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.

450 Saxons Hengist and Horsa settle in Kent.

460 St Patrick returns to convert Ireland

510 The Battle of Mount Badon: British victory over the Saxons

597 St Augustine brings Christianity to Britain from Rome and becomes Archbishop of Canterbury

617 Northumbria becomes the Supreme Kingdom

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

Viking Britain

The Viking Age in Britain began about 1,200 years ago in the 8th Century AD and lasted for 300 years. The Vikings first invaded Britain in AD 793 and last invaded in 1066 when William the Conqueror became King of England after the Battle of Hastings.

The first place the Vikings attacked in Britain was the monastery at Lindisfarne, a holy island situated off the Northumberland coast in the north east of England. A few years later the island of Iona (off the west coast of Scotland), came under attack and its monks were slaughtered.

Soon no region of the British Isles (Britain and nearby islands) was safe from the Vikings. They attacked villages and towns in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and England.

No matter how many times the Vikings were beaten, they always came back, and in the end all their efforts paid off. It was the Vikings (Norse) of Normandy who finally conquered England in 1066 and changed British history for ever. Most Vikings who sailed overseas were simply searching for better land for their farms. Their land was not very good for farming. Norway was very hilly, Sweden was covered in forests, and Denmark had a lot of sandy home land. The Vikings settled in:

• Islands off the coast of Scotland - Shetland, Orkney and The Hebrides
• Around the north and north west coast of Scotland
• Parts of Ireland - Dublin is a Viking city
• The Isle of Man
• Small parts of Wales
• Parts of England known as Danelaw

793 First invasion by the Vikings

821 Wessex becomes the Supreme Kingdom

866 - 77 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

889 The Anglo Saxon Chronicle starts

926 Eastern England (Danelaw) is conquered by the Saxons

1016 King Canute of Denmark captures the English Crown

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 start from the shock of the Norman Conquest, which began in 1066, to the devastating 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

1066 The Battle of Stamford Bridge: Saxon victory over invading Vikings

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

1070 Work starts on Canterbury Cathedral

1078 Work starts on The Tower of London

1080 - 1100 Great monastery and cathedral building begins

1086 The Domesday Book is compiled, a complete inventory of Britain

1154 Work starts on York Minster

1167 Oxford University Founded

1170 Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket is murdered by the knights of Henry II

1170 Population of London exceeds 30,000 for the first time

1174 Work starts on Wells Cathedral

1215 Civil War

1215 The Magna Carta is signed by King John

1220 Work starts on Salisbury

1282 - 1283 King Edward conquers Wales.

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

1314 Scots led by Robert the Bruce defeat the English at the battle of Bannockburn

1321-22 Civil War

1337 King Edward claims the Throne of France

1337 - 1453 Hundred Years' War with France

1348 - 49 The Black Death (bubonic plague) arrived in England and killed nearly half of the population

1387 Geoffrey Chaucer starts writing the Canterbury Tales

1415 English defeat the French at the battle of Agincourt

1453 The Hundred Years War against France ends

1455 Civil War: The War of the Roses starts

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 2101