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British Literature

By Brendita135
  • 337

    Reign of Constantine the Great

    It leads to adoption of Christianity as official religion of the Roman Empire
  • 420

    Roman invasion and occupation of Britain

    Romans conquer Britons; Brittania a providence of the roman Empire. Invaders spoke an early form of the language we now call Old English.
  • Jan 1, 700

    The Dream of the Rood

    Written by unknown author
  • Period: Dec 17, 700 to

    Literature

  • Dec 1, 1066

    Norman Conquest

    By William I which establishes French-speaking ruling class in England
  • Dec 1, 1154

    Reign of Henry II

    As he married Eleanor two years earlier, he brings vast French territories to the English crown.
  • Dec 1, 1200

    Beginning of Middle Enlgish Literature

    Where art, literature, and science flourished
  • Jan 1, 1389

    The Cantebury Tales

    Written by Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Dec 17, 1390

    Pardoner's Prologue and Tale

    Written by Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Jan 1, 1400

    Chaucer's Retraction

    Written by Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Dec 18, 1453

    Hundred Year's War

    Conflict between England and France
  • Dec 1, 1455

    Wars of the Roses

    The premature death of Henr V left England exposed to the civil wars knows as the Wars of the Roses
  • Dec 1, 1470

    Morte Darthur

    Written by Sir Thomas Malory
  • Dec 1, 1470

    Sir Thomas Malory working on Morte Darthur

    It gave the definitive form in English to the legend of King Arthur and his knights.
  • Dec 1, 1485

    Printing of Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur

    One of the first books printed in England
  • Dec 1, 1485

    Accession of Henry VII

    His accession inagurates Tudor dynasty
  • Dec 1, 1509

    Accession of Henry VIII

    During his reign, Renaissance began to flower
  • Dec 1, 1517

    Martin Luther's Wittenberg Theses

    The Reformation begins in Germany
  • Dec 1, 1534

    Henry VIII declares himself head of the English Church

    England's monasteries were suppressed and their vast wealth seized bt the crown.
  • Dec 1, 1557

    Pubication of Tottel's Songs and Sonnets

    Contains poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt
  • Dec 1, 1558

    Accession of Elizabeth I

    She was drawn to the idea of royal absolutism.
  • Dec 1, 1576

    Building of The Theater

    The first permanent structure in England for the presentation of plays

  • Defeat of the Spanish Armada

    Exalted Queen Elizabeth more among her people

  • Shakespeare begins career as actor and playwright

    Brillian man; one of the most famous authors in literature

  • Sonnets from Amoretti

    Written by Edmund Spenser

  • The Passionate Shepherd

    Written by Christopher Marlowe

  • Globe Theater opens

    Famous theater where Shakespeare's plays were perfomed

  • The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

    Written by Sir Walter Ralegh

  • Death of Elizabeth I

    James I was ascended and was the first of the Stuart kings.

  • The Gunpowder Plot

    Failed effort by Catholic extremists to blow up Parliament and the king

  • Establishment of the first permanent English colony

    in the World at Jamestown, Virgina; famous settlement today

  • Sonnets

    Written by Shakespeare

  • Eve's Apology in Defense of Women

    Written by Aemilia Lanyer

  • To My Book, On My First Daughter, To John Donne, and On My First Son

    Written by Ben Johnson

  • To the Memory of William Shakespeare

    Written by Ben Johnson

  • The Temple, The Altar, Redemption, Easter Wings, Jordan, The Collar, The Pulley, The Flower, Love

    Written by George Herbert

  • Death of James I

    Accession of Charles I; attempted to rule without summoning Parliament at all.

  • On Shakespeare

    Written by John Milton

  • L' Allegro, and Il Penseroso

    Written by John Milton

  • The Flea

    Written by John Donne

  • Outbreak of civil war

    Devastating war and thearets are closed

  • Second Civil War

    "Pride's Purge" of Parliament

  • To Lucasta, Going to the Wars, and To Althea, from Prison

    Written by Richard Lovelace

  • Execution of Charles I

    Beginning of Commonwealth and Protectorate; Interregnum.

  • Part of Paradise Lost written

    After Restoration, encompassing all he had experienced of tyranny and political controversy.

  • To His Coy Mistress, The Definition of Love, and The Mower to the Glowworms

    Written by Andrew Marvell

  • Oliver Cromwell made Lord Protector

    Many saw him as the only hope for stability while others, including Milton, saw him as a champion of religous liberty.

  • Sonnets; How Soon Hath Time, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont, and Methough I saw My Late Espoused Saint

    Written by John Milton

  • End of the Protectorate

    Restoration of Charles II

  • Criticism, and From An Essay of Dramatic Poesy

    Written by John Dryden

  • Dryden becomes poet laureate

    Brought England a modern literature

  • Pilgrim's Progress, part 1

    By John Bunyan; well known story today

  • Mac Flecknoe

    Written by John Dryden

  • The Glorious Revolution

    Deposition of James II and accession of William Orage

  • The Glorious Revolution

    James II is exiled and is succeeded by his Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband William of Orange.

  • From A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire: The Art of Satire

    Written by John Dryden

  • Tale of a Tub excerpt

    Written by Johnathan Swift

  • Jonathan Swift and others

    They turned their wit against fanaticism and innovation; great age of satire

  • Act of Union

    Unites Scotland and England creating the nation of "Great Britain"

  • An Essay on Criticism

    Written by Alexander Pope

  • A Description of a City Shower

    Written by Johnathan Swift

  • Treaty of Utrecht

    Ends War of the Spanish Succession

  • Accession of George I

    Rule by House of Hanover begins

  • A Modest Proposal

    Written by Johnathan Swift

  • Rake's Progress

    Written by William Hogarth

  • From The Dunciad, from Book the Fourth

    Written by Alexander Pope

  • Marriage-A-la-Mode

    Written by William Hogarth

  • The Rambler; No. 4 and No. 60

    Written by Samuel Johnson

  • First English Dictionary

    Samuel Johnson helped codify the prose of the age.

  • American Revolution

    James Watt produces steam engines

  • Lives of the Poets; From Pope

    Written by Samuel Johnson

  • There Is No Natural Religion; a, b

    Written by William Blake

  • From Songs of Innocene; Introduction, The Lamb, The Chimney Sweeper, and Holy Thursday

    Written by William Blake

  • Holy Willie's Prayer

    Written by Robert Burns

  • Fall of Bastille

    Beginning of the French Revolution

  • Execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

    France declares war against Britain. The Reign of Terror

  • From Songs of Experience; Introduction, The Chimney Sweeper, Holy Thursday, Tyger, and London

    Written by William Blake

  • The Eolian Harp

    Written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

    Written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • We Are Seven

    Written by William Wordsworth

  • Kubla Khan

    Written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • She dwelt among the untrodden ways, and Three years she grew

    Written by William Wordsworth

  • Michael

    Written by William Wordsworth

  • From Preface to Lyical Ballads, with Pastoral and Other Poems

    Written by William Wordsworth

  • Treaty of Amiens

    Edinburgh Review founded. John Constable first exhibits at the Royal Academy

  • Napoleon Crowned emperor

    Founding of the republic of Haity

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphonies 5 and 6. Famous composer today.

  • Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos

    Written by Geroge Gordon, Lord Byron

  • Prince of Wales becomes regent for George III

    Declared incurably insane

  • She walks in beauty

    Written by Geroge Gordon, Lord Byron

  • They say that Hope is happiness

    Written by Geroge Gordon, Lord Byron

  • Mutuability, and To Wordsworth

    Written by Percey Bysshe Shelley

  • Napoleon defeated at Waterloo

    Corn Laws passed, protecting economic interests of the landed aristocracy.

  • On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

    Written by John Keats

  • On Seeing the Elgin Marbles

    Written by John Keats

  • Ozymandias

    Written by Percey Bysshe Shelley

  • When I have fears that I may cease to be

    Written by John Keats

  • To Homer

    Written by John Keats

  • Ode to Psyche

    Written by John Keats

  • La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad

    Written by John Keats

  • Ode to a Nightingale

    Written by John Keats

  • Ode on Indolence

    Written by John Keats

  • Lamia

    Written by John Keats

  • To Autum

    Written by John Keats

  • A Song: "Men of England"

    Written by Percey Bysshe Shelley

  • England in 1819

    Written by Percey Bysshe Shelley

  • Ode on a Grecian Urn

    Written by John Keats

  • Ode on Melancholy

    Written by John Keats

  • Free Elementary Education

    Many more children were able to attend school.

  • To a Sky-Lark

    Written by Percey Bysshe Shelley

  • Death of Geroge II

    Accession of Geroge IV. London Magazine founded

  • Parliamentary repeal of the Test

    Corporation Acts excluding Dissenters from state offices

  • Death of George IV

    Accession of William IV. Revolution in France

  • Lady of Shalott

    Written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

  • First Reform Bill

    Extended voting rights

  • Porphyria's Lover

    Written by Robert Browning

  • Victoria becomes Queen

    Powerful Queen who regined from 1837-1901

  • My Last Duchess

    Written by Robert Browning

  • Portatoe Famine in Ireland

    Mass emigration to North America

  • Sonnet 22 and 43

    Written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  • The Great Exhibition in London

    Exhibitions of culture and industry

  • Charge of the Light Brigade

    Written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

  • Charles Darwin

    Wrote "The Origin of Species" who still influences many people today.

  • American Civil War

    Fought to abolosh slavery

  • Hap

    Written by Thomas Hardy

  • The Second Reform Bill

    Enfranchised the urban male working class in England and Wales.

  • God's Grandeur

    Written by Gerard Manley Hopkins

  • The Windhover

    Written by Gerard Manley Hopkins

  • Electric street lighthing in London

    Provided better visibility for citizens

  • Spring and Fall

    Written by Gerard Manley Hopkins

  • No worst, there is none

    Written by Gerard Manley Hopkins

  • Crossing of the Bar

    Written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

  • Lake Isle of Innisfree

    Written by William Butler Yeats

  • From Holy Sonnets

    Written by John Donne

  • Death of Queen Victoria

    Succession of Edward VII

  • First wireless communicatoin across the Atlantic

    Majorly improved communication

  • Henry Ford produces the first mass-produced car

    Many road improvements were made

  • No Second Troy

    Written by William Butler Yeats

  • The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

    Written by Thomas Stearns Eliot

  • Covergenve of the Twain

    Written by Thomas Hardy

  • World War I

    By the end of the war, The German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires ceased to exist.

  • Science and Religion

    Written by G. K. Chesterton

  • On Lying in Bed

    Written by G. K. Chesterton

  • On the Wit of Whistler

    Written by G. K. Chesterton

  • Piano

    Written by David Herbert Lawrence

  • The Second Coming

    Written by William Butler Yeats

  • The Waste Land

    Written by T. S. Elliot

  • Journey of the Magi

    Written by Thomas Stearns Eliot

  • Stock Market crash

    Great Depression begins

  • Musee des Beaux arts

    Written by Wystan Hugh Auden

  • The Unknown Citizen

    Written by Wystan Hugh Auden

  • Learning in War Time

    Written by C. S. Lewis

  • First atomic bomb

    Dropped on Japan; destoryed many cities

  • Britain enters European Common Market

    Aimed to bring economic integration

  • Iran-Iraq War

    War for almost nine years; suffered major losess

  • Fall of the Berlin Wall

    Tinananmen Square, Beijing, demosntration and massacre

  • British handover of Hong Kong to China.

    Northen Ireland Assembly established

  • September 11 attacks

    Destroy World Trade Center; many los their lives

  • Death of Queen Anne

    George I becomes the first Hanoverian king. Troy government replaced by Whigs.

  • World War II

    The most widespread war in history; millions of people serving in military

  • Reign of King Alfred

    There were texts wrtitten or commissioned by him