Timeline of British History

Age

Prehistoric Britain

2500000 BC

Palaeolithic age begins. The Old Stone Age, the earliest use of flint tools

9000

Mesolithic age begins. Beginnings of a move from a hunter gatherer society towards food producing society

6000

Britain is connected to the European land mass and is separated from the continent by melting ice forming the English Channel.

3500

Neolithic age begins. The New Stone Age

2100

Bronze Age begins

1650

Trade routes begin to form

1200

Small Villages are first formed

550

Migration of Celtic people from Southern Europe

500

Iron Age begins

Roman

Roman Britain

54

Julius Caesar enters Britain but later withdraws

43 AD

Claudius invades and Britain becomes part of the Roman Empire

70

Romans conquer Wales and the North

120

Emperor Hadrian builds a wall on the Scottish Border

140

Romans conquer Scotland

254

St Alban becomes the 1st Christian martyr

350

The Picts and Scots attack the border

410

The Romans withdraw from Britain

Medieval

Anglo-Saxon Britain

440

Invasions of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes

450

Saxons settle in Kent

519

556

Seven kingdoms are created across Britain

617

Northumbria becomes the Supreme Kingdom

730

Mercia becomes the Supreme Kingdom and King Offa builds a Dyke along the Welsh Border

794

First invasion by the Vikings

821

Wessex becomes the Supreme Kingdom

878

King Alfred defeats the Vikings but allows them to settle in Eastern England

926

Eastern England (Danelaw) is conquered by the Saxons

927

King Æthelstan the Glorious unites all kingdoms to become ruler of the whole of England.

1016

King Canute of Denmark captures the English Crown

1042

Edward the Confessor becomes King

The Middle Ages

1066

William of Normandy defeats Harold at the Battle of Hastings with a lucky shot and becomes King of England

1086

The Domesday Book is compiled to claim taxes from every manor in England

1170

Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket is murdered by the knights of Henry II

1198

The second Great Seal of Richard the Lionheart creates a shield depicting three lions passant-guardant. The invention of Three Lions on a Shirt.

1215

The Magna Carta is signed

1236

Henry III sets up his parliamentum generalissimum - the first parliament of 18 English Barons

1237

The Treaty of York is signed, fixing the border between Scotland and England.

1265

Simon de Montfort sets up the first true English Parliament.

1297

Battle of Stirling Bridge: The Scots, led by William Wallace, defeat the English.

1305

William Wallace is executed by the English on a charge of treason.

1314

Scots defeat the English at the battle of Bannockburn

1328

The Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton, under which England recognised Scottish independence, is signed.

1340

The Coat of Arms of England quartered with the Royal Standard of France, the fleurs-de-lis representing Edward III's claim to the French throne.

1348

The Black Death wipes out half of the European population

1381

Peasants' Revolt: Also called Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, is a major uprising across large parts of England led by Wat Tyler.

1387

Geoffrey Chaucer starts writing the Canterbury Tales

1395

The Coat of Arms of England impaled with attributed arms of King Edward The Confessor (symbolising mystical union).

1406

The French quartering has been altered to three fleurs-de-lis.

1415

English defeat the French at the battle of Agincourt

1422

The Coat of Arms of France impaled with the Coat of Arms of England, symbolising the dual monarchy of England and France.

1453

The Hundred Years War against France ends

1455

The start of the Wars of the Roses a civil war for control of the throne of England between the House of York in Yorkshire and House of Lancaster in Lancashire.

Tudor

Tudor Britain

1485

The War of the Roses ends at the Battle of Bosworth

1497

John Cabot sails from Bristol aboard the 'Matthew' and discovers North America

1513

English defeat the Scots at the Battle of Flodden

1534

Henry VIII forms the 'Church of England'

1535

Act of Union with Wales

1536

Dissolution of the Monasteries

1552

Flag of England (also known as the St George's Cross) First used by Henry II in 1190 and adopted in the Act of Uniformity in 1552 by Edward VI

1559

Mary, Queen of Scots lays claim to the English throne

Elizabethan

1570

Sir Francis Drake sets sail for his first voyage to the West Indies

1580

Sir Francis Drake completes his circumnavigation of the globe.

1587

Queen Elizabeth I executes Mary, Queen of Scots

1588

The English defeat the Spanish Armada

1591

First performance of a play by William Shakespeare

1600

First British involvement in the Indian continent - East India Company formed.

Jacobean

Stuart Britain

1603

James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England

1605

Guy Fawkes is thwarted when he tries to blow up Parliament.

1606

The first Union Flag (also known as the King's Colours) with the Cross of St George placed upon the Flag of Scotland.

1618

Sir Walter Raleigh is executed.

1620

The Pilgrim Fathers set sail for New England from Plymouth, aboard the 'Mayflower'

1642

Civil War begins

1649

Trial and execution of Charles I - Interregnum begins with the First Commonwealth.

1651

St George's Cross and St Andrew's cross quartered.

1658

The 1606 Union Jack defaced with an Irish Harp.

1660

Restoration of the Monarchy under King Charles II

1665

The Plague breaks out and up 100,000 people die in London

1666

Great Fire of London

1690

The English & Dutch defeat the Irish & French at the Battle of the Boyne

1692

William III massacres the Jacobites at Glencoe

1707

Act of Union with Scotland

Hanoverian

Georgian Britain

1714

George of Hanover succeeds Queen Anne to the Throne

1721

Sir Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister

1746

Bonnie Prince Charlie is defeated at the Battle of Culloden

1757

First canal in Britain is completed

1776

America declares independence from Britain

1783

Steam powered cotton mill invented by Sir Richard Arkwright

1788

First convict ships are sent to Australia

1801

A superimposition of the flags of England and Scotland with the Saint Patrick's Saltire (representing the Kingdom of Ireland).

1805

Lord Nelson defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar

1807

Abolition of Slave Trade

1815

Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo

1825

World's first railway opens between Stockton and Darlington

Victorian

Victorian Britain

1837

Queen Victoria becomes Queen at the age of 18

1838

First transatlantic steamship service begins.

1851

The Great Exhibition

1856

Britain defeats Russia in the Crimean War

1863

London Underground opens (world’s first underground railway).

1884

Telephones introduced

Edwardian

Modern Britain

1902

Britain defeats Dutch settlers in Boer War in South Africa

1918

Britain defeats Germany in World War I

1920

Republic of Ireland gains independence

1922

Constitution of the Irish Free State

1936

First scheduled television service

1937

Sir Frank Whittle invents the Jet Engine

1945

Britain defeats Germany in World War II

1947

India gains independence from Britain

1953

Watson and Crick publish their discovery of the structure of DNA

1969

Concorde, the world's first supersonic airliner, makes its maiden flight

1973

Britain joins the European Economic Community

1982

Britain defeats Argentina in the Falklands War

1989

Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web

1994

Channel Tunnel links Britain back to the European continent

2020

Britain leaves the European Union

2022

Elizabeth II becomes the first British Monarch to reach a Platinum Jubilee

2022

Charles III becomes King