English Literature Timeline

By Coheed924
  • 597

    St. Augustine founds Christian monastery at Canterbury, Kent

  • 653

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

  • 731

    A History of the English Church and People

    Bede completes A History of the English Church and People
  • 750

    Surviving version of Beowulf composed

  • 975

    Saxon monks copy Old English poems into The Exeter Book

  • 1073

    Canterbury becomes England's religious center.

  • 1130

    Oxford becomes the center for learning

  • 1381

    Bible first translated into English

  • 1386

    Geoffrey Chaucer begins to write The Canterbury Tales.

  • 1448

    Robert Herrick publishes Hesperides

  • 1470

    Thomas Malory writes Morte d'Arthur.

  • Period: 1485 to

    The English Renaissance

    The revival of art and literature in the modern day from and way of life and culture.
  • 1500

    Everyman first performed

  • 1512

    First Masque performed

  • 1516

    Thomas More publishes Utopia

  • 1534

    Church of England established

  • 1549

    The book of Common Prayer issued

  • 1560

    Thomas Tallis publishes English Cathedral Music

  • 1564

    William Shakespeare is born

  • 1580

    Francis Drake returns from circumnavigating the globe

  • 1582

    Sir Philip Sidney writes Astrophel and Stella

  • Edmund Spencer publishes The Faerie Queene, Part I

  • Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet

  • Globe theater opens

  • The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser is published in its entirety

  • king James Bible published

  • Francis Bacon publishes Novum Organum

  • Sir Francis Bacon publishes The New Atlantis

  • William Harvey explain blood circulation

  • Public mail service established

  • John Milton publishes Lycidas

  • Charles I summons Long Parliament

  • The English Civil War begins

  • Puritans close theaters

  • John Suckling publishes Fragmenta Aurea

  • Richard Lovelace publishes Lacasta

  • Early newspaper ads appear

  • Puritan government collapses

  • Monarchy is restored in England

  • Theaters reopened

  • Samuel Pepys begins Diary

  • Royal Society chartered

  • Drury Lane theater opens

  • The Great Fire of London

  • John Milton's novel Paradise Lost is published

  • John Dryden publishes An Essay of Dramatic Poesy

  • Sir Isaac Newton publishes his Principia

  • Bill of Rights becomes law

  • John Locke publishes his two Treatises of Government

  • First daily newspaper begins publication

  • Great Britain created by Act of Union

  • Alexander Pope publishes The Rape of the Lock

  • Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe

  • Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels

  • Henry Fielding publishes Tom Jones

  • Thomas Grey publishes "Elegy in a Country Courtyard."

  • Samuel Johnson publishes Dictionary of the English Language

  • Britain Enter the Seven Years' War

  • James Boswell publishes Life of Samuel Johnson

  • England goes to war with France