History of Britain

Roman and Anglo-Saxon England

55 BC - AD 1066

Cesar made two expeditions to Britain

55 and 54 BC

Claudian Conquest of Britain

AD 43

defensive wall (Emperor Hadrian) to protect Roman Britain against Scottish tribes

AD 120

The Anglo-Saxon Invasion (Angles, Saxons, Jutes)

(circa) ca. 446 - 577

Alfred the Great of Wessex (defended England against Vikings)

871 - 899

Early Middle Ages

1066-1202

Norman Invasion: Battle of Hastings (William of Normandy was crowned as King of England on Christmas day at Westminster)

1066

William I the Conqueror (King of England)

1066 - 1087

Henry I - (the first English Plantagenet King)

1100 - 1135

Henry II - King of England: wife: Eleanor of Aquitaine (enormous French possessions)

1154 - 1189

Richard the Lionheart (3 rd Crusade / Captured by Holy Roman Emperor)

1189 - 1199

Crisis of Royal Authority in the 13th century

1215 - 1272

John the Lackland (King of England)

1199 - 1216

MAGNA CARTA - it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons

1215

Edward I ‘Longshanks’ (King of England: Conquest of Wales / waged war against Scotland and attempted to conquer it)

1272 - 1307

William Wallace (“Braveheart”) Rebellion

1305

Model Parliament - beginning of House of Commons

1295

Edward II (King of England: weak king / deposed by wife, the French Princess Isabella, and her lover, Mortimer)

1307 - 1327

Battle of Bannockburn lost by English

1314

Edward III (King of England: became King when his father was deposed / Shortly after his 18th birthday)

1327 - 1377

Edward III renewed claims of English sovereignty over Scotland

1333

Beginning of Hundred Years’ War - Edward III laid claim to the French crown

1337

England during the Hundred Years’ War

1337 - 1453

Battle of Crécy (Edward’s victory proved the effectiveness of the English longbow used en masse against armoured knights)

1346

Siege and capture of Calais / at the same time the Scots attacked from the north but were defeated in England at the Battle of Neville's Cross (October)

1346-47

Black Death

1348 - 1351

Battle of Poitiers (French King captured)

1356

Treaty of Bretigny (Edward III regained most of the Plantagenet estates in southern France, and was to hold them without doing homage to the French King)

1360

Richard II (King of England: he was 9 years old when he became king)

1377 - 1399

Richard managed to limit the influence of the Lords Appellant and of his uncle – John of Gaunt

1390s

Richard II banished Gaunt’s son Henry of Bolingbroke on a pretext

1399

Henry V (King of England)

1413 - 1422

Henry renewed English claim to the French Crown, culminating in the Battle of Agincourt

1415

Joan of Arc

1429

Battle of Castillon (end of Hundred Years’ War - exactly 116 years)

1453

The Tudor Age

1485 - 1603

Henry VII (King of England: diplomatic marriages)

1485 - 1509

Henry VIII (King of England: son Edward)

1509 - 1547

establishment of the Anglican Church

1533

Act of Supremacy - two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England

1534

Dissolution of the Monasteries

1536 - 1539

The Six Articles - Henry wrested control over the English church from Rome

1539

Charles V sacked Rome (Sacco di Roma)

1527

Queen Elizabeth I

1558 - 1603

Act of Uniformity - Uniformity of Public Prayers and Administration of Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies, and for establishing the Form of making, ordaining and consecrating Bishops, Priests and Deacons in the Church of England.

1559

Beginning of the 80 Years’ War

1568

Treaty of Nonsuch

1585

Francis Drake - traveled round the world / led the English navy against the Armada

(circa) c. 1540-1596

The Scottish nobility turned against Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots

1567

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots escaped from prison and raised an army but was once more defeated at the Battle of Langside

1568

The Babington Plot - a plan to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, a Protestant, and put Mary, Queen of Scots, her Catholic cousin, on the English throne

1586

Mary of Scots is tried and executed

1587

SPAIN (King Philip II of Spain) declares war on ENGLAND

1585

in response to Mary Stuart' s death, the Spanish Armada sailed to England to depose Elizabeth

1588

Charles I (King of England: Charles continued to struggle with the Parliament over issues of prerogative (TAXES!))

1625 - 1649

First Bishops’ War

1438

Charles wanted to collect taxes to fund the war against Scottish Presbytarians, but his English subjects refused to sponsor it: the confrontation ended for Charles in a humiliating truce.

1639

the “Short” and the „Long” Parliament

1640

the Irish Rebellion

1641

WAR between King and Parliament BREAKS OUT

1642

Oliver Cromwell - NEW MODEL ARMY (nicknamed “the Ironsides”, The New Model Army was raised from among veteran soldiers who were zealous Puritans devoted to Cromwell)

1599 - 1658

Battle of Naseby, Ironsides’ decisive victory

1645

the Royalists were defeated and Charles surrendered himself to the Scots, who were later forced to hand the King over to the leaders of the New Model Army

1646

Battle of Preston - the Scots, afraid of Cromwell’s political radicalism, joined forces with the Royalists (King’s supporters) and attacked the New Model Army, but were defeated by Cromwell

1648

trial and execution of Charles I

1649

The English Commonwealth led by Cromwell as Lord Protector

1649 - 1660

Cromwell’s Conquest of Ireland

1649 - 1653

The Restoration - Charles I’s son, Charles, is returned to the throne as Charles II

1660

Act of Settlement

1701

Act of Union

1707

George I (King of England: First English monarch of the House of Hanover)

1714 - 1727

Robert Walpole - “1st Prime Minister of Great Britain”

1676 – 1745

Seven Years’ War - In North America, France lost to Britain all of its possessions east of the Mississippi; The war ended France's position as a major colonial power; Great Britain, meanwhile, emerged as the dominant colonial power in the world.

1756 – 1763

George III - The king under whom England lost its North American colonies.

1760 - 1820

American Revolution

1775 - 1783

Admiral Horatio Nelson

1758 – 1805

Battle of the Nile

1798

Battle of Trafalgar

1805

Irish Rebellion

1798

Act of Union (Union of England, Scotland and Ireland)

1800

Napoleon’s disastrous Russian campaign

1812 - 1813

the Allies entered Paris - Napoleon abdicated on April 6 - the victors exiled Napoleon to the island of Elba – Congress of Vienna starts

1814

Napoleon’s last stand -> defeated by the English under Wellington [Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington]at Waterloo.

1815

George IV (King of England: Peterloo Massacre at Manchester)

1820 - 1830

Great Reform Act - under Prime Minister Earl Grey -> the Act got rid of the inequities in the electoral system, The Act also increased the number of individuals entitled to vote, increasing the size of electorate by 50–80%

1832

Queen Victoria – British Imperialism and Social Reform

1837 - 1901

Robert Peel - Tory party is split: William Gladstone (Liberal), Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative)

1840s

Irish Potato Famine

1845 - 1852

Corn Law repealed

1846

Second Reform Act - enfranchised all male householders

1867

Ballot Act

1872

Representation of the People Act

1884

women over 30 given the vote

1918

full suffrage for women

1928

KING - George V

1910 - 1938

Triple Entente (UK, France, Russia)

1907

Battle of Gallipoli

April-Dec. 1915

David Lloyd George (Prime Minister: Winston Churchill -> Minister of Munitions in Lloyd George’s government)

1916 - 1922

Labour Party (win 29 seats in House of Commons)

1906

Ramsay MacDonald -> first Labour Prime Minister

1924

Easter Rising

April 1916

Irish War of Independence. Consequences? Ireland split into North Ireland [still within the UK] and the Irish free State

January 1919 - July 1921

KING Edward VIII abdicates

11 December 1936

George VI (king: Edward VIII's brother [Queen Elizabeth II’s father])

1936 - 1952

Neville Chamberlain (Conservative Prime Minister)

1937 - 1940

Winston Churchill - Prime Minister

1940 - 1945

the British announced their desire to terminate the Palestine mandate and withdraw - Israeli-Arab war breaks out: Israel gains independence

May 1948

India: Partition of India: India and East and West Pakistan gain independence (Lord Louis Mountbatten -> last Viceroy of India)

1947

Conservatives back in power, Churchill refuses to join The European Coal and Steel Community proposed by the French foreign minister Robert Schuman

1951

Africa: Suez Canal Crisis (under Prime Minister Anthony Eden) dealt a humiliating blow to UK’s post-war colonial ambitions

1956