Chronography of Great Britain to 31 December 1899
Click here for
Great Britain from 1 January 1900
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modified� 25
October 2023
See also Ireland
See also Economy & Prices
See also Sports and Games
See also Royal Family from 1760
SCOTLAND � Click here for events up to Act of
Union 1707 relating solely to Scottish history.
�As for Britain, it is set in the Sea of Darkness.
It is a considerable island, whose shape is that of the head of an ostrich, and
where there are flourishing towns, high mountains, great rivers and plains.
This country is most fertile; its inhabitants are brave, active and
enterprising, but all is in the grip of perpetual winter." Muhammad Al Idrisi,
12th century Arab
geographer
For MSOA-based maps of England and Wales, click
here.
To order scans of Ordnance Survey 1940-60 maps
annotated with historical changes and dates, e.g. new roads, railway and canal
opening/closure dates, urban growth, coastal erosion, click
here to access map index and order sheets and go to �Images of UK Historical changes maps
Nomis datasets, https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/construct/submit.asp?forward=yes&menuopt=201&subcomp=
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, https://www.jrf.org.uk/
Happisburgh village website,
coastal erosion, history and more, http://happisburgh.org.uk/
19 May 1898, William
Ewart Gladstone, born 29 December 1809,
four times Liberal Prime Minister, died at Hawarden Castle, north Wales, aged
88.
15 November 1897, British Labour leader Aneurin Bevan was born in Tredegar, Wales.� He was one of 13 children, son of a miner.
23 September 1893, Thomas Hawkesley, English engineer, died (born
12 July 1807)
21 June 1897, Queen Victoria granted a Royal
Charter to Nottingham, making it a city.
21 May 1897, Sir Augustus Franks, English antiquary, died
(20 March 1826)
12 June 1897, Anthony
Eden,
Conservative Prime Minister, was born at Windlestone Hall, Bishop Auckland,
Durham.� He later became the Earl of
Avon.
27 December 1896, Sir John Brown, Sheffield armour plate
manufacturer, died (born 6 December 1816).
1895, The National Trust was founded, to �preserve lands and buildings of
historic interest or natural beauty for public access and benefit�.
29 December 1895. Leander Starr Jameson, an agent of the British South
Africa Company, invaded the Boer Republic of Transvaal with 470 men. On 2
January 1896 Jameson
surrendered At Doorn Kop after a defeat at Krugersdorp. On 3 January 1896 Kaiser William
II sent a telegram to Paul Kruger
congratulating him on the defeat of Jameson.
This caused outrage in Britain, which saw the telegram as an attempt by Germany
to expand its influence in Africa. Britain mocked the German Navy, saying
it would be �child�s play� for the British Navy to wipe it out. Wilhelm I
now decided on a course of massive expansion of the German Navy, seeing Britain
no longer as an ally but a potential threat.
See South Africa
for events of Boer War
15 May 1895, Joseph
Whitaker,
who founded Whitaker�s Almanac in 1869, died.
24 January 1895, Lord Randolph Churchill, founder of the
British Conservative Party, died.
1894, The Trafford Park industrial estate, Manchester,
opened. By 1939 it was the largest in the country, with 200 works on 1,200
acres employing 50,000 people.
18 September 1894,The Blackpool Tower opened. It is a 500 foot high replica of the Eiffel
Tower.
1 September 1894, The first use of postcards with adhesive
stamps in Britain.
1 March 1894, In the UK, the Local Government Act set up some
6,880 rural, parish and district councils. Local democracy and the voting
rights of women were increased.
7 September 1893, (1)
The Featherstone Massacre. In Yorkshire, striking miners campaigning for a
living wage were fired upon; soldiers killed 2 and wounded 16.
(2) Leslie Hore-Belisha, British Liberal politician, was born in
Devonport.
14 January 1893, The
UK Labour Party was founded
in Bradford, W Yorks.
16 September 1892, Edward Neale, British Co-operative promoter,
died.
18 August 1892. In Britain, William Ewart Gladstone formed
his fourth Liberal Government after
his election defeat of the Conservatives under Lord Salisbury.
11 August 1892, (1) The Marquess of
Salisbury left office as Prime Minister.
(2) Hugh McDaimid, Scottish poet
and founder of the Scottish Nationalist
Party, was born.
18 July 1892, Pioneer travel agent Thomas Cook died.
15 July 1892, Thomas Cooper, Chartist, died (born 20 March 1805).
4 July 1892, James Kier Hardie, standing in the General
Election at Holytown, Lanarkshire, became the first Socialist to win a seat
in the British Parliament. He was MP for the London docklands area of West
Ham. He was elected as an independent socialist but planned to form a Labour
party to represent the workers. See 14 January 1893.
28 June 1892, Sir Harry Albert Atkinson, British politician,
died.
13 April 1892, Sir Arthur (Bomber) Harris,
RAF Marshal was born. He joined the
Royal Flying Corps in 1915, and was appointed Commander in Chief of the RAF
Bomber Command in 1942. From 1942 on he
developed and applied the technique of �saturation bombing� to Axis occupied
cities, totally demolishing them.
2 March 1892, Sir John Coode, British engineer, died (born
11 November 1816).
10 December 1891, Earl Alexander, British Army Commander in
North Africa, and Italy in World War II, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland.
8 October 1891, The first street collection for charity
took place in Britain. It was on the streets of Manchester and Salford, for
Lifeboat Day.
6 October 1891, Death of W H Smith, the bookseller.
25 September 1891, The foundation of Blackpool Tower was laid.
2 June 1891, Sir John Hawkshaw, British engineer, died
(born 1811).
31 May 1889, Britain passed the Naval Defence Act in response to the growing naval power of both
Russia and France.
24 April 1889, Sir Stafford Cripps, the Labour Chancellor
who introduced austerity measures in Britain after the Second World War, was
born.
12 January 1889, Churchill Babington, English archaeologist,
died in Suffolk (born in Roecliffe, 11 March 1821)
11 December 1888, John Rylands, English textiles industrialist,
died in Stretford, Manchester (born in St Helens, Lancashire, 7 February 1801)
6 August 1888, Elected County Councils were established in
Britain through the local Government Act.
9 July 1888, Simon Marks, British retailer, was born in Leeds.
1887, Victoria Park, 16 acres
was laid out in Salisbury.
8 June 1886, In Britain the Liberal Government�s Irish Home
Rule Bill was defeated when 95 Liberal Unionists sided with the Conservative
opposition. The Conservatives won the resulting General Election of 24 July 1886.
A second Salisbury
Government was formed, which lasted until 1892 and included Salisbury�s
nephew Andrew
James Balfour as Chief Secretary for Ireland.
1 February 1886, William
Gladstone resumed office as Prime Minister.
28 January 1886, The Marquess of
Salisbury left office as Prime Minister.
22 October 1885, James Fraser,
English Bishop, died (born 18 August 1818). He did much to secure the provision
of churches for the rapidly-growing population of Manchester, exceeding even
the efforts of his predecessor, James Lee, who had consecrated 130 Manchester
churches.
23 June 1885, The Marquess of
Salisbury took up post as Prime Minister.
9 June 1885, William
Gladstone left office as Prime Minister.
1884, The Fabian Society
was founded. Named after the Roman General Fabius Maximus Cunctator (The
Delayer), noted for his cautious military tactics, the Fabians adopted a
gradualist approach to socialist reform. The movement was closely associated
with the founding of the British Labour
Party.
6 December 1884, The
Franchise Act, or Third
Parliamentary Reform Act was passed, giving almost all adult males the
vote. However domestic servants, bachelors living with their parents, and those
of no fixed address were still voteless. This measure increased the electoral
roll by some 2 million, four times the number added in 1832.
26 December 1883, Thomas Holloway,
English philanthropist, died (born 22 September 1800).
17 November 1883, Samuel Jones
Loyd Overstone, English banker, died in London) (born 25 September
1796)
4 October 1883, Sir William Alexander Smith founded the Boys Brigade in Glasgow.
3 October 1883, Burnham Beeches was dedicated to public use
for all time.
1 August 1883, Inland
parcel post began in Britain.
24 April 1882, Lord Dowding, British Air Force Commander who won the Battle of Britain, was born in
Moffat, Scotland.
26 July 1881, George Borrow, English traveller, died (born
in East Dereham, Norfolk 5 July 1803).
19 April 1881, Benjamin Disraeli, British Conservative Prime Minister, died. He was
buried at Hughenden, near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Robert Gascoyne Cecil, Lord Salisbury,
was chosen to replace him as leader of the Conservative Party.
7 March 1881, Ernest Bevin, Labour Party politician, was
born in Winsford, Somerset.
22 December 1880, George Elliot died.
28 November 1880, Mark Firth, British steel maker and
philanthropist, died (born 25 April 1819).
13 September 1880, In Britain, Parliament passed the Employer�s Liability Act, giving
compensation to employees injured at work.
15 April 1880, In Britain the Liberals won the General Election.
Prime Minister William Gladstone took
over from Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of
Beaconsfield.
18 September 1879, Blackpool�s first annual
illuminations were switched on.
23 April 1879, First Royal Shakespeare Theatre opened in Stratford
on Avon (replaced by a new one on 23 April 1932).
14 December 1878, Mary Alice Maud, 3rd child of Queen Victoria, died
(born 25 April 1843 in Buckingham Palace).
13 September 1877, Manchester
Town Hall opened.
23 August 1877, Britain passed the Merchandise Act, obliging exporters to indicate the place of
manufacture of their goods.
13 August 1877, Birkenhead, near Liverpool, became a
borough; John
Laird was the first Mayor.
20 September 1876, Sir Titus Salt, born 20 September 1803, died.
3 August 1876, Stanley Baldwin, British Prime Minister in the
1920s and 30s, was born.
7 May 1876, Samuel Courtauld, British industrialist and arts patron, was born in Braintree,
Essex.
25 August 1875, Matthew Webb, 27, from Shropshire, became the first person to
swim the English Channel. He took 21 hours 45 minutes, using the
breast-stroke,� from Admiralty Pier,
Dover, to Calais.
8 July 1875, John Cairnes, British political economist,
died (born 1823).
26 December 1874, Boxing Day was first recognised as a
Bank Holiday in the UK.
30 November 1874, Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
15 September 1874, The Prince of Wales visited France. This
was the first visit there by a member of the British Royal Family since the
French revolution.
5 April 1874, Birkenhead
Park, the first publically-funded park in Britain and model for Central
Park, New York, opened.
21 February 1874, Disraeli became UK Prime Minister; he served
until 1880.
17 February 1874, William
Gladstone left office as Prime Minister.
6 September 1873, Austin Reed, men�s outfitter, was born in Newbury, Berkshire.
9 May 1873, Howard Carter, who discovered Tutankhamun�s tomb in 1922,
was born at Swaffham, Norfolk.
1872, Hastings Pier opened.
18 July 1872, Britain passed the Ballot Act, providing for secret ballots at elections.
24 October 1871, The
Aurora Borealis was seen as far south as southern England.
18 June 1871, The Test Act allowed students at Oxford and
Cambridge universities to gain degrees and fellowships without subscribing to
any particular religion.
29 May 1871, Whit Monday,
became the first Bank Holiday in Britain.
25 May 1871, The House of Commons passed the Bank Holiday Act,
creating public holidays on Easter Monday, Whit Monday, and Christmas Day.
Monday
18 March 1869, Neville Chamberlain,
British Conservative Prime Minister
1937 to 1940 was born in Birmingham.
10 December 1868. The first edition of Whitakers Almanack
was published.
9 December 1868. Following a Liberal General Election victory, William Ewart
Gladstone formed the next UK government, defeating Disraeli.� This was the first of Gladstone�s four terms of office as Prime Minister.
8 November 1868, Viscount Lee of Fareham, who gave the
Buckinghamshire country house Chequers
to the nation in 1921, was born.
12 July 1868, The Scottish Reform Act was passed.
28 March 1868. The Earl of
Cardigan, who led the Charge of the Light
Brigade (25 October 1854) to disaster at Balaclava, in the Crimean War,
died. He is best remembered for the
woollen garment named after him.
17 February 1868. Ill health caused the resignation of the Conservative Prime Minister Lord Derby.
He was succeeded by Benjamin Disraeli
on 29 February 1868.
12 November 1867, The
Conservative Party held their first Annual Parry Conference, in a London pub,
the Freemasons in Great Queen Street.
15 August 1867. By a Parliamentary
Reform Act, one million more voters were added to the UK electorate, mostly
urban ratepayers. Those who owned house and paid rates, or lodgers paying more
than �10 a year rent, could now vote.�
The enfranchised population of the UK now stood at 7.9%.
3 August 1867, Stanley Baldwin, British Conservative and
three times Prime Minister between 1923 and 1937, was born at Bewdley, Worcestershire,
the only son of a wealthy industrialist and member of parliament. The author Rudyard Kipling
was Baldwin's cousin on his mother's side of the family
1866, Britain passed the Metropolitan Commons Act, prohibiting any further enclosure (for
private housing development) of urban commons lands. This Act was largely the
result of disputes over development of common lands around London, Hampstead Heath, Wimbledon and
Epping Forest in particular. The rapid expansion of Britain�s towns and cities
put great pressure on common lands. In London the Lord of Hampstead Manor in
the early 19th century, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, had fought a legal
battle from 1829 onwards to be allowed to build on Hampstead Heath. After the
passage of the Metropolitan Commons Act, and the death of Sir Thomas Wilson in 1868, his
heir withdrew from the legal fight. The Metropolitan Board of Works then bought
the rights to Hampstead Heath for �45,000 (Sir Thomas Wilson had been asking for
�400,000) and Hampstead Heath became public property.
12 October 1866. Ramsay
MacDonald, who in 1924 became Britain�s first Labour Prime Minister, was
born in Lossiemouth, Morayshire, Scotland.
6 July 1866, In Britain, Lord Derby formed a government following the
resignation of Lord
John Russell over the defeat of his Reform Bill.
11 May 1866, London was hit by a financial panic, �Black
Friday�.
18 October 1865. Lord Palmerston
died, two days short of his
81st birthday. He was staying at his wife�s house, Brockett Hall in
Welwyn,� Hertfordshire, when struck by
fever. He was Secretary for War, Foreign Secretary, and then Prime Minister
during a time when Britain was the richest and most powerful nation on
Earth.� When he was born, on 20 October 1784, Britain had a population of 9
million, 80% of whom worked in agriculture. When he died, Britain had a
population of 29 million, 60% of whom worked in manufacturing.
22 September 1865, George Elkington, founder of the Birmingham
electroplating industry, died.
11 March 1864, The Dale Dyke Dam in Yorkshire burst, flooding
Sheffield from the Bradfield Reservoir and killing 240 people
1 February 1864, Austrian and Prussian troops under the command of
Friedrich von Wangle invaded Schleswig, Denmark. Although the British monarch, Queen Victoria,
was pro-German, the British Prince Edward, the future King Edward VII � who had only
months earlier married Alexandra of Denmark � was shocked; they supported
Denmark. The Second Schleswig War began. This event ensured that under King Edward
VII�s reign, British foreign policy was pro-Danish, anti-German, and Britain formed a triple entente with France and Russia
against Germany.
16 October 1863, Sir Austin Chamberlain, British politician,
was born in Birmingham.
27 May 1863, Broadmoor
asylum for the criminally insane at Crowthorne, Berkshire was opened.
13 October 1861, Sir William Cubitt, British engineer, died
(born 1785).
22 August 1861, Richard Oastler, English social reformer, died
in Harrogate (born 20 December 1789 in Leeds)
19 June 1861, Earl Haig, British military commander in WWI, was born.
23 April 1861, Viscount Allenby, British World War One Army Commander, was born in
Brackenhurst, Nottinghamshire.
See India
for British colonisation of India
20 February 1861, In a gale, the 82 metre high spire of
Chichester Cathedral collapsed.
3 February 1861, Edwin Cannan, British economist, was born.
25 February 1860, James William Ashley, English economist, was
born in London.
23 January 1860, Britain and France signed a Treaty of
Reciprocity, establishing free trade between them.
28 June 1859, The
first dog show in the UK took place at Newcastle on Tyne Town Hall, with 60
entries split between two classes, Pointers and Setters.
18 June 1859, Lord Palmerston became Prime Minister.
21 February 1859, Viscount Palmerston left office as Prime Minister.
24 November 1858, A legal case in Dorset caused the UK
Parliament to standardise time to GMT across the country. A judge in a land
case in Dorset ruled against a man who had failed to turn up for a 10,00 am
case, at 10.06. Two minutes later he turned up and claimed he was on time, by
the station clock of his home town, Carlisle in Cumbria. At that time all towns
set their clocks by their own, local, noon, meaning accurate rail
timetables were problematic. By 1850 the rail companies all used London
time, adding to confusion as provincial clocks often had two minute hands, one
for local time, one for London time. The case was re-tried, and in 1880
Parliament ordered the entire country keep Greenwich Mean Time.
17 November 1858, Robert Owen,
social reformer, died in Newtown, Montgomery, Wales (born 14 May 1771 in
Newtown)
1 January 1858, John Britton,
English antiquary died (born 7 July 1771).
11 January 1857. Birth of Henry Gordon Selfridge, founder of Britain�s first large department
store. Also on this day was born the champion jockey Fred Archer.
1856, An Army Staff College was set up at Sandhurst.
15 August 1856, Kier Hardie, Labour leader, was born near Holytown, Lanarkshire.� He
helped found the Labour Party.
18 April 1856, Aldershot Camp was publically inaugurated by Queen Victoria.
29 January 1856. Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria
Cross, Britain�s highest military decoration. Awarded for conspicuous
bravery or great devotion to duty. The
award was backdated to 1854 to cover the Crimean War; on 26 June 1856
62 men were given the Victoria Cross for deeds during this war. The VC has been
awarded 1,354 times since then, to 2002, but has only been given posthumously
since 1920. It has been awarded only 11 times since 1945, the last 2 being in
the Falklands War of 1982. The medal is
made of metal from Russian guns captured in the
Crimean War.
19 February 1855. Bread riots broke out in Liverpool.
9 February 1855, Mysterious hoof-prints appeared in the snow
in Devon, as if a two legged creature had walked 100 miles over fields, walls,
and roof-tops. No explanation was ever
found.
6 February 1855, The Whig/Liberal
Lord
Palmerston became Prime
Minister. He succeeded Lord Aberdeen, who resigned on 20 January 1855.
For Crimean
War see Russia
1850s
1854, The UK Govermnent purchased a large tract of
moorland known as Aldershot Heath, to set up Aldershot Camp. This was to enable
military practices in a large enough area to allow for brigade and divison
manoeuvres in peacetime, since this had not been done since the Napoleonic Wars
with France.
26 September 1854, Thomas Denman, English Judge, died (born 23
July 1779).
21 June 1854, The first Victoria Cross was awarded, to Charles Lucas,
a 20-year-old
Irishman who threw an unexploded Russian bomb overboard, whilst on HMS Hecla
at Bomarsund in the Baltic.
9 January 1854, Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston Churchill, was born.
1 April 1853,
Manchester, UK, was constituted a city.
26 October 1852, Henry Elkington, founder of the Birmingham
electroplating industry, died.
13 October 1852,
Birth of Lilly Langtry, actress and
mistress to King Edward VII.
14 September 1852, The Duke of Wellington,
victor at Waterloo, died at Walmer Castle, Kent, aged 83, as Lord Warden of the
Cinque Ports.
23 August 1852, Arnold
Tonybee, English social reformer, was born
in London (died 9 March 1883 in Wimbledon)
1851,
Saltaire Village, near Shipley,
Yorkshire, was opened by Sir Titus Salt as model housing for his workers The
solid stone houses were served by a wash-house, hospital, library, concert
hall, gym and science laboratory.
24 July 1851, In
Britain the Window Tax was abolished.
8 July 1851, Sir Arthur John Evans,
British archaeologist who excavated Knossos on Crete, was born.
19 April 1850, The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty between the USA
and UK was signed. It was an agreement on the terms for building a canal across
Nicaragua; under this treaty, neither party would exercise exclusive control
over such a canal or fortify it. The US
and the UK each had territorial interests in Central America, and were
suspicious of each other�s activities in the region. Ultimately this Treaty
was superseded by a similar neutralisation policy regarding the Panama Canal under the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1902.
29 December 1849, William Cunningham,
English economist, was born.
26 June 1849, Britain repealed the Navigation Acts, protectionst legislation
favouring the Merchant Navy that dated back to the mid-17th century.
13 February 1849, Lord Randolph Churchill, British Conservative
politician and father of Winston Churchill, was born at Blenheim
Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
31 January 1849, Britain�s Corn Laws were abolished.
1848, Manchester prohibited the
construction of back-to-back housing. However such accommodation was still
being constructed in Leeds until after 1900.
19 January 1848, Matthew Webb, the first person to swim the English Channel, was born in Dawley,
Shropshire, the son of a doctor.
1847, The British Army replaced
service for life by a minimum ten-year term.
29 July 1846, John Owens, English merchant and
philanthropist, died in Manchester (born 1790 in Manchester)
16 May 1845, Charles Chubb, English locksmith and
safe-maker, died.
13 May 1845, Alexander Baring Ashburton, English baron and
financier, died.
19 February 1845, Sir Thomas Buxton, English philanthropist,
died (born 1 April 1786).
6 August 1844, Albert Ernst Albert, 4th child of Queen
Victoria (died 30 July 1900) was born at Windsor Castle.
25 April 1843, Mary Alice Maud, 3rd child of Queen Victoria,
was born in Buckingham Palace (died 14 December 1878).
1842, The first public laundry opened, in Manchester. It was not a place for
the respectable.
1841, Norfolk Park, Sheffield,
was laid out as a public park.
28 August 1841, The Conservative leader Sir Robert Peel
succeeded the Whig, Lord William Melbourne, as Prime Minister.
Under Peel�s
second term in office, he intended to reduce
import duties to promote free trade.
28 January 1841, Henry Stanley, British explorer and
journalist, was born at Denbigh, north Wales, as John Rowlands.
30 March 1840, Beau Brummel,
Regency Dandy, died at Caen in a pauper�s
lunatic asylum. He had fled Britain to escape gambling debts.
1 July 1837, The first
Register of Births, Deaths, and Marriages was begun in England and Wales. The first entry was for the birth of a baby
girl, Mary Ann Aaaron, born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire.
27 December 1836, A
landslide at Lewes, Sussex, swallowed up houses and killed 8 people.
See Economy & Prices for more events
related to Chartist Movement
17 August 1836, Registration of all births, marriages,
and deaths in Britain was required under the Registration Act.
9 September 1835, The Municipal Corporation Act in Britain
reformed city and town government in line with the major population shifts
brought on by the Industrial Revolution. The old ruling oligarchies of borough
councils were replaced by elected councils, elected by all rate paying
householders of three year�s standing. Tory lawyers, Anglican clergy, and the
aristocracy lost power to small shopkeepers, businessmen, Non-conformists, and
better off members of the working class. This
paved the way for public improvements like street widening, public utilities
such as gas and water, and a municipal fire service.
18 April 1835, In Britain, William Lamb, Lord Melbourne, formed a new
Whig administration after the resignation of Sir Robert Peel.
10 December 1834, Following the resignation of UK Whig Prime
Minister Lord
Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel became PM.
21 November 1834, Olivia Serres, English Pretender to be a
member of the Royal Family, died (born 3 April 1772 in Warwick)
16 July 1834, In Britain, Lord Melbourne, Whig, became Prime Minister.
9 July 1834, In Britain, Lord Grey resigned as Prime Minister.
22 April 1834, Saint
Helena became a British colony.
Swing Riots
and electoral reform
29 January 1833, The Reform Parliament of
Great Britain opened.
4 June 1832, The
Representation of the People Act received Royal Assent. It introduced electoral reform in Britain. Smaller
property owners were given the vote (tenant farmers paying �50 or more a year
in rent), extending the electorate to 20% of adult males, twice as many as
before. However the ballot was till not secret, until 18 July 1872. Landlords
often evicted tenants who failed to vote for the candisate the landlord
supported. Furthermore, 56 �rotten
boroughs� with a total population of 2,000 were abolished, and some rural
areas lost one of their two MPs. New constituencies were created in the expanding industrial towns of
Manchester, Birmingham, and elsewhere. There
was resistance in the House of Lords from 21 bishops.
31 October 1831, Riots in
Bristol raised fears of revolution breaking out across Britain. Four
of the rioters were executed.
10 October 1831, Three days of rioting in Derby
(8-10 October) following the defeat in the House of Lords of the Reform Bill. This Bill, which passed
its Third reading in the Commons in September 1831, would have enlarged the
electorate. Further
riots in Bristol, 29-31 October. In April 1832 a second Reform Bill was passed by the
House of Lords.
10 August 1831, George Goschen, British
statesman, was born (7 February 1907).
8/1830, The Swing Revolt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_Riots
got underway in Kent, spreading rapidly to other counties in the South East.
�Captain Swing� was the pseudonym used by the rebels when they threatened the
destruction of machinery unless wages were raised or tihe payments cut.
Impoverished agricultural
workers destroyed 387 threshing machines and 26 other agricultural machines
across 22 counties between now and September 1832. Machinery worth �20,000 was
destroyed, and a further �100,000 damage done through arson. See Luddites
3/1811.
Agricultural wages were raised, at least temporarily, and the spread of
labour-saving threshing machines was curbed. However the Swing Revolt resulted
in the execution of 19 labourers and the transportation to Australia of nearly 500 more.
13 April 1829. The Catholic Emancipation Act became law. Catholics were allowed to hold every public office
except those of Regent, Lord Chancellor, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
This was a concession reluctantly granted by the British Conservative
government of the Duke of Wellington, following Catholic
agitation in Ireland by Daniel O�Connell and the Catholic Association.
26 January 1828, The Duke of Wellington became Tory Prime
Minister.
25 January 1828. The Duke of Wellington and Robert Peel
formed a Conservative government.
13 August 1827, The first giraffe arrived in Britain.
16 July 1827, Pottery expert Josiah Spode died.
17 February 1827, The Earl of Liverpool left post as Prime Minister,
paralysed by a stroke.
17 January 1827, The Duke of Wellington was appointed Commander in
Chief of the British Army.
10 November 1826, Joseph Arch, English politician and founder of
the National Agricultural Labourers Union, was born in Barlford, Warwickshire.
20 March 1826, Sir Augustus Franks, English antiquary, was
born (died 212 May 1897).
24 June 1825. William
Henry Smith, English newsagent and
bookseller, was born. He joined his father�s news agency business and took full control in
1846, building the biggest chain of
newsagents in Britain.
1824, The UK Government
standardised official weights and measures across Britain.
22 March 1824, The British Government agreed to spend �57,000 to
purchase 38 paintings to establish a national collection.
25 November 1823, Brighton�s Chain Pier was opened.
20 February 1822, John Stewart, British traveller, died (born
1763)
14 February 1822, The increasing popularity of Valentines
Cards forced the Post Office to employ extra sorters. See 14 February 1477.
7 August 1821, Caroline, Queen of King George IV of Britain, died
(born 17 May 1768).
11 March 1821, Churchill Babington, English archaeologist,
was born in Roecliffe, Leicestershire (died 12 January 1889 in Suffolk).
Manchester,
demands for political reform
16 August 1819, At St Peters Fields, or Peterloo, Manchester, a meeting
demanding parliamentary reforms was dispersed by the military. There was a crowd of 60,000 present to hear the
speech of the pugnacious reformer Henry Hunt, who also demanded an end to the
Corn Laws. 11 demonstrators were killed and 600 injured by the Manchester
Yeomanry. After this the UK government issued the Six Laws, in 1819, banning
any gathering of over 50 people, and any flag-bearing procession, authorising
the arrest of anyone carrying a firearm, and imposing a tax on newspapers.
10 March 1817, Several hundred
Manchester weavers set out from St Peters Fields, Manchester, to march
to Westminster, demanding Parliamentary Reform. They were
called the Blanketeers, as they carried blankets to keep
warm at night. Troops
stopped most of them at Stockport but some reached Derbyshire, and one made it
as far as London.
This march later inspired the Jarrow March.
25 April 1819, Mark Firth,
British steel maker and philanthropist, was born (died 28 November 1880).
18 August 1818, James Fraser,
English Bishop, was born (died 22 October 1885). He did much to secure the
provision of churches for the rapidly-growing population of Manchester,
exceeding even the efforts of his predecessor, James Lee, who had consecrated
130 Manchester churches.
8 February 1817, Francis Horner,
British economist, died (born 12 August 1778).
6 December 1816, Sir John Brown,
Sheffield armour plate manufacturer, was born (died 27 December 1896).
11 November
1816, Sir John Coode, British engineer, was born
(died 2 March 1892).
24 August 1816, Tristan
da Cunha, four islands in the south Atlantic, were annexed and garrisoned
by the UK.
29 March 1815, Sir Henry Frere, British colonial
administrator, was born (died 29 May 1884).
15 January 1815, Emma, Lady Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson,
died in poverty in Calais.
1814, Sheerness Naval Dockyard opened.
21 April 1814, Angela Burdett-Coutts, English philanthropist,
was born (died 30 December 1906)
6 July 1813, Granville Sharp, English philanthropist, born
1735, died.
7 June 1812, The Earl
of Liverpool took up post as Prime Minister.
4 March 1812, In Britain, Richard Colley, Marquess of Welledsley,
resigned as Foreign Secretary because of lack of support for the Peninsular
Campaign (Spain) and was replaced by :Lord Castlereagh.
Further civil unrest
30 June 1818, Britian
extended the suspension of Habeus Corpus (so allowing detention without trial)
until 1 March 1819.
11 May 1812, Spencer Perceval became the only British Prime
Minister so far to be assassinated as he entered the House of Commons, by a
bankrupt broker, Francis Bellingham,� who blamed the Government for his woes.
9 April 1810, Riots in London in support
of liberal reformer and MP Sir Francis Burdett, who had called for
emancipation of Catholics, prison reform, more free speech and Parliamentary
reform. This day Burdett had beeb imprisoned for a letter he published in
William Cobbett�s Political Register,
declaring the conduct of the House of Commons illegal for imprisoning a radical
orator.
Luddite
Riots see also Trades Unions
10 January 1813, 14
Luddites were executed in York, England, for destroying textiles machinery.
12 April 1812, 150 masked
Luddites attacked Cartwright�s Mill, between Leeds and Huddersfield.
The mill owner had been forewarned and had prepared defences, including vats of
acid. 40 Luddites
were injured in the affray and 2 subsequently died. It took some time to
discover the identity of the attackers but a trial was eventually held at York
Assizes in January 1813, at which 8 were sentenced to death.
8 January 1812, Two British regiments were
called out to control outbreaks of Luddite
rioting.
3 March 1811, The Luddite movement, distressed
textiles workers smashing machinery, began in Nottinghamshire and spread across
the Midlands and Yorkshire. Britain had lost access to continental markets
because of the Napoleonic Wars, and this was exacerbated by
the collapse of the American
market in 1811. The machine breakers took up the name �Ned Lud�, and used large
sledgehammers, nicknamed �Enoch�, to smash their way into textiles mills.
Between March 1811 and February 1812 the Luddites destroyed some 1,000 frames, valued
at �6,000 to �10,000, In February 1812 Parliament made frame-breaking a capital
offence. See also wages of textiles workers (decline 1805-31). See Swing Revolt
August 1830.
28 February 1810, Sir Robert Rawlinson, English engineer was
born (died 31 May 1898).
4 October 1809, Spencer Perceval, Tory, succeeded the Duke of
Portland as British Prime Minister.
21 September 1809, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Minister
of War, was affronted by the resignation of George Canning, British Foreign
Secretary, and challenged him to a duel. Canning was wounded.
9 September 1809, George Canning,
British Foreign Secretary, resigned, complaining about the mismanagement of the
Peninsular War.
21 July 1809, Daniel Lambert, Englishman famous for his
great size, died (born 13 March 1770).
22 November 1808, Pioneer travel agent Thomas
Cook was born in Melbourne, Derbyshire.� He died in 1892.
15 October 1808, James Anderson, Scottish economist (born 1739)
died.
7 September 1808, William Lindley,
English engineer, was born (died 22 May 1900).
21 August 1808, British troops under Wellington
defeated the French under General Junot.� This was at the Battle of Vimiero, during the Peninsular War.� The Peninsular War absorbed
some 300,000 of Napoleon�s best troops,
and� was ended when Napoleon heard reports that Austria, backed by Britain, was arming against him.
4 February 1808, Mary Anne Talbot, British
adventuress, died (born 2 February 1778 in London)
2 September 1807, Britain
bombarded and destroyed the Danish fleet at Copenhagen, to prevent its use by
France or Russia.
12 July 1807, Thomas
Hawkesley, English engineer, was born (died 23 September 1893).
24 March 1807, In Britain, King George III dissolved Parliament rather
than grant civil rights to British Roman Catholics. The Whig Ministry of all the
Talents fell, and the Duke of Portland, a Whig, became the (largely
nominal) prime Minister of a fractious Tory administration.
23 November 1806, Sir
Roger Newdigate, English philanthropist, died (born 30 May 1719).
10 February 1806, In Britain, following the death of Pitt the Younger, the Ministry
of all the Talents was formed. Lord Grenville was Prime Minister and Charles James
Fox was Foreign Secretary.
23 January 1806, William Pitt the Younger, twice Prime Minister
(the first when only 24), died at Putney aged 47. He was buried in Westminster
Abbey. Napoleon
was still strong in Europe. Prussia, who had been reluctant to join the Allies,
now had to live with French domination of the puppet state of the Confederation
of the Rhine.
3 January 1805, Charles Towneley, English
archaeologist, died in Westminster (born 1737 near Burnley, Lancashire)
Lord Nelson
9 January 1806, The funeral and burial of Admiral Lord
Nelson at St Paul�s Cathedral.
21 October 1805, Battle of Trafalgar.
Death of Nelson. Nelson blockaded the combined
fleets of France and Spain in Cadiz. The French Admiral, Villeneuve,
attempted to break out, but British ships sank or captured most of the French
and Spanish ships. The French had planned to link up with the Spanish fleet
in the West Indies and so lure the British into giving chase across the
Atlantic. However Nelson guessed at the French tactics and the
Admiralty was warned. A British fleet under Calder found the French fleet off
Cape Finistere and they put into Spanish harbours. The French fleet later
emerged to sail, not for Britain, but to return to the Mediterranean. The
French were intercepted off Cape Trafalgar, and destroyed in the Battle of
Trafalgar.
11 April 1805, Britain and Russia
concluded the Treaty of St Petersburg. They agreed to protect areas of Europe
including Germany, Italy the Netherlands and Switzerland from French
domination.
See
also France-Germany
for events connected to Napoleon
18 May 1802, Britain declared war on Napoleonic France.
20 February 1797, Nelson was made a Knight of the
Bath and promoted to Rear Admiral for his action in the Battle of Cape St
Vincent.
3/1787, Horatio Nelson married Nisbet,
at Nevis in the Caribbean. He was frustrated at being put on half pay and out
of service for the next five years.
6/1779, Horatio
Nelson (1758-1805) was appointed captain of the Hinchinbrooke.
21 December 1804, Benjamin
D�Israeli, British statesman, was born.
10 May 1804, William Pitt
the Younger resumed office as Prime Minister.
7 March 1804, John Wedgwood, son of the famous Midland
pottery manufacturer, and uncle to Charles Darwin, founded the Royal Horticultural Society. John�s
mother�s garden inspired his interest in plants and in 1801 he wrote to William Forsyth,
gardener to George
III, suggesting the formation of a horticultural society. Forsyth
passed the idea on to the Royal Society President, Sir Joseph Banks, and the
society was founded three years later. The inaugural meeting was at the London
booksellers, Mr
Hatchard, at 187 Piccadilly. In 2003 the Royal Horticultural Society
had over 300,000 members who have access to over 80 gardens in the UK. It
organises the Chelsea Flower Show, runs courses at Wisley in Surrey, and
organises over 1,000 lectures and talks annually.
5 July 1803, George Borrow, English traveller, was born in
East Dereham, Norfolk (died 26 July 1881).
21 February 1803, Edward Despard, conspirator against King
George III, was executed.
5 December 1802, James Baird, Scottish ironmaster, was born in
Kirkwood, Lanarkshire (died in Ayrshire 20 June 1876).
17 October 1801, George Elkington, founder of the Birmingham
electroplating industry, was born.
29 June 1801, The figures
from Britain�s first census were
published. Britain�s population was set at 8,872,000.
10 March 1801,
Britain�s first census was held.
14 April 1801, In Britain, Habeas Corpus was suspended to allow the detention of
political suspects without trial.
14 March 1801, William Pitt
the Younger left office as Prime Minister.
1 January 1801, The Act of Union between Britain and Ireland came into force. Irish MPs could sit at
Westminster. However some smaller Irish boroughs were disenfranchised so as to
limit the number of Irish MPs to 100,
25 December 1800,� Britain�s first Christmas Tree was
erected at Windsor by Queen Charlotte.
7 October 1799, The bell was salvaged from the Lutine,
which sank off the island of Vlieland, off the coast of Holland. It was
presented to Lloyds of London. Known as the Lutine Bell, it has been
rung ever since to mark a marine disaster.
Naval
Mutiny at Spithead
1797, Following Britain�s naval
mutinies, the Mutiny Act was passed
making it a treasonable offence to incite disaffection amongst the armed
forces. Meanwhile the army and navy received pay rises.
30 June 1797, The naval mutiny at The Nore, led by Richard Parker, was put
down.� It had started as a protest
against poor food and low pay.
16 April 1797, The British navy mutinied at Spithead, near Portsmouth, over poor
pay, bad food, and arduous blockade duty. On 2 May 1797 the mutiny spread to
the North Sea fleet.
17 April 1797, Britain�s first prisoner of war camp opened at
Norman Cross Depot, near Stilton, Huntingdonshire. Prior to this, PoWs had
been confined in civil prisons, floating hulks, or fortresses, but by 1796 the
number of French PoWs was so large other accommodation had to be found.
12 February 1797, The
last invasion of Britain. The Irish-American General William Tate landed at Fishguard,
Pembrokeshire with 1,400 French troops, who soon surrendered.
25 September 1796, Samuel Jones Loyd Overstone, English banker,
was born (died 17 November 1883 in London)
23 February 1795, Sir Josiah Mason, English entrepreneuer and
philanthropist, was born (died� 16 June 1881).
11 July 1794, In Britain the Whigs had split over the issue of
Parliamentary Reform. Lord Portland and William Wyndham joined William Pitt the
Younger�s Cabinet.
1 June 1794, The Battle
of the Glorious 1st June. The British fleet under Lord Howe defeated the French
under Admiral
Villaret-Joyeuse, 700km west of Ushant.
15 March 1793, Britain passed the Traitorous Correspondence Act,
and suspended the Habeas Corpus Act, as measures to avert any popular support
for Revolutionary France.
1 February 1793, Britain declared war on France. The British economy entered
a depression.
1792, In Britain, a barracks building programme began to
house troops in ports and major industrial centres. Often the least affluent
areas of town were chosen to site the barracks, in the event of urban riots
breaking out there.
8 February 1792, Hannah Snell, the famous �female
soldier�, died (born in Worcester 23 April 1723)
14 July 1791, In Birmingham, England,
rioters destroyed the home and labarotory of Joseph Priestley, who discovered
oxygen, because he supported the French Revolution. In 1794 Priestley
left Britain for America.
3 January 1791, George Rennie, English civil engineer, was
born in Surrey.
Death of the last Jacobite Catholics
1 November 1793, Lord
George Gordon, British anti-Catholic agitator and leader of the Gordon Riots in 1780, died in Newgate Prison,
London. He had been convicted of libelling Marie Antoinette.
5 March 1790, Flora Mac Donald, the Scottish
Jacobite heroine who helped Prince Charles Edward (The Younger Pretender)
to escape from the island of Benbecula, died.
31 January 1788, Prince Charles Edward
Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie), the Young
Pretender and leader of the Jacobite
Rebellion, aimed at deposing King George II,
died in exile in Rome.
2 June 1780, The Gordon Riots, anti-Catholic �No Popery� demonstrations
named after Lord George Gordon, broke out in London. Lord Gordon had called his
supporters to St Georges Fields and led them to protest against removal of some restrictions on Roman Catholics
under the Catholic Relief Act of 1778.
1 January 1766, James Stuart, the Old Pretender, and father of Bonnie Prince
Charlie, died in Rome.
22 February 1790, French soldiers landed at Fishguard, Wales,
but were soon captured.
20 December 1789, Richard Oastler, English social reformer, was
born in Leeds (died 22 August 1861 in Harrogate).
26 February 1789, Eaton Hodgkinson, British engineer, was born
(died 18 June 1861).
1788, Cheltenham became famous as a spa town with the six-week visit of
King George III. The spa waters had
first been commercially exploited by Captain Henry Skillicorne (born 1678, died
1763) in 1738, though some locals had drunk the water before then.
26 August 1786, Britain and France agreed the Eden Treaty, reducing trade barriers
between the two countries.
1 April 1786, Sir Thomas Buxton, English philanthropist, was
born (died 19 February 1845).
1784, A window tax was introduced in Britain. To save money, many
householders bricked up some of their wondows.
30 May 1784, Sir William Brown, financier, was born (died
1864).
7 December 1783, William Pitt
the Younger became the youngest
Prime Minister of Britain, aged 24.
24 February 1783, The
British Parliament voted to discontinue
the American War.
1 January 1783, Britain�s
oldest Chamber of Commerce was
established, in Glasgow.
20 March 1782, Lord North
left office as Prime Minister.
19 September 1781, Tobias Furneaux,
English navigator, died (born 21 August 1735).
6 April 1780, Lord Ashburton
brought a resolution in the British Parliament to condemn the King, George III,
for supporting the Government of Lord North.
12 August 1778, Francis Horner, British economist, was born
(died 8 February 1817)
2 February 1778, Mary Anne Talbot, British adventuress,
was born in London (died 4 February 1808)
1777, Dolly Pentreath,
the last known person to speak the Cornish language only, and no English, died.
30 July 1775, Captain Cook arrived back in
Portsmouth, Britain, ending his second voyage.
1773, An Assay
Office was established in Sheffield due to the amount of silver cutlery being
manufactured there.
10 May 1773, The USA passed the Tea
Act, reducing the amount of duty paid on tea imported into Britain. This was to
help the east India Company, which had a surplus of unsold tea. However the
full duty was retained on tea shipped to the American colonies.
3 April 1772, Olivia Serres, English Pretender
to be a member of the Royal Family, was born in Warwick (died 21 November 1834)
7 July 1771, John Britton, English antiquary, was born
(died1 January 1857).
14 May 1771, Robert Owen, social reformer,
was born in Newtown, Montgomery, Wales (died 17 November 1858 in Newtown)
27 November 1770, Horatio Nelson
joined the Royal Navy as a 12-year-old moidshipman on the HMS Raisonnable.
13 March 1770, Daniel Lambert, Englishman
famous for his great size, was born (died 21 July 1809).
31 May 1767, Edward Pease, English Quaker
insustrialist, was born in Darlington.
1765, The Cyfarthfa iron works at Merthy Tydfil was set up.
16 July 1765, In Britain, George Grenville resigned as Prime
Minister, and was replaced by the Marquess of Rockingham.
7 May 1765, HMS Victory was launched. She is now in dry dock
in Portsmouth. Nelson
was on board when killed by a musket shot.
26 April 1765, Emma, Lady Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson,
was born in Ness, Cheshire.
10 February 1763, The end of the Seven Years War. France
ceded Canada to Britain at the Treaty of Paris. See 26 July 1758 and 13
September 1759. The same treaty gave Florida to Britain in exchange for Britain
returning Cuba, which it had invaded on 12 August 1762, to Spain; Spain also
regained Louisiana and the Philippines. Britain gained all of America east of
the Mississippi. Britain also gained Minorca, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Tobago,
St Vincent, Grenada, Dominica, and Senegal, as well as becoming pre-eminent in
India; Britain therefore became the world�s major colonising power. Frederick
of Prussia retained Silesia, which set Prussia on the road to also becoming a
major European power.
3 November 1762, Britain
concluded a peace with France at Fontainbleau. See 10 February 1763.
For main events of Seven
Years War see France-Germany, Russia, and East Europe
3 February 1762, The
English dandy and gambler Richard �Beau� Nash died.
2 January 1762, Britain
declared war on Spain, three months after William Pitt resigned (see 5 October 1761).
5 October 1761, In
Britain, Pitt
resigned because Britain would not declare war on Spain; France was trying to
bring Spain into its war on Prussia and Britain, with France allied to Austria
and Russia. Britain virtually abandoned support for Prussia.
25
October 1760, George II died suddenly at 8am, in Kensington, London, aged
76. His successor George III was
inclined to concentrate on British, not Hanoverian, interests, and disliked William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, who had
promoted the Anglo-Prussian Alliance. Without British help, Prussia could not
continue fighting.
For
British-French conflict in Canada, 1700s, see Canada
23 July 1759, Work began on the Royal
Navy�s 104 gun battleship HMS Victory at Chatham, Kent, built with the
wood of 2,200 oak trees.
29 September 1758, Horatio
Nelson was born in Burnham Thorpe rectory, Norfolk.� He was the son of a clergyman, one of 11
children.� He died in battle in 1805.
18 May 1756, Britain declared war on France. This was
the start of the Seven Years War. See France-Germany,
Russia, East Europe.
1
6 January 1756. George II
secured an agreement, the Convention of
Westminster, by which Frederick of Prussia guaranteed to help
England if Hanover was attacked, and England promised to help Prussia if
Silesia was attacked.� This guaranteed
the neutrality of the Prussian states under Frederick II in the escalating
Anglo-French dispute.� However it was also alarming to Russia, who saw the Treaty as a potential
Anglo-Prussian alliance against them. See 1 May 1756.
14 October 1755, Thomas Charles, Welsh educationalist, was born
(died 5 October 1814).
27 April 1750, Sir Thomas Bernard, English social reformer,
was born in Lincoln (died 1 July 1818).
1745-47, Scottish
Jacobite Rebellion
1 August 1747, After the Jacobite Rebellion,
the British Parliament banned the wearing of tartan, on pain of prison, to
suppress the cultural identity of the Highlands.
9 April 1747, The Scottish Jacobite Lord
Lovat was executed by beheading at
the Tower of London for High Treason.� He
was the last person to be executed this way in Britain.� Only persons of high rank were beheaded;
lesser persons were hanged. After this date, all were hanged. Hanging, drawing,
and quartering for treason was not abolished until 1870.
20 September 1746, Prince Charles
Edward escaped capture by dressing as a girl and sailing to France
on the ship L�Heureux.
18 August 1746, Two
rebellious Scottish Jacobite Lords, the Earl of
Kilmarnock and Lord Balmeniro, were beheaded at the
Tower of London.
1 August 1746, England
passed the Dress Act, banning the wearing of Scottish Highland
Dress, including the kilt, from 1 August 1747.� This
was an attempt to suppress Scottish Highland culture.
Jacobite rebellion defeated, Charles flees
16 April 1746, Bonnie Prince Charlie and his 5,000 Jacobite soldiers were decisively defeated at Culloden, near Inverness, by the Duke of
Cumberland and an army of 9,000 regulars. Fought on flat ground, the
battle gave the advantage to Cumberland�s latest artillery. This ended the Jacobite Rebellion and the hopes of the Stuart dynasty of any return to power in
Britain. On 27 June 1746 Charles escaped over the sea to Skye,
disguised as the Irish maid Betty Burke, with Flora MacDonald.� In Scotland, the Highlanders were disarmed
and forbidden to wear their tartan kilts. The hereditary jurisdiction of the
Highland Chiefs over their clans was abolished. This was the last battle fought in Britain.
17 January 1746, At the Battle of Falkirk, Charles and the Jacobites defeated the English under General Hawley. This was the last Jacobite success.
8 January 1746, Bonnie Prince Charlie occupied
Stirling.
18 December 1745, Battle of Clifton Moor.� The
Jacobites won a victory over the English at Penrith.
4 December 1745, Marching south, Charles�s forces
reached Derby. However they were faced there by the superior forces of General Wade and William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. The Jacobite army retreated, to be finally defeated at
Culloden (16 April 1746).
9 November 1745, Battle
of Carlisle, Jacobite Rebellion. The Young Pretender, Charles Edawrd
Stuart (Bonny Prince Charlie), defeated the Duke of Cumberland.
31 October 1745, Charles led his
5,000-strong army into England hoping, in vain, for popular support.� Not gaining this, he returned to Scotland.
21 September 1745. Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Stuart) and his Jacobite army defeated the English under Sir John Cope at the Battle of Prestonpans.�
11 September 1745. The Jacobites under the Young Pretender occupied Edinburgh,
with 2,000 men.
19 August 1745, To claim
the English throne, Prince Charles raised his father�s flag at Glenfinnan,
after travelling from France.
25 July 1745, Prince Charles
(Edward Stuart), the Young Pretender, landed in Scotland. He
proclaimed his father as King James VIII of Scotland and James III of England.
Highland clans rose in support of him.
20 March 1744, William Maxwell Nithsdale,
Jacobite leader, died in Rome (born 1676).
11 May 1745, The Battle of Fontenoy took place in
Belgium, during the War of the Austrian
Succession. Marshal
de Saxe won a French
victory over British and Allied forces. William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, had been
sent with Austrian, British, Dutch and Hanoverian troops to relieve Tournai,
Belgium, under siege by the French. Cumberland�s army was beaten back with
casualties of 7,000 and forced to retreat during the night towards Brussels.
The British suffered further setbacks in Flanders and as troops were called
back to fight the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart. The
British made peace with France at Aix la Chapelle in 1748.
27 August 1743, Henry Pelham
took up office as Prime Minister.
16 June 1743, The last battle in which a British monarch
commanded an army on the battlefield. George II
defeated the French at the Battle of Dettingen, in Bavaria, during the War of the Austrian Succession.
Robert Walpole, Prime Minister
8 February 1742, Sir Robert
Walpole left office as Prime Minister.
13 February
1741, In the House of Commons, Sir Robert Walpole first used
the phrase �Balance of Power� to
describe Britain�s approach to foreign policy.
22 September 1735, Sir Robert Walpole became the first
Prime Minister to move into 10 Downing Street. The office of �Prime Minister� was not officially recognised, and some
considered it unconstitutional. However Walpole had widespread support of
both the King and Parliament. Walpole was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and
at age 24 inherited a country estate, which gave him the means of
self-sufficiency to enter politics. In 1701 he became the Whig member for
castle rising in Norfolk. An excellent speaker, he rose rapidly within the
party. In 1717 he resigned amid in-party fighting, returning as Paymaster General
in 1720.
1740, In Sheffield, Thomas Boulsover developed a method of plating
a copper ingot with silver; this could then be rolled into �Sheffield Plate�
items.
1 August 1740, Rule Britannia, written by Scotsman James Thomson,
with music by Londoner Thomas Arne, was heard for the first time, at
the Prince of Wales� country home at Cliveden.
2 July 1740, Thomas Baker,
English antiquary, died� (born in
Lanchester, Durham, 14 September 1656).
20 November 1737, Caroline,
wife of King
George II of Britain, died (born 1 March 1683).
7 September 1736, John
Porteous, Captain of the City Giuard of Edinbiurgh, was killed by a
mob in the Porteous Riots. They
seixzed� Porteous from Tolbooth Prison
and hanged him in the street. Earlier in 1736 a smuggler, Wilson, had been hanged; he had
become popular by helping a companion escape from Tolbooth Prison, Edinburgh,
and it was for this that he was executed. A disturbance occurred at his
hanging, and John
Porteous ordered the City Guard to fure on ther mob, killing
several, Porteous
was alleged to have fired some of the fatal shots humself, and was sentenced to
death, but was reprieved, and this reprieve provoked popular resentment.
Popular support for Porteous�s lynching ensured that no conviction
for it was ever secured. This popular resentment also led to the scaling back
of a proposed Government punishment on the ciuy of Edinburgh, to a �2,000 fine.
21 August 1735, Tobias Furneaux, English navigator, was born
(died 19 September 1781).
28 December 1734, Rob Roy,
Scottish outlaw (real name Robert McGregor, nicknamed �Roy�, Gaelic for
�red� because of his ruddy complexion and red hair, died at his home in the
Scottish Highlands. Born in 1671, he became famous for his sword-fighting
skills and was chosen as head of the MacGregor clan in 1693. His business was
selling Scottish black cattle to England; he was declared an outlaw in 1712
after defaulting on a business debt owed to the Duke of Montrose. He then
gathered a group of armed followers and harassed the estates and tenants of the
Duke of
Montrose. In 1722 he surrendered to the English authorities and was
imprisoned. He was nearly transported, but was pardoned and allowed to return
home. He was also noted for his generosity to the poor, at the expense of the
wealthy.
4 June 1730, King George III of Britain was born. His
mental health was unstable, and his mishandling of the American colonies led to
their independence.
3 September 1729, The Treaty of Hanover was signed between
Britain, France and Prussia. It was to counterbalance the Treaty of Vienna, between Spain and Austria, which treaty had
broken the Quadruple Alliance. The Vienna treaty was intended to restore the
Stuarts to the English throne and to compel Britain to return Gibraltar and
Minorca to Spain. The Treaty of Hanover was a mutual defence pact, in case any
signatory was attacked.
11 October 1727, Coronation of King
George II.
22 June 1727, King George I, the first Hanoverian King, died of
apoplexy, aged 67, in Osnabruck castle where he was born, on route to Hanover.
His son, 44-year old George II, succeeded him.
7 November 1724, John Kyrle, English philanthropist, died (born
22 May 1637).
17 May 1723, Christopher Layer was hung, drawn and quartered
for treason, for a plot to kill King George I and restore the Catholic Stuart
dynasty. James
Francis Edward Stuart, son of James II, would have become James III. In
England the military was reinforced and put on standby against a possible
Catholic invasion of the country; this was paid for by a �100,000 tax (�313
million in 2015 prices) on Catholic estates. This was the Atterbury plot, named
after Francis
Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, who was exiled for his part in it.
23 April 1723, Hannah Snell,
the famous �female soldier�, was born in Worcester (died 8 February 1792)
16 June 1722, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, British
General famous for his victories in the Spanish
War of Succession, died at Windsor aged 72.
1 January 1722, So-called
�blacking� was becoming a problem for British landowners. Large deer parks established
by the landed gentry were excluding commoners from their traditional grazing
lands where they could also gather peat and firewood. The commoners would black
their faces and raid these parks. In response to this Parliament passed the Black Act in May 1723, making it a
hanging offence to black one�s face and carry weapons, many other offenders
were transported under this Act. The Black Act was not repealed until 1824.
3 April 1721,� Sir Robert Walpole was appointed First Lord of
the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, effectively making him Britain�s first Prime Minister. He held
this office until 12 February 1742.
9 March 1721, In Britsain, John Aislabie, former Chancellor of the
exchequer, was sent to the Tower of London for fraud for his involvement in the
South Sea Bubble.
31 December 1720, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Charles Edward Stuart, was born in Rome, the
elder son of James,
the �Old Pretender�.
2 October 1720, Elizabeth Montagu, English socialite, was born
(died 25 August 1800).
30 May 1719, Sir Roger Newdigate, English philanthropist,
was born (died 23 November 1806).
11 August 1718, Admiral Byng
destroyed the Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro.
2 August 1718, A Quadruple Alliance was formed between
Britain, France, Holland, and Austria, against Spain, after Spain seized Sardinia
and Sicily, threatening another European war. Under the Treaty of Utrecht (11
April 1713) Sardinia had been assigned to Austria and Sicily to Savoy (see also
17 February 1720).� However King Philip V
of Spain, influenced by his wife Elizabeth Farnese of Parma and
her advisor Giulio
Alberoni, seized these islands. Admiral Byng was sent to defend Sicily, with
Austrian troops. In a sea battle off Cape Passaro, he totally destroyed the
Spanish fleet. Meanwhile French troops occupied northern Spain. The purpose of the Quadruple Alliance were, to maintain
the terms of the Peace of Utrecht, for Spain to renounce any claim to the
French throne, and to guarantee the Protestant succession in Britain. The four
powers would also assist each other if any were attacked. Spain initially
backed a Jacobite invasion of Britain, but after the dismissal of Cardinal
Alberoni in December 1719 Spain changed policy and joined the
Alliance, which provided a forum to discuss territorial disputes in Europe.
5 June 1718, Thomas Chippendale, English
furniture maker, died.
1717,
The first copper smelting works was set up in
the Tawe Valley, Swansea, area. By 1860 the previously wooded rural valley was
smelting over 50% of all copper imported into the UK.
Jacobite
Uprising, failed
10 June 1719, A force of Spanish and Jacobites
was defeated at Glensheil, Scotland. The main invasion fleet had been scattered
by storms.
1 January 1717, Count Karl von Gyllenborg,
Swedish Ambassador to Britain, was arrested for his involvement in a plot to
help the Old Pretender regain the British throne.
24 February 1716, The leaders of the Jacobite uprising I November 1715 captured at
Preston were executed.� Some escaped to
France.� The Pretender himself also
escaped.� The aim of the rebels was to overthrow the Hanoverian dynasty ands
restore the Stuarts to the throne.
22 December 1715. James Stuart, the �Old
Pretender�, son of King James II, deposed Roman Catholic King of England, landed at Peterhead after his exile
in France. However he was forced to leave on 5 February 1716 for France again
with the Earl
of Mar, as the Jacobite Army, defeated, dispersed.
13 November 1715, A Royalist army defeated the Jacobites at Preston, Lancashire. On this day Mar
also failed to dislodge the Royalists under Argyll from Sheriffmuir, north
of Stirling.
6 September 1715, The Earl of Mar
raised the Stuart Standard at Braemar, starting the Jacobite Rebellion.
27 August 1715, Scottish Jacobite
leaders rallied to march on London.
Accession of King George I
20 October 1714, Coronation of King George I.
18 September 1714, George I landed in England.
1 August 1714. Queen
Anne, the last Stuart monarch, died childless.� King George I, Elector
of Hanover, Prince George Louis, son of the Electress Sophia, daughter of
Elizabeth, daughter of James I, became King under the 1701 Act of Settlement. Unfortunately he spoke no English.
30 July 1714, The
pro-Hanoverian Duke
of Shrewsbury was appointed Lord
Treasurer.
10 April 1710, The Copyright Act came into effect in
Britain. This allowed authors to hold exclusive rights to their work for up to
50 years after their death.
Brtiain-Netherlands
Barrier Treaties
29 January 1713, Britain
and The
Netherlands signed a second Barrier
Treaty, modifying the terms of the first such Treaty (see 29 October 1709).
The number of �barrier towns� to be fortified by Britain against France was
reduced.
29 October 1709, Britain and The Netherlands signed the
Barrier Treaty. The Netherlands guaranteed to support the Protestant
Hanoverian succession in Britain, and Britain guaranteed to maintain a
�barrier� of towns in southern Netherlands against possible French aggression.
9 October 1709, Barbara
Cleveland, mistress to King Charles II of England, died (born 1641).
25 February 1708, Robert Walpole,
Whig, was appointed Secretary of State for War.
27 March 1708, James Stuart
was forced to return to Dunkrik (see 23 March 1708) after the English defeated
the French fleet that was to have supported his bid to seize the British
throne.
23 March 1708, James Stuart,
Catholic Old Pretender, son of James II, landed at the Firth of Forth Scotland,
but see 27 March 1708.
13 February 1708, English
moderate Toty politician Robert Harley was dismissed as Secretary of
State
For events in the War of the Spanish Succession, see Spain-Portugal,
and France-Germany.
Act of Union, England and Scotland
1 May 1707, Act of
Union between England and Scotland. The Union of the English and Scottish
crowns was on 24 March 1603, when James VI of
Scotland also became King of
England. Scotland failed economically, and England put pressure for Union
on the Scottish Parliament. Scottish aristocrats were offered compensation and
voted for Union. Coinage, taxation,
sovereignty, and parliament became one, but Scotland retained its own legal and
religious system. The Union Jack was adopted as the National Flag.
31 December 1705, Catherine of Braganza, queen consort of King Charles II
of England, died (born 1638).
12 July 1705, Death of Anglican priest Titus Gates, the anti-Catholic
conspirator who alleged the existence of
a plot to assassinate King Charles II
and place his Catholic brother James
on the throne, thus causing the execution of 35 suspects and the
exclusion of Catholics from the British Parliament.
27 December 1703, The Methuen Treaty was signed.
12/ September 1703, The Hapsburg
Archduke
Ferdinand was proclaimed King of Spain, War of the Spanish Succession began. France had already, in 1701,
begun to occupy key fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, following the death
of the Spanish monarch Charles II on 2 October 1700, with no heir.
Accession of Queen Anne
23 April 1702,
The coronation of Queen
Anne.
8 March 1702, King William III died when his horse, Sorrel, stumbled on a
molehill in the grounds of Hampton Court Park. He had no children, and the
Crown passed to Queen Anne. second daughter of James II, who was born
on 6 February 1665 in London, and brought up as a strict Protestant. By
the time Anne became Queen she had already had 17 children, and seen them all
die in childhood. She died on 1 August 1714, and was succeeded by King George I.
12 June 1701, The Act of Settlement was passed in London.
It settled the Royal accession on the Protestant descendants of Sophia of
Hanover and barred Roman Catholics from
the English throne.
30 July 1700, William, Duke of Gloucester, died aged 11. He
was the only surviving child of Queen Mary, so the succession to the English
throne passed to the Electress Sophia of Hanover.
20 September 1697, The Treaty
of Ryswick ended the Nine Years War. This Treaty led to the Barrier Treaties (1709-15) between
Britain and the Netherlands, with the idea that Britain would assist The Netherlands
to maintain a line of fortresses against any future French attacks. These
fortresses included Ypres, Lille, Tournai, Valenciennes and Namur. In return
the Dutch promised to send 6,000 troops to help Britain resist a Jacobite
uprising, which they did supply in 1715.
28 January 1697, Sir John Fenwick, Jacobite conspirator against
King William,
was executed.
10 April 1696, England�s
Navigation Act forbade the Colonies
in America from exporting directly to Ireland or Scotland.
18 March 1696, Robert Charnock,
conspirator to kill King William III of England near Turnham Green
London, and restore a Stuart monarchy, was hanged.
28 December 1694. Queen Mary II died from smallpox (born 1662),
leaving William
III to reign alone.
11 April 1694, The
Dukedom of Bedford was created.
18 May 1692, Elias Ashmole,
founder of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, died (born 23 May 1617).
Glencoe Massacre
13 February 1692. Massacre at Glencoe.
40 members of the MacDonald clan were massacred by the Campbells.
This massacre was on the orders of William III,
because of their Jacobite sympathies of the MacDonalds and their delay in
swearing an oath of allegiance. On 27 August 1691 a proclamation was
issued offering indemnity to all who took the oath of allegiance before 1 January
1692. All Scottish chiefs took the oath except MacIan, chief of the MacDonalds of
Glencoe, who postponed the submission until 31 December 1691. He
then could not take the oath until 6 January 1692 because there was no
magistrate at Fort William. This irregularity gave Breadalbane (John Campbell,
First Earl of Breadalbane) the excuse to destroy the clan that had
for generations plundered the lands of himself and his neighbours. The Macdonalds
were in fact giving hospitality to their murderers when they rose up and killed
them.� Breadalbane managed to prevent
most of the evidence against him from being presented; he was imprisoned for a
short time in Edinburgh Castle on the grounds of earlier negotiations with the
Highland chiefs, but was released when it was known he was acting with the
knowledge of King
William.
29 October 1691, William Hulme, English philanthropist, died.
30 June 1690. The Battle
of Beachy Head. An allied force of 37 British ships and 22 Dutch ships
was at anchor off Beachy head whilst a French
fleet of 70 ships waited off to the south-west, waiting to co-operate with an
anticipated Catholic Jacobite uprising in England. The English
commander, Torrington, wished to retire to the mouth of the Thames till he
could be reinforced, but the Council of Regency ordered him to remain where he
was, and fight if he could secure an advantageous position. Torrington took this as an order to fight
the French and bore down on them; however with inferior numbers, there were
gaps between the British ships. The Anglo-Dutch fleets began to suffer heavy
losses from French fire. But the tide turned from flood to ebb during the
engagement, and whilst the Anglo-Dutch ships dropped anchor, the French did
not, and were carried away westwards on the current. Some of the most damaged
British ships were abandoned in Pevensey Bay. Torrington was tried for his conduct but acquitted.
27 July 1689. The Scottish Jacobites, supporters of the deposed James II, won the Battle of Killiecrankie,
near Pitlochry, against the English under William III. However the Jacobite leader John Graham,
Earl of Dundee, was killed.
24 May 1689. The English
Parliament passed the Act of Toleration exempting dissenting Protestants
from certain legal penalties so long as they have sworn oaths of allegiance to
the Crown. Catholics were
specifically excluded from this relief.
Judge
Jeffreys
18 April 1689, Judge
Jeffreys died in The Tower of London, aged 44, before he could be tried.
A Protestant, he had been hired by King James II to set up a court to deal with
the Monmouth
Rebellion of 1685. He was the Lord
Chancellor who was notorious for the harshness of his sentences at the �Bloody Assizes�. 300 of Monmouth�s
peasant followers were sentenced to hang and a further 800 sent to forced
labour in Barbados . After the trials, Jeffreys was made Lord Chancellor by James II,
a position he held until the Glorious Revolution of 1688. See 19 August 1685.
12 December 1688, Judge Jeffreys took refuge from
a mob in the Tower of London.
19 August 1685. Judge Jeffreys began
sentencing people to death at what became known as the Bloody Assizes. This
followed the Monmouth Rebellion, see
6 July 1685.
��������������������������������������������
Accession
of King William III and Queen Mary
11 April 1689, The coronation of King William III and Queen
Mary as joint sovereigns (see 13 February 1689). The Bishop of
London performed the service, as the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to
participate.
13 February 1689. William
and Mary ascended the English throne. Mary was the daughter of James II;
William was born in The Hague. This ended the �Glorious Revolution� (see 6 June
1685 and 6 July 1685); James II fled to
France on 22 December 1688.
They were crowned by the Bishop of London, because the Archbishop of Canterbury
refused to do this (see 11 April 1689). James II�s support for
the Catholic cause had made him unpopular.
22 January 1689, The Convention Parliament agreed that Charles II had abdicated by
fleeing to France (on 22 December 1688) and that the throne was vacant, for William and
Mary to accede.
5 November 1688, William of Orange landed at Torbay, having been invited by Whig
and Tory leaders to save Britain from Catholicism on 30 June 1688;
William
accepted this invitation on 5 November 1688. See 30 June 1688. William
had some 40,000 troops in 463 ships but they were not necessary. James
prepared to fight him, but was unsettled by defections in his army. The English
population welcomed William. They almost missed Torbay, due to
poor navigation, and the next port was Plymouth, strongly guarded by James II�s
garrison. However the wind turned and Wiliam�s fleet was able to make landfall at
Torbay as planned. James later fled to France.
30 June 1688, William of
Orange was invited to England.
10 June 1688, A son (James Stuart, the �Old Pretender�) was born to
James II,
opening
up the possibility of a line of Catholic Kings to rule England.� He was James II�s only son; his mother was Mary of Modena.
13 November 1687. Nell Gywnne, actress, died,
aged in London aged 37. The mistress of Charles II, who had borne him two sons, was
perhaps the best known orange seller of all time.
14 April 1687. Having failed to
persuade Parliament to repeal the 1673 Test
Act (forbidding a� Catholic from being the monarch of England),
James II issued a Declaration of
Indulgence. This granted toleration to
Catholics and to non-conformists.
10 February 1686, Sir William Dugdale, English historian, died
(born 12 September 1605). In 1641 he was commissioned by Sir Christopher
Hatton (who foresaw the destruction of the Civil War) to make exact
drafts of the monuments at all of England�s major cathedrals.
15 July 1685, The Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate
son of King
Charles II and Lucy Walter, was executed on Tower Green, London, for leading a Protestant rebellion
on the accession of King James II.
6 July 1685. James
II�s troops defeated the Duke of Monmouth at Sedgemoor,
Somerset, the last battle fought on English soil. Monmouth�s troops had
attempted a night attack late on 5 July 1685 but the King�s troops under John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, successfully
counterattacked at dawn. The
rebel Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of King Charles II, was executed on
15 July 1685. See 13 February 1689.
11 June 1685, An abortive
rebellion against King James II, by the same faction as promoted
the Rye House Plot of 1683 (21/7). Monmouth, having been expelled from
Holland upon the accession of James II, landed at Lyme Regis, Dorset, and
issued a proclamation claiming the throne of England. He gathered a small army
of 3-4,000, mainly of middle social class status, and managed to capture
Taunton before being defeated by pro-Royal troops at Sedgemoor on 6 July 1683.
6 June 1685. James II
became King of England. See 13 February 1689.
20 May 1685, In London, Titus Oates was convicted of perjury regarding
his testimony about the Popish Plot, which he allegedly invented himself. He
was flogged from Newgate to Adlgate and from Newgate to Tyburn.
7 February 1685; Charles II,
James II�s
brother, died after suffering an apoplectic fit on 2 February 1685, see 6 June 1685.
10 January 1684, The
Dukedom of St Albans was created.
10 November 1683, George II,
King of England, was born in Hanover, Germany, the only son of George I.
Rye House
Plot
25 December 1683, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth,
fled to the United Netherlands to escape being arrested in connection with the
Rye House Plot.
7 December 1683, English Whig politician Algernon Sydney
was executed for plotting to assassinate King Charles II and his brother James Duke of
York in the Rye House plot.
21 July 1683, Algernon Sidney and William Russell were executed for their part
on the Rye House Plot. Along with
the Earl of
Wessex (who cheated the
executioner by committing suicide in gaol), they planned to ambush King Charles II
and the Duke
of York (future James II)
on their return from Newmarket to London at a narrow point at Rye House, near
Hoddesdon, and assassinate them. The plot failed because the monarch left
Newmarket early. The Government took advantage of the plot to implicate others
whose loyalty to Charles II was questionable.
12 June 1683, Discovery of the Rye House
Plot to assassinate King Charles II and his brother and heir James Duke of
York.
1 July 1681, Oliver Plunket, Irish Catholic, was hung drawn
and quartered on a very dubious conviction of treason for allegdly planning to
assist a French invasion of Carlingford.
6 June 1683. Elias Ashmole opened the first public museum,
the Ashmolean, in Broad Street,
Oxford. Exhibits included stuffed animals and a dodo.
1 March 1683, Caroline, wife of King George II of Britain, was
born (died 20 November 1737).
21 January 1683, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury,
English politician who favoured the exclusion of James Duke of York from the
succession, died in the United Netherlands, he had fled there to avoid a trial
for treason.
2 December 1682, The
Dukedom of Beaufort was created.
22 June 1679, The Battle of Bothwell Bridge. The Duke of
Monmouth defeated the Scottish Covenanters, who had rebelled against
the policies of John
Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale.
1 June 1679, At the Battle of Drumclog, Scottish
Covenanters defeated a small government force.
Habeas
Corpus Act � King vs. Parliamemnt, again
27 May 1679. The Habeas Corpus Act,
stating that nobody could be held in prison without a trial, was passed.
The rights of a prisoner were mentioned as early as the 14th century
in England, but it was Lord Shaftesbury who suggested such an Act on the
statute books. Charles
I believed himself to be above Parliament so the Act was passed to
counter his rulings. This enabled political prisoners of the King to demand
a trial, and to obtain bail if prison was not justified. Habeas Corpus can only
be suspended in times of war or a terrorist threat.
6 March 1679, In England the Habeas Corpus Parliament, or First Exclusion Parliament, assembled
for the first time.
24 January 1679, King Charles II of England
dissolved the Cavalier Parliament.
12 August 1678, Titus Oates� Popish plot was revealed to King Charles II.
4 November 1677, King William II married his cousin Princess Mary
(future Queen
Mary II of England), the eldest daughter of King James II and Anne Hyde.
11 September 1675, The
Dukedom of Grafton was created.
9 August 1675, The
Dukedom of Richmond (Lennox & Gordon) was created.
28 December 1674, John Oxenbridge,
English divine, died in Boston, Massachusetts (born in Daventry 30 January
1608)
18 October 1674, Richard (Beau)
Nash, Master of Ceremonies at Bath, who established the city as a
centre of fashion, was born.
Third
Anglo-Dutch war
19 February 1674, The Treaty of Westminster
ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
17 March 1672, The Third Anglo-Dutch war began, because Charles II was bound under the
secret provisions of the Treaty of Dover to support Louis XIV. The Treaty of Dover, 1670, was concluded between Charles II
and Louis
XIV of France, following negotiations begun back in
1668. However the weaker Dutch fleet held back the English, who were facing
difficulties in financing this war. In
1673 the English Parliament agreed to raise taxes to fund the conflict in
return for the passing of the Test Act. This Act required all holding civil or
military office to accept the Church of England sacrament and reject the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation. The
subsequent resignation of the Duke of York (the future James II) and others betrayed
the presence of Catholics in the English high office. Meanwhile in August 1672
a revolution in the Netherlands brought William of Orange (future King William III) to power. In
August / September 1673 Spain, Austria and Brandenburg, and in January 1674 Denmark,
all declared war on France. The Dutch encouraged the belief amongst the English
that the war constituted a betrayal of Protestant interests by Catholics in
high office. In 1674 England concluded a separate peace with The Netherlands,
the Treaty of Westminster.
27 June 1672, Sir Roger Twysden, Royalist pamphleteer, died
(born 1597)
1 June 1670, Two Treaties of Dover � one
public, one secret � were made by
Charles II
with Louis XIV. Charles II secretly
agreed to declare his conversion to Catholicism and subsequently to restore it
to Britain. Charles
II did not announce his conversion,
to the annoyance of Louis XIV.� The public
Treaty committed Britain and France to declare war on Holland � if this war
was successful, Britain would receive Zeeland and the port of Ostend. Britain
would assist Louis
XIV�s claim on the Spanish throne. The private Treaty, known only to Charles II and a select few of his government ministers,
stated that Charles
would re-establish Catholicism in Britain in return for �150,000 from France
and the use of 6,000 French troops to cope with any �internal resistance�.
3 January 1670, George Monck, Duke of Albermarle and English
Royalist during the Civil War, died in London. He played a major role in the
restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660.
13 January 1668. The Triple Alliance was formed between
England, Holland, and Sweden to defend The Netherlands from the ambitions of
the French King, Louis XIV, who was pursuing a claim based on his wife�s
rights as Spanish Infanta. This was the War of Devolution which was ended on 2
May 1668 by the Peace of Aix la Chapelle.
30 August 1667, King Charles II dismissed the Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde
over the humiliating terms imposed on Britain by Holland in the Treaty of
Breda.
Second
Anglo-Dutch War
31 July 1667. The Peace of Breda ended the war between England and the Netherlands (Second Anglo-Dutch War).� Trade laws were modified in favour of the
Dutch, who also gained Surinam but recognised British possession of New
York.� See 18 June 1667 and 2 February 1665.
The English sought peace with the Dutch in order to curb the growing military
power of (Catholic) France. In the �War of Devolution� France had already
seized the Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comte; Holland and England now
sought to mediate in this war between France and Spain. The other principal Protestant power in Europe, Sweden, then joined
with (Protestant) Holland and Britain in a Triple Alliance (formalised by the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, 2 May 1668).
However (Catholic) King Charles II regretted this
Triple Alliance against France and began negotiations with Louis XIV that led to the
Treaties of Dover (1 June 1670).
18 June 1667. The Dutch humiliated the English by breaking through a defensive chain
in the Thames Estuary at Chatham and sailing up The Thames to burn or capture
English ships. The English flagship Royal Charles was captured and carried
off. See 31 July 1667.
15 October 1666. King Charles II,
according to Pepys,
wore the first waistcoat this day.
31 August 1666, Maria Henrietta,
wife of Charles I of
England, daughter of Henry IV of Framce, died (born 25 November 1609).
6 February 1665, Queen Anne
was born at St James Palace, the second daughter of James II by his first wife,
Anne Hyde. She was the last Stuart monarch
of Britain.
28 October 1664, The Admiral�s Regiment was formed, later
known as the Royal Marines.
5 April 1664, In England the Triennial act was passed. This
stipulated that Parliament must meet at least every three years.
20 April 1663, The
Dukedom of Buccleuch was created.
20 May 1662, King Charles II
of England married Catherine of Braganza, starting a fruitful
alliance with Portugal.
30 April 1662, Mary II
of England was born.
19 April 1661, Postmarks were introduced in Britain by the Post
Office.
16 April 1661, Charles Montagu, founder of the Bank of
England, was born.
6 January 1661, The Royal Horse Guards Regiment was formed,
by Royal Warrant.
24 December 1660, Mary, daughter of Charles I, died..
12 November 1660. John Bunyan, 32, author
of Pilgrim�s progress, was arrested for preaching without a licence, and
not in a parish church. He was put in Bedford gaol.
13 October 1660, Thomas Harrison, Civil War Parliamentarian who
opposed the Absolutist rule of Cromwell,was executed.
Restoration
of English Monarchy
24 August 1662, In England, thousands of
Puroitan Ministers were expelled from the Church following the restoration of King Charles
II. This became known as Black Bartholomew�s Day of the Great
Ejection.
17 December 1661, Sir Isaac Pennington, advisor to
Cromwell, died in the Tower of London after being convicted of treason
following the Restoration.
23 April 1661, The coronation of King Charles II.
30 January 1661, The body of Oliver Cromwell
(died 3 September 1658) was exhumed, hanged and beheaded, and reburied at
Tyburn.
29 May 1660, King Charles II entered London; he landed at Dover on 26 May 1660.
26 May 1660. The British monarchy was restored with Charles II, born 29 May 1630,
as king.� He was crowned on 23 April 1661,
ending an exile of nearly nine years.� On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday,
Charles II rode into London to scenes of great rejoicing.� Everyone
was glad to see the end of the kill-joy Puritan regime that had banned
Christmas, maypoles, and theatre; a regime that had run out of steam after Cromwell died.�
The bodies of Cromwell and his chief associates were dragged from
Westminster Abbey and buried beneath Tyburn Gallows.� Other regicides were executed.
23 May 1660, King Charles II sailed from Scheveningen, to
return to England, ending his exile. See 16 March 1660.
25 April 1660, The English Parliament voted for the restoration of the Monarchy,
see 26 May 1660.
16 April 1660, Sir Hans Sloane, physician and
collector, was born.
28 March 1660, George
I, first Hanoverian king of England, was born at Osnabruck Castle in
Hanover.
16 March 1660, England�s Long Parliament was dissolved after
sitting for 20 years (with a break, 1653-59), throughout the
Civil War. This was an important step towards the restoration of the monarchy and the
House of Lords. See 23 May 1660.
21 February 1660, The Rump (Long)
Parliament, recalled on 7 May 1659, was rejoined by surviving MPs that had been
purged on 6 December 1648.
Death of
Oliver Cromwell -- Brief succession of Richard Cromwell
12 July 1712, Richard Cromwell, second Lord
Protector, son of Oliver Cromwell, died.
25 May 1659, Richard
Cromwell resigned as Lord Protector.
7 May 1659, The Long (Rump) Parliament was recalled
(see 20 April 1653). It called for Cromwell�s resignation.
22 April 1659, Richard Cromwell
dissolved the English Parliament, at the request of the Army.
23 October 1658, Thomas Pride,
Parliamentarian General in the English Civil War, died at Nonsuch House, Surrey
3 September 1658, Oliver Cromwell died
of pneumonia. A Puritan, he was aged 60 and had ruled England for 5
years. His son Richard
succeeded him as Protector. However
Richard lacked the authority of his father.
27 May 1657, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell refused an offer to make him King of
England. To have accepted the Crown would have lost him the loyalty of the
anti-Royalist Army.
17
September 1656, Cromwell�s Third Parliament convened.
14
September 1656, Thomas Baker, English antiquary, was born in
Lanchester, Durham (died 2 July 1740).
30 May 1656, The Grenadier
Guards, the senior regiment of the British Army, was formed.
11 March 1655, Penruddock�s Uprising began in Wiltshire. It was a
small-scale Royalist rebellion, and was easily defeated by 14 March.
Cromwell
control of Parliament
12 September 1654, Cromwell
ordered the exclusion of Members of Parliament that were hostile to him.
3 September 1654, In the
English Parliament, the Republican, Vance, questioned the pre-eminence of Cromwell.
16 December 1653, Oliver Cromwell
became Lord Protector of England, effectively an uncrowned King.� He ruled for over four years.
13 December 1653, The Barebones
Parliament� ended.
4 July 1653, The Barebones Parliament began sitting.
20 April 1653, Cromwell dissolved
the Long Parliament (Rump Parliament) due to its slowness in implementing Cromwellian
reforms. It was recalled on 7 May 1659, after Cromwell�s
death.
First Anglo-Dutch
War. See Netherlands for main histrory
1 October 1660. The English reinforced the
Navigation
Act by insisting that certain colonial goods were only to be shipped
to Britain. This
was directed against the Dutch but caused resentment in the British colonies.
16 April 1654, The Peace of Westminster ended the First
Anglo-Dutch war between England and The Netherlands, but the Navigation Act which led to the war was
retained. See 6 October 1651.
6 October 1651. The English issued a
commercial challenge to the Dutch by passing the Navigation Act; this prohibited the import of
goods into England from America, Asia, or Africa in any except British or
colonial ships; with a crew at least half-English. This was a challenge to Amsterdam�s status as Europe�s leading port.
This was an attempt to revive the English economy, depressed by three years of
plague and bad harvests. In 1652 England declared
war on The Netherlands (First Anglo-Dutch War) after an incident
where a Dutch fleet refused to be searched by the British. See 15 April 1654,
and 1 October 1660.
1650-51,
King Charles II continues English Civil War. Lands in Scotland, defeated at Worcester
3 September 1651. Oliver Cromwell�s army
defeated the Royalist army at Worcester. Charles
II, destitute and
friendless, spent the night in an oak tree at Boscobel to evade capture, and
fled to France on 17 October 1651.
Cromwell�s troops hauled twenty large boats upstream to make a pontoon bridge,
crossing the Severn into the Royalist side.�
The battle concluded with fighting inside Worcester itself.� Some 3,000 Royalist forces were killed, and
10,000 taken prisoner, many of whom were transported to New England as
slaves.� The Parliamentarian forces lost
only 200 men.� This was the final
battle for the Royalist cause.
28 August 1651, The Parliamentarians captured Upton Bridge,
10 miles south of Worcester.�
The Royalist General Massey
was badly wounded.� Cromwell�s forces occupied the west bank of the Severn with 11,000 troops, so
cutting off any support for Charles II from Wales, and aiming to attack Worcester from the south.
25 August 1651, A force of Lancashire Royalists
raised the Earl of Derby was crushed
by Colonel Robert Lilburne at Wigan.� Cromwell returned to England via the east
coast from Scotland; harassing Charles II�s
rearguard.� Cromwell marched on Worcester with a force of around
28,000 regular troops plus a further 3,000 militiamen who were against the
Scots.� Lilburne blockaded Charles
route back into Scotland. Charles hoped to draw extra forces from Wales
and the south-west.
22 August 1651,� Charles II occupied the loyal Royalist
city of Worcester, but his army numbered less than 16,000 troops.� See 25 August 1651.
5 August 1651, King Charles II began
a march south into England, crossing the border from Scotland this day.� His plan was to march through
the traditionally Royalist regions of Lancashire and the Welsh border, picking
up troops along the way.� However the
English Royalists and Presbyterians failed to join him, due to anti-Scots
propaganda from the Cromwellian camp.� See 22 August 1651.
2/ August 1651, Cromwell�s army
took Perth.
1 January 1651, Charles II was
crowned King of Scotland at Scone Palace. He then marched south into England (see 5 August 1651).
19 December 1650, Cromwell�s army
took Edinburgh Castle.
3 September 1650, The Battle of Dunbar; Cromwell�s army marched into Scotland and
defeated a Scottish Royalist Persbyterian army under David Leslie twice its size. This battle,
along with Worcester (3 September 1651), put an end to Charles I�s Royalist cause.
22 July 1650, Cromwell
crossed the River Tweed into Scotland.
24 June 1650, Charles II landed in Scotland and was proclaimed
King.
27 April 1650, Battle of
Carbisdale,
English Civil War. The Marquis of Montrose was captured by
Parliamentarian forces, and executed in May 1650.
1650-51,
King Charles II continues English Civil War. Lands in Scotland, defeated at
Worcester
4 November 1650, William III,
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was born in The Hague, Holland, son of William II of Orange.
26 June 1650, Cromwell was made Commander in Chief of all
the Common wealth military forces.
20 April 1650, William Bledloe, English adventurer, was born
in Chepstow (died in Bristol 20/8.1680)
See Ireland for Cromwell�s activities in Ireland
15 September 1649, Birth of Titus Gates,
English Anglican priest who successfully stirred up anti-Catholic sentiments by
creating a �Popish plot�.
May 1649, The Levellers were defeated at Burford, Oxfordshire. The Levellers,
led by John Lilburne (ca, 1614-1657), Richard Overton (ca. 1631-1664) and� William Walwyn (1600-1680),� were a radical political movement calling for
all but the very poorest to be enfranchised, religious toleration, the end of
the monarchy and the abolition of the House of Lords. They were supported by
�agitators; from the Parliamentarian ranks.
10 May 1649, Isaac Dorislaus, Anglo-Dutch lawyer and
diplomatist, was murdered by English Royalist refugees in The Hague. Born 1595
in Alkmaar, Holland, he moved to England in ca. 1627 and helped prepare treason
charges against King
Charles I.
9 March 1649, James Hamilton, English Civil war Royalist,
was executed (born 19 June 1609).
1649,
Final trial and execution of King Charles I. England now a Republic
16 March 1649. Oliver Cromwell, (born 25 April 1599 in
Huntingdon, died 3 September 1658) declared England to be a republic, and
abolished the monarchy and the House of Lords.
9 February 1649, King
Charles I was
buried at St George�s Chapel, Windsor.
7 February 1649, The English Rump
Parliament voted to abolish the monarchy as an official role.
5 February 1649, King Charles I�s son, 18 years old, was proclaimed Charles II.
30 January 1649. Charles I, convicted of treason on 29 January 1649 (see 22 August 1642),
was beheaded outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall. He stepped on to
the scaffold at 2pm. Four years had passed since the decisive Royalist
defeat at Naseby (14 June 1645). Since then Charles I had sought the support of the Irish and the Roman Catholics
and even the Pope, all in vain. The Scots, too, were sceptical of his promises to re-establish Presbyterianism
and handed him over to the English. The executioner, Richard Brandon, received �30
for a job well done. Charles I�s funeral and burial was in St
George�s Chapel on 9 February 1649.
20 January 1649 - 27 January 1649, At the week-long trial
of Charles I, no defence witnesses were
called.
1645-48,
Final defeat and capture of King Charles I
6 December 1648, Pride�s purge of
Parliament. Oliver
Cromwell�s troops surrounded Parliament and refused to admit the 200
Presbyterian MPs, purging the whole of
the majority that was opposing Cromwell�s Independents. The remaining 50
MPs, all Independents, then voted for Cromwell�s purge. They then discussed the
fate of King
Charles, who Cromwell was holding prisoner on the Isle of
Wight. The Presbyterian faction had tried to make a deal with the King, and Cromwell�s
swift solution was unexpected. The remaining MPswere dubbed the Rump Parliament.
17 August 1648. Cromwell�s army
victorious at the Battle of Preston, against a small and
poorly-trained force of Scottish soldiers under the Duke of Hamilton.
14 March 1648, Fairfax
of Cameron,
British Parliamentary General, died
15 January 1648, The British parliament renounced allegiance to the
King and voted to have no further communication with
him. This was because of his secret treaty with Scotland.
24 December 1647, The British Parliament presented Charles I with four Bills to sign. One gave Parliament control of the army for 20 years, another
required all declarations of Parliament so far to be recalled, a third excluded
all peers created by Charles I from sitting in the Lords, and the last allowed
the two Houses to adjourn at their own pleasure.
11 November 1647, Charles I fled
from Hampton Court to the Isle of Wight. He was arrested and detained in
Carisbrooke Castle.
He signed a secret treaty with the Scottish, who promised to restore him by
force.
4 June 1647, At Holmby House in Northamptonshire, Charles I
was seized by the Army, and taken to
Hampton Court.
25 June 1646, The traditionally Royalist city
of Oxford surrendered to Parliamentarian forces.
14 October 1645,� Battle of Basing House, near Basingstoke, Charles could not risk fighting
here in case Parliamentarian forces cut him off from Oxford, so he retreated back towards Newbury.
28 September 1645, The Royalists lost Winchester.
10 September 1645, Prince
Rupert, nephew
of King
Charles I, surrendered the key port of Bristol to the
Parliamentarians.
9 September 1645, William Strode, Engliah
Parliamentarian, died (born 1598)
23 July 1645, The Royalist town of Bridgewater fell to the Parliamentarians.
10 July 1645, Battle of Langport
(Somerset),
English Civil War. The Parliamentarians under Thomas Fairfax defeated the
Royalists under Lord
Goring.
1645-48,
Final defeat and capture of King Charles I
1644-47,
Initial successes by Royalists in Soctland but then fortunes reversed.
30 January 1647, The Scottish
agreed to hand over Charles I to the English
Army for the sum of �400,000.
19 August 1646, Royalists at Raglan
Castle, Gwent, led by Henry Somerset, surrendered to the
Parliamentarians under Robert Fairfax.
9 May 1646, Charles I was now taken to Newcastle on Tyne.
5 May 1646, Charles I surrendered to the Scots at
Newark, ending the military phase of the Civil War
3 February 1646, Chester fell to Parliamentarian forces.
24 September 1645, Defeat for Charles I
at Rowton Heathy left him unable to reach his Scottish supporters.
13 September 1645, The Battle of Philiphaugh, at which Montrose�s army, supporting Charles I,
was routed by General
Leslie�s forces. Montrose escaped to the Continent.
15 August 1645, Battle of Kilsyth, English Civil War. The
Royalists under the Marquis of Montrose defeated the Covenanters
under General
Baillie.
2 July 1645, At the Battle of Alford, Royalists beat the
Covenanters.
9 May 1645, Battle of Auldearn, English Civil War. Royalists under the Marquis of Montrose
defeated the Covenanters east oif Nairn.
2 February 1645, At the Battle of Inverlochy, Royal Highlanders
under the Marquess
of Montrose defeated the Covenanters under the Earl of Argyll.
13 September 1644, Battle of Aberdeen, English Civil War. Royalists
under the Marquis
of Montrose defeated the Covenanters under Lord Burleigh.
1 September 1644, At the Battle of Tippamuir, Royalist Highlanders
beat the Covenanters.
1644-47,
Initial successes by Royalists in Soctland but then fortunes reversed.
1644-46,
Royalists lose the North of England also
28 June 1645, Parliamentarian forces captured Carlisle.
23 July 1645, The Royalist town of Bridgewater fell to the
Parliamentarians.
17 June 1645, The Parliamentarians recaptured Leicester.
14 June 1645. Battle of Naseby, Northamptonshire, in the Civil
War. 10,000 Royalists (Cavaliers), under Prince Rupert, were heavily defeated by 14,000 Roundheads
under Cromwell and Fairfax,
and
effectively lost the Civil War. The Royalists had lost their best
officers as well as artillery and other weaponry they could ill-afford to lose.
The Royalists successfully attacked Cromwell�s
left wing, but then made the fatal
mistake of pursuing the fleeing soldiers. Cromwell regrouped the right wing of
his cavalry to rout Prince Rupert�s army.
13 June 1645, Cromwell arrived at Naseby, raising the morale of
the Parliamentary troops there.
11 June 1645, Cromwell�s New Model Army marched northwards from its siege of Oxford,
travelling from Stony
Stratford to Wootton, three miles from Northampton. Rainy weather
hampered their progress, turning dirt roads into mud.
30 May 1645, A Royalist Army, 10,000 strong
led by Prince
Rupert attacked and besieged Parliamentarian forces in Leicester.
The Parliamentarians, 480 soldiers, 900 armed townsmen, and 150 volunteers from
the rest of Leicestershire, were heavily outnumbered. Moreover the city�s walls
had been badly maintained and had to be hurriedly bolstered with earthen banks.
Nevertheless the Royalists suffered heavy losses as they finally took the city;
they then brutally slaughtered the defenders. Ultimately, Charles� treatment of the
defenders of Leicester proved to be a turning point in his popularity amongst
Britons.
7 May 1645, Charles
reslved the split in his army command by dividing his army between Rupert
and Goring.
Rupert
was sent to the north and Goring to the west.
3 April 1645, English
Parliament passed the Self-Denying Ordinance, requiring all MPS to renounce the
military and civil commands. Fairfax succeeded Essex as Captain-General. Cromwell
was granted a dispensation and became Lieutenant-General, whilst still an MP.
22 February 1645, Peace negotiations in the
English Civil War broke up without result. The
Parliamentarians captured Shrewsbury.
29 January 1645, Peace negotiatioms opened to try
and end the English Civil War.
27 October 1644, The second Battle of Newbury was indecisive. After
it, Charles escaped to Oxford.� The
Parliamentarian Army under Charles Montagu, Duke of
Manchester failed to prevent a Royalist force relieving the siege of
Donnington
Castle.
22 October 1644, Scottish forces under Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of
Leven, allied to the Parliamentarians, took Newcastle on Tyne.
3 October 1644, The London-based Parliamentarian regiments
defending Reading deserted back home, leaving Essex too weak to defend the
town, which was recaptured by the Royalists this day.
8 September 1644, Sir John Coke, English
politician, died (born 5 March 1563).
2 September 1644, Royalists defeated the Roundheads at the Battle of
Lostwithiel (Cornwall). Charles now planned an advance on London.
27 July 1644, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex,
led Parliamentarian forces into Cornwall.
2 July 1644. Battle of Marston Moor, near York, in the Civil War. The Royalists were crushed, and Cromwell�s forces took some 1,500
prisoners and kill 4,000 Royalist troops.�
This was the turning point in the Civil War;
the Royalists had effectively lost the north of England.
1 July 1644, Prince Rupert
lifted the siege of York.
30 June 1644, Prince
Rupert reached Knaresborough,
near York.
29 June 1644, Battle of Cropredy
Bridge, English
Civil War. Royalists under Charles I defeated the Parliamentarians under Sir William
Wallers near Banbury.
16 July 1644, (1) Royalists surrendered the city
of York to the Parliementarians.
(2) Henrietta Orleans, 3rd daughter
of English King Charles I, was born (died 30 June 1670)
15 June 1644, Essex, Parliamentarian, relieved the
siege of Lyme
Regis, and occupied Weymouth. Elsewhere in the South,
Parliamentarian forces were pressing closer to Oxford, although Charles was able to manoeuvre
skilfully in an area around Oxford Gloucester, Abingdon,
Stourbridge
and Northampton,
avoiding total defeat by the Parliamentarian forces.
5 June 1644, Prince Rupert, having captured Stockport and
Bolton in May, now beseiged Liverpool.
16 May 1644, Prince Rupert left Shrewsbury and fought his way
across hostile country to Lancashire, where he hoped to drum up more
support for the Royalists. He took Stockport and Liverpool, then swung towards
Yorkshire, intending to relieve the siege of York. Once York was relieved, or if it was
lost before he arrived, Rupert was to head back south to the Woircester
area to help the Royalist forces there. See 1 July 1644.
13 April 1644, Fairfax and Leven commenced a siege of the
Royalist forces in York.
11 April 1644, Fairfax, Parliamentarian, stormed into
Yorkshire from Lancashire, occupying Selby this day. The Marquis of Newcastle,
Royalist, had to retreat from fighting the Scots in Durham and consolidate his
position in York.
1644-46,
Royalists lose the North of England also
Winter
1643-44, Scottish forces join the Parliamentarians; Royalists losing in
southern England.
29 March 1644, Battle of Cheriton, a few miles east of Winchester,
Hampshire. Hopton,
Royalist, was defeated. Although he had the advantage in the initial stages of
this battle, indiscipline and bad coordination undermined his efforts, and Waller
gained the final victory. However Waller suffered desertions from his army and
was therefore unable to capitalise on this victory, and retired to Farnham.
22 March 1644, Newark capitulated to Prince Rupert.
Rupert
captured a large quantity of armaments. However he was being too thinly stretched,
with Royalists in the North of England, Lancashire and the South all needing
his assistance.
25 January 1644, Royalists were defeated
at the Battle of Nantwich.
22 January 1644, King
Charles
summoned a �Counter Assembly�, a rival Parliament to the London one, �at Oxford. He was pleased to find that 83 Peers
and 175 MPs attended. However there was
bad news for Charles on the military front,
with the arrival on the Parliamentarian side of a Scottish army of
18,000 foot soldiers and 3,000 horsemen. London agreed to pay the Scots �31,000 a month plus
cost of equipment for this military assistance. From the Scottish point of
view, they were being invited to invade a larger country, at its own expense,
and would gain considerable influence over its religious affairs. The Marquis of
Newcastle, Royalist now faced an attack on two fronts, north and
south.
6 January 1644, Waller, Parliamentarian, recaptured
Arundel (see 9 December 1643)
2 January 1644, In Oxford, King Charles
called a Royalist Parliament.
13 December 1643, Parliamentarians under Waller made a surprise attack on
a Royalist force at Alton (Hampshire) (see 15 September 1643).
9 December 1643, Lord
Hopton captured
Arundel for the Royalists. See 6 January 1644.
8 December 1643, Pym, Parliamentarian English
politician, died.
20 October 1643, The city of Lincoln
surrendered to Parliamentarian forces.
Winter
1643-44, Scottish forces join the Parliamentarians; Royalists losing in
southern England.
Autumn
1643, The tide turns once more against the Royalists. Charles� Irish troops
prove unreliable.
20 September 1643. The First Battle of Newbury was indecisive.� The Royalist
Army was attempting to block the path of the Parliamentarians under Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who were
returning to their base at Reading after raising the siege of Gloucester.�� Essex�s Army failed to break through the Royalist position but made such an
impact that the Royalists withdrew
anyway. The Royalists withdrew back into Newbury, and Essex reached Reading on 22 September 1643 with only
a minor rearguard skirmish at Aldermaston.
18 September 1643, Eastern Association Parliamentary forces
reinforced Hull with more infantry and ammunition supplies, against the
Royalists attacking the town from the rural East Riding. Meanwhile cavalry
released from Hiull (by the arrival of the Parliamentarian infantry) � the sea
routes from the town were open � crossed the Humber and defeated the Royalists
at Winceby
this day, just east of Horncastle, Lincolnshire. Parliamentarian
forces subsequently captured Lincoln and Gainsborough.
16 September 1643, Parliamentary �Eastern Association� forces moved
into Lincolnshire and besieged Royalist Kings Lynn, which surrendered this day. See 18
September 1643.
15 September 1643, King
Charles made a
truce with rebels in Ireland, to free up more forces for the Civil
War. However these troops proved less than reliable fighters for Charles,
and at Alton (13 December 1643) many defected to the Parliamentarian side.
5 September 1643, In the face of Essex�s newly arrived army, now
at Cheltenham,
the Royalists suddenly raised the siege of Gloucester and withdrew to Painswick.
The danger to Gloucester now over, Essex�s men now began a march back to their
headquarters at Reading; hiowever see 20 September 1643.
4 September 1643, Exeter surrendered to Prince Maurice,
younger brother of Rupert and a nephew of Charles I.
26 August 1643, Parliamentarian forces under Essex began a march westwards to
relieve the siege of Gloucester. Moving through Aylesbury
and then by-pasing Royalist Oxford to the north, going via Stow on the
Wold, Essex�s forces successfully withstood both food shortages
and flanking skirmishes by Royalist forces from Oxford. See 5 September 1643.
Autumn
1643, The tide turns once more against the Royalists. Charles� Irish troops
prove unreliable.
�1643
- Summer of successes for the Royalists
10 August 1643, Royalist forces
began a siege of Gloucester. The city constituted a vital
strategic link between the Royalist areas of Wales and Oxfordshire, and its
governor, the Parliamentarian Massey, was rumoured to be ready to switch
allegiance. Charles
hoped to capture Gloucester, consolidating his position across southern
Rngland and the South Midlands, and then later capture Hull and Plymouth, which were still
thorns in his side, holding out for Parliament. However
Charles could instead have taken his army against London where the
Parliamentarian Army had suffered desertions and disease, and riots had broken
out against them.� A possible opportunity
to win the peace movement in London and so end the civil war with a Royalist
victory was foregone.
28 July 1643, Royalist William
Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle, seized Gainsborough, Lincolnshire,
after a clash with Cromwell.
26 July 1643, Prince
Rupert,
Royalist, captured Bristol after a 4-day siege. Waller,
with his forces badly mauled, was powerless to intervene from his headquarters
in Bath.
The Royalists now overran all of Dorset.
25 July 1643, Roger
Pierrepoint,
Royalist who had been taken prisoner by the Parlianentarians whilst defending
Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, was accidentally killed whilst being taken to Hull.
13 July 1643. Wallers Parliamentarian forces
attempted to surround and capture Devizes, along with Hopton�s army and guns defending
the town. However the Royalists fought back strongly, and Royalist
reinforcements soon arrived from Oxford. Waller�s forces were detstroyed, and the
Royalists now advanced on Parliamentarian-held Bristol.
6 July 1643, Royalist forces, having failed to make a breakthrough at Bath, and with
Hopton
badly wounded, moved east to Devizes, closely followed by Parliamentarian soldiers.
5 July 1643, Waller, Parliamentarian commander
holding Bath,
to avoid being surrounded, engaged the Royalists at Lansdown, just north of Bath.
Neither side really won this battle, having fought to exhaustion all day, and Hopton
was severely injured next day by the explosion of an ammunition wagon.
6/1643, Royalist forces from Devon and Wiltshire joined up
at Chard and moved towards Parliamentarian-held Bath. The Royalists avoided the
Mendips by swinging east towards the Avon Valley, which threatened the
Parliamentarians in Bath with being cut off from London
and surrounded. See 5 July 1643. However
Plymouth was still held by the Parliamentarians, and was just the same threat
to the Royalists in the southwest as Hull was to the Royalists in Yorkshire.
30 June 1643, Fairfax�s Parliamentarian forces were
decisively defeated at the battle of Adwalton (Atherton) Moor, near Bradford,
Yorkshire, This led to the fall of the West Riding clothing towns to
the Royalists.
24 June 1643, John
Hamden,
Parliamentarian commander, died after eing wounded in the shoulder by gunfire
at the Battle of Chalgrove.
18 June 1643, An epidemic had weakened Essex�s Parliamentarian forces
holding Reading, and this day the Parliamentarian forces were routed,
and their commander John Hampden mortally wounded at the Battle of Chalgrove
Field (Chiselhampton, between Wallingford and Oxford). When Essex obtained reinforcements
and attempted to take Oxford from the Aylesbuty side he found his men
demoralised and withdrew from Rupert�s Parliamentarian cavalry over towards
Bedfordshire, in July 1643.
23 May 1643, The English Parliament voted to impeach the
Queen for selling the Crown Jewe;ls abroad.
16 May 1643, Hopton, Royalist, virtually
annihilated Parliamentarian forces in a battle at Bradock Down, near Stratton,
Cornwall/Devon border. Royalist forces west of Oxford now attempted a link-up with those in
Devon, and the Parliamentarians were forced to take forces from the
Gloucestershire area to hold back the Royalist advance through Devon eastwards.
The Parliamentarians had to be content with still holding Reading.
�1643
- Summer of successes for the Royalists
1643,
Turnaround for the better in Parliamentary fortunes, but�
13 May 1643, The Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell defeated the Royalists at
Grantham, Lincolnshire.
27 April 1643, Charles�
plan for victory was now to tie down Essex�s forces with the Royalist stronghold in
the Oxford
area whilst other Royalist forces fought their way towards London from the
North and West. London
would ultimately be surrounded and starved into surrender. However this plan
failed due to the number of towns still held by the Parliamentarians, even as
the Royalists controlled the countryside around. Places like Hull,
Parliamentarian-held, tied up Royalist forces and thwarted Charles� plans. However this day Parliamentarian forces
captured Reading, an important part of the
Royalist Oxford defence perimeter, a
development which, although not fatal to Charles�
plans, would severely delay him.
25 April 1643, Hopton�s Royalist forces were defeated
at Sourton
Down, Dartmoor.
14 April 1643, Peace talks at Oxford
between the King and Parliament failed.
12 April 1643, The
Dukedom of Hamilton was created.
24 March 1643, The Parliamentarian position was improving somewhat after a bad winter
1642/3. Parliament had feared foreign intervention in support of Charles, and had to impose taxation, alienating
some, whilst others in London wanted peace at almost any cost. Parliament was
considering calling in the Scots to help against Charles.. However this day Sir William
Waller defeated the Royalists at Highnam, just west of Gloucester,
reinforcing the Parliamentarian hold on Gloucester. Parliament still held the West
Riding of Yorkshire, and Hampshire and Wiltshire were cleared of Royalist
forces. Some of Charles�
supporters too wanted to negotiate a peace.
19 March 1643, An indecisive battle at Hopton Heath,
Staffordshire.
7 March 1643, Prince Rupert attempted to capture Bristol but failed.
He then marched northeast, attacked Birmingham, then continued to recapture Lichfield,
which had been taken by the Parliamentarians earlier in the year.
2 February 1643, Royalist forces from Oxford captured Cirencester, widening the area they controlled in the south
Midlands. In the lower Severn Valley, the Parliamentarians still controlled the
garrison towns of Gloucester and Bristol.
28 January 1643, Sir William Brereton, Parliamentarian, captured Nantwich. However the
Royalists were doing well in the region, extending their area of influence from
Shropshire and Staffordshire over to Ashby de la Zouch, into Leicestershire and
Nottinghgamshire, linking up with Royalist forces in Newark.
23 January 1643, Parliamentarian forces captured
Leeds.
16 January 1643, Hopton, Royalist, defeated the Parliamentarians under the Earl of
Stamford at Bradock Down, near Liskeard.
1643,
Turnaround for the better in Parliamentary fortunes, but�
Summer
1642, campaigns in the Midlands and South-East.
5 December 1642. Royalist forces occupied Marlborough, Wiltshire.
On 13 December 1642 Parliamentarian forces occupied Winchester, Hampshire.
12 November 1642, Charles I marched
on London, defeating Royalist forces at Brentford, but was turned back at Turnham Green. The Royalists retired west to Reading. Over the following winter,
1642/3, with fighting in abeyance, tye Royalist forces consolidated their
position around Oxford whilst the Parliamtarians
established a position at Windsor. The Royalists established a defensive ring with outposts
at Reading, Wallingford, Abingdon, Brill, Banbury and Marlborough. However Civil War
conflicts continued over the winter in the North of England. Newcastle�s
Royalist forces defeated Hotham in the North Riding of Yorkshire, then
linked up with Royalist forces in York. Fairfax retreated his Parliamentarian forces
to the region between Selby and Hull. Newcastle now prepared to attack the �Puritan
clothing towns� of Leeds, Halifax and Bradford, but the townspeople
there put up stiff resistance, and in 1/1643 Newcastle gave up the attack.
Instead Newcastle
marched south, over to Newark, to link up with Royalist forces in
Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire. Local small bands of
Parliamentarian supporters in the Newark and Ashby de la Zouch areas were
neutralised.
In the
West, November 1642, Hopton�s forces drove out the Parliamentarians
from Cornwall and succeeded in occupying Devon also. The Earl of Stamford took his Parliamtarian
forces out of south Wales to engage Hopton, who retreated back into Cornwall. See
16 January 1643.
7 November 1642, Sir Henry
Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester, died.
24 October 1642, Essex retured from the battle scene
at Edgehill, leaving the Royalists to claim victory. The Royalists now
continued towards London, taking Banbury and Oxford, London started quickly
erecting defences, although some Londoners wanted to sue for peace..
23 October 1642. The Royalists narrowly
beat the Roundheads at the Battle of Edgehill,
the first of the English Civil War. The Royalists had bee lured down from their
strong hilltop position, as they needed to engage the Parliamentarians, or face
a long slow attrition. Both sides, exhausted and battered, claimed victory.
22 October 1642, Essex, marching at full speed,
reached Kineton,
just 7 miles from the Royalist headquarters at Edgecote.
12 October 1642, Prince
Rupert, Royalist,
found many of his army in Shrewsbury keen to attack the Parliamentarians
under Essex at their new headquarters at Worcester. However the road from Shrewsbury
to London
was now open and the Royalists decided to take it, anticipating that Essex
would intercept them. They were keen to attack the Parliamentarian forces
before they grew too strong. This day the Royalist Army left Shrewsbury
gaining two days start on the Parliamentarians, moving south east via Bridgnorth,
Birmingham
and Kenilworth.
Parliament in London
became alarmed and ordered Essex to find and defeat Charles.
23 September 1642, A cavalry skirmish at Worcester between the
retreating Royalists, moving north, and an advance guard of Parliamentarian cavalry at Powicke Bridge, near Worcester The Royalists won, raising their morale.
13 September 1642, King
Charles marched
west from Nottingham
to marshal his supporters and their
armouries in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, and to link up, via Chester,
with his regiments in Ireland. The Parliamentarian forces shadowed this move,
also moving west from Northampton towards Worcester.
9 September 1642, Robert
Devereux, 3rd
Earl of Essex, led a Parliamentary Army from London to the Midlands.
22 August 1642. The English Civil War began,
between the Cavaliers who supported King
Charles I and the Roundheads who supported Parliament,
when the King raised his standard at Nottingham.
Parliament raised an army of 20,000; the nobility and gentry supported the
King, fearing a Parliament of commoners. Small-scale skirmishes between
Parliamentarians and Royalists were already in progress, to secure or to deny
to the enemy country houses, loyalty, men, territory, arms and wealth. King Charles managed to bolster up his army of 1,500 to
nearer 15,000, which was almost as large as the Parliamnterian Army, 20,000
strong, although the latter was much better armed.
Summer
1642, campaigns in the Midlands and South-East.
Prelude to Civil War., 1641-2
4 July 1642, The House of Commons formed a
Committee of Public Safety to prepare for war.
2 July 1642, The
English Navy agreed to the Parliamentarian appointment of Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick,, as Lord High
Admiral of the Fleet, instead of the King�s preferred candidate of Sir John Pennington.
1 June 1642, Parliament presented nineteen
propositions (demands) to Charles I.
These asked for Parliamentary control of the military, the Church, and of the
tutors of the Royal children
23 April 1642, The
City of Hull sided with Parliament against King
Charles I.
19 March 1642, The
Adventurers� Act was passed by the English Parliament, offering Irish rebels� confiscated
lands to those who gave money for Cromwell�s army.
10 March 1642, Parliament requested the Lord
High Admiral to appoint Robert Rich, Earl of
Warwick, as commander of the fleet. Simultaneously Charles told him to appoint the Royalist Sir John Pennington. Warwick was appointed, and Charles had lost the
navy.
5 March 1642, In
England the Militia Ordnance was passed to allow Parliament to raise an army,
even though Royal Assent for the Act was not given.
23 February 1642, Queen Henrietta
Maria, wife of King Charles I, left England for Holland,
because of the deteriorating political situation at home.
10 January 1642, Charles I
withdrew from London, to Hampton Court. The
Commons, emboldened, prepared Bills excluding bishops from the House of Lords
and giving Parliament control of the army.
4 January 1642, Charles I entered Parliament and attempted to
arrest five members for treasonable correspondence with the Scots. He failed;
the five were in hiding, and Parliament refused to back the arrests. The five
MPs were John
Hampden, Arthur Haselrigg, Denzil Holles, John Pym
and William
Strode. This was the first time a monarch had entered the Commons,
with militia, in defiance of convention. Charles left the Commons, angry, and five days later left London and began
raising an army against Parliament.
22 November 1641, The Long Parliament
passed the Grand Remonstrance, part of a series of measures to curb the
excesses of King
Charles I�s absolutist ambitions.
28 July 1641, King Charles I
made Robert
Devereux, Earl of Essex, the Commander in Chief ofthye army in
southern England.
17 July 1641, The
English parlkiament refused to allow the queen to leave tye country. It was
feared she would sell the Crown Jewels to raise support abroad.
5 July 1641, The English Parliament abolished
the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission, accusing these of extending Charles I�s
prerogative powers.
Prelude to Civil War, 1641-2
12 May 1641, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of
Stafford, favoured advisor of King Charles I, was beheaded at Tower Hill.
2 May 1641, The marriage of Mary,
daughter of King
Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria, to William, son of the Prince of
Orange.
King
Charles I, start of dispute with Parliament over revenue
18 December 1640,
The English Parliament impeached Archbishop William Laud.
11 December 1640,
The English Parliament presented the Root and Branch Petition to abolish
episcopacy.
7 December 1640,
The English Parliament declared Ship Money to be illegal.
1640, Oliver
Cromwell was elected MP for Cambridge. He supported Parliament�s
greivances against King Charles I.
3 November 1640, In Britain,
the Long Parliament assembled. It lasted until 1660, due to the Civil
War.
13 April 1640. In
order to raise money for a war against Scotland, Charles
I convened Parliament for the first time since 1629. This �short
parliament� was dissolved on 4 May 1640 after refusing to give the King any
money.
19 February 1638, King Charles I
issues a proclamation supporting the new Scottish Prayer Book.,
23 July 1637, Jenny Geddes
started a riot in St Giles Cathedral, Edinbirgh, by throwing a stool at the
Bishop�s head in protest at his use of the new Laudian Prayer Book.
11 June 1637,
English Judges ruled by a majority of 10 to 2 that Ship Money was a legal tax. John Hampden,
MP, still refused to pay it.
9 October 1636, King
Charles I issued a third writ for ship money
4 August 1635, King
Charles I issued a second writ for ship money
(see 11 February 1628), again the writ
was resisted. 20 October 1634, King Charles I issued the first
Writ for Ship Money, a tax to finance the Royal Navy, for London and the port
towns. He subsequently extended the Writ to inland towns, contravening the
ytraditional method of nraising money for the Navy.
6 August 1633, William Laud was elected Archbishop
of Canterbury, He began a �High Church� process of ritualism. 10 March 1629,
King Charles I of England
dissolved Parliament, starting the Eleven Years Tyranny.
2 March 1629, The English Parliament
passed resolutions against Archbishop William Laud�s religious changes,
also against extra-parliamentary taxation.
20 January 1629, The Second Parliament of King Charles I
convened, and attacked the King for levying tonnage and poundage taxes without
Parliamentary consent.
7 June 1628, The English Parliament forced King Charles I
to accept the Petition of Rights.
This declared illegal; arbitrary imprisonment, martial law, forced loans and
the billeting of troops.
11 February 1628, King
Charles I
demanded �ship money� of �173,000 to secure Britain against French invasion.� Ship money could be levied by The Crown
without Parliamentary consent, although it was of dubious legality.,� However on this occasion the demands caused
serious unrest but Charles I was determined to rule without Parliamentary
consent.� See 4 August 1635.
8 February 1622, In England, King James I disbanded the Parliament.
8 January 1639, Henry, son of Charles I, was born.
14 October 1633, James II
was born at St James Palace, the second son of Charles
I and Henrietta Maria.
16 May 1633, Charles I was crowned King of Scotland at Edinburgh.
4 November 1631, Mary, daughter of Charles I, was born.
21 June 1631, John Smith, English adventurer (born 1576 in
Alford, Lincolnshire) died in London).
29 May 1630, King Charles II
was born.
28 November 1628, John Felton, assassin of the 1st Duke of
Buckingham, was hanged.
23 August 1628, The Duke of Buckingham, courtier and royal
favourite of James
I, was assassinated in Portsmouth
4 July 1628, William Laud was consecrated as Archbishop of
Canterbury.
11 June 1628, In England the House of Commons Remonstrances
attacked Arminianism and ritualism in the Church of England, and demanded that King Charles I
sack his favourite, the unpopular George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
2 February 1626, Coronation of King Charles I of England, at
Westminster Abbey.
11 June 1625, King Charles I of England met his future wife Henrietta Maria
for the first time at Dover
11 May 1625. Charles I
married Henrietta
Maria, daughter of Henry IV of France.
5 May 1625, Funeral of King James I of England at Westminister Abbey.
27 March 1625. Charles I
became king.
5 March 1625, King James I, the �wisest fool in Christendom� fell ill. He
died on 27 March at Theobalds Park, Hertfordshire.. He had been born in
Edinburgh Castle on 19 June 1566, and was originally King James IV of Scotland. As King
James I of England he was the first
Stuart King.
30 August 1623, Charles, Prince of Wales, and the Duke of
Buckingham left� Madrid after
the breakdown of negotiations for the Prince�s marriage to the Infanta. In
December 1623 King
James I of Englmnd broke off the marriage treaty and in March 1624
England was at war with Spain.
8 January 1622, King James I dissolved P\arliament
7 January 1622, In England, MP John Pym was arrested for
criticising the Crown�s policies in Parliament.
30 December 1621, King James I ripped out the page from the
Commons Journal that recorded the Protestation of 18 December 1621.
27 December 1621, King James I of England imprisoned MP Edward Coke
for participating in the Proetstation of 18 December 1621.
18 December 1621, In England the House of Commons made a
Protestation denying the King;s Right to imprison MPs who have criticised his
foreign policy.
3 May 1621, The Lord
Chancellor, Sir
Francis Bacon, was charged with accepting bribes to grant
monopolies, and impeached.
25 March 1619, Peter Mews,
English Royalist, was born (died 9 November 1706)
2 March 1619, Queen Anne,
consort of King
James of England, died of dropsy aged 45.
Sir Walter Raleigh
29 October 1618. Sir Walter
Raleigh, 54,
English seafarer and once a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I - he named Virginia after her
� was beheaded at Whitehall after being falsely accused of treason.� The
execution was to appease Spain. Elizabeth
was possessive towards Raleigh and when she found he had married she sent him
and his wife to The Tower of London. However Raleigh bought their release
and went adventuring overseas, plundering Spanish possessions. His aggression
towards Spain led� the new monarch, James I,
to believe Raleigh was plotting to overthrow him. However again Raleigh
escaped in 1616 when the death sentence was lifted at the last minute, without,
however, an official pardon. It was now re-invoked when Raleigh returned empty-handed
from a gold-seeking expedition in Guyana, and at this time a Spanish settlement
had been burnt by Raleigh�s men.
12 June 1617, Sir Walter Raleigh left Plymouth on his second
voyage to Guyana.
20 March 1616, Sir Walter Raleigh was released from the Tower
of London.
1 August 1618, King James of England attempted to fimd sa
middle ground between the Puritans, who wanted a solemn Sunday with total
abstention from all work and all amusements, and non-Puritans, who wanted to
have fun after the Sunday service. He issued a Book of Sports, stating that
most recreations were permissible, but not bear baiting, bull baiting and
bowling, and that Puritans could hold to ther own beliefs but must not seek to
coerce others. James
ordered this to be read in Chirch, but some Calvinists protested, and said they
would read it but then preach a sermon against it. Others objected to James�
Papist inclinations regarding Communion wine and bread.
23 May 1617, Elias Ashmole, English antiquarian and founder
of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, was born in Lichfield (died 18 May 1692).
17 December 1616, Sir Roger L�estrange, English Royalist
pamphleteer, was born.
1614, Sheffield now had 182
Master Cutlers. In 1624 the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire was established.
7 June 1614, In England, the Addled Parliament was
dissolved by James I without having passed a single Bill since it first sat
on 5 April 1614, hence its name.
5 April 1614, The �Addled Parliament� began sitting. It was dissolved on 7 June 1614
without passing a single Bill, hence its name.
26 January 1614, In England, King James I banned duelling.
14 February 1613, Elizabeth, daughter of King James I of England, married
Frederick V,
Elector Palatine of the Rhine. Ths marriage eventually led to the Hanoverian
Succession in England.
5 November 1612, Death of Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest
son of King
James I, and known as the �Hope of Protestantism�.
18 February 1612, Roberto di Ridolfi, who planned to overthrow Queen Elizabeth
I of England and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots, died in Florence,
Italy (born 18 November 1531 in Florence).�
This scheme was discovered by Elizabeth�s government in 1571. Ridolfi
was then in Paris.
22 May 1611, King James I created the title �Baronet�.
9 February 1611, King James dissolved his first English
Parliament. He was angry that it had failed to meet his financial needs.
30 January 1611, King James�s�
Scottish Treasurer, George Home, earl of Dunbar, died suddenly in
Whitehall.
25 November 1609, Maria Henrietta, wife of Charles I of England, daughter
of Henry IV
of Framce, was born (died 31 August 1666).
30 January 1608, John Oxenbridge, English divine, was born in
Daventry (died 28 December 1674 in Boston,Massachusetts)
4 July 1607, King James I of England prorogued Parliament
after it rejected Union with Scotland.
18 November 1606, The English Parliament opposed plans for
Union with Scotland because Scotland would then gain a share of English trade.
19 June 1606, James Hamilton, English Civil war Royalist,
was born (executed 9 March 1649).
12 April 1606, The Union Jack was adopted as the flag of
England, Wales, and Scotland.
Guy Fawkes Plot
31 January 1606, Guy Fawkes
and co-conspirators were executed.
27 January 1606, The
trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators began.
5 November 1605, Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up King James I
and the Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder (see 11 December 1604).
His trial was at Westminster Hall on 27 January 1606. This was part of a Catholic plot to overthrow the Protestant English
monarchy BUT see 11 December 1604.�
However the gunpowder barrels were discovered in the cellars of
Parliament before they were detonated.� Lord Monteagle,
a Catholic peer, had received a
letter warning him to stay away from the State Opening of Parliament and
hinting at an explosion. Monteagle and the Lord Chamberlain
investigated the cellars below the House of Lords and discovered a man piling
wood, who gave his name as Guy Fawkes, and claimed that the wood belonged
to his master, Lord
Percy. They let him go but after further investigating the wood pile
they found 36 barrels of gunpowder underneath. Guy Fawkes, a 36-year-old Yorkshireman,
was arrested when he returned at midnight to make final preparations for the
explosion. Guy
Fawkes was hung, drawn, and quartered on 31 January 1606.� Sir Everard Digby, Thomas Winter, John Grant,
and Thomas
Bates, other conspirators, were hung, drawn, and quartered on 30
January 1606.
11
December 1604, Guy
Fawkes began digging a tunnel from a house he had rented near the
Houses of Parliament (see 5 November 1605). His plan was to reach the cellars
under the
House and fill it with gunpowder to blow it up. They reached the foundations of
the House by Christmas 1604, but then the opening of Parliament was
unexpectedly postponed, from 7 February 1605, first to 3 October 1605 and then
to 5 November 1605. This was lucky for Guy Fawkes because the foundations, 12
foot thick, were difficult to dig through, and then the coal merchant who had
been renting the House cellars gave up his lease. Allegedly a roaring noise
above the tunnelers first alarmed them, then alerted them to the vacated rent,
the noise being due to the removal of the coal stored there. The conspirators
quickly took up the rent themselves. However some historians have doubted
elements of this story, such as the tunnel being dug under a busy part of
London; it is possible that the entire episode was in fact a Protestant scheme
to discredit English Catholics.
In 2005, at the Spadeadam
military research centre in Cumbria, a mock-up of the 1605 Houses of
Parliament, with the approximately 1 tonne of gunpowder in the 36 barrels, was
created and set off. The force of the explosion would have destroyed
Parliament, demolishing 7 foot thick stone walls.
13 April 1570, Guy Fawkes,
who tried to blow up Parliament, was born.
12 September 1605, Sir William Dugdale, English historian, was
born (died 10 February 1686). In 1641 he was commissioned by Sir Christopher
Hatton (who foresaw the destruction of the Civil War) to make exact drafts of
the monuments at all of England�s major cathedrals.
18 August 1604, The
Treaty of London was signed ending the Anglo-Spanish War.
24 June 1604, Edward de Vere
Oxford, English statesman, died in Newington, London (born 12 April
1550)
2 April 1604, A
convention was established in the UK Parliament by Speaker Phelips that a motion
cannot be repeatedly brought back before the House when it has been defeated
and has not been substantially changed. This little-known convention became
significant in March 2019 when Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May faced
the possibility that Speaker Bercow would not allow her to submit
her Brexit
Plan for a third time to the Commons without substantive changes.
19 March 1604, The
English Parliament opposed� a proposal
from King
James I for a union between England and Scotland.
14 January 1604, The Hampton Court Conference began.
30 November 1603, William Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth
I, died (born 24 May 1544).
12 November 1603, Sir Walter Raleigh was found guilty of high
treason, but his death sentence was later commuted to imprisonment.
25 July 1603, Coronation of King
James I of England.
17 July 1603, Sir Walter Raleigh was arrested on suspicion
of involvement in a plot to dethrone King James I.
13 May 1603, King James of England made Robert Cecil,
Baron Cecil of Essendon.
27 March 1603. King James VI
of Scotland halted in Berwick, on his way to also become King James I of
England. He attended a church service at Berwick to �give thanks for his
peaceful entry into his new dominions. He attempted, unsuccessfully, to ban the
use of the word �borders� and replace it by �middle shires�. However frontier fortresses in both England
and Scotland were dismantled and their garrisons reduced to nominal strength.
James I� left Berwick on 5 April 1603,
and entered London on 7 May 1603.
24 March 1603. Queen Elizabeth I died at Richmond
Palace aged 69; her funeral was on 28 March 1603. She ruled as Queen for
nearly 45 years. See 13 January 1559. This was the Union of the Scottish and
English crowns. The Scottish King James VI, who then became King James I of Britain, succeeded her. The Act
of Union between England and Scotland was on 1 May 1707.
30 November 1601, Queen Elizabeth I made her last
address to Parliament, see 24 March 1603.
25 February 1601, Robert, Earl of Essex, former favourite
of Queen
Elizabeth I, was executed.
7 January 1601, Robert Devereux, now-disgraced,
attempted a rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. This failed and he was
executed on 25 February.
19 November 1600. Charles I, who believed in the Divine Right of Kings to rule but who was beheaded after losing the Civil War, was born in Fife.� He was the second son of King James I and Anne of Denmark.
25 April 1599. Oliver
Cromwell was born in Huntingdon. He became Lord Protector of
England, Britain�s first and only dictator.
4 August 1598, William Cecil, Baron Burghley,
chief advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, died.
28 August 1595, English adventurers Francis Drake
and John
Hawkins left Plymouth, Devon, on a voyage to plunder Spanish assets
in the Americas. However within a� few
months both had died of fever.
22 November 1594, English explorer Sir Martin
Frobisher died this day in Plymouth.
15 February 1594, In England, William
Harrington was hung drawn and quartered for being a Catholic priest.
29 May 1593, John Penry, Welsh Protestant and
suspected author of the Martin Marprelate Tracts, was executed in England for
denying the Royal Supremacy.
13 April 1593, Birth in London of Thomas
Wentworth, Earl of Strafford and advisor to Charles I.
6 April 1593, John Greenwood, English
religious activist, was hanged.
28 August 1592, Birth in Brooksby,
Leicestershire, of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and
favoured advisor of James I and Charles I of England.
15 January 1592, Queen Elizabeth I of England
recalled Robert
Devereux, Earl of Essex, from his command in Rouen, France.
20 November
1591, Sir Christopher
Hatton, Lord Chancellor of England, died.
26 April 1589, Andrew Perne, Dean of Ely and
Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, died).
4 September 1588. The death of Queen Elizabeth�s favourite, Robert Dudley,
Earl of Leicester.
8 August 1588, Queen Elizabeth I reviewed her
troops at Tilbury.
Spanish Armada defeated, 1587-88
24
November 1588,
In St Pauls Cathedral, London, Queen Elizabeth I held a grand service of
thanksgiving for the victory over the Spanish Armada.
5
November 1588,
The St Juan de Sicilia, a ship of the
Spanish Armada that had taken refuge off the coast of Tobermory (see 23
September 1588) blew up. An English agent, John Smollett, had detonated the
ship�s poweder store, although at one time the Irish or an accident was blamed.
The English wanted to avoid a detachment of several hundred Spanish soldiers
landing in neutral Scotland. Smollett, acting as double agent, ingratiated himself with the Spanish,
supplying them with new sails. Secrecy was important as although Scotland was
neutral, relations with England were tense after the execution of Mary Queen of
Scots in 1587. Most of the Spanish were at the time helping the islanders of
Tobermory besiege a castle on the mainland; those still on board were killed,
and their supplies and ammunition were now destroyed.
23
September 1588,
A Spanish ship, the St Juan de Sicilia,
was spotted off Tobermory, Scotland.
15
September 1588,
The remnants of the Spanish Armada limped back into Spanish ports.
2 August
1588, The Spanish Armada
passed the Firth of Forth, sailing around Scotland. The English left off the
pursuit and returned home.
29
July 1588.
The Spanish Armada under Medina Sidonia was defeated. (See 19 May 1588).
On the night of the 28 July the English sent fireships amongst the 130
ships of the Armada
sent by Philip
II to invade England, as they were anchored off Calais. This caused
panic amongst the Spanish, who cut anchor, one ship running aground. By now the
Spanish had lost several of their best ships and, whilst maintaining good
order, were demoralised. The Spanish
sent a signal to Parma to
put his ships to sea from Dunkirk but he could not as he was closely blockaded
by the British. On 29 July the English decimated the Spanish with broadside
fire, preventing the Spanish closing and boarding, which would have been their
only chance of success. The Spanish soldiers were outgunned and had inferior
seamanship to the English sailors. The Spanish were nearly driven aground off
The Netherlands on 30 July but a sudden change of wind saved them, with only 6
fathoms below them, and they were able to sail northwest into the North Sea.
The English, running low on food and ammunition, followed them as far as the
Firth of Forth, then returned south, satisfied that the Spanish would not
return via the Straits of Dover. The Armada, short of both food and fresh water,
encountered further problems with strong westerly winds as they attempted to
sail around the north of Scotland and south to Spain. Many ships were wrecked
at open sea or off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Only half the ships that left Spain returned home; death and sickness
took a great toll of the crews. The
failure of the Armada checked the naval growth of Spain and assisted the Netherlands
to gain independence. Two
further Armadas prepared by Spain, in 1596 and 1597, were disrupted by bad
weather.
26 July 1588, The Spanish Armada anchored off
Calais, unable to fight further without new supplies of ammunition. Medina Sidonia
requested Parma to come to his assistance, but Parma was unable to leave Bruges
because of a blockade by the Dutch fleet under Justinian of Nassau. Meanwhile Howard
did not risk coming close enough to the Spanish ships to do serious damage as
that would put his own ships at risk of boarding by Spanish soldiers.
25
July 1588,
The Spanish
Armada and the English navy engaged off the Isle of Wight. There
were fears that the Spanish planned to seize the island as a base.
23
July 1588,
Second engagement between the Spanish and English, off the Isle of Portland.
21
July 1588,
The English fleet first engaged with the Spanish Armada near Eddystone Rocks, south of
Plymouth.
20
July 1588, Lord Howard of
Effingham, Commander in Chief of the Fleet, saild from Plymouth to
engage the Armada.
19
July 1588,
English scout ships first spotted the Armada off Lizard head.
12
July 1588, The
Spanish Armada left Corunna, where it had put in to take refuge from a storm
and make some repairs on vessels that had proved unseaworthy.
28 May
1588. The
Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon. The
Armada consisted of 130 vessels,
containing 7,000 sailors and 17,000 soldiers, commended by the Duke of Medina,
sent by King
Philip II. It arrived off the Lizard, Cornwall, on 19 July 1588, and
off Plymouth on 20 July 1588. The
English Navy was only just able to get out to sea and avoid being blockaded in
Plymouth harbour. On 23 July the English and Spanish fleets clashed off
Portland, and again on 25 July off the Isle of Wight. The defeat of the Armada was on 29
July, see 29 July 1588.
19 April 1587. Sir Francis Drake led his convoy of ships into
Cadiz, where the Spanish Armada was being prepared to attack
England, and, taking the Spanish
completely by surprise, looted, burnt, and sank many ships. He also looted the
harbour stores and managed to escape with no casualties.
This adventure
became known as �the singeing of the King of Spain�s beard�. Sir Francis
Drake also brought back 2,900 barrels of �sack�, a wine made in the
Jerez region of Spain, so named from the Spanish word �sacar�, meaning �to take
out, or export�. This was the forerunner of today�s sherry drink. Sack had been
popular abroad since a Spanish law passed in 1492 exempting wine made for
export from taxes; it was a robust wine that did not go off easily.
8 February 1587. Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded
in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, after nearly 19
years in prison. She had been implicated
in a Catholic plot to overthrow her cousin Queen
Elizabeth I. The leader of the plot, Anthony Babington, had planned to free Mary, and rally support amongst
English Roman Catholics for a
Spanish invasion force. Mary married the French Dauphin in her teens and
was Queen of France for a year until
he died. Her second marriage was to Lord Darnley. After Darnley�s murder, in which
Mary may have been implicated, she married the Earl of Bothwell. Mary was
defeated in battle in Scotland and fled to England, but her cousin Elizabeth I
had her imprisoned.
Elizabeth
had been reluctant to execute Mary, because this might bring reprisals from
Catholic Europe, and might legitimate her own execution at some future point;
however Francis
Walsingham persuaded Elizabeth to order the execution.
11 October 1586,
Mary Queen
of Scots was sentenced to death for her part in the Babington Plot.
20 September 1586, Chidiock
Tichborne, one of
the conspirators in the Catholic Babington Plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I, was executed
at the Tower of London.
21 July 1586, English navigator Thomas Cavendish left Plymouth on his west to
east voyage around the world.
17 July 1586, Sir Francis Walsingham,
Secretary of State under Queen Elizabeth I, uncovered the Babington
Plot to murder the Queen.
4 February 1586, Robert Dudley, Earl of
Leicester, accepted the title of Governor and Captain-Gneeral of The
Netehrlands. However Queen Elizabeth I forced him to resign ths
honour.
10 August 1585, Elizabeth I of England signed
the Treaty of Nonsuch, promising 64,000 foot soldiers, 1,000 cavalry, and
600,000 florins a year to support Protestant rebels in The Netherlands against
Spain. Although Elizabeth
disliked involvement in foreign European wars, the Spanish presence in The
Netherlands was too close to England to ignore. King Philip II of Spain, who had laid
siege to Antwerp in 1584, saw this Treaty as a declaration of war.
1584, A copper smelting works was set up at Neath, south Wales, an early forerunner of industrialisation there.
23 September 1583, John Whitgift, then Bishop of Worcester, was
consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury.
Anti-Catholicism
10 July 1584, In England the Catholic conspirator
Francis
Throckmorton was executed.
1 December 1581. The Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion was hanged at Tyburn, for
distributing an anti-Anglican pamphlet in Oxford.
17 July 1581, English Jesuit priest Edmund Campion
was arrested in Lyford, Berkshire, for treason.
18 March 1581, The English Parliament
made it a treasonable offence to convert anyone to Catholicism.
16 January 1581, The English Parliament
declared Catholicism illegal.
Anti-Puritanism
23 September
1577, Queen Elizabeth
I appointed John Whitgift, then Dean of Lincoln, as Bishop
of Worcester, He was a strong opponent of Puritanism.
24 March 1577, Queen Elizabeth I appointed John Aylmer,
then Archbishop of Lincoln, as Bishop of London. He was a strong oppomnent of
Puritanism.
11 June 1573, In Britain, a Puritan pamphlet
calling for the abolition of episcopacy was suppressed by Parliament.
4 April 1581. Queen Elizabeth I knighted Francis Drake on his ship The Golden Hind
at Deptford, London, after he completed his circumnavigation of the world. See
26 September 1580. En route, Drake had captured and plundered several Spanish
galleons; Spain demanded that Elizabeth I hang Drake for piracy, but Drake was
a hero in England.
16 May 1578, Sir Everard Digby, Gunpowder
Plot conspirator, was born (executed 31 January 1606).
7 March 1578, Margaret Lennox, grand-daughter
of King Henry VII of England, died (born 8 October 1515)
31 December
1577, In
London, John
Hawkins, a slave trader, succeeded his father-in-law Benjamin Gonson
as Treasurer of the Navy.
12 March 1575, During the current session
of the English Parliament, English Puritans have become more demanding of
radical reform. This day Peter Wentworth, a Puritan MP, was jailed for
attacking Queen Elizabeth I�s interference with Parliamentary freedom of
speech.
10 March 1573, Dudley Dorchester, English statesman, was born
(died 15 February 1632).
24 November 1572. John Knox, father
of the Scottish reformation, died
in Edinburgh. He had returned to Scotland after the rebellion against the Catholic Mary
Queen of Scots.
2 June 1572, In England, Thomas Howard,
Duke of Norfolk, was executed for his part in the Papal-backed Rudolfi Plot to depose Queen Elizabeth
and restore the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots to the English throne.
1 June 1571, John Storey, English Catholic
martyr, was executed at Tybirn.
29 May 1571, In the session of he
English Parliament that ended today (from 1 April 1571), the import of a Papal
Bull into England was made treasonous, and subscription to the 39 Articles of
the Church of England was made compulsory for the clergy. Intolerance of
Catholicism in England was now enshrined in ;law.
6 April 1571, John Hamilton, Scottish
political activist, was hanged.
25 February 1570. Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated
by Pope Pius
V who declared her a usurper.
20 February 1570, The Northern Rebellion ended. In November 1569 the Catholic Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland
had started the rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I, motivated by the flight of
(Catholic) Mary Queen of Scots to England,
also by the arrest of Thomas Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk,
in October 1569. In November 1569 Northumberland had seized Durham Cathedral to celebrate Catholic
Mass. The Earls now marched south to fight Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex,
at York. However their elevated social position, and religious fervour, failed
to inspire enough foot soldiers to follow them and their march petered out.
After a battle at Naworth, Cumbria,
this day, 20 February 1570, the Earls fled to Scotland. Government reprisals against Catholics were harsh and Protestantism
became more firmly established in England.
14 November
1569, The Catholic Mass was reinstated at Durham Cathedral.
3 December 1568, Spanish treasure ships intended
to pay for Habsburg troops in The Netherlands were driven into Plymouth Harbour
by bad weather where they were impounded. Commercial relations between Spain
and England were suspended until 1574.
9 November 1569, In England, the Northern
Rebellion began, see 20 February 1570.
5 September 1569, Edmond Bonner, Bishop of London,
died in the Marshalsea Prison.
22 January
1568, In
Yoxford, Suffolk, Lady Jane Grey died. She was a distant cousin
of Queen
Elizabeth I and possible successor to the throne. Elizabeth
sent her to the Tower in 1561 for martrying the Earl of Hertford without royal
consernt.
2 January 1568, Luisa de Carvajal, Catholic
missionary in England, was born (died 2 January 1614).
26 January 1567, Nicholas Wotton, English
diplomat, died.
4 September 1566, Queen
Elizabeth I
visited Oxford, to consolidate her acceptance by the University and Town as
Supreme Head of the Church.
13 July 1566, Sir Thomas Hoby, English
diplomat, died (born 1530).
20 April 1566, Sir John Mason, English
diplomat, died.
17 March 1565, Alexander Ales, Scottish
clergyman, died in Leipzig (born 23 April 1500 in Edinburgh)
28 September 1564, Lord Robert Dudley was created Earl
of Leicester by Queen
Elizabeth I.
20 September 1562, The Treaty of Hampton
Court was signed.
26 December
1561, Queen Elizabeth created Lord Ambrose
Ducley, elder brother of Lord Robert, as Earl of Warwick.
17 December
1559, Matthew Parker
was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury.
10 November 1559, Queen Elizabeth I confirmed the
Charter of the Stationer�s company.
8 May 1559, The Act of Uniformity was
signed by Queen Elizabeth I. This
enshrined the monarch as head of the Church in England, ensuring the supremacy
of Protestantism under Queen Elizabeth
I.
17 April 1559, The Act of Supremacy was partly re-enacted in England.
15 January 1559. Queen Elizabeth I
crowned. She was born on 7 September 1533 at Greenwich Palace. Daughter
of King
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, she ruled from 1558 to 1603 and
was one of England�s greatest rulers, succeeding her Catholic� half-sister Mary Tudor.
She cleverly preserved England�s independence from Catholic Europe whilst also
outflanking the more radical Puritans, and her
reign saw the emergence of England as a major sea power through Drake and others.� This was also a time when the arts thrived.
She died on 24 March 1603.
Queen Mary (Mary
Queen of Scots). Resurgence of Catholicism in England
14 December 1558, Funeral of Queen Mary of England.
17 November 1558. Queen Mary of England (Bloody Mary), daughter of Henry VIII,
died in St James Palace London at the age of 42.� Born in 1516 to Catharine of Aragon, she
outmanoeuvred Lord
Dudley�s attempt to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne, on the death of
her half-brother King Edward VI. Mary�s marriage to Philip II of Spain dragged
England into the war between France and Spain, and caused the loss to England
of Calais, an English outpost since the reign of Edward III. Under her five-year reign Catholicism was restored and Protestants
persecuted.� On Mary�s death, her half-sister Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, became Queen Elizabeth
I.
24 April 1558, Mary Queen of
Scots, aged 16, married the Dauphin of France.
7 January 1558. Calais,
the last English possession on mainland France, was taken by the French under
the Duke of Guise. The English had captured Calais in 1346 after a year besieging it. With
the loss to England of its last Continental possession, public opinion turned
against Queen Mary.
16 July 1557, Anne of Cleves,
4th wife of King Henry VIII, died.
7 June 1557, England.,
now an ally of Spain after the marriage of Queen Mary and Philip II of Spain, declared war
on France.
17 February 1557, Lord Fitzwalter
was created Earl of Sussex.
19 June 1556, King James I of
England, son of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, the first Stuart King of England and Ireland, also King James VI of Scotland,
was born.
22 March 1556, Cardinal Pole
was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury.
21 March 1556, Thomas Cranmer, first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, was burnt at the stake in
Oxford as a heretic and a traitor, under the Catholic rule of Queen �Bloody� Mary. He had been deprived of
his office on 11 December 1555. He had assisted in having the marriage of Mary�s
parents, King
Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, annulled.
16 October 1555. Bishops Hugh Latimer
and Nicholas
Ridley, British Protestant
martyrs and Oxford reformers, were burnt at the stake for heresy.
30 November 1554, Cardinal Pole
pardoned England for its Protestant heresy and welcomed the country back into
the Roman Catholic Church.
12 November 1554, The
English Parliament re-established Catholicisim in the country.
7 October 1554, Walter Raleigh,
explorer and adventurer, was born in Barton Hayes, Devon.
25 July 1554. Mary I, Bloody Mary, married Philip II of Spain, son and heir of Charles V, in Winchester. This was her second marriage; the first had been
when, aged three, she was married to the King of France, then nine months old. Catholicism returned to England. See 17
November 1558.
20 July 1554, Philip II of Spain arrived in Southampton,
having crossed the Channel during a terrible storm.
19 May 1554, Queen Elizabeth
was released from the Tower of London.
10 May 1554, Thomas Goodrich,
English ecclesiastic, died.
18 March 1554, Elizabeth
was imprisoned in the Tower of London for alleged complicity in a plot against Mary
led by Sir
Thomas Wyatt; she was released on 19 May 1554.
11 February
1554, Lady Jane Grey
and her husband Lord
Guildford Dudley were executed on Tower Green, Tower of London, for
high treason; she was aged 16. Lady Grey became Queen on 10 July 1553 but was
deposed nine days later by her cousin Mary Tudor who then became Queen of England.
The Protestant King
Edward VI had proclaimed Jane Queen above her half sister Mary
because that kept England away from Catholic Spain. Mary delayed executing Jane
but changed her mind when Jane�s father
attempted a revolution.
25
January 1554, In Rochester, Kewnt, Thomas Wyatt
began to organise a plot against the proposed marriage of Mary Queen of Scots
to Philip of Spain, son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
20 December 1553, In England, Protestant
Church services were ruled illegal.
1 October 1553, Mary Tudor was crowned Queen of
England.
Lady Jane
Grey
19
July 1553. Lady Jane Grey, a
Protestant, was deposed, aged 16, after a reign of only nine days.
She was sent to the Tower of London and beheaded
on 12 February 1554. Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary),
a Catholic, half sister of Edward IV, was proclaimed Queen, but died
on 17 November 1558.
10
July 1553. Following the
death of Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England.
21
May 1553, Lady Jane Grey was forced to marry Lord Guildford Dudley; Dudley had ambitions to be King of England.
22 January 1552, Edward Seymour, Duke of
Somerset, Lord Protector of England, was executed for treason.
12 April 1550, Edward de Vere Oxford, English
statesman, was born (died 24 June 1604 in Newington, London)
9 August 1549. England declared war on France.
Kett�s Rebellion
7 December 1549, Robert Kett, rebel leader, was hanged.
12 July 1549, Robert Kett, with 16,000 men,
camped on Mousehold Heath outside Norwich and demanded an audience with Edward Seymour,
1st Duke of Somerset, who was Protector of England during
the minority years of King Edward VI. Kett�s demands concerned rising
rents, rising food prices and the increase in sheep farming (which demanded
enclosure whereas crop farming did not). Somerset ordered Kett�s mob to disperse, with a
pardon for any crimes committed up to that point; Kett refused. Somerset now
ordered William
Parr, Marquis of Northampton, to defeat Kett. Parr marched into Norwich with
1,800 men, unopposed, but a surprise night attack by Kett�s men routed Parr�s
force. Parr
retreated to London and Kett was unable to follow, as his men had no
wish to extend the dispute out of their native Norfolk. Somerset now ordered John Dudley,
Earl of Warwick, south from Scotland, with 6,000 foot soldiers and
1,500 cavalry. Dudley
surrounded Kett
in Norwich, and the two leaders began negotiations. However some of Kett�s
hotheads opened a fight with Dudley; Kett�s men were massacred with nearly 50
hanged.
20 June 1549, Kett�s Rebellion against enclosure of common land began when a
group of men led by Robert Kett, a smallholder and tanner, tore
down the new hedges and fences at Attleborough near Norwich. Copycat mobs
sprang up all across Suffolk and Norfolk. In particular they resented the
enclosure activities of landowner Edward Flowerdew.
9 June 1549. The Church of England adopted the Book of Common Prayer,
compiled by Thomas
Cranmer. In Devon, where the abolition of the chantries had caused
economic hardship, there was considerable opposition.
20 March 1549. Death of Thomas Seymour, Lord High Admiral of England.
He married King
Henry VIII�s widow, Catherine Parr. When she died, he planned to marry Queen Elizabeth
I, but was arrested for
treason and executed.
5 September 1548, Catherine Parr,
6th wife of Henry VIII, died in
childbirth.� By then she was the wife
of Lord
Seymour, at Sudeley castle, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
20 February 1547, King Edward VI,
aged 9, crowned as King at Westminster Abbey.
16 February 1547, King Henry VIII was buried at Windsor.
Death of
King Henry VIII
28 January 1547. King Henry VIII, born 28 June 1491, died aged
56, probably of kidney and liver failure.. King Edward VI, the
only son of Henry
VIII, by Jane Seymour,
born 12 October 1537 and now aged 9, ascended
the throne on 20 February 1547. However he died on 9 July 1553 at the age of
15. He was succeeded by Lady Jane Grey, see 19 July 1553.
19 January 1547, Henry Howard,
Earl of Surrey, was beheaded at the Tower of London
for treason.
22 August 1545, In Guildford, Surrey, Charles Brandon, close friend and old jousting
partner of King Henry VIII, died
after a short illness.
19 July 1545, The Mary Rose, pride of Henry VIII�s
battle fleet, keeled over and sank in
the Solent with the loss of 700 lives. It was raised on 11 October 1982 and
taken to Portsmouth Dockyard.
2 March 1545, Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of
the Bodleian
Library, Oxford, was born in Exeter (died in London 28 January 1613).
14 September 1544, Henry VIII of
England captured Boulogne. On 7 June 1546 the English and French signed
the Peace of Ardres. This said
Boulogne was to remain in English hands for another eight years.
24 May 1544, William Gilbert, physician to
Queen Elizabeth I, was born (died 30 November 1603).
12 July 1543, King Henry VIII married
his sixth wife, Katherine Parr.
Catherine
Howard, 5th wife, executed.
13 February 1542, Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII,
was beheaded. She stood
accused of adultery. Her last words were �I die a queen but I would rather have
died the wife of Culpepper�.
9 November 1541, Catherine Howard, 5th
wife of King
Henry VIII, was confined to the Tower of London
22 July 1541, A proclamation was made
across England, on orders of King Henry VIII, banning the import of
unlicensed religious books.
28 July 1540, Thomas Cromwell, Chancellor
to Henry VIII, was beheaded
on Tower Hill for promoting the King�s failed marriage to Anne of Cleves. (See 6 January 1540).
On the same day Henry
VIII married his fifth wife, Catherine
Howard. She was beheaded on
13 February 1542.
Anne of
Cleves, 4th wife, divorced
9 July 1540, Henry VIII divorced his fourth wife, Anne of
Cleves.
24 June 1540, Henry VIII ordered Anne of Cleves
to leave the Royal Court
6 January 1540, King Henry VIII�s ill-fated marriage to his fourth wife,
Anne of Cleves (see 28 July 1540).
Anne
was born on 22 September 1515; her
father was leader of the German Protestants and so Anne was regarded as a
suitable wife for Henry VIII by Cromwell. However she had no looks, spoke
only her own language, and had no dowry. Her only recommendations were her
proficiency in needlework and her meek and mild temper. The marriage contract
was signed on 24 September 1539; she landed at Deal on 27 December 1539, and Henry VIII
met her at Rochester on 1 January 1540. On 2 January 1540 Henry VIII openly
said about her looks, �She is no better
than a Flanders mare�. On the
wedding morning, 6 January 1540, he said nothing would have persuaded him to
marry her but the fear of driving the Duke of Cleves into the arms of the Holy
Roman Emperor. Soon after Henry regretted identifying so closely with
the German Protestants. Henry then declared the marriage non-consummated and so null and void, on 9
July 1540. Anne
lived the rest of her life happily in retirement in England, dying on 28 July 1557;
she was buried at Westminster Abbey.
4 September 1539, King Henry VIII contracted to marry Anne of Cleves.
Dissolution
of the Monasteries
16
July 1546,
Protestant martyr Anne Askew was burnt at the stake.
11
June 1544, King Henry VIII
ordered English, not Latin, to be used in the English Chiurch litany.
30
July 1540, Thomas Abel,
English priest, was executed for denying the Royal supremacy in the Church.
23
March 1540,
The Crown seized Waltham Abbey. It was the last of the great monasteries to be
seized by Henry VIII,
bringing to
an end a four-year campaign that had seen some 850 church properties, monasteries friaries and
convents, with their gold and jewels, pass to the King. The total income from
these properties was around �132,000 a year and Henry VIII gave some of this to his supporters.
27 December 1538, Cardinal
Reginald Pole, exilded cpusin of henry VIII of England, set out to
rally support in France and Spain foir an invasion of England.
17 December 1538, Pope Paul III
finally excommunicated King Henry VIII of England.
22 August 1538, John Lambert,
English Protestant martyr, died.
10 March 1537, In
Lancaster, Abbot
John Paslew of Whalley was one churchman of several executed for the
Pilgramage of Grace in 1536..
1536, The Dissolution
of the smaller monasteries, the 374 houses with income under �200,000 a year,
began. In 1538 the Dissolution of the 186 �Great and solemn monasteries� began,
continuing until this process was complete in 1540.
The monasteries
had become notorious for the bad behaviour of their residents in the locality,
and for tolerating gambling, sexual immorality and financial misdealings. Local
people were npot sad to see them go. Initially the dissolution of the smaller
Houses and the reallocation of their residents to larger institutions was seen
as a reform, but the process did not stop with the smaller monasteries.
See also History of
Christianity
16 October 1536, York was occupied by rebels against
the takeover of the Church by King Henry VIII. This was the Pilgrimage of Grace (see also Christian,
buildings). Much of northern England, from Lincolnshire to north
Yorkshire, was in uproar at this takeover, the valuation of Church property,
the suppression of smaller monasteries, and the cancellation of some Saints day
holidays. Led by Robert Aske, rebels seized northern towns. Henry VIII
made peace with the rebels and issued a pardon, only to go back on this on a
pretext in January 1537 and execute the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace, including Aske.
13 October 1536, The Pilgrimage of Grace began in northern England, protesting at King Henry
VIII�s break from Rome.
18 April 1536, King Henry VIII of Engtland
began expropriating the minor monasteries
21 January 1535, Henry VIII appointed Cromwell
as vice-regent in spiritual or vicar-general. Cromwell now set about assessing the value
of England�s monasteries.
5 September
1538, In England, Thomas Cromwell ordered every parish to keep a
record ofmbaptisms, marriages and funerals.
25 August 1537, The Honourable Artillery Company, the
oldest surviving regiment in the British Army and the second most senior, was
founded.
30 June 1537, Henry Percy, Earl of
Northumberland and the most powerful of the Northern nobles, died. He
bequeathed all his lands to The Crown.
1536, The Act of Union with Wales, passed by King Henry VIII.
14 April 1536,
Governance of Wales was reorganised. The English shire system was introduced,
and nobody unable to speak English could hold office in law or administration
in Wales. The powers of the old Marcher Lords were abolished, and their lands,
a wide swathe west of the modern boundary of Wales, was organised into shires
based on Brecon, Dennbigh, Radnor, Monmouth and Montgomery.
1536, German-born
painter Hans
Holbein became Court Painter to King Henry VIII.
1535, Hurst Castle
was built by King
Henry VIII, to guard the south-western approaches to the Solent.
1534, Henry VIII banned the keeping of
flocks of over 2,000 sheep. This was a measure to reduce the eviction of
tenants by landlords.
Jane Seymour, 3rd
wif, died. Edward VI born
24
October 1537, �Jane
Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII,died, of the all-too-common childbed
fever.
18 October
1537, Edward Seymour,
brother of Jane
Seymour, 3rd wife of Henry VIII, was made earl of Hertford.
12 October 1537, Edward VI, son of Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour, was born at Hampton Court
Palace, London. He succeeded his
father at the age of 9 but died aged 15. Henry intended him to marry Mary, daughter of King James V of Scotland. In 1543 the
Treaty of Greenwich provided for this marriage when Edward reached the age of 10;
however the Scottish Parliament rejected this Treaty.
22 July 1536, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond,
illegitmate son of Henry VIII, died of consumption at St James Palace, London.
30 May 1536. King Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, his third wife, in the Queen�s Chapel, Whitehall, eleven days after the execution of Anne
Boleyn.
Anne Boleyn, 2nd
wife, executed; Elizabeth I born
19 May 1536. Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, mother of Queen Elizabeth I, was beheaded at Tower Green, in the Tower of London, aged 29.� She was accused of
adultery � Henry
VIII was already flirting with his third wife Jane. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate
and lost her right of succession to the English throne.
2 May 1536, Anne Boleyn was arrested on charges of treason, adultery
and incest (with her brother George)
10 May 1536, A Grand Jury at
Westminister indicted Anne Boleyn for high treason.
29 January 1536, Queen Anne
miscarried a male child.
7 September 1533. Queen Elizabeth
I was born at Greenwich Palace in London, the daughter of Henry VIII
and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth was recognised as heir
to the English throne ahead of her half sister Mary, daughter of Henry VIII�s
first wife Catherine
of Aragon. See 19 May 1536.
Thomas Moore
6 July
1535. Sir Thomas Moore was beheaded in London,
for refusing to accept Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. Thomas More was born in 1477 in London. He
published Utopia in 1515 which described a pagan, communist, city state in which the institutions and policies are
governed entirely by reason. His ideas contrasted with the self-interest and
greed for power seen in Europe�s Christian states.
15 April 1534, Thomas Cromwell was appointed
Chief Secretary to King Henry VIII of England
16 May 1532, Sir Thomas More resigned as
Lord Chancellor of England. This was in protest at King Henry VIII�s break with
Rome.
7 February 1478, Sir Thomas Moore, Lord
Chancellor to King Henry VIII, was born in London, the son of a judge. He was executed
for refusing to deny the authority of the Pope.
Henry VIII
split from Rome, Catharine of Aragon, 1st
wife, divorced
11 July 1536, The Convocation of the Clergy. English clergy subscribed to the Ten
Articles, beliefs of the English Church under King Henry VIII.
7 January 1536, Catharine of Aragon died at
Kimbolton Palace, Huntingdonshire. She was the first of Henry VIII�s six wives, and the
mother of Queen
Mary I.
22 June 1535, Cardinal John Fisher was beheaded
on Tower Hill, London, for refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII as head of the
Church of England.
20 May 1535, The Pope made John Fisher, now imprisoned in
The Tower, a Cardinal.
15 January 1535, The Act of Supremacy was passed in England. This made King Henry VIII
head of the Church.
21 April 1534, Thomas More, former Lord
Chancellor, was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, along with John Fisher,
Bishop of Rochester, Both men had refused to swear to uphold the Act of
Succession,, which provided that King Henry�s children by Quenn Anne should inherit the
throne.
30 March 1534, A new law in England,
promulgated by Chancellor
Thomas Cromwell, forbade anyone from owning more than 2,000 sheep.
This was to halt rural depopulation. Sheep farming was very profitable, and
large areas of arable land had been converted to sheep grazing, but this
required much less rural labour. Some East Anglain farms had 20,000 sheep, and
the Spencer Family in Northamptonshire had some 30,000.
23 March 1534, The Pope officially
decalred that Henry
VIII�s marriage to Catherine was valid.
11 July 1533. Henry VIII was given a
deadline of September to take Catherine back by Pope Clement VII, or face
excommunication.
1 June 1533,
Coronation as Queen of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII
of England, at Westminster Abbey.
28 May 1533, The
Archbishop of Canterbury declared the marriage of King Henry VII and Anne Bolryn
to be void.
23 May 1533, The
marriage of Henry
VIII and Catharine of Aragon was annulled.
4 May 1534, Five
Carthusian momks from London Chartehouse were hung drawn and quartered at
Tyburn, London, for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church of
England
9 April 1533, Catherine of
Aragon was forbidden from using the title of Queen. She will be
known as the Dowager Princess of Wales, as the widow of Henry�s older brother, Arthur.
30 January 1533,
Protestant reformer Thomas Cranmer was consecrated as Archboishop
of Canterbury.
25 January 1533. King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were officially married by the Bishop of Lichfield, and became the future
parents of Queen Elizabeth
I.. Anne Boleyn was crowned at Westminster on 1
June 1533, shortly after Thomas Cranmer
(who was appointed as Archbishop of
Canterbury on 30 March 1533) had declared Henry VIII�s marriage to Catherine of
Aragon null and void. On 23 May 1533 Henry VIII actually divorced
Catherine of
Aragon, resulting in a break
between England and the Church of Rome.
14 November 1532, King Henry VIII
of England seceretly married Anne Boleyn.
20 October 1532, Henry VIII
met King
Francis of France at Calais in an attempt to secure his support for
the divorce of Catherine.
1 September 1532, Lady Anne
Boleyn was created Marquess of Pembroke by her fianc�, King Henry VIII.
22 August 1532, William Warham,
Arhcbishop of Canterbury who was opposed to secular control of the Church by
King Henry VIII, died.
18 January 1532, English Parliament
banned payment by English church to Rome.
15 January 1532, The Pope
threatened King
Henry VIII with excommunication.
18 November 1531, Roberto di
Ridolfi, who planned to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and
replace her with Mary Queen of Scots, was born in Florence, Italy.� This scheme was discovered by Elizabeth�s
government in 1571. Ridolfi was then in Paris. He died in Florence
18 February 1612,
14 July 1531, King Henry VIII
gave up all pretence of marriage with Catherine of Aragoin, and moved to Woodstock
with his mistress, Anne Boleyn.
11 February 1531, King Henry VIII was recognised as official head of the Church of England.
5 January 1531, Pope Clement
VII forbade King Henry VIII of� England from remarrying.
7 March 1530, Pope Clement VII rejected Henry VIII�s
request tro divorce Catharine of Aragon, leading to Henry�s
split form Rome.
Cardinal
Wolsey
29 November 1530. Cardinal Wolsey died after being arrested as a
traitor. He died at Market Harborough whilst being taken from York to London.
4 November 1530, Cardinal Thomas
Wolsey was arrested as a traitor, after it was discovered that he
had corresponded secretly with Pope Clement VII.
25 October 1529, Sir Thomas More,
lawyer and avocate of mild Church reform, was appointed Lord Chancellor in
place of Wolsey.
17 October 1529, Henry VIII of
England dismissed Cardinal Wolsey as Lord Chancellor, replacing
him with Thomas
Moore. The main cause of his dismissal was his failure to curb
Habsburg expsansion, and Henry�s wish for a divorce from Catherine of
Aragon due to the lack of a healthy male heir.
14 August 1525, Cardinal Wolsey
agreed peace terms between England and France, as he sought to recreate a
balance of power within Europe.
24 December 1515, Thomas Wolsey
became Lord Chancellor of England.
15 November 1515, Thomas Wolsey
was invested as a Cardinal.
10 September 1515, Thomas Wolsey
was made a Cardinal. He commissioned Hampton Court Palace.
15 September 1514, Thomas Wolsey
was appointed Archbishop of York.
.
21 June 1529, John Skelton, tutor to the King Henry VIII
as a boy, died.
22 January 1528, King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I
of France declared war on the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This led to a
suspension of trade between England and its most important trading partner, The
Netherlands. Resultant economic problems in England caused widespread civil
unrest, and forced England to declare a truce with Charles V in June 1528.
30 April 1527, King Henry VIII of England signed a treaty at
Wedstminster providing that his daughter, the future Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary), then
aged 11, would marry either King Francis I of France or to his 2nd son Henry Duke of
Orleans.
25 September 1525, Steven Borough, English navigator, was born in
Northam, Devon (died 12 July 1584)
18 June 1525, Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of King Henry VIII,
was created Duke of Richmond.
11 May 1525, Protests against the Amicable Grant, a heavy tax imposed by King Henry VIII to pay for
his foreign adventures. It taxed the laity at one sixth of their goods, and one
third for the clergy.
21 January 1524, Cardinal Wolsey was made Papal Legate for
life, Previously, his appointment had been for just a year at a time.
3 November 1523, Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, relieved the
siege of Wark Castle, Northumberland. The Franco-Scottish army under John Duke of
Albany was forced to retreat north.
23 April 1523, Henry Clifford, supporter of King Henry VII of
England, died.
11 October 1521, English monarch King Henry VIII issued an attack on the views
of Martin Luther. This earned him the title Fidei Defensor, Defender of the
Faith, from Pope Leo X.
13 September 1521, William Burghley, English statesman, was born
(died 4 August 1598).
15 August 1521, King Henry VIII of England and Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V signed the Treaty
of Bruges against France, in contrast to the Anglo-French friendship at the
Field of the Cloth of Gold (6 June 1520). This Treaty involved English forces
in long campaigns in northern Europe.
17 May 1521, Edward Stafford, Duke of
Buckingham, was executed for fear he might try to claim the English throne.
13 September 1520, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley,
Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth 1st, was born in
Bourne Lincolnshire.
6 June 1520. Henry
VIII and Francis I of France met in a glittering
ceremony at The Field Of The Cloth Of Gold near Calais. However see 15 August 1521.
13 June 1514, Henry VIII ;launched the world�s
biggest battleship to date at Greenwich.
16 August 1513, The Battle of the Spurs. King Henry VIII defeated the
French.
7 April 1512, In preparation for war with France, Ely Howard,
English naval commander, was appointed Admiral. He began directing English
naval raids on French shipping and coasts.
War between England and France (see also Italy)
29 April 1520, The tower of St Marys Church,
Beverley, collapsed.
17 May 1518, Cardinal Wolsey was appointed
Papal Legate in England.
18 February 1516, Queen Mary I,
Mary Tudor (Bloody
Mary), was born at Greenwich Palace, the daughter of Henry VIII and
Catharine of
Aragon. She was known as
Bloody Mary due to her relentless persecution of the Protestants.
8 October 1515, Margaret Lennox, grand-daughter
of King Henry VII of England, was born (died 7 March 1578).
22 September 1515, Anne of Cleves, one of King Henry
VIII�s wives, was born.
9 October 1514, Louis XII, King of France,
married Mary
Tudor.
2 February
1514, Henry VIII
created four new Peers. Thomas Howard became Duke of Norfo;lk, his
son, also Thomas
Howard, became Earl of Surrey, Charles Brandon became Duke of Suffolk, and Charles
Somerset became Earl of Worcester.
4 May 1513, King Henry VIII of England had
the Yorkist Pretender Edward de la Pole executed; he had been
imprisoned since 1506.
22 February 1511, King Henry VIII�s son, Henry Duke of Cornwall, died at
Richmond.
31 January 1510, Catherine of Aragon gave birth to a stillborn
daughter.
23 January 1510, King Henry VIII of England, then aged 18,
competed incognito in a jousting tournament at Richmond. Having won praise for
his jousting, he then revealed his identity.
29 June 1509, Death of Lady Margaret, mother of King Henry VII, Countess of
Richmond and Derby. She was noted for her patronage of the arts and education.
24 June 1509, King Henry VIII of England was
crowned.
11 June 1509. King Henry VIII,
aged 18, married his sister in law, the Spanish princess Catharine of Aragon, aged 24. She was the
first of his six wives.
21 April 1509. King Henry VII died in Richmond, Surrey, probably from tuberculosis.
His second son, Henry VIII, succeeded him. The
coronation of Henry VIII was on 24 June 1509.
24 April 1506, Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist claimant to the
English throne, recently extradited to England from The Netherlands in return
for promises of military aid form King Henry VII, was imprisoned in the Tower of
London.
14 October 1504, John Fisher was appointed Bishop of Rochester.
9 March 1504, William Warham was enthroned as Archboshop of
Canterbury.
18 February 1504, Prince Henry, Duke of Cornwall, was created
both Prince of Wales and earl of Chester.
25 January 1504, The English Parliament passed statutes
against retainers (paid military dependants) and liveries (dependant�s
uniforms) to stop private warfare and to place giuilds and companies under
State supervision.
29 November 1503, William Warham was given Papal approval to
become the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
5 August 1503, Sir Reynold Bray, administrator, advisor and
friend to King
Henry VII, died in Windsor Castle.
23 June 1503, The future King Henry VIII of England was engaged to Catherine of
Aragon, widow of of his older brother Arthur.
18 February 1503, Henry Tudor, the future King Henry VIII, was created Prince
of Wales
15 February 1503, Henry Deane, Archbishop of Canterbury, died.
11 February 1503, In England, Queen Elizabeth died 9 days
after giving birth to her 7th child, Katherine.
19 June 1502, King Henry VII of England agreed to pay Holy Roman
Emperor Maximilian I �10,000 towards his proposed Crusade, in return
for Maximilian denying asylum to English rebels, including the Earl of Suffolk,
a Yorkist claimant to the throne.
7 November 1501, Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, was
condemned as a traitor by King Henry VII after he tried to raise forces
abroad to support the Yorkist cause.
26 May 1501, Henry Deane, Bishop of Salisbiury, was
appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
Arthur,
eldest son of King Henry VII
2 April 1502, Arthur, eldest son of King Henry VII,
died after an illness. Henry�s third son, Edmund,
had died 2 years ago aged 16 months. This left Catherine of Aragon as a widow,
and the future Henry VIII as heir to the throne. His father, King Henry
VII, refused to return her dowry to her parents, Ferdinand II of Aragon and
Isabella I of Castille.
14 November 1501, Arthur, King Henry VII�s eldest son, was
married to Catherine
of Aragon in St Pauls Cathedral, London.
18 June 1497, King Henry VII of England
ratified a marriage treaty with Spain; in August Arthur, heir of Henry VII,
was formally betrothed� to Catherine of
Aragon, daughter of King Ferdiunand V� and Queen Isabella.
17 March 1489, Ferdinand of Aragon agreed to
marry his daughter Catherine to Prince Arthur, son of King Henry
VII of England.
19 September 1486, King Henry VII�s son Arthur was born.
Perkin
Warbeck, Pretender
23 November 1499. Perkin Warbeck was executed at the Tower of
London.� He was a Flemish impostor, the
son of a boatman from Tournai, claiming to be Richard of York, son of Edward II,
whom he closely resembled. Initially treated leniently after his attempt on the
throne (see 31 July 1495), he then attempted to escape the Royal Palace and
team up with another usurper, Edward Earl of Warwick.
15 July 1498, Perkin Warbeck made a public confession of his
treason in Westminster and was imprisoned in The Tower of London.
5 October 1497, Perkin Warbeck was captured at Beaulieu,
Hampshire, as a fugitive, following the scattering of his forces at Taunton.
30 September 1497, James IV, King of Scotland, now aged 23,
agreed another seven year truce with England.�
Signed at Ayton, this truce replaced an earlier one extended in 1493 but
breached recently by several Scottish border raids into England. The siege by
Scotland of Norham Castle was
lifted.
17 September 1497, Perkin Warbeck led 6,000 rebels who twice
attempted to capture Exeter. Beaten back in heavy fighting, they retreated to
Taunton, Somerset.
7 September 1497, Perkin Warbeck landed at Lands End, Cornwall, hoping to exploit local
unrest against King Henry VII.
10 August 1497, A Scottish army invaded England and laid siege to Norham Castle, Northumberland, in
support of Perkin
Warbeck,
26 July 1497, Perkin Warbeck landed in Cork to raise support
for his campaign to take the English throne from King Henry VII. However he found little support there
after the death of his backer, Sir James Ormond.
17 June 1497, Cornish rebels
against King Henry VII, having marched to Guildford on 13 June 1497, and
skirmished with the Army on Hounslow Heath, now ,marched on London. Their
grievance was at the high taxes being imposed to fund wars against France and
Scotland. They failed to gain the support of Kentish men, and therefore marched
through Banstead, and this day faced the King�s men at the Battle of Deptford
where the rebels were finally crushed.
24 February 1496, King Henry VII of England ended a 3-year trade
embargo against Flanders and the English Merchant Adventurers returned to
Antwerp.
27 November 1495, Perkin Warbeck, Pretender to the English
throne, was received by King James IV of Scotland at Stirling, where they
planned an invasion of England.
3 July 1495, The Pretender to the English throne, Perkin Warbeck, landed at Deal,
Kent, with 150 men. He hoped to gather enough supporters to overthrow King Henry VII.
However his force was routed and he went on to Ireland, where he was again
unsuccessful at besieging the pro-Henry town of Waterford. Warbeck then fled to
Scotland. See 23 November 1499.
10 February 1495, Sir William Stanley, Lord Chamberlain to King Henry VII
of England, was executed for treasonably plotting with the Yorkist
Pretender Perkin
Warbeck.
18 September 1493, In retaliation for Flemish support for the Pretender
to the English throne, Perkin Warbeck, King Henry VII banished the
Flemish from England and the Merchant Adventurers moved their important woll
exchange from Antwerp, Flanders, to English-controlled Calais.
18 March 1496, A daughter, Mary, was born to Elizabeth, Queen of King Henry
VII.
31 May 1495, Cecily Neville, 80 year old dowager Duchess of
York, died in her castle at Berkhamstead.
28 June 1491. Henry
VIII, best known for his six wives
and religious split from Rome, was born
at Greenwich. He was the son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.
2 July 1489. Thomas
Cranmer, Henry
VIII�s first reformed Archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Aslockton, Nottinghamshire. He produced the Book
of Common Prayer in 1549.
24 November 1487, Coronation of Elizabeth, wife of King Henry VII
of England.
16 June 1487, The Battle of Stoke Field.� The rebellion of the Pretender Lambert Simnel
to the
English throne, led by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, and Francis Lovell,
1st
Viscount Lovell, was crushed by troops loyal to Henry VII.
24 May 1487, Lambert Simnel was crowned �King Edward VI of England� in
Christchurch cathedral.� He claimed to be
Edward, Earl of Warwick, and challenged Henry VII for the throne of England. He was actually the son of a carpenter from Oxford who went
to France and won the backing of one of Warwick�s aunts, who had never actually
met the real Warwick. He then went to Ireland where he was welcomed, and from
where he planned to invade England.
18 January 1486, In England, the houses of York and Lancaster were united by the marriage of King Henry VII
to
Elizabeth,
eldest daughter of Edward IV.
16 December 1485, Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII, was born, the fourth daughter
of Ferdinand
Isabella.
7 November 1485, King Henry VII called his first Parliament.
30 October 1485. (1) Coronation of King Henry VII. aged 28.
(2) King Henry VII established the Yeoman of the Guard.
Accession
of King Henry VII
22 August 1485. Battle of Bosworth Field, 12 miles west
of Leicester. The two sides met at White Moor, on the slopes of Ambien Hill,
some two miles from the market town of Market Bosworth. Richard had a force twice
the size of Henry�s, but the Stanleys, the Earl of Derby and his brother, defected to Henry�s side. King
Richard III, (White Rose, Yorkist) the last Plantagenet king, born 2 October 1452
at Fotheringay, was killed as he
tried to reach the usurper to
the English throne, Henry Tudor,
(Red
Rose, Lancastrian) now Henry VII.
Henry, exiled to France, had landed at Milford
Haven on 7 August 1485 and reached Shrewsbury on 15 August 1485, gathering only
moderate support along the way. He then passed through Newport (Shropshire),
Stafford, Lichfield, Tamworth, and reached Atherstone on the borders of
Leicestershire on 20/81485. Here he linked up with the Stanley
brothers, both anti-Yorkist. The night of the 21st,
Henry encamped at White Moors, south west of what was to be the battlefield.
Richard
and his army
halted three miles away on high ground at Sutton Cheney. Both sides attempted
to occupy Ambien Hill, midway between the two armies. The Stanleys
moved
against the Yorkist flanks , and the Yorkist Duke of Northumberland, at the rear,
failed to intervene. Richard was
unhorsed and killed, and the Yorkist army melted away, unpursued.
7 August 1485, Henry Tudor (Henry VII) landed at Milford Haven, Wales.
1 August 1485, Henry Tudor (Henry VII) set sail from France for Wales. He had been
advised by Rhys ap Thomas (a powerful Welsh landowner), wrongly as it
turned out, that the whole of Wales would rise up in his favour.
21 June 1485, King Richard III, anticipating a challenge for
his rulership, issued a proclamation against �Henry Tydder and other rebels.
16 March 1485, Anne Neville, wife of King Richard III of Enbgland,
died during a solar elcipse. This meant Richard now had no heir, since Edward Prince
of Wales had died in 1484.
9 April 1484, Edward, only son of King Richard III of England,
died at Middleham Castle, aged 10.
17 August 1483. The date on which the two young princes,
the uncrowned Edward V and his
brother Richard,
Duke of York, are believed to have been murdered by their uncle and
successor, Richard
III, in the Tower of London. See 9 April 1483.
6 July 1483. The coronation of King
Richard III.
26 June 1483, Richard III
became King of England.
Accession
of King Richard III
9 April 1483. King Edward IV
died at Windsor. During his second reign he re-established peace after the Wars of the Roses, but his heir, Edward V, was only aged 12. See 17 August 1483.
25 August 1482, Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, died.
24 August 1482, Berwick fell after a siege by the English.
12 May 1480, King Edward IV made his brother Richard Duke of
Gloucester the Lieutenant-General of the North of England. Edward
feared a Scottish invasion, but if there was war he hoped to recover Berwick on
Tweed.
14 February 1477. A man in Norfolk received the world�s
first known Valentine. Margery Brews sent her fianc�e John Poston
a letter saying �To my right welbelovyd Voluntyne�. She explained that she had
asked her mother to put pressure on her father to increase her dowry but also
said that if he loved her, she would marry him anyway. The Romans, around 600
BC, celebrated a February festival with romantic games and dancing. When the
Roman Empire was converted to Christianity, the festival was linked to the martyrdom
of St Valentine on 14 February, ca. 270
AD, by the Roman Emperor Claudius. Another possible origin is the
medieval belief that birds traditionally pair off on 14 February. Oliver Cromwell�s government banned St
Valentine�s day but it was restored when Charles II came to the throne in 1660. See 14
February 1822.
8 July 1476, Archbishop George Neville of York, freed from prison in
1474, died.
Wars
of the Roses
21 May 1471. King Henry VI died, in the Tower of
London.� He was probably murdered, and
was succeeded by Edward IV.
4 May 1471. The Yorkists under Edward IV defeated the Lancastrians under Margaret of Anjou at the Battle of Tewkesbury.
The Lancastrians were attempting to cross the River Severn to join� with Welsh troops under Jasper Tudor. The death of Margaret�s
son, Prince
Edward, as he fled the battlefield extinguished the House of
Lancaster.
14 April 1471, Yorkists under King Edward IV defeated the Earl of Warwick�s Lancastrians at the Battle of Barnet.
11 April 1471, Edward IV and his supporters
entered London.
2 April 1471, King Edward IV was joined by George, Duke of
Clarence, who had deserted hois former ally the Earl of Warwick.
2 March 1471, King Edward IV of England set
sail from The Netherlands to reclaim the English throne.
2 November 1470, Edward V, King of England, was
born.
9 October 1470. Lancastrian King Henry VI
was restored to the English throne after having been deposed nine years
earlier. The power behind the throne here was held by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick,
a former Yorkist who abandoned the cause when his prot�g�, Edward IV, strong-willed,
secretly married the woman he wanted to, the young widow Elizabeth Woodville, rather than
undertake an arranged marriage to a French Princess. Henry VI, a weak character, was
accustomed to abdication of political responsibilities so an alliance with
power-hungry Warwick
suited them both. However Henry VI�s weak reign was blamed for the wars
that had split England for the previous 15 years, and the loss of
English lands in France, and Henry�s
days seemed numbered.
12 March 1470, Battle of Empingham, Wars of the Roses. King Edward IV routed Sir Robert
Welles� rebels.
26 July 1469, Battle of Edgecote, Northamptonshire, Wars of the Roses Lancastrians defeated the Yorkists.
8
June 1467, Edward IV dismissed George Neville, Archbishop of
York, from his post as Chancellor, as a rift between the King and the Neville
family deepened.
26
May 1465, Elizabeth, wife of King Edward IV of England, was
crowned Queen at Westminster Abbey.
15
March 1465, George Neville, another of Warwick�s brothers,
was made Archbishop of York, increasing Neville family power in the North.
12 August 1464, John Capgrave,
English historian, born 21 April 1393, died.
27
May 1464, Edward IV created Montagu as Earl of
Northumberland.
15
May 1464, Battle of
Hexham. Lancastrians defeated by Montague.
25 April 1464, At Hedgeley
Moor, near Alnwick, Northumberland, the Lancastrians
in northern England were defeated.
9
December 1463, An Anglo-Scottish truce was signed. Edward IV
ceased support for the Earl of Angus and James III abandoned the
Lancastrians.
5
January 1463, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, retreated
from besieging Alnwick as Lancastrian forces arrived.
28 June 1461, Coronation of Yorkist King Edward IV.
29 March 1461, The Battle of Towton
(North Yorkshire) took place, during the Wars of the Roses, in a
snowstorm. It was the bloodiest battle ever on British soil; over 28,000 died.
The Lancastrians were heavily
defeated and the position of King Edward IV was secured. The
Yorkists were exhausted after a long march, and were fighting up-slope. However
the Yorkists had an advantage as the wind was behind them, causing their arrows
to fly further, whilst the Lancastrians were blinded by snow blowing into their
faces, spoiling their aim and causing their arrows to fall short.
28
March 1461, Battle of
Ferrybridge, Wars of the Roses. The Lancastrians under Lord Clifford defeated the
Yorkists under Lord
Fitzwalter, who was killed.
5 March 1461, Henry VI was deposed as King of England. Edward IV (Duke of York) succeeded him.
27
February 1461, Londoners had refused to entertain the Lancastrian forces after their victory
at Barnet, Howveer this day they welcomed the Duke of York�s eldest son, Edward, Earl of
March.
17 February 1461, The Second Battle of Barnet. Margaret of
Anjou�s Lancastrian forces
defeated the Yorkist
Earl of Warwick. Warwick, defending the Yorkists in London, was
taken by surprise and fled in disarray, failing to take King Henry VI with him.
3
February 1461, At Mortimer�s Cross, Richard�s son, Edward, Earl
of March, defeated the Lancastrian
forces.
30
December 1460, The Battle of Wakefield. A superior Lancastrian force caught Yorkists, foraging, by surprise, and
the Duke of York was killed. This would have ended the Yorkist cause but for
the Battle of Mortimer�s Cross, 3 February 1461.
31 October 1460, King Henry VI
of England accepted the Duke of York as his heir.
10 July 1460. The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians in the Wars of the
Roses and captured King Henry VI
at the Battle of Northampton.
2 July 1460,
Londoners, supporting the Yorkist side,
welcomed Yorkist forces into London.
1 July 1460, Yorkist
troops who had landed at Sandwich from Calais on 26 June now arrived in
Southwark, London.
23 September 1459, The Battle
of Blore Heath, during the Wars of the Roses. The Yorkists under Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, defeated the
Lancastrians under Lord Audley. Salisbury was now able to join forces with the
Yorkists at Ludlow.
28 August 1457, French raid on the port of Sandwich.
28 January 1457, Henry VII born at Pembroke Castle. The start of the Tudor dynasty. He was the son of Edmund Tudor,
Earl of Richmond, and of Margaret Beaufort.
3 November 1456, Edmund Twdwr, half-brother of King Henry VI,
died of the Plague in Carmarthen Castle. He was aged 26; his wife, Margaret,
aged just 13, was pregnant; Edmund took the earliest possible moment to ensure
he had a cussessor to keep hold on hs lands.
22 May 1455. The First Battle of Barnet. In the Wars of the Roses, Richard
Neville, Earl of Warwick, Yorkist, fought his way into the
Lancastrian camp because Henry VI had refused Richard of York�s demand that Simon Beaufort,
Duke of Somerset, be imprisoned. The Yorkists won, killing their
principal enemies, Somerset, Northumberland and Clifford.
18 May 1455, The Duke of York and the Earls of Salisbury
and Warwick marched south to confront the King and the Duke of Somerset.
27 March 1454, Richard was elected Protector by
the English Parliament, during King Henry VI�s first bout of insanity.
13 Ocxtober 1453, Edward was born to Queen Margaret.
17 July 1453. The end of the Hundred Years War, when the French
defeated the English
at Castillon. Now only Calais remained
in English hands; in 1449 England
occupied nearly a third of France. By now England
was pre-occpied with the Wars of the Roses.
3 February 1452, The Duke of York accused the Beaufort family, who backed the Lancastrian King Henry VI, of incompetence
and ineptitude and of thereby losing the English territories in
France.
2 October 1452, Richard III, King of England, was born.
20 August 1451, The French captured Bayonne, the
last English stronghold in Guyenne.
30 June 1451, French troops under the Comte de
Dunois invaded Guyenne and captured Bordeaux.
12 August 1450, Cherbourg, the last English
territory in Normandy, surrendered to the French.
6 July 1450, Caen surrendered to the French.
Jack Cade�s Rebellion
12 July 1450, Cade had been promised a free pardon and had
disbanded his army. However he was then hunted down by Government forces and
killed this day.
4 July 1450, Jack� Cade
entered London. Henry
VI had left London for Kenilworth, allowing Cade�s men to enter the caoital
and execute unpopular courtiers. However Cade proved unable to maintain discipline
amongst his followers and Londoners turned against him.
27 June 1450. Jack Cade, an Irish born physician, led an
insurrection march of 40,000 through Kent to London to protest against the high
taxes of King
Henry VI. The English Government was unpopular
after its defeat in the Hundred Years War. Meanwhile Henry VI�s
courtiers blamed the Men of Kent for the murder of William de la Pole in May 1450
and wanted reprisals, sparking the Kentish rebellion. Pole had been involved in the disastrous English military campaign in France
that culminated with the loss of Normandy to the French; Parliament
had him sent to The Tower on charges of treason. King Henry VI, to save Pole
from a trial with a foregone conclusion, declared him innocent but banished him
from England for five years. As Pole left Dover, on 3 May 1450, his ship was
intercepted, and Pole was forcibly dragged into a small boat and beheaded.
18 June 1450, Jack Cade�s men ambushed and defeated the
King�s soldiers in an ambush nbear Sevenoaks.
6 June 1450, Rebellion began in England over the high levels of
taxation due to the war with France. Jack� Cade
emerged as its leader.
19 February 1450, The carrying of weapons was forbidden in south
east England, following anti-Royalist riots in London in January 1450.
15 April 1450, The Battle of Formigny. Fought near
Caen, the French defeated an English force sent to halt King Charles VII�s
reconquest of Normandy.
29 October 1449, The French recaptured Rouen from the English.
30 May 1445, Coronation of Queen Margaret, wife of King Henry VI of England, at
Westminster Abbey
23 April 1445, King Henry VI of England married Margaret of
Anjou at Titchfield Abbey, near Southampton.
11 December 1444, The
earliest mention of the Welsh town of Bridgend, in a legal document, as Bruggen Eynde. The older market town of
Kenfig had been abandoned due to coastal flooding and encroachment by sand
dunes, and a bridge over the River Ogmore was constructed to the new town site.
27 May 1444, John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, who returned
in disgrace from a failed campaign in France, died in Wimborne.
28 April 1442, King Edward IV
was born in Rouen, son of Richard, Duke of York.
3 January 1437, Catherine of Valois, Queen of King Henry V
of England, died (born 27 October 1401).
16 December 1431. The Bishop of Winchester, Henry Beaufort,
crowned King Henry VI King of France.
23 March 1430, Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, was born.
6 November 1429, The coronation of King Henry VI of England.
18 June 1429. Jeanne D�Arc, 13 years old, defeated the British at the Battle of Patay.
Historians are still in dispute over Jeanne D�Arc�s role in the Hundred Years War between
Britain and France. Born a peasant�s daughter on 7 January 1412, she
believed she was led by divine guidance and her mission was to make sure that Charles VII
became King of France and not the English Henry V. The French and the English came face
to face at Patay on 18 June 1429 and Jeanne D�Arc
had promised the French a greater victory than ever they had seen so far. The
English army was indeed routed and also its reputation for invincibility,
as the Earl
of Salisbury�s 5,000 men were forced back across the River
Loire.� She was captured by the English a
year later, on 24 May 1430, with the help of French collaborators, and burnt as
a witch on 30 May 1431. She was canonised in 1920.
17 August 1424, Battle of Verneuil.
John of
Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, defeated a French force,
consolidating English conquest of Normandy.
31 August 1422. King Henry V
died in Vincennes, France, struck down by dysentery.. Aged 35, he was just
about to take the crown of both France and England; his son, Henry VI, was just 9 months old, and English
power in France looked uncertain again.
For Hundred
Years War events see also France
6 December 1421, Henry VI was born in Windsor Castle, the only
child of Henry
V and Catherine Valois. Catherine Valois, daughter of Charles IV
and Isabella
of France, had married Henry V on 2 June 1420.
24 February 1421, Coronation of Katherine, wife of King Henry V
of England, at Westminster Abbey.
1 December 1420, Henry V made a triumphal entry into Paris, see
25 October 1415 and 21 May 1420.
21 May 1420, Under the Treaty
of Troyes, King
Henry V of England became ruler of France also, following his victory
at Agincourt. Henry V married Catherine de Valois and when
Charles de Valois dies Henry would inherit the throne, so long as Henry and
Catherine produce a male heir. Under
French Salic Law, a woman could not rule France.
19 January 1419, In the Hundred Years' War, Rouen
surrendered to Henry
V of England, which took Normandy under the
control of England.
24 June 1417, The Isle of Man held its first known Tynwald Day; the annual meeting of its
parliament (Tynwald) which has continued every year until the present.
25 October 1415. Battle of Agincourt, 20 miles inland from Boulogne.
The English forces, after the capture by the French of Harfleur, had set out to
march to Calais through Picardy. Their crossing of the River Somme was delayed
by torrential rains and the French set out to block their passage. The French
troops set up at the northern end of a defile of open ground between the woods
of Agincourt and Tramercourt. The English were short of food and supplies and
hunger might have eventually forced their surrender. The French outnumbered the
English three to one.
However King Henry V
was able to use his archers, in the restricted space of the battlefield, to mow
down the French cavalry and so win the battle. Thick mud, from the rains, restricted the movement of the French cavalry.
The English victory gave Henry the finances and reputation to continue
the war. Four years later the whole of Normandy was under British control, and
in 1420 the Treaty of Troyes
recognised Henry
as heir to the French throne, see 1
December 1420.
9 January 1414, In England the Lollards, religious
dissidents who followed the teachings of John Wycliffe, were suppressed.
Glendower Rebellion in Wales
21 September 1415, Owain Glyndwr,
Welsh independence fighter, died this day.
10 August 1415, Henry V of England set sail for
Normandy with an army of 12,000 men; two-thirds archers. . Harfleur was captured in September 1415 and Henry V
set out for Paris. However illness began to thin his military ranks. On 5
October 1415 military advisers told Henry to return to England via Calais.
19 February 1414, Thomas Arundel,
Archbishop of Canterbury, died (born 1353).
9 April 1413, Coronation of King Henry V
of England at Westminster Abbey.
20 March 1413 England�s King Henry IV died, aged 45, after
suffering a stroke in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster Abbey. He had
earlier prophesied that he would die in Jerusalem. He was succeeded by his
eldest son Henry V, aged 25, who
reigned for 9 years. See 30 March 1399.
13 September 1409, Isabella, 2nd wife of King
Richard II of England, died (born in Paris 9 November 1389)
1 January 1409, The Welsh surrendered Harlech
Castle to the English.
19 February 1408, The Battle of Bramham
Moor. Near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, forces loyal to King Henry IV defeated rebels
under Henry
Percy, Earl of Northumberland. This
ended the Percy Rebellion.
14 July 1404, Rebel leader Owain Glyndwr,
having declared himself Prince of Wales, allied with the French against the
English. He later began holding parliamentary assemblies.
22 July 1403, The Battle of Shrewsbury. Sir Henry Percy, known as Harry Hotspur, was killed trying
to overthrow King Henry IV.
26 February 1403, Coronation of Queen Joan,
wife of King
Henry IV of England, at Westminster Abbey.
7 February 1403, King Henry IV of England married
Joan,
dowager Duchess of Brittany, and daughter of King Charles Ii of Navarre.
14 September 1402, Battle of Homildon Hill. A Scottish raiding party under the Earl of
Douglas was routhed by the English Northern Nobles under Lord Henry Percy.
8 September 1402, King Henry IV took a large force into Wales to suppress the Glendower rebellion. However as soon as he left
Shrewsbury it began raining incessantly, with hail and even snow. His troops
were cold, drenched, and half-starved. On this day a tornado struck Henry IV�s
tent, collapsing it. Fortunately for him he was wearing his armour at the time
and so survived. Henry�s forces retreated back to England, having never
fought the Welsh.
22 June 1402, English forces heavily defeated by the Welsh at Bryn Glas, even though
the Welsh were outnumbered. King Henry IV now assembled an even larger
army, but see 8 September 1402.
27 October 1401, Catherine of Valois, Queen of King Henry V of
England, was born (died 3 January 1437).
16 September 1400, The Owen Glendower revolt in Wales; Welsh landowners
proclaimed Owen King of Wales, and attacked
the English in Flint and Denbigh.
14 February 1400, Richard II was killed whilst being held at
Pontefract Castle, to prevent further rebellions by his followers.
15 October 1399, King Henry IV made his son Henry
Prince of Wales.
13 October 1399, Coronation of Henry
IV, first Lancastrian
King of England.
11 October 1399. The Order
of the Bath was instituted.
30 September 1399. King Richard
II, born 6 January 1367, was deposed. Unpopular, he had dispossessed
many of the nobility. He was crowned, aged 10, on 22 June 1377. He surrendered
to Bolingbroke
without a fight; Bolingbroke became King
Henry IV. Henry IV was born at Bolingbroke Castle, Lincolnshire, on
3 April 1366. He reigned from 1399 to 1413. See 20 March 1413.
11 August 1399, King Richard II returned form Ireland to face
the invasion of Henry Bolingbroke.
4 July 1399, Henry of Lancaster, Henry IV, landed at Ravenspur,
Yorkshire.
3 February 1399, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, fourth son
of Edward
III and father of Henry IV, died (born 24 June 1340).
8 January 1397, Coronation of Queen Isabella, second wife of King Richard II
of England, at Westminster Abbey.
31 July 1396, Thomas Arundel succeeded William Courtenay as Archbishop
of Canterbury.
9 November 1389, Isabella, 2nd wife of King Richard II of
England, was born in Paris (died 13 September 1409)
20 December 1387, The Battle
of Radcot Bridge.� An army raised by
Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, to assist Richard II, was attacked as it crossed the
Thames. De Vere escaped and fled the country.
16 September 1387, King Henry V was born at Monmouth Castle, the
eldest of six children of Henry IV. He defeated the French at Agincourt.
24 March 1387, In the Hundred Years War, at the
Battle of Margate: The English
defeated an invading French and Castilian naval force.
13 March 1383, Michael de la Pole, Duke of Lancaster, was
appointed Chancellor.
22 January 1382, Anne, first wife of King Richard II of England, was
crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey.
20 January 1382, King Richard II of England, aged 15, married Anne of Bohemia.
Peasant�s
Revolt
15 July 1381, John Ball, one of the leaders of the Peasantt�s Revolt, was hung drawn
and quartered at St Albans.
24 June 1381, Peasants revolt ended in
Cambridge, UK, (began 12 June 1381).
9 May 1386, The Treaty of
Windsor cemented the alliance between England and Portugal.
15 June 1381. Richard II summoned Wat Tyler,
the first poll tax rebel, and his band, to Smithfield.�
Tyler met the King, grew insolent and abusive, and was killed by Mayor Walworth.
14 June 1381, Richard II rode to Mile End to negotiate with the rebels. They demanded an end to serfdom and limits on rents, and
the execution of Chancellor Sudbury, Treasurer Hales, John of Gaunt, and others.
Richard II
agreed to all but the executions. However at this time
Kentishmen were breaking into the Tower and beheading Sudbury and Hales. The
deaths of the Chancellor and the Treasurer (who was also the Archbishop of
Canterbury) were followed by a general massacre
of Flemings in the City of London. The rebels attempted to break into all
places where records might be stored, such as chirch buildings and lawyer�s
houses, and to massacre all clerks..
13 June 1381, The rebels entered London and the King withdrew to the
safety of The Tower. The rebels ransacked and burnt John of Gaunt�s Palace.
12 June 1381, Kentish rebels reached Blackheath, and Essex rebels reached
Mile End.
10 June 1381, Wat Tyler led his rebels into
Canterbury.
7 June 1381, Rebels entered Maidstone and chose Wat Tyler as their
leader.
6 June 1381, Rebels in the Peasant�s
Revolt besieged Rochester.
4 June 1381, The Peasants Revolt began. Rebels attacked Dartford. The poor were protesting
over the imposition of a Poll Tax, whilst the peasants wages were held down by
the Statute of Labourers Act, 1351. Peasant�s pay had been rising since the
Black Death killed many workers.
1378, A Sheffield-made knife (�thwitle�)was famous across the UK.
16 July 1377, Coronation of Richard II, King of England.
22 June 1377. The 10 year old King Richard II inherited the English throne from his
grandfather, Edward III. Effective
power was with the Royal Council. He was deposed 22 years later on 30 September
1399.
21 June 1377, King Edward III of England died aged 64. He
was succeeded by his 10-year-old grandson, Richard, who ruled until 1399.
22 February 1377, The English Parliament voted in a new Poll
Tax on all lay people, aged 14 or over, of 4d. Only beggars were exempt. By
October 1380 it had risen 3x to 1 shilling per head.
8 June 1376. Edward, the Black Prince, son of Edward III
of England, died of illness contracted whilst foighting in Spain. His death
left King
Edward II with no mature heir to the English throne.
29 April 1376, Sir Peter de la Mare took office as first Speaker of the House of Commons.
7 April 1374, King Edward III appointed the Church reformer,
John
Wycliffe, to the rectory of Lutterworth.
16 June 1373, Under the Treaty of London, England and Portugal became
permanent allies.
4 December 1370, Battle of Pontvallain, Hundred Years War. The
French won by avoiding a set-piece battle where English archers would have the
advantage, instead harrying the English raiding parties as they headed back
south, unprepared for battle.
30 June 1399, Henry IV, exiled
to France by King
Richard II for treason, landed at Ravenspur, Humberside, to retake
the English throne.
3 April 1367, In the Hundred Years War, the English under the Black Prince defeated a Spanish
and French army at the Battle of Navarrete.
The Spanish Kingdom of Castile was in civil war, between rival claimants for
the throne, Pedro
and his brother Enrique.
The French under Bertrand du Guesclin and the English under Edward the
Black Prince intervened, backing Enrique and Pedro respectively. The French
and English met at Najera (Navarrete), where English longbowmen massacred the
French cavalry. Pedro
gained the throne but never repaid the English for the expense of their army.
The heavy French footsoldier casualties brought some relief to the
countryside,� with fewer unemployed
soldiers roaming and plundering it.
26 June 1396, King Richard II of England married Isabella of
France, daughter of King Charles VI of France. This was intended
to effect a reconciliation between the two countries in the Hundred Years War. However Richard was later dethroned by Henry of
Lancaster (Henry IV), and Anglo-French hsotilities resumed.
6 June 1374, William of Whittlesea, Archbishop of
Canterbury, died. He succeeded William Langham in 1369.
15 August 1369, Philippa of Hainault, wife of King Edward III
of England, died.
2 April 1367, Henry IV,
the first Lancastrian King of England, was born in Bolingbroke castle,
Lincolnshire, the son of John O�Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Duchess Blanche.
6 January 1367, King Richard
II was born at Bordeaux, France. He was the son of Edward the
Black Prince and the grandson of King Edward III.
4 November 1366, Simon Langham, former Bishop of Ely and
Chancellor of England, received the pallium 9stole of office) of the Archbishop
of Canterbury., He succeeded Simon Islip, Archbishop from 1349, who had died on
26 April 1366.
1365, English Parliemant passed
a Staute of Praemunire, forbidding appeals to the Pope in disputes concerning
Church patronage. This was to strengthen the lay Court system
5 May 1365, The English Parliament nsuspended the payment of
troibute money to the Papacy.
For Hundred Years War events see also France
29 September 1364, Battle of Auray.
Although officially at peace after the Treaty of Bretigny, England and France
continued to fight over control of Brittany. French military commander Bertrand du
Guesclin faced English commander John Chandos. The English-backed
claimant Jean
de Montfort was contending with Charles du Blois for the Dukedom of Brittany.
In the fighting for the city of Auray, Charles du Blois was killed; however after de Montfort
was installed as Duke of Brittany he changed allegiance and swore fealty to the
King of France. The English gained nothing.
24 October 1360, The Treaty of
Br�tigny was ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase
of the Hundred Years' War. Under its terms, King John II of France, who had
been captured at Poitiers, would be released for a ransom of 3 million Ecus.
Calais, Guines, Ponthieu and all of Aquitaine would be ceded to Edward III
of England. In return Edward, who had besieged Rheims (December 1359
� January 1360) but failed to capture it, promised to renounce claims to the
French Crown when John renounced sovereignty over Aquitaine. In
fact these renunciations never took place and the Hundred Years War
resumed 1369.
23 March 1357, England and France agreed a truce..
19 September 1356. The English, led by Edward the Black Prince,
defeated the French under King John II, at the Battle of Poitiers, western France,
in the Hundred Years War. Edward III
had been raiding in northern France and was making his way back south when he
learnt that te French were making to intercept him. Laden with baggage, the
English moved more slowly and the French met them 5 km east of Poitiers. The
English found a site with restricted access for the French knights, and English
archers took down many French knights. King John himself was captured, and only
released when a huge ransom was paid in 1360.
29 August 1350, The English under King Edward III defeated
a Spanish fleet off Winchelsea. The Spanish had been fighting as allies of the
French in the Hundred Years War.
20 December 1349, After John Stratfrod, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and his elected successor s John de Offord and Thomas Brawardine,
had all died of the Black Death, a new Archbishop, Simon
Islip, was consecrated.
Summer 1349, After one year of the Black
Death, fatalities amounted to one million acros England. In Bristol over
40% of the population died.
January 1349, The Black Death appeared in
London.
August 1348, All travel between Gloucester ad Bristol was proscribed, to try and
halt the spread of the Black Death
10 August 1348, The first investiture ceremony of the Order of the Garter, at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle. King Edward III
revived the notion of King Arthur�s Round Table, and had the Round
Tower at Windsor built to house a replica version of the Table. In 1344 Edward III
began holding knightly tournaments and feasts around this Table. Following
British successes in the Hundred Years War against France, Edward III instituted the Order
oif the Garter, with Windsor as the new Camelot.
24 June 1348, The Black Death outbreak hit Melcombe Regis
(Weymouth, Dorset in England).
19 January 1348. Edward III established the Order of the Garter.
28 September 1347, France and England agreed a truce.
17
October 1346, The Battle of Neville�s
Cross. An attempted Scottish invasion of England was routed, west of Durham.
Whilst the English King Edward III was occupied with the siege of Calais, King David II of Scotland invaded England in
support of his French ally. However his army was heavily defeated by English
archers, and David
was wounded and captured. Held for 11 years, Scotland had to raise taxes to pay
a heavy ransom for his release.
26 August 1346. The Battle of
Crecy took place, 32 miles south of Boulogne.� The outnumbered army of Edward III, aided by his son Edward the
Black Prince, defeated the French under Philip
IV, who fled,, leaving over 1,500 French dead. On 3 August 1347 the English
captured Calais after nearly a year�s siege, which began on 3 September 1346.� This battle, during the Hundred Years War,
was the first time the English had used longbows
in continental warfare. The crossbow assault at Crecy decimated the
French-Geonese archers and the French knights behind, attempting an attack
through the Genoese, caused a troops jam into which the English longbowmen
continued to fire. The French retreated; Edward decided against pursuing the
survivors but marched on north to attack Calais.
For Hundred
Years War events see also France
12 July 1346, An English invasion force landed
unopposed at St Vaast, western Normandy, with the aim of capturing Paris.
This force was defeated by a superior French army and the English attempted a
retreat back to England, marching west 60 miles in four days. However the
French followed their march just to the south, denying the Seine Valley to the
English. The English needed a port to evacuate their forces. The English now
had to cross the lower Somme between Amiens and the sea, but this tract was
tidal, full of treacherous marches, passable only along narrow causeways for a
few hours a day at low tide. Crossing points to the north of the Somme were
guarded by the French. The English attempted to force a crossing of the Somme
at Crecy.
13 May 1343, Edward, son of King Edward III of England, was
invested as Prince of Wales.
15 March 1341, Emperor Louis IV made peace with the French
and ended his alliance with England.
24 September 1340, Temporary cessation in Anlo-French
hostilities, because the English war chest was exhausted.
24 June 1340. The English fleet, under Edward III (see 21 September 1327) defeated the French fleet
at Sluys. The French fleet was virtually destroyed, giving Edward III control of the sea.
However both the French and English rulers were short of money and unable to
pay their troops; so Edward III, and Philip VI of France, settled at
the Treaty of Esplechin.
The dispute
between England and France had links to the Flemish weavers who rebelled but were defeated on 24 August
1328 by the new Philip VI of France. Also Philip VI
supported the Scots under David Bruce against the English, see 21
September 1327. In 1336 Edward III
renewed his claim to the French throne. In 1338 Edward
III cut wool exports to Flanders, forcing up wool prices and causing economic hardship to the
weavers there. Edward then lifted the wool embargo, and encouraged
the weavers to rebel again against Philip VI, to secure the unification and
independence of Flanders.
5 September 1338, King Edward III of England met with Emperor Louis
IV at Koblenz. They agreed an alliance against France.
17 March 1337, Edward, the Black Prince, was made the first
Duke of Cornwall, by his father King Edward III.
8 June 1333, King Edward III seized the Isle of Man from
Scotland.
29 November 1330, Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, was executed as
a traitor. King
Edward III, 18 years old, feared that his mother�s lover Mortimer
was plotting to prevent him from gaining full power is monarch, so had him
seized from Nottingham castle and taken to London for trial. Queen Isabella
lost power but was allowed to live in luxurious retirement.
15 June 1330, Edward, the Black Prince, was born.
25 May 1328, Simon de Meopham was consecrated as Archbishop
of Canterbury, following the death of Archbishop Walter Reynolds in 1327.
20 February 1328, Philippa, wife of King Edward III of England, was
crowned Queen at Westminster Abbey.
30 January 1328, King Edward III of Enland married Philippa of
Hainault
24 January 1328, King Edward III of England ,now aged 16,
married Philippa,
daughter of the anti-French Count of Hainault and Holland.
21 September 1327. Edward II
was murdered at Berkeley castle in Gloucestershire, to ensure his son Edward III,
aged 15, could ascend the English throne under Isabella�s Regency.. Edward II�s
fate was sealed in 1326 when his wife Isabella
and her lover Roger Mortimer landed
with a band of foreign mercenaries and marched on London. Isabella found
widespread support amongst the barons, among whom Edward had caused dissension
by granting some lands and lordships, but not others. Edward was also resented
after his defeat by Robert the Bruce
in Scotland. See 21 June 1314, and 24 June 1340.
In 1330 Edward III took real power, sending his
mother Isabella into a monastery. He executed her lover, Roger
Mortimer. See 24/6 1340.
25 January 1327, Edward III became King of England.
King Edward
II, 1307 - 1327
7 January 1327, King Edward II of England was deposed.
16 November 1326, King Edward II had fled to Gloucester, but was
captured at Neath Abbey this day.
26 October 1326, Hugh Despenser was executed. His son was also
executed, on 16 November 1326.
15 October 1326, Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter and
Treasurer to King
Edward II of England, was murdered in a popular rebellion in
:London.
14 October 1322, Edward II and his men, returning from a futile
campaign, just escaped a fierce Scottish attack at Byland.
16 March 1322, The Battle of Boroughbridge.� Forces loyal to the rebel, Thomas of
Lancaster, were defeated at the crossing of the River Ure by an army
loyal to King
Edward II, led by Andrew Barclay. Edward then ordered the
execution of more than 20 of the rebel leaders, an act that shocked
contemporaries by its severity.
19 April 1321, Easter Sunday. King Edward II of England was forced by his
Barons to banish his favourites, Hugh Despenser and his son Hugh the
Younger. The Despensers had assisted Edward in his financial and
land administration affairs. However they had also thereby enriched themselves
whilst thwarting the ambitions of the Barons.
20 September 1319, King Edward II of England abandoned his siege
of Scottish-held Berwick on Tweed. This move was in response to a Scottish
diversionary incursion into Yorkshire (where English forces were depleted due
to the siege of Berwick), in which many English townsfolk and clerics were
killed at Myton on Swale, 22 km NW of York.
1316. England
faced famine after torrential rain ruined the harvest.
A wet Autumn 1314 was followed by a wet Summer in 1315. Only the West Country
escaped disaster. On the estates of Bolton Priory in the North, wheat yields
were one fifth of normal. Another wet Summer followed in 1316. There was also a
shortage of salt, causing disease in farm animals, as the salt pans failed to
evaporate. On the Clipston Estate in Nottinghamshire, half the sheep died. Taxes were also
heavy, to finance military campaigns against the Scots, alms were cut. In Berwick the starving infantry garrison mutinied,
and in Sandwich a wheat ship was attacked by a mob.
1 August 1315, King Robert Bruce of Scotland abandoned his
10-day siege of Carlisle.
19 February 1314, Scottish forces made a successful raid on Roxburgh Castle.
11 May 1313, Thomas Cobham was elected Archbishop of Cantervury
after the death of Robert Winchelsey. King Edward II asked the Pope to
confer the title on his clerk, Walter Reynolds, Bishop of Winchester,
instead.
6 December 1312, A Scottish assult oin Berwick Castle was foiled by the
barking of a dog.
13 November 1312. Edward III, King of England from 1327, was
born in Windsor Castle, son of Edward II.
19 June 1312, Piers Gaveston was beheaded at Deddington on
the orders of the Duke of Warwick.
19 May 1312, After a 2-week siege of Scarborough Castle, Piers Gaveston,
close associate of King Edward II, was taken prisoner.
4 November 1311, Piers Gaveston, lover of King Edward II, was finally
exiuled to France after demands for this from the barons. He travelled to
France even though King Pjillip IV of France detested him and
might imprison him.
12 August 1311, Robert of Scotland crossed the Solway Firth,
mounting the first Scottish invasion of England for 15 years.
1310, King Edward II granted a market
charter to the town of Knaresborough. However a market had already been
operating here from 1240.
18 May 1308, The English Barons forced King Edward II to banish his
lover, Piers
Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall.
25 February 1308, Coronation of Edward
II of England.
25 January 1308, King Edward II of England married Isabella, daughter of King Philip IV of France.
17 November 1307. William Tell is reputed to have shot an apple
off his son�s head this day.
6 August 1307, King Edward II made his lover, Piers Gaveston,
Earl of Cornwall.
King Edward
I, 1272 - 1307
7 July 1307. King Edward I
of England died in his way north to invade Scotland and was succeeded by his
son Edward II.
29 May 1303, Treaty of Paris restored Gascony to the English.
1300, England now had about 18
million sheep.
1 April 1299, Kings Towne on the River Hull (Kingston upon
Hull) was granted city status by Royal Charter of King Edward I
of England.
31 March 1298, The war between King Edward of England and King Philip IV
of France ended, with most of Gascony inder French control. Edward
had been distracted by rebellions in Wales and Scotland. His military spending
amounted to the huge sum of �750,000 over the past 4 years. The tax on wool
rose from 6s 8d a sack to 40s. Demands on the clergy for one fifth of their
income as tax produced a Papal Bull foirbididng them to pay tax at all. However
the Pope did back down on this, because even France objected, and a settlement
at a 10% tax rate was reached.
10 October 1297, Edward,
son of King
Edward I of England, reissued Magna Carta to pacify protests about
his father�s style of government.
7 October 1297, King Edward I signed a truce with France.
28 August 1297, Edward I of England unsuccessfully invaded Flanders.
24 February 1297, At a Parliament held
in Salisbury, the English peerage refused to support King Edawrd I in a war in
Gascony.
30 January 1297, King Edward I of England
outlawed the clergy after they refused to pay tax. They later backed down and
were pardoned.
9 October 1295, The first of three English
expeditionary forces left England to recover lands in Gascony taken by King Philip IV
of France but claimed by England. Edward had been diudistracted by
the Welsh revolt, and some barons and the clergy object to paying taxes for
this war.
28 November 1290, Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, died at
Harby, near Clipstone.
25 April 1284, Edward II
was born at Caernarfon Castle, third son of Edward
I.
12 March 1279, John Pecham, a Franciscan friar, was
consecrated in Rome as Archbishop of Canterbury.
22 April 1275, The first Statute
of Westminster was passed by the English Parliament, establishing a series
of laws in its 51 clauses, including equal treatment of rich and poor, free and
fair elections, and definition of bailable and non-bailable offenses.
19 August 1274, Coronation
of King Edward I.
2 August 1274, King Edward returned to England from Gascony
21 months after formally siucceding t the throne.
16 November 1272, Henry III
died at Westminster aged 65,
after a reign of 56 years. He was succeeded by his eldest son Edward I.
Edward I was in Sicily
at the time on the 8th Crusade.
Wales 1280 - 1301.
7
February 1301, The first
Prince of Wales was created, Edward of Caernarfon, who later became King Edward II.
10
April 1295, King Edward set out on a tour of Wales
designed to reassert his authority there. A new castle was to be built at
Beaumaris, Anglesey.
5
March 1295, A Welsh rebellion against King Edward that began in summer
1294 was ended. There was anger over Edward�s taxes and the elnistment of men to
fight in France, and English castles were attacked as Madog ap Llewelyn, proclaimed
himself Prince of Wales. Edward relieved several besieged Welsh castles
from the sea but in Janiuary 1295 was forced to abandon a planned advance oin
Bangor, amnd had to retreat to Conwy. Madog, emboldened by this, advanced south into
Powys. However this day his forces were surrounded at Maes Moydog, near
Montgomery, by a 2,500 force led by the Earl of Warwick. Madog himself escaped but most
of his men wetre killed.
20 January 1288, Newcastle Emlyn Castle in Wales was recaptured by English forces,
bringing Rhys
ap Maredudd's revolt to an end.
8 June 1287, Rhys ap Maredudd revolted in Wales; the revolt was not suppressed
until 1288.
19 March 1284, The Statute of Wales was passed. Wales became a province of
England. All local Welsh princes were dispossessed, and the old Welsh kingdoms
dissolved and replaced by new counties. Llywelyn�s daughter Gwenllian was sent to a nunnery
where she resided until her death in 1337. Likewise with Dafydd�s children; his daughters
were sent to nunneries, and his two sons were imprisoned for the rest of their
lives. Of these two, Llywelyn died in 1288 and Owain, soon after 1305. The last
member of the Welsh Royal Family to survive was Rhodri ap Gruffydd, who had sold
his inheritance to Llywelyn back in 1272. He lived on as Lord of
the Manor in Surrey and Cheshore, dying in 1315. His grandson, Owain ap Thomas
ap Rhodri, lived in France and had pland to reinvade Wales with
French support around 1370, but this did not materialise and he was
assassinated in 1387.
25 April 1283, The last resistance by the
Welsh under Dafydd
against King
Edward I ended. Dafydd surrendered at Castell y Bere, and was
imprisoned. He was executed in 10/1283 for treason.
18 January 1283, King Edward of England seized
Dolwyddelan Castle, north Wales, the centre of Welsh power, consolidating his
rule there.
11 December 1282, At the
Battle of Orewin Bridge in mid-Wales, Llewellyn the Last was killed and the Welsh suffered their final decisive defeat
at the hands of the English. King Edward I took Llewellyn�s head to London on a stake as proof of English triumph
in Wales. Wales had held out against the Norman English for over 200 years
thanks to its remote terrain, enabling the Welsh to simply vanish whenever the
English Armies went in, and its atrocious weather, deterring these armies. The
Welsh also made alliances with England�s natural enemies, the Scots and the
French. From this time on, the Prince of
Wales has always been the eldest son of the ruling monarch of England.
6 November 1282, Many English troops,
attempting to cross the Menai Straits from Anglesey to invade Wales, drowned.
20 May 1282, Eleanor, wife of Prince Llewelyn of Wales died in
childbirth.
20 July 1280, Neath, Wales, held its first fair (St Margaret�s Day), granted
by Charter.� The local abbey had
extensive sheep pasturage so there was a large trade in wool.
For earlier events in Wales see �Wales
587 � 1282�(Death of Llywelytn the Last) below�
16 November 1272, Henry III
died at Westminster aged 65,
after a reign of 56 years. He was succeeded by his eldest son Edward I.
Edward I was in Sicily
at the time on the 8th Crusade.
1267, Cambridge, England, was
granted a Royal Charter.
Second Baron�s War
31 October 1266, By the Dictum of
Kenilworth, King
Henry III of England asserted his authority over the defeated
Barons.
4 August 1265. Simon De Montfort, who had promoted the power of the barons
against King Henry III, was defeated and killed at the Battle of
Evesham. Royalist forces won, led by the future King
Edward I.� This was during the
Second Barons War. The last Montfortian resistance ceased in 1268.
2 August 1265, Edward made a successful
surprise attack on Simon�s forces at the Battle of Kenilworth, practically annihilating his army. Edward
then returned the next day to Worcester. Meanwhile Earl Simon had taken advantage of Edward�s
move east and had crossed to the eastern side of the River Severn, aiming to
march by way of Evesham and Stratford on Avon to link with the younger Simon.
Edward
now marched his exhausted menh overnight 3-4 July to intercept Earl Simon,
trapping him by the River Avon.
31 July 1265, Simon de Montfort, younger son
of Earl
Simon, had marched west from London on hearing the outcome of the
outcome of the Battle of Newport (8
July 1265), with some 30,000 men. Edward, with 20,000 men, was now threatened on
two sides, east and west, by a combined force twice the size of his own. This
day Edward marched east from Worcester to head off the younger Simon�s
forces.
8 July 1265, Battle of Newport. Simon de Montfort had retreated into
Wales; his effrots vto return to central England were thwarted by Edward�s defence of the River
Severn.
20 January 1265. England�s first Parliament met in Westminster Hall, summoned by Simon De
Montfort,
Earl of
Leicester. De Montfort was the brother-in-law of King Henry III.
14 May 1264, The Battle of Lewes of
the Second Barons' War was fought between Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and King Henry III
of England in
Sussex. By the end of the battle, de Montfort's forces had captured both King
Henry and his son, future King Edward I, making de Montfort the "uncrowned king of
England" for 15 months before Edward escaped captivity and regained the
throne.
11 May 1264, Henry III marched through Kent, captured Tunbridge
Castle, forcing the Cinque Port rebels to submit.� He rested at Lewes.
24 April 1264, After
his victory at Northampton, Henry
III moved
south to deal with De Montfort in London.�
De Montfort had been besieging Rochester Castle, a southern Royalist
stronghold, bit now abandoned the siege to return to protect London.
5 April 1264, Henry
III attacked
Simon de
Montfort�s forces at Northampton Castle and defeated them, forcing all
De Montfort�s forces in the east Midlands to surrender.� De Montfort himself was in London, his other main base of support. The
dispute between Henry and de Montfort had been arbitrated in January 1264 by
King Louis
IX at
Amiens, the Mise of Amiens (Mise = settlement); however de Montfort
refused to
accept this result.
23 January 1264, The Mise of Amiens. An
arbitration between Henry III of England and the Barons, with Louis IX of France as arbiter. The
decision was in Henry�s favour, although he was to respect established Baronial freedoms. De Montfort rejected the decision.
12 June 1261, King
Henry III of England obtained
a papal bull releasing him from his oath to maintain the Provisions of Oxford
(1258), setting the stage for the Second Barons' War (1263�1268).
4 December 1259, Kings Louis IX of France
and Henry III of England agreed to the
Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounced his claims to French-controlled
territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis
withdrawing his support for English rebels.
17 June 1259, Edward I, King of England, was born.
11 June 1258, The Provisions of Oxford
established Baronial control of the English Government.
20 May 1259, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Abbeville,
whereby Britain relinquished claims to French territories.
2 May 1258, King Henry III of England
accepted the demand of the Barons that a committee of 22 Barons, including the
King, be set up to reform Government.
13 October 1252, Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln
led a council of Bishops in refusing to pay a tenth of income as tax to the
King, as directed by Pope Innocent IV.
14 December 1251, King Henry III of England granted the town of
Bolton, Lancashire, a charter to hold a fair.
30 April 1247, Treaty
of Woodstock, see �Wales 587 � 1282� below.
14 December 1247. Robin Hood
is said to have died on this day, aged 87.
24 December 1245, Anselm, only remaining son of William Marshal
the Elder, earl of Pembroke, died childless. The family assets were
divided between the daiughters, so breaking up one of the most powerful Marcher
Earldoms.
16 January 1245, A second son, Edmund, was born to King Henry III
of England amnd Eleanor
of Provence.
7 April 1243, Treaty of Bordeaux. Peace was arranged between
between King
Louis IX of France and King Henry III of England.
16 November 1240, St Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury,
died.
15 May 1240, In Gwynedd, Dafydd succeeded his father Llewyln ap
Iorwerth.
9 June 1238, Peter des Roches, Poitevin Bishop of
Winchester, died at Farnham.
7 January 1238, In England, Simon de Montfort married Eleanor
Plantagenet, sister of Henry III.
17 May 1236, Coronation of Eleanor, wife of King Henry III of England, as
Queen at Westminster Abbey.
24 January 1236, King Henry III of England married Eleanor of
Provence.
2 April 1234, Edmund Rich became Archbishop of Canterbury.
29 July 1232, King Henry III of England dismissed his
Justiciar (Chief Justice Minister) and regent, Hugh de Burgh, and replaced him
with Frenchmen Peter
des Roches and Peter des Riievaulx, which annoyed his barons.
17 May 1220, Full coronation of King Henry III of England at
Westminister Abbey.
5 May 1220, Work began on rebiuilding the town walls of
Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
14 May 1219, William Marshal, Regent to King Henry III
of England, died.
6 November 1217, A rervised version of Magna Carta was
issued.
12 September 1217, First
Barons' War in England ended by the Treaty of Kingston upon Thames: French and Scots to leave England, and an amnesty
was granted to rebels.
24 August 1217, First
Barons' War: In the Battle of Sandwich in the English Channel, English forces
destroyed the French and the French mercenary Eustace the Monk was captured and
beheaded.
17 August 1217. A fleet bringing reinforcement for King Louis was defeated in
the Channel.
20 May 1217, First Barons' War in
England: French forces under Louis (21 May 1216) were defeated at the Battle of Lincoln by
English royal troops led by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke and survivors
forced to flee south. Louis had alienated the English barons who
once supported him as he preferred to bring in French advisors to help him. Louis returned to France.
23 April 1217,
Support in England for Louis Capet was waning.
12 November 1216, King Henry�s Council reconfirmed Magna Carta.
28 October 1216, Henry,
son of John,
was hurriedly crowned as King Henry III, in the face of the Baron�s War
and the unexpected death of King John.
Reign of King John
19 October 1216. King John died suddenly at Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, of a
fever, and was buried in Worcester Cathedral.�
He had been King of England since 1199.�
He was succeeded by his nine year old son Henry III; William
Marshall was made Regent. The young Henry III of England was crowned
at Gloucester on October 28.
11 October 1216, King John�s
baggage was lost in The Wash. His attendants had attempted to ford the estuary
of the River Welland as the tide was coming in, rather than take
a long detour inland to reach Newark.
14 June 1216, King Louis captured Winchester and by the end
of June controlled the southern half of England. King John fled north.
29 May 1216, The Pope excommunicated Louis Capet, who had arrived
earlier in England as the new King.
21 May 1216, King Louis VIII
of France attempted an invasion of England, landing at Stonor. This was at the request of the
English barons who were disgruntled at King John having got Pope Innocent III to annul the Magna Carta (24 August 1215). Moreover
the barons maintained that John had effectively abandoned his kingship,
as he had technically �abdicated� rulership of England to Pope Innocent III (4 March 1215),
which made the barons enemies of the Church if they resisted John.
Louis
was also married to John�s niece, giving him some claim to the
English throne. Louis
entered London with little resistance and was crowned King Louis I of England. King Alexander
II of Scotland also supported
this development,
attending Louis�
coronation.
25 December 1215, King John, who captured the at Rochester,
Kent, 2 weeks earlier, now captured Winchester.
13 October 1215, Civil War resumed in England.
28 August 1215, The Pope excommunicated all those who opposed King John.
24 August 1215, Pope Innocent
III declared the Magna Carta invalid, at the request of King John.
16 July 1215, Because
King John
was slow with his promised reforms, the barons refused to leave London.
15 June 1215. Magna
Carta was sealed by King John at Runnymede,
near Windsor. King John was forced to have the taxation of his subjects
reviewed by a Great Council, which eventually evolved into the Parliament of
today. If the King reneged on the
Charter, a council of 25 barons could take him to war.
22 May 1215, King Philip II Augustus of France
received instructions from the Pope to abandon his invasion of Britain,
following 4 March 1215. King John of England had considerable economic
interests in the District of Flanders, whose cloth merchants received almost
all their wool from England, With English agents in many Flemish towns, France
feared losing influence over the region to England.
17 May 1215, The Barons marched on London, which was thrown open to
them by its Mayor and citizens. King John, realising he had no support in the
capital, hastily withdrew to Windsor.
12 May 1215, King John ordered the sheriffs to confiscate
rebel baron�s lands.
10 May 1215, Archbishop Stephen Langton tried to mediate with the
barons, but in vain.
27 April 1215, In revolt at King John�s refusal to heed their concerns,
they seized Northampton.
4 March 1215, King
John of England made an oath to Pope Innocent III as a crusader to gain his
support. John
also technically passed authority of his kingdom over to the Pope, thereby
making anyone who tried to depose him an enemy of the Pope and liable to
excommunication. This move was a precaution by John who was facing rebellion by
his barons. This healed the rift between King John and Pope Innocent III, see 15 July 1207.
Resentment by
English barons grows
18 September 1214, King John of England made a truce with King Philip II
of France at Chinon. He recognised Capetian territorial gains from
the Angevin Empire.
27 July 1214, The Battle of
Bouvines. Near Lille, France, Philip II Augustus of France defeated an Anglo-German-Flemish alliance.
This dashed the hopes of King John of invading France on two fronts to
recover the Angevin lands, and this humiliation for John brought on the Magna Carta rebellion.
2 July 1214, The Pope lifted the Interdict on England after King John
paid homage to the Chiurch, The same day, John enjoyed military success in France,
taking Angers and besieging Rochesau Moine
1 February 1214, Bishop Peter des Roches of Winchester was
appointed Justiciar (King�s Deputy) by King John, succeeding Geoffrey FitzPeter, who
died in 1213. English barons resented this, seeing it as an extension of French
influence and an erosion of English customs.
30 May 1213, Battle of Damme:
Pope
Innocent III, seeing King John continue in defiance of his wishes (see 23 March 1208) now decided to step up the
pressure He declared John deposed for contumacy, and that the King of France
was to carry out the deposing. On this day the Battle of Damme took place. King John�s English fleet under William
Longesp�e, 3rd Earl of Salisbury destroyed a French fleet off the
Belgian port of Bruges, in the first major victory for the fledgling Royal
Navy. This forced King Philip II Augustus to abandon plans for the
invasion of England.
12 December 1212, Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, illegitimate som of
King Henry II of England, died. He led the English clergy in their refusal to
be taxed by King John, and had to flee England for Normandy in 1207, where he
died.
7 August 1209, King William of Scotland formally paid tribute
to King John
of England and acknowledged English control over Northumbria.
Earlier, John
had built a castle at Tweedmouth, and William had destroyed it.
23 March 1208, Pope Innocent III put� an interdict upon England (see 1205). This entailed the closure of all
churches, with onlt baptism and extreme unction permitted (to save souls).
Marriages could be conducted, but only outside of Church. Most English priests
obeyed the interdict. Many priests who were obedient to the Pope fled abropad
to escape the wrath of King John. King John in turn outlawed these
clergy, confiscated their lands, and the Royal Treasury was soon so full that
he could dispense with ordinary taxation. King John punished and put to death all who
opposed him, with great barbarity. See 30 May 1213.
18 March 1208, Great Yarmouth
was granted a Royal Charter by King John
1 October 1207, Henry III,
son of King
John, was born at Winchester, Hampshire.
28 August 1207, Liverpool
was created a borough by King John. Due to the silting up of the Dee
Estuary Chestetr was declining as a port and Liverpool now became the main
English port for Ireland.
15 July 1207, King John expelled the monks at Canterbury who
were supporters of Stephen Langton. The dispute between John
and Pope Innocent led to King John being excommunicated in 1008; an
interdict was placed upon England, meaning Church services could not officially
be held there. In 1213 Pope Innocent III authorised King Philip II of France to
invade England and depose King John. However see 4 March 1215.
17 June 1207, Pope Innocent III consecrated Stephen Langton
as Archbishop of Canterbury,
following the death of the previous incumbent, Hubert Walter, in 2105. However King John of
England had preferred John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, to succeed to
the post. King
John wrongly suspected Langton of
being a secret ally of Philip of France..
1205, Hubert� Walter,
Archbishop of Canterbury, died. King John wanted John de Gray, Bishop of Norwich,
to succeed him. However the monks of Christ Church Canterbury met secretly and
elected Reginald,
their sub-prior, as Archbishop. They then quicklu sent Reginald to Rome to be consecrated
by Pope
Innocent III, whom they knew to be a keen champion of the supremacy
of Church over Monarch. King John, furious, descended on the monks and
compelled them to elect Gray instead. The Pope, seeing his chance to
assert the primacy of the Church, declared both erlections invalid, one for
secrecy, and the other for force majeure. Instead he insisted on a third
candidate, his friend and Englishman Cardinal Stephen Langton. King John refused to
accept Langton and delared that any oriest who supported Langton would be
outlawed and his lands confiscated. See 23 March 1208.
1 April 1204, Eleanor of
Aquitaine, wife of King Henry II of England, died. She was buried at Fonteraud.
In June 1204 England lost Normandy to the French
King, Philip
Augustus.
8 September 1202, Llewlyn of Gwneddd marched against Prince
Gwenwunwyn of Powys. A settlement avoided conflict, but Powys was
now subordinate to Gwynedd.
1202, Crawley, Sussex, received its
Royal Charter from King John.
11 July 1202, King John acknowledged Lwelyn ap Iorwerth as
Prince of Gwynedd.
1200, There were about 6 million sheep in England,
accounting for half its wealth.
8 October 1200, Coronation of Isabella, second wife of King John of England, as Queen.
25 May 1200, The
town of Ipswich,
population ca. 3,000 received its Royal Charter from King John. Under the terms of
the Charter, the burgesses of Ipswich, a thriving fishimg port
with a trade in salt production and in export of grain and wool to the
Netherlands, received the right to govern the town in return for an annual
payment to the Crown of �65.
22 May 1200, By the Treaty of Le Goulet, King Philip of
France recognised King John of England as Richard II�s heir to his French
possessions. John� ceded Evreux and Vexin (in Normandy) to Philip.
27 May 1199, King John
became King of England. He also became heir to the Angevin lands in France.
Reign of King John
Reign of King Richard I
6 April 1199. Richard I, Richard Lionheart, died, killed by an arrow in battle
whilst besieging Chaluz Castle, a rebel held castle in France, See
also France, 1190s
13 August 1198, In Powys, Wales, an English force under Geoffrey
FitzPeter defeated Prince Gwenwynwyn at Painscastle.
17 April 1194, Second coronation of Richard I of England, a ceremony he arranged
after his return from the Crusades, following John�s attempt to usurp the
throne, to re-establish his authority.
26 March 1194, Richard captured Nottingham Castle � the cause
of his brother, John
was lost. However see 6 April 1199.
3 March 1194, King Richard I of England began to build an
anti-French coalition to combat the aspirations of his btother John
and his French allies.
29 June 1193, King Richard I of England was released by Holy
Roman Emperor Henry
IV, to whom Leopold of Austria had passed him. Richard
became Henry
I�s vassal.
11 December 1192, Returning from the Crusades, King Richard I of England was
captured near Vienna by Leopold, Duke of Austria. Richard�s brother John,
who had pretensions to the throne, now allied with Philip I of France.
2 November 1192. Peace was concluded between
Richard I (Lionheart) of England and Saladdin of Jerusalem. The Crusades never
achieved their objective of liberating the Holy Land from the Muslims but
because they caused the death of so many noblemen the system of serfdom
and landholding in Europe was gradually dismantled. Feudalism gradually
ended over the period from 1300 to the Thirty Year�s War, 1618-48.
18 August 1191, Archbishop Walter of Rouen was finally
consecrated Archbishop of York, after being elected to the post 2 years
earlier.
12 May 1191, Berengaria, wife of King Richard I of England, was crowned Queen at St George�s
Chapel, Limassol, Cyprus.
4 July 1190, Richard I set out on a Crusade, leaving his
younger brother John
in Europe. See also France, 1190s
3 September 1189. Richard the Lionheart (Richard I) was crowned King at Westminster, after his father Henry II