Part IV The Modern English Period

whisky (1710)

clan (1420)

slogan (1510)

trousers (1610)

pistol (1570)

robot (1920)

landscape (1600)

justice (1140)

city (1220)

parliament (1290)

communism (1840)

camouflage (1910)

seminar (1890)

apartheid (1950)

priest (600)

church (700)

idea (1430)

alphabet (1510)

cosmos (1650)

coach (1560)

caste (1550)

tank (1620)

mosquito (1580)

cargo (1660)

umbrella (1610)

balcony (1620)

sonata (1690)

candle (700)

street (700)

altar (1000)

cup (1000)

minute (1420)

ski (1850)

muzhik (1570)

tsar (1670)

samovar (1830)

cosmonaut (1960)

mazurka (1820)

lemon (1400)

algebra (1540)

sofa (1620)

coffee (1600)

cossak (1600)

kiosk (1620)

silk (1000)

tea (1650)

bungalow (1680)

shampoo (1760)

kimono (1890)

yak (1800)

kiwi (1830)

kangaroo (1770)

dingo (1720)

skull (900)

1. sane

2. speak

3. rise

4. how

5. moon

6. hurt

7. fare

8. luck

9. love

10. ladder

11. leisure

12. folk

13. calm

14. author (MidE autour)

15. weather (MidE weder)

16. brought

17. tough

18. do

Prehistoric Britain

The first men and women came to Britain over two and a half million years ago. They were hunters and gatherers of food who used simple stone tools and weapons.

500,000 BC

People migrate to Britain from Europe

6500

Seas rise, cutting Britain off from mainland Europe

3000

New Stone Age begins: farming people arrive from Europe.

3000

First stone circles erected

2100

Bronze Age begins

2000

Stonehenge built

1650

Trade routes begin to form

1200

Small Villages are first formed

750

Iron Age begins: iron replaces bronze as most useful metal.

Population about 150,000

500

The Celtic people arrive from Central Europe. The Celts were farmers and lived in small village groups in the centre of their arable fields. They were also warlike people. The Celts fought against the people of Britain and other Celtic tribes

Roman Britain

The Romans were the first to invade us and came to Britain nearly 2000 years ago. They changed our country. The Roman Empire made its mark on Britain, and even today, the ruins of Roman buildings, forts, roads, and baths can be found all over Britain.

Britain was part of the Roman Empire for almost 400 years!

By the time the Roman armies left around 410 AD, they had established medical practice, a language of administration and law and had created great public buildings and roads.

Many English words are derived from the Latin language of the Romans

Abroad Britain 55 BC

Julius Caesar heads first Roman Invasion but later withdraws

43

Romans invade and Britain becomes part of the Roman Empire

50

London Founded

61

Boadicea leads the Iceni in revolt against the Romans

70

Romans conquer Wales and the North

122–128

Emperor Hadrian builds a wall on the Scottish Border. Hadrian was a gifted administrator who set in place a policy of creating natural or man-made barriers at the empire's outer limits. Inside he envisaged a commonwealth of peoples set apart from the 'barbarians'. A 73-mile-long stone wall was built by Roman soldiers, stretching from modern Newcastle to Carlisle. It marked the northernmost boundary of the empire, serving as a 'porous' border control for the movement of people and goods, or as a strong defensive fortification in times of strife. The remnants of the Wall are still a popular tourists’ attraction

140

Romans conquer Scotland

401–410

The Romans withdraw from Britain: Anglo Saxons migrants begin to Settle Britons send a vain appeal for military assistance to the Roman emperor.

By 410, troops were continually being withdrawn from Britain to help fight wars elsewhere in the empire. There was a general and persistent state of military crisis. With incursions on all fronts by Angles, Saxons, Picts and Scots, Britain appealed to emperor Honorius for help. Honorius wrote to them telling them to 'look to their own defences'. This act is often seen as marking the end of Roman Britain, although Roman institutions and their way of life endured

Anglo-Saxon Britain

The Roman army left Britain about AD 410. When they had gone there was no strong army to defend Britain, and tribes called the Angle, Saxon, and Jute (the Anglo-Saxons) invaded. They left their homelands in northern Germany, Denmark and northern Holland and rowed across the North Sea in wooden boats.

The Anglo-Saxons ruled most of Britain but never conquered Cornwall in the south-west, Wales in the west, or Scotland in the north. They divided the country into kingdoms.

Missionaries from Roman spread Christianity across southern Britain

450–750

Invasion of the Jutes from Jutland, Angles from South of Denmark and Saxons from Germany.

Britain is divided up into the Seven Kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Essex, Sussex and Kent.

The traditional date of 449 AD for the arrival of the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain is taken from the 'Ecclesiastical History of the English', completed by the Venerable Bede, a Benedictine monk, in 731 AD. It is almost certainly wrong, and other sources suggest that the arrival of Angles and Saxons was part of a process of conquest and settlement that began earlier, and continued until later

597

St Augustine brings Christianity to Britain from Rome and becomes Archbishop of Canterbury. At the instigation of by Pope Gregory I, Augustine led a mission to England in 596 AD, probably as the result of a request of Æthelberht, king of Kent whose wife was Christian. He arrived In 597 AD and Æthelberht gave him land in Canterbury to build a church. Æthelberht became the first Anglo-Saxon king to turn his back on paganism and become Christian. Augustine was made a saint, sometimes termed 'Augustine the Less' to distinguish him from the first St Augustine

617

Northumbria becomes the Supreme Kingdom

779

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

After ruling Mercia for 41 years, Æthelbald was murdered by his own bodyguard for reasons unknown. The ensuing civil war saw Offa emerge as his successor and become the most powerful of the English kings of the later 8th century. His name survives to this day in 'Offa's Dyke', the 80-mile-long earthwork which marked his border with the Welsh kingdoms

Viking Britain

The Viking Age in Britainbegan about 1,200 years ago in the 8th Century AD and lasted for 300 years.

793

First invasion by the Vikings

821

Wessex becomes the Supreme Kingdom

866–877

Invasion of the Great Danish (Viking) Army

867

The Vikings take Northumbria

871

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

886

The North subjected to the Danelaw, the rules of the Vikings.

Alfred, king of Wessex, had retaken London and now brought the Vikings under King Guthrum to terms. The treaty between Wessex, Guthrum and the East Angles divided England. Alfred and Wessex retained the west, while the east (between the Thames and Tees rivers) was to be Viking territory – later known as the 'Danelaw' – where English and (Danish) Vikings were equal in law.

889

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle starts

926

Eastern England (Danelaw) is conquered by the Saxons

1016

King Canute of Denmark captures the English Crown

1040

Macbeth defeats Duncan I of Scotland and makes himself king

The rebel Macbeth's victory over Duncan was followed by a long and relatively successful reign, which seems to have born little relation to the events portrayed in William Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth'. Macbeth and his wife had a reputation for piety, and in 1050 he went on pilgrimage to Rome. In 1054, Macbeth was ousted by Duncan's son Malcolm III (1054-1093), but was not finally killed until the Battle of Lumphanan in 1057.

1042

Edward the Confessor becomes King

1055

Westminster Abbey is completed

The Middle Ages – Medieval Britain (Normans).

The Middle Ages in Britain cover a huge period. They take us from the shock of the Norman Conquest, which began in 1066, to the devasting Black Death of 1348, the Hundred Years' War with France and the War of the Roses, which finally ended in 1485.

The Normans built impressive castles, imposed a feudal system and carried out a census of the country.

6 January 1066

Edward the Confessor dies and is succeed by Harold Godwinson.

Harold, earl of Wessex, was crowned king of England on 6 January 1066, the same day as the funeral of his predecessor, Edward the Confessor. He was immediately faced with powerful threats from William, duke of Normandy, and Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, both of whom laid claim to the English throne.

1066

The Battle of Hastings: The invading Normans defeat the Saxons.

William of Normandy defeats Harold with a lucky shot and becomes King of England – Norman Conquest.

Harold II met William of Normandy near Hastings. The two armies were evenly matched in numbers, but Harold's men were exhausted after a long march back from the hard-fought Battle of Stamford Bridge. Nonetheless, the battle lasted the whole day. The English defensive shield wall was finally broken by the Norman tactic of using feigned retreats to lure Harold's troops into charging then cutting them down with cavalry. The Norman triumph was total. Harold was killed along with many Saxon nobles.

1078

Work starts on The Tower of London

1086

The Domesday Book is compiled, a complete inventory of Britain. While at court in Gloucester, William decided to undertake a survey of his English realm. The country was divided into circuits, and groups of commissioners gathered information in the counties of individual circuits. Initial returns were probably completed by the summer of 1086. The information gathered came to be known as the Domesday Book (Domesday meaning 'day of judgement'). It was the most complete record of any country at that time and remains a legally valid document.

1167

Oxford University Founded

1170

Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket is murdered by the knights of Henry II. Thomas Becket had been Henry's close friend and his chancellor. But when Henry appointed him archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, Becket began to take the side of the Church against the king, and the two quarrelled. Responding to an outburst of frustration by the king against Becket, four knights murdered Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Within a few years of his death, Becket was canonised and Canterbury became a site of pilgrimage.

1215

Civil War

1215

The Magna Carta is signed by King John. A rebellion by northern barons led to a meeting between King John and their leaders at Runnymede on the River Thames. At the meeting, the Magna Carta or 'Great Charter' was signed. It was essentially a list of baronial grievances relating to the king’s exploitation of taxation and privileges. More significantly, it represents the first time that defined limitations to royal rights were established in written law.

1282–1283

King Edward conquers Wales. Llewellyn ab Gruffydd, the country's last prince is killed

1296

King Edward invades Scotland and takes the Stone of Destiny from Scone to Westminster

1297

The Battle of Stirling Bridge

The Scots under William Wallace defeat the English

1298

The Battle of Falkirk. King Edward defeats Wallace.

1306

Robert Bruce crowned King of the Scots

1321–1322

Civil War

1337

King Edward claims the Throne of France

1337–1453

Hundred Years' War with France. The 'Hundred Years' War' is the name historians have given to a series of related conflicts fought over the course of more than a century between England and France. The causes were complex and varied, but included English territorial and dynastic ambitions in France. The war began with Philip VI's confiscation of Gascony, which led Edward III of England to declare himself the rightful heir to the French throne.

1348–1349

The Black Death (bubonic plague) arrived in England and killed nearly half of the population

1387

Geoffrey Chaucer starts writing the Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first great poet of the English language. Before him, most writers used either French or Latin in preference to the more plebeian English. His best-known work is the unfinished ‘Canterbury Tales’ in which a diverse group of people recount stories to pass the time on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.

1453

The Hundred Years War against France ends

1455

Civil War: The War of the Roses starts. Wars of the Roses begin with first Battle of St Albans

By the 1450s, many considered Henry VI's bouts of insanity to have rendered him incapable of rule. In 1453, Richard, Duke of York, was appointed Lord Protector until Henry briefly recovered. York was then driven out by Henry VI's wife, Margaret. York marched on London and defeated Henry's supporters (the Lancastrians) at St Albans. This relatively small battle marks the beginning of a civil war between two branches of the royal family – York and Lancaster – that lasted intermittently until 1485.

Tudor Britain

The Tudors were a Welsh-English family that ruled England from 1485 to 1603 – one of the most exciting periods of British history. Henry VIII's matrimonial difficulties led to the split with Catholicism. Henry made himself head of the Church of England.

1485

The War of the Roses ends at the Battle of Bosworth. Henry Vll crowned king.

1497

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

1509–1547

Henry Vlll succeeds to the throne

1534

Henry VIII forms the 'Church of England'. Henry is confirmed as 'Supreme Head of the Church of England 'following a parliamentary Act of Supremacy

1536

Act of Union joins England and Wales

1542

Mary, Queen of Scots lays claim to the English throne

1558

Elizabeth I begins her 45 year reign

1570

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

1587

Queen Elizabeth I executes Mary, Queen of Scots

1588

The English defeat the Spanish Armada

1591

First performance of a play by William Shakespeare

1600

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

Population of Britain just over 4 million

Stuart Britain

The Stuarts had ruled Scotland since 1371, but James VI of Scotland was the first Stuart king of England.

1603

James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England uniting the two kingdoms

1605

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

1606

The Union Flag adopted as the National Flag

1611

'King James Bible' is published

By the end of the 16th century, there were several different English bibles in circulation and the church authorities felt a definitive version was needed. The 'Authorised Version of the Bible' (also known as the 'King James Bible') was commissioned in 1604. It became the most famous English translation of the scriptures and had a profound impact on the English language.

1620

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

1624–1630

War with Spain

1626–1629

War with France

1629

Parliament dissolved by King Charles

1642–1651

Civil War

1649

King Charles executed

1649–1650

Cromwell's conquest of Ireland

1650–1652

Cromwell's conquest of Scotland

1653

Cromwell proclaimed Lord Protector

1660

Restoration of the Monarchy under King Charles II

1664–1665

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

1666

Great Fire of London

1692

William III massacres the Jacobites at Glencoe

1707

Act of Union between Scotland and England. The Scottish parliament was dissolved and England and Scotland became one country.

Georgian Britain

In 1714 the British throne passed to a German family, the Hanoverians.

1714

George of Hanover, Germany succeeds Queen Anne to the Throne

1776

America declares independence from Britain

1780's

Industrial Revolution Begins

1788

First convict ships are sent to Australia

1796

Edward Jenner invented a vaccination against small pox

1800

Act of Union with Ireland

1801

The first census. Population of Britain 8 million

Ireland made part of the United Kingdom

1805

Lord Nelson defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar

1807

Abolition of Slave Trade

1815

Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo

1825

World's first railway opens between Stockton and Darlington

1829

Robert Peel set up the Metropolitan Police force

Victorian Britain

The Victorians lived over one hundred and fifty years ago during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 to 1901) and was a time of enormous change in this country. In 1837 most people lived in villages and worked on the land; by 1901, most lived in towns and worked in offices, shops and factories.

1837

Queen Victoria becomes Queen at the age of 18

1840

The first postage stamps (Penny Post) came into use

1845–1849

Ireland suffered the Great Potato Famine when entire crops of potao, the staple Irish food, were ruined. The famine was a consequence of the appearance of blight, the potato fungus. About 800,000 people died as a result of the famine. A large number of people migrated to Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia

1850s

The first post boxes were built

1863

London Underground opens

1868

The last public hanging

1870

Education Act means school for everyone

1876

Alexander Bell invented the telephone

Primary education was made compulsory

1877

The first public electric lighting in London

1891

Free education for every child

Modern Britain

1902

Britain defeats Dutch settlers in Boer War in South Africa

1914–1918

First World War

Compulsory military service and food rationing introduced

1939–1945

The Second World War

1952

Elizabeth II becomes Queen

1973

Britain joins the European Community

1979

Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first woman prime minister

1982

Falklands War

1991

Gulf War

1991

Sir Tim Berners Lee invents the World Wide Web

1994

Channel Tunnel links Britain back to the European continent

1999

Welsh national assembly and Scottish parliament

2003

The Second Gulf War

2003

England Wins the Rugby World Cup