British History Timeline*

BC

6500 English Channel forms, Britain cut off from Europe and becomes an island.

4000 –

1500 Cnstruction of Stonehenge and other neolithic monuments. Neolithic farmers. Beaker people. Wessex culture. Celtic expansion from Central Europe through Hungary, Poland, Germany, France, and into Britain.

55 Julius Caesar conquers Gaul [France] and raids Britain.

AD

43 – The Emperor Claudius begins conquest of Britain. Establishment of Roman cities (Bath, Cirenchester, Colchester, Lincoln [Roman Lindum => Anglo-Saxon Lindsey] London, etc.)

60 Boudicca’s rebellion put down. Conquest extended into Wales and to Pictish border (Hadrian’s Wall established 122 AD to mark boundary.) Britain a part of the cosmopolitan Roman Empire. Aristocracy romanized.

286 Forts established for defense against raiders from present day Netherlands, Jutland, and Germany along the ‘Saxon Shore.’

314 Emperor Constantine declares Christianity official religion of Roman Empire.

367 Invasions by Saxons, Picts (from Scotland), and Scoti (from Ireland)

375 Ostrogothic kingdom under Eormanric in present day Ukraine conquered by Huns.

407 Constantine III removes last Roman legions from Britain.

410 Emperor Honorius officially abandons defense of Britain. Rome sacked by Visigoths.

440s British leader Vortigern invites Saxon mercenaries Hengist and Horsa as defense against other invaders. Saxons conquer Kent and begin invasion and settlement of Roman Britain, terming the native Britons ‘Wealas’ or ‘Foreigners,’ which over time becomes ‘Welsh.’ Angles, Saxons, Jutes and others found a series of kingdoms, over the next century, conquering the island except for Wales and Scotland.

432 St. Patrick begins mission to Ireland. Probable period of Beowulf.

451 Attila the Hun defeats the Visigoths. Does not sack Rome.

481 Clovis becomes king of the Franks (to 511)

490s Period of Arthur. Romano-British aristocracy flee to Britany or into present day Wales.

519 Wessex founded by Cerdic.

563 St. Columba from Ireland founds monastery on Iona. Begins re-christianization of island of Great Britain.

577  Cuthwin and Caewlin of Wessex take Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath.

580 Havelok the Dane.

597 St. Augustine’s mission to Britain. Christianity generally accepted by Anglo-Saxon elites.

664 Synod of Whitby; Christian Britain accepts Roman rather than Irish determination of Easter.

680 Cædmon dies at Whitby.

710 Ina of Wessex defeats Gerant of the West Welsh. A Prince of Cornwall.

711 Moslem conquest of Spain (Reconquest not complete until 1492.) British and other European coastal areas raided for slaves by Moslem pirates well past Medieval period.

731 the Venerable Bede completes the Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

759 Offa of Mercia builds ‘Offa’s Dyke’ to keep out Welsh.

768-

814 Charlemagne (Charles the Great; Karl der Grosser); Foundation of Holy Roman Empire.

792 Martyrdom of King Ethelbert of East Anglia. A King’s Comrade.

793 Vikings sack monastery of Lindisfarne. Beginning of Norse invasions.

841 Vikings found Dublin (Dyfin) in Ireland, which becomes major commercial center in NE Europe.

845 Beginning of major viking raids into Somerset. A Thane of Wessex.

878 Alfred the Great defeats the Danes at Ethandune. Danish leader Guthrum accepts christianity.

880s King Alfred’s Viking.

900 Viking settlement of Iceland begins.

935 A Sea-Queen’s Sailing.

937 Battle of Brunanburh. English victory over Scots, Irish, and Norse. Dragon Osmund, a Story of Athelstan and Brunanburh.

968 Brian Boru expells vikings from Ireland. Many Irish vikings resettle in Iceland.

978 Æthelred the Unready becomes king of England.

991 Battle of Maldon. English defeated by Norse.

1013 Danish Svend Forkbeard (Svend I) conquers England.

1016 Æthelred the Unready dies.

1017 Canute (Knut II) captures London and becomes king of England. Shortlived North Sea Empire uniting England, Denmark, and Norway.

1020 King Olaf’s Kinsman

1035 Knut II dies. North Sea Empire disolves with the death of his son Hardiknut and Anglo-Saxon line resumes with return of Edmond the Confessor from exile in Normandy in 1042.

1066 William of Normandy defeats Harold Godwinson at Hastings; Norman French becomes court language; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle discontinued.

1100 Death of William II (William Rufus.) Gerald the Sherrif, a story of the sea in the days of William Rufus.

1135 William III dies without legitimate male heir. Family feud between Stephen of Blois and the Empress Maude over who will be King of England – For King or Empress?

1066-

1400 French and Anglo-Saxon languages gradually merge into Middle English, replacing Anglo-Saxon and Norman French. Chaucer’s Cantebury Tales.

1590s

and up Development of Modern English. Shakespeare.

* Most dates approximate or subject to revision by historians as new data becomes available. Old English literature in italic; books by Charles Watts Whistler in bold.