Early England Timeline: 55 B.C.E. to 1616

Celtic and Roman Britain

• 55, 54 BCE: Julius Caesar invades Britain; crosses from France, following what would become the standard route for cultural progression
  
• 43-410 CE: No literature in Britain, oral cultures
• 49: Romans establshed in what is now Colchester
  
• 61: Romans move against Druids
• 71: Romans in north England
• 78: Romans in Wales
  
• 85 CE: Roman power established in Britain
• 313 CE: Christianity established in Rome by Constantine; accepted as emporer of Britian in 306
• 314: Edit of Milan ends persecution of Christians in Roman Empire
  
• 410 CE: Roman legions leave Britain; Britons drop allegiance to Rome
  

428- 1100: Old English/Anglo-Saxon Period

• 428: Germanic tribes begin invasion of Britain
• 432: Patrick in Ireland
  
• 450: Anglo-Saxons in SE England
• 450-700: Probable period of composition for such works as Beowulf and other Old English poems
• 500-700: Christian culture flourishes in Ireland after near obliteration on Continent by Teutonic invasion
• 540: Gildas writea bout arrival of Anglo-Saxons
  
• 597: St. Augustine places Roman Christianity  on first basis in southern England.
• 600-700: Establishment of powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in Britain
• 616: Æthelberht, first Christian king, dies
  
• c. 670: Caedmon, first English poet known by name 
• c. 690: Adamnan and first biography in Britain: Life of St. Columba
• c. 700: Beowulf composed in present form
• 731: First history of the English people: "Ecclesiastical History"
• 789: First Danish invasion, conquest by roughly 874
• c. 800 "History of Britons": first mention of Arthur; in Latin
• c. 875-900: probable beginnings of medieval drama
• 843: Kingdom of Scotland comes to be, merger of Picts and Scots
  
• 878: Peace of Wedmore, partial Danish evacuation
• 886: Alfred divides England with Vikings
  
• 893: Asser's Life of Alfred the Great, first life record of a layman
  
• 939: First King, Æhelstan, of all England dies
• 954: Last Viking king forced out of England
  
• 979-1016: Second period of Danish invasions
• c. 991: Battle of Maldon, heroic poem

1000-1200: Transition from English to Norman French, Decline of Ango-Saxon heroic verse

• c. 1000 Anglo-Saxon Gospels written; Beowulf manuscript written; probable period of full development of Christmas and Easter cycles of plays
• 1017-1042: Danish kings
• 1040: MacBEth defeats Duncan and makes self king
  
• 1042-1-66: Saxon kings restored
• 1066: Battle of Hastings/Senlac: Norman Conquest
• 1086: Domesday Book, important English census as loyalty is sworm to William
  
• 1077: Bayeux Tapestry, first comic
  
• 1087-1100: William II, centralization of kingdom
• 1096-1099: First Crusade
• 1096: Oxford University founded
  

1100-1350: Anglo-Norman Period

• 1100-1200: French literature dominates Western Europe
• 1100-1135: Reign of Henry I
• c. 1136: Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings of Britain" as the first elaborate account of Arthurian court
• 1153: Henry of Anjou asserts claim to throne, becomes Henry I in 1154; first of the Plantagenets.
  
• 1154: End of entries in Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
• 1154-1189: Reign of Henry II where court becomes center of literature and learning
• c. 1200-1225: Vulgate Romances as an expansion of Arthurian romance material in French prose
• 1209: Cambridge University founded
  
• 1215: Magna Carta
• 1237: Treaty of York
  
• 1258: Henry III uses English as well as French in proclamation
• 1282: Wales annexed to England
• 1290: Jews expelled from England
  
• 1305: Wallace executed (hero in Braveheart)
• 1300-1400: English displaces French in speech of upper classes, schools and law. Mystery plays in hands of guilds, first professional actors

1350-1500: Middle English Period

• Outbreaks of Plague in England: 1348, 1361–62, 1369, 1379–83, 1389–93 (and then some). Killed roughly (plus or minus about 10 percent) half of population Europe wide. Wiped out educated classes who spoke Latin (language of education/clergy) and French (language of Court) giving rise to English.
• 1259: English posessions in France settled
  
• 1362: English language used in court proceedings rather than Latin
• 1377: Richard II succeeds Edward III
  
• c. 1380: translation of Bible into English
• 1381: Wat Tyler's rebellion/Peasant's Revolt: desired treatment as free people. Betrayed by Richard II who pretended to support their cause, of which he was the real problem.
• c. 1385 : English replaces French as language of schools
• 1387: Canterbury Tales appear
• 1399: Hnery IV take throne from Richard II
• 1415: Defeat of French at Agincourt by Henry V
• 1422: Henry VI king of England and France, before age of 1
• 1437": Henry VI assumes throne
  
• 1440: Galfridus Grammaticus, English-Latin word list, beginning of English lexicography
• 1450: Jack Cade's rebellion; Gutenberg Press, beginning of modern printing
• 1453: Fall of Constantinople; end of Eastern Empire
• 1456: Gutenberg Bible
• 1464: Edward IV king
• 1470: Henry VI restored
  
• 1469: Mallory completes composition of Le Morte D'Arthur
• 1474: Caxton prints first book printed in English
• c. 1477: first printing press in England, also Caxton's
• 1483: Edward IV dies. 12 year-old Edward V assumes throne. Richard III becomes king after "disappearance of king and brother from Tower.
  
• 1485: Henry Tudor takes the throne
  
• 1491: Greek taught at Oxford
• 1492: Columbus discovers/stumbles upon America
• c. 1500: The Somonymg of Everyman examines notions of Christian salvation through use of allegorical characters, accounting the good and bad of the allegorical character Everyman.

1500-1660: The Renaissance

• 1509-1547: Reign of Henry VIII
• 1517: Luther post his thesis in Wittenberg; leads to Protestant Revolution
• 1519: Cortez conquers Mexico.
• 1525: Tynesdale Bible. First New Testament in English, in whole or part.
• 1532: Copernicus completes work on heliocentrism, the sun as center of the universe/solar system. Within a few years this information is reaching the educated of Europe, mostly as rumor.
• 1533: Separation of English Church from Rome to facilitate Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and marriage to Anne Boleyn (wife number 2)
• 1534: Act of Supremacy makes Henry VIII head of Church of England.
• 1536: Confiscation of monastaries
  
• 1539: Great Bible published (Old and New Testament in English)
• 1543: Publication of Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, or, On the Revolutions of Celestial Spheres
• 1549-1552: Book of Common Prayer
• 1547-1553: Reign of Edward VI
• 1553-1558: Reign of Mary, Queen of Scots; marries Philip of Spain
  
• 1558-1603: Reign of Elizabeth; Calais lost (last French posession)
  
• 1559: Elizabethan prayer book
• 1562: England enters slave trade
• 1570: Elizabeth deemed heretic by Papl Bull
  
• 1576: The Theater built (first London playhouse)
• 1577-1580: Drake circumnavigates the globe
• 1585-86: Ralegh fails in efforts to colonize Virginia
• 1586 (?): Shakespeare comes to London
• 1587: Execution of Mary Queen of Scots
• 1588: Defeat of Spanish Armada
• c. 1590: Shakespeare's first play (?): Comedy of Errors
• 1597: King James of Scotland writes Demonology, defending reality of witchcraft.
• 1599: Globe Theater, used by Shakespeare's company, built.
• 1600: British East India Company chartered
  
• 1605: Guy Fawkes and Gunpowder Plot
• 1607: Settlement at Jamestown, first European successful colonization efforts in North America
• 1609: Plantation of Ulster
  
• 1611: King James translation of Bible.
• 1616: Death of Shakespeare: Galileo visits Rome to persuade them not to ban Copernicus' notions of heliocentrism (sun at center of universe) as opposed to a biblical unmoving earth (Psalms 93:1, 96:10 and 104:5 plus 1 Chronicles 16:30 and Ecclesiastes 1:5)
• Galileo stands trial for heresy regarding support a heliocentric view of the universe.

Additional Information: BBC History Timeline