The Middle Ages

William the Conqueror invades England

Sep 28, 1066

Claiming his right to the English throne, William, duke of Normandy, invades England at Pevensey on Britain’s southeast coast. His subsequent defeat of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings marked the beginning of a new era in British history.

Paper is first mass-produced in Spain

Sep 27, 1150

Medieval paper was made of diluted cotton, linen fiber. The fibers are then intermixed with water and by the use of a sieve-like screen, the fibers are lifted from the water leaving a sheet of matted fiber on the screen. The thin layer of intertwined fiber is paper.

Magna Carta

Sep 28, 1215

Magna Carta Libertatum, commonly called Magna Carta, is a charter agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons.

End of the Crusades

Sep 28, 1270

Louis IX of France, in an attempt to restore the situation, decided to go back on crusade after nearly twenty years, but mislead by the idea that the Bey of Tunis could be converted to Christianity, he decided to land first in Tunisia, then march across Egypt to the Holy Land. However, once he arrived in Tunisia, it was clear that this was not the case, and he had to besiege Tunis.

The Plague

Sep 28, 1348

The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of Central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1343. From there, it was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. Spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, the Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population.

First appearance of Robin Hood in literature

Sep 27, 1378

The first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from the c. 1377 poem Piers Plowman, but the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads that tell his story date to the second half of 15th century (i.e. the 1400s), or the first decade of the 16th century (1500s).

Chaucer writes The Canterbury Tales

Sep 27, 1387

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in a frame story, between 1387 and 1400. It is the story of a group of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to Canterbury (England).

First printing of Le Morte d’Arthur

Sep 28, 1485

First published in 1485 by William Caxton, and is today perhaps the best-known work of Arthurian literature in English. Many modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their principal source, including T. H. White in his popular The Once and Future King and Tennyson in The Idylls of the King.

War of the Roses

Sep 28, 1485

The Wars of the Roses were a series of battles fought in medieval England from 1455 to 1485 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

First Tudor king, Henry VII, is crowned

Sep 28, 1485

Henry VII, known before accession as Henry Tudor, 2nd Earl of Richmond (Welsh: Harri Tudur; 28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), was King of England after seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death, the first monarch of the House of Tudor.