1727
ENGLAND, no longer a sovereign state, is 800 years old
1707
Great Britain is created The parliaments of England and Scotland agree to unite, although there is great reluctance in Scotland
1660
Charles II returns to England from exile in France and at the request of Parliament resumes the monarchy
1649
Charles I is convicted of treason and beheaded, the only English king ever to suffer this fate. Perhaps the idea of government by compromise arose here
1647
Charles is put under house arrest. Army leaders, of all ranks, meet at Putney to debate the future of England. There is support for Leveller ideas advanced by Rainsborough and Lilburne, Cromwell succeeds Fairfax as General
1645
Parliament’s New Model Army is created, composed of ‘godly men’ more willing to fight the king. Charles is defeated at Naseby, his army annihilated
1642
King Charles I refuses to accept the rule of Parliament (led by John Pym) and raises his standard at Nottingham. The English Civil War begins
1627
ENGLAND is 700 years old Five Knights are imprisoned for refusing to pay forced loans imposed by Charles I, and appeal their case using Clause 39 of Magna Carta. Many in Parliament were not happy with arbitrary rule by the king, distrusted following his marriage to a French Catholic. A sure sign of events that lie ahead
1620
120 Pilgrims (Puritan separatists) aboard the Mayflower, land at Cape Cod Bay in November. Another colony of English people is established in America. It is this event that leads to American’s celebrating Thanksgiving Day
1605
The Gunpowder Plot, led by Catholic Robert Catesby is discovered and the insurrectionists are either killed in battle or captured and tried. Guy Fawkes was not alone in despising James I, a Scot, the new King of England
1588
Catholic Spain sends an Armada to crush Church of England and depose Elizabeth I, but is defeated in the English Channel. Fines imposed on Recusant Catholics are more harshly enacted, as Protestant England defends itself against Catholic reaction
1527
ENGLAND is 600 years old Henry VIII sends an envoy to a besieged Pope Clement VII in Rome to ask for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Henry, frustrated by the lack of a male heir, believed his marriage was “blighted in the eyes of God”
1513
Battle of Flooded Field.
1427
ENGLAND is 500 years old 7-year-old Henry VI is crowned King of England, he is of the House of Lancaster but is a weak individual, a trait which gives the House of York much cause for complaint
1415
England’s greatest away victory – 5000 English troops, mainly archers, defeat French army of 20,000+ at Agincourt, France. The years of practice with a bow, that all Englishmen are required to do, are shown to pay-off in the end
1399
Richard II is deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbrooke (Henry IV), an act which is to lead to much bloodshed over the ensuing 80 years
1381
The Peasants Revolt
1327
ENGLAND is 400 years old 14-year-old Edward III is crowned King, after the murder of his father by his mother’s lover. Edward went on to great things, including the defeat of French army at Crecy and the inauguration of St. George as Patron Saint of England
1265
Simon De Montfort, Ear of Leicester leads a revolt against Henry II, whom he defeats at Lewes, where future Edward I is taken captive. He escapes and leads his army to defeat Simon as Battle of Evesham
1227
ENGLAND is 300 years old1215-7
King John reluctantly signs the ‘Great Charter’ guaranteeing the rights of all free Englishman to justice. Civil War raged, as Prince Louis of France invaded England supported initially by the Barons. After John’s death the Baron’s supported the infant Henry III’s claim, with William the Marshal as his regent
1127
ENGLAND is 200 years old Empress Mathilda aka Maude (a widow at 25), eldest daughter of Henry I is betrothed to Geoffrey of Anjou (only 13). Their son, Henry II was the first of the Plantagenet Kings of England. Henry acceded to the throne after 20 years of civil war between his mother and King Stephen, known as ‘The Anarchy’
1092
William II begins to build Carlisle Castle and takes control of Cumberland and Westmorland after repulsing an invasion from Malcolm III of Scotland. This establishes borders for England which endure to this day, although Cumbria and Berwick especially, continued to ‘change hands’ with Scotland until 1482
1086
Doomsday Book.
1066
Earl Tostvig (brother of last Anglo-Saxon King Harold) invades Northumbria with a Viking army but he is defeated at Stamford Bridge, near York. A few weeks later William, Duke of Normandy lands at Pevensey and defeats King Harold at Hastings. William I is crowned King of England at Christmas and the English throne passes to the Normans, with dire consequences for English people. Many thousands at wiped out in the ensuing years, genocide we would call it now
1027
ENGLAND is 100 years old
1016
King Cnut of Denmark takes the English crown
939
King Æthelstan dies and succeeded by his half-brother
937
Battle of Brunanburg
927
ENGLAND is born On 12th July near Eamont in Cumbria, King Æthelstan met with several Celtic kings from across Britain. At this meeting was the English Lord of Bamburgh and other nobles from the Viking territory of Northumbria, all of whom submitted to King Æthelstan. On that day Æthelstan had in effect created one nation for all the English-speaking peoples. From that day onwards all the English-speaking people were united under one ruler
899
King Alfred is succeeded by his son Edward (the Elder), who with his sister Æthelflӕd (Lady of the Mercians) gradually extended the frontiers of land ruled by the English. The Danelaw is so reduced that by 918 all of England south of the Humber has submitted to either Edward or Æthelflӕd
878
Army of Danes attacks King Alfred at Chippenham and within weeks most of Wessex is under Danish control, Alfred rules only in the wetlands around Athelney. Alfred conducts guerrilla warfare against Danes and gathers his forces from Hampshire, Wiltshire & Somerset. English army under Alfred’s leadership defeats Danes at Edington
865-9
Invasion of Eastern England by large army of Danes/Vikings who are clearly set on conquest. Defeat of English rulers including martyrdom of King Edmund of East Angles (England’s first patron saint). Mercia is later subjugated so that the only English Kingdom remaining is Wessex
C.784
The creation of Offa’s Dyke, as a boundary between English lands and those of the Britons / Welsh
731
The first time the English Nation is recorded in written history, as the Venerable Bede publishes the ‘Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum’. One might say that the English people officially exist, even though notice of our arrival is written in Latin
664
Synod of Whitby.
C.455
Kingdom of Kent, first Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain
C.450
Saxon adventurers are initially invited to Britain to defend against barbarian raids. Within 30 years this developed into full-scale invasion of Britain by Angle, Saxon and Jute tribes from the North Sea estuaries of what is now Germany
410
In 407AD the last Roman troops in Britain were recalled to Gaul; by 410 the besieged Emperor Honorius made it clear to several Romano-British kings that they could not rely on Rome for support against raids by Picts and Scoti