Overview data CHUKUS UK
Anything before 1800: you need to know the century (Exception: Battle of Hastings, 1066)
1800-1900: you need to be able to situate things in the correct decade
From 1900: you need to know specific years
c. 850,000 BC Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age)
500,000 BC First settlements
c. 8300 BC Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)
c. 4,000 – Neolithic (New Stone Age)
3,000 BC
c. 2,500 BC? Monument Ring o’ Brodgar on Orkneys
c. 2000 BC Beaker Folk (Bronze Age)
2000 – 1200 Earlier Celtic immigrants (Goidelic/Gaelic group)
BC
1300 – 550 BC Late Bronze Age (e.g. Uffington White Horse)
Celtic peoples from mainland Europe; ‘Celtic’ groups (Iron Age
c. 600 BC
Civilisation)
c. 200 BC More Celtic/’Belgic’ tribes: first ones to call themselves ‘Britons’
55(-54) BC First Roman invasion by Julius Caesar + first written texts/sources
43 AD Britain occupied by Claudius (The Romans)
65 – 80 The Roman wall around Colchester is built (Camulodunum)
Roman Emperor Hadrian builds the Wall of Hadrian (or Hadrian’s
122
Wall)
358 - 493 St Patrick (one of the first Christian missionaries to Ireland)
409 Roman withdrawal (end of Roman occupation of Britain)
Collapse of Roman Britain; arrival of Germanic tribes (Angles,
410
Saxons & Jutes) (Anglo-Saxons) in Britain
St Augustine lands in Kent and builds a church and a monastery in
597
Canterbury
6th – 7th Missionaries sent by Rome (from the South) by Pope Gregory
centuries
By the end of The English were (formally) Christianised, causing rates of literacy
the 7th to rise; there was a well-organised church administration
century
6th - 9th Heptarchy (Wessex, Sussex, Essex, East Anglia, Kent, Mercia,
centuries Northumbria)
Synod of Whitby Calculation of Easter according to Roman
664
customs
673 - 735 Beda Venerabilis (the Venerable Bede)
789 - 795 First Viking (Scandinavian) raids
8th to 11th The Scandinavians
centuries
800 The Book of Kells
871 - 899 Reign of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex
878 Alfred the Great defeats the Danes when they attack Wessex
9th - 11th Danelaw + House of Wessex (had to compete with the Viking
centuries invasion)
New Danish invasion under Danish king Cnut/Canute, king of
1013
Denmark
11th c. House of Denmark
1016 Cnut declared himself king of England
Norman Conquest/invasion (the last real invasion of Britain)
1066 Battle of Hastings + William the Conqueror was victorious &
crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey
1070s Making of the Bayeux Tapestry
11th – 12th House of Normandy (much of the royal house fled to Normandy)
1
, centuries
1085 - 1086 Domesday Book
12th century Much of Ireland under Anglo-Norman control
1154 The Angevin Empire (House of Anjou)
12th – 14th House of Anjou
centuries
12th – 15th House of Plantagenet
centuries
Thomas Becket (1119 - 1170) appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
1162
by Henry II
1170 Thomas Becket is murdered, “Murder in the Cathedral” (Henry II)
Reign of King Richard I (King Richard Lionheart) (1157 - 1199) (son
1189 - 1199
of Henry II)
1199 Richard I’s brother, John, becomes king
1215 Magna Carta (King John)
Henry III’s regents summon a “parliament” (including two knights
1257
per county)
1272 - 1307 Reign of King Edward I (1239 - 1307)
1282 Wales unofficially annexed by Edward I
1295 “Model parliament” of King Edward I to raise funds for wars
1314 Battle of the Bannockburn (Scottish victory over King Edward I)
1337 - 1453 Hundred Years War (England France)
1346 Battle of Crécy
1348 50% of England population died because of the plague
1381 The Peasants’ Revolt (because of a tax reform)
End of 14th Emergence of the middle class
century
15th century House of Lancaster
1455 - 1487 The Wars of the Roses
15th century House of York
15th – 16th House of Tudor (ends with the death of Queen Tudor)
centuries
1485 - 1509 Reign of King Henry VII (1457 - 1509)
16th – 17th Religious persecution in Ireland; support for Jacobites; Cromwell’s
centuries plantation policy
16th – 20th The Empire was gradually built op
centuries
1509 - 1547 Reign of King Henry VIII (1491 - 1547)
1520s Luther’s work began to circulate in England
King Henry VIII publishes Assertio Septem Sacramentorum
1521
(against Luther)
Act of Supremacy ("king is the only Supreme Head on Earth of the
1534
Church of England")
Thomas More (1478 - 1535) executed; he was councillor to Henry
1535
VIII & Lord High Chancellor of England
800 monasteries closed by Henry VIII, reinforcing the Anglican
1536 – 1540
Church in ENG
Thomas Cromwell (1485 - 1540) beheaded on orders of King Henry
1540
VIII; he served as chief minister to the king
1547 – 1553 Reign of King Edward VI, son of Jane Seymour and Henry VIII
1553 Edward VI dies at the age of 16
1553 - 1558 Reign of Mary I / Mary Tudor (1516 - 1558)
1554 Lady Jane Grey (1537 - 1554), “the Nine-Day Queen”, executed
1558 - 1603 Reign of Elizabeth I Tudor (1533 - 1603)
1564 - 1616 William Shakespeare
1569 Catholic rebellion (< prosecution of Catholics by Elizabeth I Tudor)
2
Anything before 1800: you need to know the century (Exception: Battle of Hastings, 1066)
1800-1900: you need to be able to situate things in the correct decade
From 1900: you need to know specific years
c. 850,000 BC Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age)
500,000 BC First settlements
c. 8300 BC Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)
c. 4,000 – Neolithic (New Stone Age)
3,000 BC
c. 2,500 BC? Monument Ring o’ Brodgar on Orkneys
c. 2000 BC Beaker Folk (Bronze Age)
2000 – 1200 Earlier Celtic immigrants (Goidelic/Gaelic group)
BC
1300 – 550 BC Late Bronze Age (e.g. Uffington White Horse)
Celtic peoples from mainland Europe; ‘Celtic’ groups (Iron Age
c. 600 BC
Civilisation)
c. 200 BC More Celtic/’Belgic’ tribes: first ones to call themselves ‘Britons’
55(-54) BC First Roman invasion by Julius Caesar + first written texts/sources
43 AD Britain occupied by Claudius (The Romans)
65 – 80 The Roman wall around Colchester is built (Camulodunum)
Roman Emperor Hadrian builds the Wall of Hadrian (or Hadrian’s
122
Wall)
358 - 493 St Patrick (one of the first Christian missionaries to Ireland)
409 Roman withdrawal (end of Roman occupation of Britain)
Collapse of Roman Britain; arrival of Germanic tribes (Angles,
410
Saxons & Jutes) (Anglo-Saxons) in Britain
St Augustine lands in Kent and builds a church and a monastery in
597
Canterbury
6th – 7th Missionaries sent by Rome (from the South) by Pope Gregory
centuries
By the end of The English were (formally) Christianised, causing rates of literacy
the 7th to rise; there was a well-organised church administration
century
6th - 9th Heptarchy (Wessex, Sussex, Essex, East Anglia, Kent, Mercia,
centuries Northumbria)
Synod of Whitby Calculation of Easter according to Roman
664
customs
673 - 735 Beda Venerabilis (the Venerable Bede)
789 - 795 First Viking (Scandinavian) raids
8th to 11th The Scandinavians
centuries
800 The Book of Kells
871 - 899 Reign of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex
878 Alfred the Great defeats the Danes when they attack Wessex
9th - 11th Danelaw + House of Wessex (had to compete with the Viking
centuries invasion)
New Danish invasion under Danish king Cnut/Canute, king of
1013
Denmark
11th c. House of Denmark
1016 Cnut declared himself king of England
Norman Conquest/invasion (the last real invasion of Britain)
1066 Battle of Hastings + William the Conqueror was victorious &
crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey
1070s Making of the Bayeux Tapestry
11th – 12th House of Normandy (much of the royal house fled to Normandy)
1
, centuries
1085 - 1086 Domesday Book
12th century Much of Ireland under Anglo-Norman control
1154 The Angevin Empire (House of Anjou)
12th – 14th House of Anjou
centuries
12th – 15th House of Plantagenet
centuries
Thomas Becket (1119 - 1170) appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
1162
by Henry II
1170 Thomas Becket is murdered, “Murder in the Cathedral” (Henry II)
Reign of King Richard I (King Richard Lionheart) (1157 - 1199) (son
1189 - 1199
of Henry II)
1199 Richard I’s brother, John, becomes king
1215 Magna Carta (King John)
Henry III’s regents summon a “parliament” (including two knights
1257
per county)
1272 - 1307 Reign of King Edward I (1239 - 1307)
1282 Wales unofficially annexed by Edward I
1295 “Model parliament” of King Edward I to raise funds for wars
1314 Battle of the Bannockburn (Scottish victory over King Edward I)
1337 - 1453 Hundred Years War (England France)
1346 Battle of Crécy
1348 50% of England population died because of the plague
1381 The Peasants’ Revolt (because of a tax reform)
End of 14th Emergence of the middle class
century
15th century House of Lancaster
1455 - 1487 The Wars of the Roses
15th century House of York
15th – 16th House of Tudor (ends with the death of Queen Tudor)
centuries
1485 - 1509 Reign of King Henry VII (1457 - 1509)
16th – 17th Religious persecution in Ireland; support for Jacobites; Cromwell’s
centuries plantation policy
16th – 20th The Empire was gradually built op
centuries
1509 - 1547 Reign of King Henry VIII (1491 - 1547)
1520s Luther’s work began to circulate in England
King Henry VIII publishes Assertio Septem Sacramentorum
1521
(against Luther)
Act of Supremacy ("king is the only Supreme Head on Earth of the
1534
Church of England")
Thomas More (1478 - 1535) executed; he was councillor to Henry
1535
VIII & Lord High Chancellor of England
800 monasteries closed by Henry VIII, reinforcing the Anglican
1536 – 1540
Church in ENG
Thomas Cromwell (1485 - 1540) beheaded on orders of King Henry
1540
VIII; he served as chief minister to the king
1547 – 1553 Reign of King Edward VI, son of Jane Seymour and Henry VIII
1553 Edward VI dies at the age of 16
1553 - 1558 Reign of Mary I / Mary Tudor (1516 - 1558)
1554 Lady Jane Grey (1537 - 1554), “the Nine-Day Queen”, executed
1558 - 1603 Reign of Elizabeth I Tudor (1533 - 1603)
1564 - 1616 William Shakespeare
1569 Catholic rebellion (< prosecution of Catholics by Elizabeth I Tudor)
2
