British Literature Timeline

By Ashley18
  • May 3, 653

    Cetlic Church begins to spread Christianity among people living in Severn Valley.

    living in Severn Valley.
  • May 3, 664

    Synod of Whitby establishes Roman Church in England.

  • May 3, 731

    bede completes A History of the English Church and People

  • May 3, 1040

    MacBeth kills Ducan I.

  • Normans defeat Saxons at Hastings; William the Conqueror becomes king of England.
    May 3, 1066

    Normans defeat Saxons at Hastings; William the Conqueror becomes king of England.

  • May 3, 1073

    Cantebury becomes England's religious center.

  • May 3, 1233

    First coal mined at Newcastle.

  • May 3, 1337

    Beginning of the Hundred Years' War with France

  • May 3, 1348

    Black Death begins sweeping through England.

  • May 3, 1485

    Henry VII becomes the first Tudor king,

  • Period: May 4, 1485 to

    The English Renaissance Period

  • Thomas More executed.
    May 3, 1535

    Thomas More executed.

  • Elizabeth I becomes queen.
    May 3, 1558

    Elizabeth I becomes queen.

  • More than 20,000 Londoners die in plauge.
    May 3, 1563

    More than 20,000 Londoners die in plauge.

  • William Shakespeare born
    May 3, 1564

    William Shakespeare born

  • May 3, 1582

    Sir Phillip Sydney writes Astrophel and Stella

  • King James Bible published.

    King James Bible published.

  • First patent laws passed.

  • James I dies.

    James I dies.

  • Period: to

    The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

  • John Donne's Songs and Sonnets published.

    John Donne's Songs and Sonnets published.

  • Enlish Civil War begins.

  • Charles I beheaded

    Charles I beheaded

  • Oliver Cromwell dies.

    Oliver Cromwell dies.

  • James II becomes king

    James II becomes king

  • Glorious Revolution

  • Bill of Rights becomes law

  • Britain enters Seven Years' War

  • England goes to war with France.

  • Period: to

    The Romantic Period

  • Union Jack becomes official flag

    Union Jack becomes official flag

  • Battle of Trafalgar

  • Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice.

    Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice.

  • Peterloo Massacre in Manchester.

  • Robert Peel establishes Metropolitan Police in London.

  • First Reform Act extends voting rights.

  • slavery abolished in British empire.

  • Period: to

    The Vistorian Period

  • William Wordsworth becomes poet laureate.

  • Women begin to attending University of London.

  • Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.

  • London Fire Department established.

  • Debtors' prisons abolished.

  • Joseph Swan installs first electric lighting.

  • A.E. Housman publishes A Shropshire Lad.

  • Period: to

    The Modern and Postmodern Periods

  • Queen Victoria dies.

  • Joseph Conrad publishes Heart of Darkness

  • Britain enters World War I

  • T.S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land.

  • Britain enters World War II

  • Winston Churchill becomes prime minister.

    Winston Churchill becomes prime minister.

  • Elizabeth II becomes queen.

  • Doris Lessing publishes The Golden Notebook.

  • The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

  • North Sea oil production begins.

  • Margret Thatcher becomes first women prime minister.

  • Nadline Gordimer wins Nobel Prize for Literature.

  • Celebration of New Year's Eve in Millennium Dome.

  • Rock Star Sting is made Commander of the British Empire for services to the music industry.

  • Anglo-Daxon Invasion

    Anglo-Daxon Invasion

  • Period: to May 4, 1485

    The Old English and Medieval Periods