-
-
Claiming his right to the English throne, William, duke of Normandy, invades England at Pevensey on Britain's southeast coast.
-
Both Spain and Italy claim to be the first to manufacture paper in Europe. Muslim conquest of Spain brought paper making to Europe.
-
The Magna Carta is a document that King John of England (1166 - 1216) was forced into signing. King John was forced into signing the charter because it greatly reduced the power he held as the King of England and allowed for the formation of a powerful parliament. The Magna Carta became the basis for English citizen's rights.
-
The Crusades were military or quasi-military expeditions launched by Christian secular and religious rulers against Moslems in the Middle East from 1096 to 1291
-
Just before the middle of the fourteenth century, when Chaucer would have been just a boy of ten or twelve, the bubonic plague struck Europe.
-
From the beginning of scholarly investigation into the lengends about the outlaw, it had been obvious that at the end of the Middle Ages he had been celebrated in plays as well as ballads.
-
The Canterbury Tales is 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). The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society, tell stories to each other to kill time while they travel to Canterbury.
-
War of the Roses was a name given to a series of civil wars in England during the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III. They were marked by a ferocity and brutality which are practically unknown in the history of English wars before and since.
-
Malory probably started work on Le Morte d'Arthur while he was in prison in the early 1450s and completed it by 1470.
-
Henry won the throne when he defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle. He was successful in restoring the power and stability of the English monarchy after the political upheavals of the Wars of the Roses.