Early Britain (to about 1066)
- Stone Age: first farmers around 6,000 years ago. Stonehenge and Skara Brae (Orkney) date from this era.
- Bronze Age (around 4,000 years ago): people lived in roundhouses; tools and weapons made from bronze.
- Iron Age: Celtic culture; first coins made in Britain.
- The Romans: Julius Caesar's failed invasion in 55 BC; successful invasion under Emperor Claudius in AD 43. The Romans built roads, towns and Hadrian's Wall (to keep out the Picts of Scotland). They left around AD 410.
- The Anglo-Saxons: tribes from northern Europe filled the gap. England gets its name from the Angles.
- The Vikings: from Denmark and Norway, first raided in AD 789. They settled in eastern England and parts of Scotland and Ireland.
The Middle Ages (1066 - 1485)
The Norman Conquest
In 1066, William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings and became King William I of England. This was the last successful foreign invasion of England.
The Norman conquest brought the French language, a strong central government, and the Domesday Book (1086) — a census of England's land and people.
Wars and conflicts
- The Crusades — English kings fought to recover Jerusalem from Muslim rule.
- The Hundred Years War with France (actually 116 years, 1337-1453). Notable English victory at Agincourt (1415) under Henry V.
- Wars with Scotland and Wales. Edward I annexed Wales; the Welsh prince Llywelyn was defeated. Scotland resisted longer, with Robert the Bruce beating the English at Bannockburn (1314).
Magna Carta (1215)
Black Death (1348)
A plague that killed about one third of the population of England, Wales and Scotland. With fewer workers, peasants could demand better wages — this gradually weakened the feudal system.
The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485)
A civil war between the House of Lancaster (red rose) and the House of York (white rose). It ended at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 when Henry Tudordefeated Richard III and became Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch.
The Tudors and Stuarts (1485 - 1714)
Henry VIII and the Reformation
Henry VIII had six wives (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr). When the Pope refused to let him divorce Catherine of Aragon, Henry broke with Rome and established the Church of England in the 1530s, with himself as head.
Elizabeth I
Henry's daughter Elizabeth I (1558-1603) was a popular Protestant queen. In 1588, the English defeated the Spanish Armada. Her reign is considered a golden age — the era of Shakespeare and of English exploration.
The Stuarts and the Civil War
- 1603: Elizabeth died childless; James VI of Scotland became James I of England, uniting the crowns.
- 1605: the Gunpowder Plot — a Catholic conspiracy led by Guy Fawkes to blow up Parliament — was foiled. Bonfire Night (5 November) marks this.
- The English Civil War (1642-1651): between the king's supporters (Cavaliers) and Parliament's supporters (Roundheads). King Charles I was executed in 1649.
- Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of the republic. After his death the monarchy was restored under Charles II (1660).
- 1688 — the Glorious Revolution: the Catholic James II was replaced by the Protestant William of Orange and his wife Mary, after Parliament invited them to invade.
- The Bill of Rights (1689) set out limits on royal power and confirmed Parliament's authority.
A global power (1714 - 1900)
- 1707 — the Act of Union: Scotland and England joined to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.
- The Hanoverians succeeded the Stuarts in 1714. George I was the first.
- The role of Prime Minister emerged. Sir Robert Walpole is regarded as the first PM (from 1721).
- Industrial Revolution from the late 1700s — Britain became the first industrialised nation. Steam, factories, railways.
- The British Empire expanded to cover about a quarter of the world. By the late Victorian era it included India, parts of Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
- 1801 — Act of Union created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- Battle of Trafalgar (1805): Admiral Nelson defeated the French and Spanish fleets. Nelson died in the battle; his column stands in Trafalgar Square, London.
- Battle of Waterloo (1815): the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
- Slavery was abolished throughout the Empire in 1833.
- The Crimean War (1853-1856) — Britain, France and Turkey vs Russia. Florence Nightingale is famous for nursing reform here.
- The Victorian era (1837-1901): Queen Victoria's long reign — empire, industry, and great novelists like Charles Dickens.
The 20th century
First World War (1914-1918)
Britain, France, Russia, Japan, the USA and others fought against Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Turkey and others. About 2 million British casualties. The war ended at 11am on 11 November 1918 — remembered on Remembrance Day with poppies.
Between the wars
- 1922: Irish Free State established (Northern Ireland remained in the UK).
- 1928: women got the vote on equal terms with men (over 21).
- The Great Depression of the 1930s caused mass unemployment.
Second World War (1939-1945)
- Britain declared war on Germany after Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939.
- Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940 and led Britain through the war.
- The Battle of Britain (1940) — the RAF defeated the German Luftwaffe; "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
- D-Day, 6 June 1944: Allied forces landed in Normandy.
- The war in Europe ended on 8 May 1945 (VE Day); in the Pacific in August 1945.
Britain since 1945
- 1945 Labour government created the welfare state, including the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 — free healthcare for all at the point of use.
- Decolonisation: over the next 30 years most of the Empire became independent. The Commonwealth was formed as a voluntary association of these countries.
- 1948 Empire Windrush — large-scale post-war migration from the Caribbean, then later from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and elsewhere.
- 1969: voting age lowered from 21 to 18.
- 1973: UK joined the European Economic Community (the forerunner of the EU).
- Margaret Thatcher (PM 1979-1990) — the UK's first female Prime Minister. Privatised industries, won the Falklands War (1982).
- 1998: the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement largely ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
- 1999: Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly established.
- 2016: the UK voted to leave the EU. The UK formally left on 31 January 2020.