mercia)
839-855 - King AetheIwulf, Son of Ecgberht
840 – Viking raids repulsed at Southampton
840-852 – King Berhtwulf (Mercia)
841 – Viking settlement at Dublin
843-859 - Kenneth Macalpin (King of Scotland)
849-867 – King Osbert (Northumbria)
850 – Shetlands under Viking rule
852-874 – King Burgred (Mercia)
855-860 - King Aethelbald, Son of Aethelwulf
855-870 – King Edmund (East Anglia)
860-866 - King Aethelberht Second son of Aethelwulf
863-877 - Constantine I (King of Scotland)
865 - Viking Ivar The Boneless invaded East Anglia
866 - Vikings take York
866-871 - King Aethelred I
870 – Vikings kill King Edmund and take his kingdom of East Anglia
871-899 - King Alfred the Great
874 - The Vikings create the Kingdom of York
874-c.880 – King Ceolwulf II (Mercia)
878 – King Alfred defeats Danes at Edington
878-889 - Eochaid (King of Scotland)
885 – King Alfred retakes London from the Vikings
889 –900 Donald II -(King of Scotland)
891 - Anglo Saxon Chronicles are begun
892 - A Viking armada lands at Lympe
c.898-915 - Alfred, Plegmund, Earl Sihtric, Siefrid, Cnut, Regnald (Rulers of Viking Northumbria)
899-925 - King Eadward I (The Elder)
900-942 Constantine II - (King of Scotland)
910 – King Eadward defeats Danes at Tettenhall
916 – Danes attack Ireland again
c921-927 - Sihtric (Hiberno-Norse Viking Ruler at York)
926-939 - King Aethelstan The first king of all England
937 – King Aethelstan defeats the combined armies of Vik¬ings, CeIts and Scots
940-946 - King Eadmund I (The Magnificent):
941-944 & 948-952 - Anlaf Sihtricsson (Hiberno-Norse Viking Ruler at York)
942-954 Malcolm I - (King of Scotland)
946-955 - King Eadred
948 & 952-954– Eric Bloodaxe (Hiberno-Norse Viking Ruler at York)
955-959 - King Eadwy (The Fair)
959-975 - King Eadgar (The PeacefuI) His coronation at Bath in 973 provided the basis for all future English coronations
971-995 Kenneth II - (King of Scotland)
975-979- King Eadward II (The Martyr):
979-1016 - King Aethelred II (The Unready)
980 - Viking raids begin again, but the effective end of the Viking era in Dublin
991 - Danes defeat the Engl¬ish at Maldon
994 London besieged by Vikings
1005-1034 Malcolm II - (King of Scotland)
1012 - The Danish chieftain Swegen Forkbeard invaded with his son Cnut. Forkbeard was proclaimed king in 1013 but died in 1014
1016 - King Eadmund II (Ironside) He died while rallying the English against the Danes, and Cnut was proclaimed king
1017-1035 - King Cnut I, also king of Denmark and Norway
1018 – Malcolm II of Scotland defeats English at Carham
1034-1040 Duncan I - (King of Scotland)
1035-1040 - King Harold I (Harefoot)
1040-1057 Macbeth - (King of Scotland)
1040-1042 - King Cnut II (Harthacanute 'Hardicanute') Son of Cnut I by Emma, Aethelred II's widow
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The Early Middle Ages - The Normans & Plantagenet’s
1042-1066 King Eadward III (The Confessor)
1052 Foundations of Westminster Abbey are laid
1066 King Harold II defeats the Vikings at Stamford Bridge and is then killed at Hastings by Duke William of Normandy
1066-1087 King William I (The Conqueror):
1070 William I defeats Saxons led by Hereward the Wake
1072 William I invades Scotland
1085 Civil war in Ireland
1086 Domesday Book
1087-1100 King William II (Rufus 'The Red')
1094 Welsh revolt against Normans
1100-1135 King Henry I reigned jointly with his wife Matilda 1118 Matilda dies
1135-1154 King Stephen
1153 The Treaty of Wallingford decrees that Stephen should rule, and Matilda's son should succeed him
1138 The Scots, under King David I who supported Matilda defeated at the Battle of the Standard
1141 Stephen is captured at the Battle of Lincoln
1154-1189 King Henry II
1165 – 1214 William The Lion, King of Scotland
1166 The jury system of trial is founded
1169 The English conquest of Ireland begins
1170 Thomas Becket was mur¬dered
1189-1199 King Richard I (Coeur de Lion 'The Lion-Heart')
1199-1216 King John
1209 Cambridge University founded
1214 - 1249 Alexander II, King of Scotland
1215 King John signs the Magna Carta
1216-1272 King Henry III
1230 Around this time jousting becomes popular
1249-1286 Alexander III, King of Scotland
1258 Simon De Montfort and the Barons secure the Treaty of Oxford and the establish a parliament
1265 De Montfort killed at Evesham by Henry IIl's son Edward
1266 Norway gives up the Isle of Man and the Hebrides to Scotland
1272-1307 King Edward I (Longshanks)
1284 Edward becomes the first English Prince of Wales
1290 English expel Jewish community
1295 First model parliament
1296 Edward invades Scotland, captures Dunbar Castle
1297 English beaten by William Wallace at Stirling
1304 Scotland under English rule
1306 Scotland partially independent under Robert Bruce
1307 Robert Bruce defeats English at Loudon Hill
1311 Scots army raids into Northern England
1307-1327 King Edward II
1314 Edward defeated at Bannockburn by Robert Bruce
1322 Scots Barons declare independence at Arbroath
1328 Scotland fully independent
1327-1377 King Edward III
1329 – 1371 King David I succeeds Robert Bruce
1332 Parliament becomes two houses for the first time.
1337 The Hundred Years War with France begins
1346 French defeated at Crecy
1348 The Black Death kills over one third of the population of England
1350 English replaces French in schools
1356 French defeated at Poitiers
1371 – 1390 Robert II of Scotland
1377-1399 King Richard II
1377 The French raid England
1380 The Lollards, religious reformers begin their campaign
1381 The Peasant's Revolt
1386 Chaucer begins The Canterbury Tales
1388 Scots defeat English at Otterburn
1390 – 1406 Robert III King of Scotland
1394 Richard II campaigns in Ireland
1399 Richard abdicates, John of Gaunt's son Henry becomes King
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The Late Middle Ages and the Tudors
1399-1413 King Henry IV
1400 Richard II is possibly poisoned at Pontefract Castle
1400 Welsh rebel against the English under Owen Glendower
1402 The Scots invade England and are defeated at Battle of Homildon
1406 –1437 James I King of Scotland
1413-1422 King Henry V
1415 English defeat the French at Agincourt
1420 Henry V marries Catherine of France
1422-1461 King Henry VI
1424 After 18 years in captivity by the English James I crowned King of Scotland
c.1430 Chain mail begins to be replaced by plate armour
c.1430 Modern English starts to supersede Middle English.
1437 –1460 James II King of Scotland
1453 The English defeated at Chatillon marking the end of the Hundred Years' War. English holdings in France reduced to just Calais
1455 The Wars of The Roses begin
1460- 1488 James III King of Scotland
1461-1483 King Edward IV
1461 Gunpowder is made in England
1470 King Henry VI restored to the throne but dies in the following year
1483 King Edward V, aged thirteen on his ascension is never crowned. He and his brother murdered in ¬The Tower by Richard III
1483-1485 King Richard III
1485 Richard killed at Battle of Bosworth by Henry Tudor
1485-1509 King Henry VII
1488 –1513 James IV King of Scotland
1497 The usurper Perkin Warbeck is killed
c. 1506 Leonardi Da Vinci, the true Renaissance Man, paints the Mona Lisa
1509-1547 King Henry VIII
1513 English defeat the Scots at Flodden Field; James IV is killed
1513-1542 James V King of Scotland
1529 The Pope refuses to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon
1533 Henry marries Ann Boleyn and as a result is excommunicated by the Pope
1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome
1536 England and Wales brought together in an Act of Union
1536 Henry crushes the rebellious ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’ in the north of England
1542 The Scots defeated by England at Solway Moss
1542 – 1567 Mary, Queen of Scots
1547-1553 King Edward VI
1547 The ¬Scots defeated at Pinkie Cleuch
1550 English troops withdrawn from Scotland
1553-1558 Mary Tudor, a Roman Catholic, becomes Mary I, Roman Catholic bishops are restored
1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt leads an unsuccessful Protestant rebellion in Kent
1554 Mary marries Philip Il of Spain
1555 Protestants persecuted and Sir Thomas Cranmer is burnt
1558-1603 Queen Elizabeth I
1563 Bubonic plague beaks out in London and around a quarter of the population die
1567 Mary, Queen of Scots is defeated and imprisoned
1567 – 1603 James VI King of Scotland
1587 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, is executed
1588 Spanish Armada attempts an invasion of England
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1603-1625 King James I (James VI of Scotland)
1605 The Catholic inspired Gunpowder Plot is foiled
1613 Protestants begin to settle in Northern Ireland
1618 The Thirty Years' War begins
1620 The Pilgrim Fathers sail from Plymouth
1625-1649 King Charles I
1625 Plague hits London
1638 Scottish Covenanters challenge the King’s authority over the church in Scotland
1639 Scots defeated at Berwick-upon-Tweed
1641 Parliament objects to the King’s authority
1641 Irish Catholics rebel against Protestant settlers
1642 The English Civil War begins
1643 English Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters align against King Charles I
1646 Charles I surrenders to the Scots
1648 Royalist uprisings in Essex, Kent and Wales
1649 Oliver Cromwell has Charles beheaded
1649 – 1660 Cromwell's Commonwealth
1649 Cromwell surpresses Irish Catholics in a brutal campaign
1650 Cromwell defeats the Scots at Dunbar
1651 Ceomwell defeats the future King Charles II’s at Worcester
1653 Cromwell extends his powers and becomes ‘Lord Protector’
1660 General Monck marches from Coldstream (Scotland) to London to restore a Parliament sympathetic to a return of the monarchy
1660-1685 King Charles II
1665 The Great Plague
1666 The Great Fire of London
1685 Battle of Sedgemoor
1685-1688 King James II
1688 The Glorious Revolution in England causes James to flee to France
1689-1694 Queen Mary II and King William Ill jointly rule until her death
1690 James invades Ireland and is defeated by William, at the Battle of The Boyne
1692 Massacre at Glencoe
1694-1702 William III becomes sole ruler
1694 Bank of England founded
1698 Stock Exchange founded
1702-1714 Queen Anne
1704 The Battle of Blenheim
1707 England and Scotland become Great Britain under the Act of Union
1711 St Paul’s Cathedral’s rebuilding is completed
1712 The last English witch is executed
1714-1727 King George I
1718 Banknotes introduced in England
1721 Robert Walpole, Britain’s first Prime Minister
1727-1760 King George II
1739 Highwayman Dick Turpin is hanged in London
1745 French defeat English at Fontenay
1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie leads the Jacobite army to victory over the King’s army at Prestonpans
1746 The Jacobites are defeated at Culloden
1753 British Museum founded
1756 The Seven Years' War began
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