THESE TIMELINES WERE BEGUN FOR MY OWN PERSONAL USE. THESE TIMELINES SHOULD NOT BE USED AS RESOURCES FOR ANY KIND OF RESEARCH PAPER. THESE TIMELINES SHOULD ONLY BE USED AS AN AID TO GIVE A "JUMPING OFF POINT." THESE TIMELINES ARE NOT PEER-REVIEWED; THEREFORE, THEY ARE SUBJECT TO ANY NUMBER OF UNINTENTIONAL AUTHORIAL TYPING ERRORS AND/OR MISUNDERSTANDINGS. REMEMBER, INTERNET SOURCES (WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS) CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS DEFINITIVE SOURCES!!
I cannot stress enough that I received the lion's share of my knowledge from my father-in-law, John's, Western Civilization and Survey of English History classes. He teaches at Maple Woods Community College in Kansas City, MO. Enroll in one of his courses, if you ever get the chance--he's the best!! Or at the very least, visit his Western Civilization sites (they include "Student Notes" and everything!!).
Because I did these timelines initially only for my own personal use, I have paraphrased and quoted without citing as one should for a research paper; therefore, anyone using these timelines should consult the sources listed on the Historical Timelines Page.
DO NOT QUOTE FROM THESE TIMELINES!! ALWAYS DOUBLE-CHECK MY WORK!!!!
English/British:
CELTIC AND ROMAN PERIOD (B.C.-428 AD)
Julius Caesar invades Celtic Britain (55 BC)
Roman Conquest (40 AD)
Roman Occupation (1st Century to Early 5th Century--43-410)
OLD ENGLISH (ANGLO-SAXON) PERIOD (428 AD-1100 AD)
Saint Patrick (385?-461)-begins to make Ireland Christian @432
Anglo-Saxons and Jutes come in late 5th Century
Arthur (probably a Romanized Celt fighting the Anglo-Saxon invaders) reigned sometime before 600 AD
Caedmon (658?-680?) Poet
Saint Bede (The Venerable Bede) (672 or 673-735) Anglo-Saxon scholar/historian
Beowulf (oral telling) @700
Viking/Danish Raids 8th Century until middle of 9th Century-Full-scale Invasion in 860's
Saxon Kings:
Alfred the Great (849-899), reigned as king of Wessex (871-899)
Edward the Elder (?-924), reigned as king of Wessex (899-924)
Athelstan (?-939), reigned as king of Wessex (924-939)
Edmund (921-946), reigned as king of Wessex (939-946)
Edred (?-955), reigned as king of the English (946-955)
Edwy (or Eadwig) (?-959), reigned as king of Wessex (955-959)
Edgar (or Eadger-Ed the Peaceful) (943?-975), reigned as king of the English (959-975)
Edward the Martyr (?-978), reigned as king of the English (975-978)
Aethelred the Unready (965?-1016), reigned as king of the English (978-1016)
Manuscript written of Beowulf @1000
Edmund Ironside (?-1016), reigned as king of the English (1016)
Danish Kings:
Canute (995?-1035), reigned as king of the English (1016-1035)
Harold Harefoot (?-1040), regent of the English (1035-1037), reigned as king of the English (1037-1040)
Harthacanute (Hardicanute) (?-1042), reigned as king of the English (1040-1042)
Saxon Kings Restored :
Edward the Confessor (?-1066), reigned as king of the English (1042-1066)
Harold II (Harold Godwin) (1022-1066), reigned as king of the English (1066)
Battle of Hastings (Senlac) - Norman Conquest (1066)
Norman Kings:
William I (William the Conqueror) (1027?-1087), reigned as king of England (1066-1087)
William II (William Rufus) (?-1100), reigned as king of England (1087-1100)
Crusades (1095-1291)
ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD (1100-1350)
Henry I (1068-1135), reigned as king of England (1100-1135)
Stephen (1097?-1154), reigned as king of England (1135-1154)
Plantagenet (Angevin) Kings:
Henry II (1133-1189), reigned as king of England (1154-1189)
Richard I (Richard the Lion-Hearted) (1157-1199), reigned as king of England (1189-1199)
John (1166-1216), reigned as king of England (1199-1216)
Magna Carta (1215)
Henry III (1207-1272), reigned as king of England (1216-1272)
Edward I (1239-1307), reigned as king of England (1272-1307)
Scotland's Sir William Wallace (Braveheart) (1272?-1306) was captured in 1305. He was convicted of treason and executed.
Edward II (1284-1327), reigned as king of England (1307-1327)
Edward III (1312-1377), reigned as king of England (1327-1377), father of Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) and John of Gaunt (1340-1399)
William Langland (1330?-1400?) Poet/Writer
Hundred Years War (England vs. France) (1337-1453)
Battle of Crecy (1346)
Battle of Calais (1347)
Battle of Poitiers (1356)
Battle of Agincourt (1415)
Joan of Arc (1412?-1431) at Orleans (1428-1429) and Patay (1429)
Battle of Castillon (1453) English are defeated
At conclusion, French reclaim all except Calais (which went back in 1558)
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) Poet
Black Death (@1348-1351)
MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD (1350-1500)
Richard II (1367-1400), reigned as king of England (1377-1399)
Great Schism (1378-1417)-Division in Roman Catholic Church (Two then three popes claimed to be legitimate)
The House of Lancaster:
Henry IV (1367-1413), reigned as king of England (1399-1413)
Henry V (1387-1422), reigned as king of England (1413-1422)
Henry VI (1421-1471), reigned as king of England (1422-1461, 1470-1471)
War of the Roses (House of Lancaster-Red Rose Later vs. House of York-White Rose) (1455-1485)
John Skelton (1460?-1529) Poet
The House of York:
Edward IV (1442-1483), reigned as king of England (1461-1470, 1471-1483)
Sir Thomas Malory (?-1471?) Poet
Caxton's first printing press in England (Westminster) (1477)
Saint Thomas More (1478-1535) Statesman/writer
Edward V (1470-1483), reigned as king of England (1483)
Richard III (1452-1485), reigned as king of England (1483-1485)
RENAISSANCE (1500-1660)
Early Tudor Age (1500-1557)
The House of Tudor:
Henry VII (1457-1509), reigned as king of England (1485-1509)
Henry VIII (1491-1547), reigned as king of England (1509-1547)
John Knox (1513-1572) Scottish religious reformer
Sir Francis Drake (1540 or 1543-1596) Admiral
Edward VI (1537-1553), reigned as king of England (1547-1553)
Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599) Poet
Mary I (1516-1558), reigned as queen of England, (1553-1558)
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) Poet
Sir Walter Ralegh (1554-1618) Navigator/poet
Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)
Elizabeth I (1533-1603), reigned as queen of England, (1558-1603)
George Chapman (1559?-1634) Poet/translator
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Philosopher/writer
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) Poet/Playwright
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Poet/Playwright
Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645) Poet
John Donne (1572-1631) Poet
Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637) Poet/Playwright
William Harvey (1578-1657) Anatomist
Elizabeth Tanfield Cary, Viscountess Falkland (ca. 1584-1639) Writer
Lady Mary Wroth (1587?-1651?) Writer
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Philosopher
Lady Anne Clifford/Anne Pembroke (1590-1676) Writer
Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) American religious leader (in America 1634-1643)
Robert Herrick (1591-1674) Poet
George Herbert (1593-1633) Poet
Izaak Walton (1593-1683) Author
Rachel Speght (1597-after 1621?) Writer
Bathsua Reginald Makin (1600?-1675?) Writer
Jacobean Age (1603-1625)
House of Stuart:
James I (1566-1625), reigned as king of England (1603-1625), reigned as James VI of Scotland from the time his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, abdicated her throne in 1567
John Milton (1608-1674) Poet
Margaret Askew Fell Fox (1614-1702) Quaker leader
Ester Sowernam? (fl. 1617) Writer
Thirty Years War (1618-1648) Protestant German princes, French, Swedish, English, and Denmark vs. Hapsburgs and Catholic princes of Holy Roman Empire (Catholics-King Ferdinand II)
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) Poet
Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673) Writer
Caroline Age (1625-1649)
Charles I (1600-1649), reigned as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1625-1649)
Robert Boyle (1627-1691) Physicist/Chemist
John Bunyan (1628-1688) Preacher/Writer
John Dryden (1631-1700) Poet
Katherine Fowler Philips aka Orinda (1632-1664) Poet
John Locke (1632-1704) Philosopher/"Father of English Empiricism"
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) Diarist
Robert Hooke (1635-1703) Biologist
Pequot War (North American English colonists vs. Pequot Indians-the Pequot of Connecticut and Rhode Island are almost completely wiped out) (1637)
Aphra Behn (1640?-1689) Writer
William Wycherly (1640-1716) Playwright
English Civil Wars (King, Anglicans, and Catholics-Cavaliers vs. Parliament and Puritans-Roundheads) (1642-1646 and 1648-1649)
Theaters closed (1642-1660)
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) Physicist/Mathematician
Commonwealth Interregnum (1649-1660)-mostly under Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)
Mary Lee, Lady Chudleigh (1656-1710) Writer
NEOCLASSICAL AGE (1660-1798)
Restoration Age/Age of Dryden (1660-1700)
Charles II (1630-1685), reigned as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660-1685)
Anne Killigrew (1660-1685) Poet
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) Novelist/Writer
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661-1720) Poet
Mary Pix (1666?-1706?) Playwright
Jonathan Swift (pseudonym=Isaac Bickerstaff) (1667-1745) Writer
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) Essayist/Writer
Sir Richard Steele (pseudonym=Isaac Bickerstaff) (1672-1729) Essayist/Writer/Politician
Wycherly's The Country Wife published in 1675
James II (1633-1701), reigned as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1685-1688)
John Gay (1685-1732) Poet/Playwright
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Poet
William III (William of Orange) (1650-1702) and Mary II (1662-1694) reigned as joint monarchs of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1689-1694); William III reigned as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1694-1702)
King William's War (1689-1697) French vs. British-1st of French and Indian Wars in North America
Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) Novelist
Augustan Age/Age of Pope (1700-1750)
War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714)
Struggle for the Spanish throne. War pits France, Spain, Portugal, Bavaria, and Savoy vs. England, Holland, and most of the German states.
Anne (1665-1714), reigned as queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1702-1707), reigned as queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1707-1714)
Queen Anne's War (1702-1713) French vs. British-2nd of French and Indian Wars in North America. This happens at about the same time as the War of Spanish Succession.
John Wesley (1703-1791) Religious reformer
Henry Fielding (1707-1754) Novelist
Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Lexicographer/Writer
David Hume (1711-1776) Scottish Philosopher/Historian
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) Novelist
House of Hanover:
George I (George Louis) (1660-1727), reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland (1714-1727)
Thomas Gray (1716-1771) Poet
Horace Walpole (1717-1797) Writer
Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) Scottish novelist
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
George II (George Augustus) (1683-1760), reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland (1727-1760)
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Statesman
Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) Writer
William Cowper (1731-1800) Poet
James Watt (1736-1819) Scottish Engineer/Inventor
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) Historian
James Boswell (1740-1795) Biographer
King George's War (1744-1748) French vs. British-3rd of French and Indian Wars in North America.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) Philosopher
Age of Johnson (1750-1798)
New Style/Gregorian Calendar adopted 1752 (Old Style/Julian Calendar in which year begins March 25th before)
Frances (Fanny) Burney (1752-1840) Novelist
French and Indian War-Colonial American Part of 7 Years War (1754-1763)
American Colonists and British vs. French, Indians, and Canadian Colonists-this is the final and 4th War of the French and Indian Wars in North America.
Johnson's Dictionary (1755)
Seven Years War (French, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Spain vs. Prussia, Hanover, and Great Britain) (1756-1763)
William Blake (1757-1827) Poet
Robert Burns (1759-1796) Scottish poet
George III (George William Frederick) (1738-1820), reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland (1760-1820)
Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) Novelist
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Poet
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) Novelist
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) Poet
Robert Southey (1774-1843) Poet
Jane Austen (December 16, 1775 (in Steventon) - July 18, 1817 (in Winchester)) Novelist
American Revolution (Great Britain vs. 13 colonies) (1775-1781, Treaty of Paris in 1783)
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) Poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) Poet
John Keats (1795-1821) Poet
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish Essayist/Historian
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) Novelist
ROMANTIC PERIOD (1798-1870)
Age of the Romantic Movement (1798-1832)
1st Publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads (1798)
Napoleonic Wars (Most of Europe vs. France) (1799-1815)
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) Politician/Writer
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) Poet
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Philosopher/Economist
Abolition of Slave Trade (1807)
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) Scientist
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) Poet
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) Novelist
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) Novelist
War of 1812 (Great Britain vs. U.S.) (1812-1815)
Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) Novelist
Robert Browning (1812-1889) Poet
Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) Novelist
Charlotte Bronte (pseudonym=Currer Bell) (1816-1855) Novelist/Poet
Emily Jane Bronte (pseudonym=Ellis Bell) (1818-1848) Novelist/Poet
George Eliot (real name=Mary Ann Evans) (1819-1880) Novelist
John Ruskin (1819-1900) Art Critic/Essayist
George IV (George Augustus Frederick) (1762-1830), reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland (1820-1830)
Anne Bronte (pseudonym=Acton Bell) (1820-1849) Novelist/Poet
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) Poet
Greek War of Independence (1821-1829)
Greeks vs. Ottomans (joined by Mehemet Ali of Egypt in 1824)
Athens fell in 1826
British, French, Russia intervene in 1827.
Baron Kelvin, William Thomson (1827-1907) Mathematician/Physicist
Catholic Emancipation Act (1828)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) Artist
Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896) Artist
William IV (1765-1837), reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland (1830-1837)
Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) Poet
Early Victorian Age (1832-1870)
Reform Bill (1832)
Lewis Carroll (real name=Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (1832-1893)
VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901)
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) (1819-1901), reigned as queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901), reigned as empress of India (1876-1901)
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) Poet
Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1858) 1st--Great Britain vs. China; 2nd--Great Britain and France vs. China
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) Novelist/Poet
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) Poet
Sikh Wars (1845-6, 1848-9) in Punjab area of modern-day India and Pakistan
Bram (Abraham) Stoker (1847-1912) Irish Novelist
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Novelist
Crimean War (Russia vs. Turkey, England, Sardinia, and France) (1854-1856)
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish Playwright/Poet
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Writer
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) Polish/British Novelist
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) Novelist
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) Indian/British Novelist
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) Irish Poet
H.G. (Herbert George) Wells (1866-1946) Novelist
Suez Canal opened (1869)
REALISTIC PERIOD (1870-1914)
Late Victorian Age (1870-1901)
E.M. (Edward Morgan) Forster (1879-1970) Novelist
Sean O'Casey (1880-1964) Irish Playwright
James Augustine Joyce (1882-1941) Irish Novelist
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) Novelist
A.A. Milne (1882-1956) British Essayist/children's book author, poet/playwright
D.H. (David Herbert) Lawrence (1885-1930) Novelist
Ludwig Josef Johan Wittgenstein (1889-1951) Austrian/British Philosopher
Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) Historian
Jean Rhys (1890-1979) West Indian/British Novelist
J.R.R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien (1892-1973) Novelist
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) Novelist
Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) Chinese try to eject or kill foreigners, representatives of foreign powers, and Chinese Christians
South African/Boer War (Boers-S. Africans of Dutch Descent vs. British) (1899-1902)
Sir Noel Coward (1899-1973) British Playwright
Edwardian Age (1901-1914)
House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha:
Edward VII (1841-1910), reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland (1901-1910), reigned as emperor of India (1901-1910)
Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) Novelist
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Playwright
W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907-1973) British/American Poet
Ian Fleming (1908-1964) Novelist
House of Windsor (after 1917):
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert) (1865-1936), reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland (1910-1936), reigned as emperor of India (1910-1936)
William Golding (1911-1993) Novelist
MODERNIST PERIOD (1914-1965)
Georgian Age (1914-1940)
First World War (1914-1918)
Treaty of Versailles 1919
League of Nations 1920
Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) Poet
James Herriott (real name-James Alfred Wight) (1916-1995) Veterinarian/Writer
Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) Novelist
Arthur C. Clarke (1917- ) British/Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) Novelist
Irish Republican Army (IRA) formed (1919)
Anglo-Irish Settlement (1921)
Irish Civil War (1921-1923)
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927- ) German/British/Indian Novelist/Screenwriter
Ted Hughes (1930- ) Poet
Beryl Bainbridge (1933- ) Novelist
Thomas Keneally (1935- ) Australian Novelist
Edward VIII (1894- 1972), reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland (1936), reigned as emperor of India (1936), becomes Duke of Windsor upon abdication (1936-1972)
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George) (1895-1952), reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland (1936-1952), reigned as emperor of India (1936-1948)
A.S. (Antonia Susan) Byatt (1936- ) Novelist
Tom Stoppard (1937- ) Novelist/Playwright
Second World War (1939-1945)
Seamus Heaney (1939- ) Poet
Diminishing Age (1940-1965)
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) English political leader/author, Prime Minister (1940-1945 and 1951-1955)
Ahmed Salman Rushdie (1947- ) Indian/British Novelist
Ian Russell McEwan (1948- ) Novelist
Elizabeth II (1926- ), reigns as queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1952- )
Kazuo Ishiguro (1954- ) Japanese/British Novelist
POSTMODERNIST PERIOD (1965- )
Falkland Islands Conflict-Argentinians invade and occupy Falkland Islands until British showed up and defeated Argentinian forces (1982)
Kosovo War (Yugoslavian Serbs vs. NATO, mostly U.S.) (1999)
Click here to access my brief histories of the Tudors and Stuarts.