2500 BC Stone village with stone furniture
A small neolithic community builds a village at Skara Brae in the Orkneys, of stone houses with built-in stone furniture

2500 BC Largest stones at Stonehenge
At Stonehenge, constructed and altered over many centuries, the largest stones are put in place

2200 BC Standing stones at Avebury
A ring of large standing stones is raised in England at Avebury, now a village in Wiltshire

2000 BC Beaker folk in Britain
The Beaker people arrive in Britain, bringing several desirable commodities - including horses, alcohol and bronze

310 BC Greek explorer sails beyond Britain
Pytheas, a Greek explorer, sails up the west coast of Britain and finds beyond it a more northerly land which he calls Thule

300 BC Celts cross Channel
The Celts move across the Channel into Britain, soon becoming the dominant ethnic group in the island

55 BC Britain invaded by Caesar
Julius Caesar makes the first of his two invasions of Celtic Britain

54 BC Caesar invades Britain again
Julius Caesar returns to Britain for a second visit, this time reaching north of the Thames into the kingdom of Cassivellaunus

40 Cymbeline dies
The death of Cymbeline is a prelude to the renewed Roman invasion of Celtic Britain

43 Romans invade Britain and stay
The Romans invade Britain and the tribal leader Caractacus fails to hold them in an encounter near the Medway

43 Claudius arrives in London
The emperor Claudius catches up with the Roman army, waiting at the Thames for him to lead the final victory over the English tribes

43 Claudius worshipped as god
The Roman emperor Claudius reaches Colchester, where a temple is erected to him as a god

60 Boudicca attacks Romans
Boudicca launches a devastating attack on Roman soldiers and settlers, destroying their headquarters at Colchester

77 Agricola subdues Wales
Agricola, appointed Roman governor of Britain in AD 77, establishes Chester as a stronghold from which to control the Welsh tribes

83 Agricola defeats the Scottish tribes
Agricola defeats the tribes of Scotland at an unidentified place called Mons Graupius, probably almost as far north as Aberdeen

122 Hadrian's Wall
The emperor Hadrian, visiting Britain, orders the construction of a great wall from coast to coast to keep out the Caledonian tribes

142 Antonine Wall
The emperor Antoninus Pius gives orders for the construction of a defensive earthwork, to the north of Hadrian's Wall

250 Picts dominant in Scotland
The Picts win a dominant position among tribes in the northern regions of Britain, or Scotland

306 Constantine proclaimed emperor in York
Constantine's father, recently appoinnted Augustus in the west, dies at York and the young man is proclaimed Augustus in his place by the legions in Britain

450 Angles and Saxons enter England
Angles, Saxons and other Germanic groups invade southern England and steadily push the Celts westwards

563 St Columba on Iona
St Columba establishes a monastery on the island of Iona, from which Celtic Christianity is carried to Scotland and northern England

597 Augustine's warm welcome in Canterbury
Augustine, arriving with a party of monks from Rome, reaches Canterbury and is well received by the pagan king of Kent

600 Scots leave Ireland for new life
The Scots, a tribal group of northern Ireland, extend their kingdom across the sea into Scotland

650 Vikings maraud in longships
The Vikings develop the fast and narrow longships with which they raid across the North Sea

664 Northumbria chooses England's Christianity
The king of Northumbria summons a synod at Whitby to hear the arguments of Roman and Celtic Christians, then opts for Rome

698 Lindisfarne Gospels
The Lindisfarne Gospels are written and illuminated by Celtic monks on the Scottish island of Lindisfarne

700 Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy
Many Anglo-Saxon kingdoms have by now amalgated, until there are just the seven of the Heptarchy

731 Venerable Bede completes task
The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people

780 Anglo-Saxons name the Welsh
The Anglo-Saxons have a name for the Celts west of Offa's dyke - wealas or Welsh, meaning foreigners

800 Beowulf
Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons

843 King of Scots accepted by Picts
Kenneth king of the Scots is accepted also as king of the Picts, providing the traditional founding event of the kingdom of Scotland

850 Vikings have northern Scotland
Vikings are by now securely established in the Orkneys, Shetlands and Hebrides, and in much of the Scottish mainlaid down to Loch Ness

850 Stone of Scone
As a gesture of unity, Kenneth MacAlpin brings to Scone (a Pictish royal site) a sacred coronation stone associated with the Scots

866 Danes capture York
A great army of Danes captures York - the first step in the establishment of Danelaw in eastern England

871 Alfred defeats Danes in Wessex
The young Alfred leads the English in their first significant victory over the Danes, at Ashdown

950 Eddas in Iceland
The material of the Eddas, taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy

991 English appease Danes
New waves of Danes, raiding into the English territory of Danelaw, are bought off by Ethelred with Danegeld

1017 Canute king of England
Canute, joint king of Denmark, is accepted also as king of England after subduing the country and marrying Ethelred's widow

1040 Macbeth slays Duncan on battlefield
In a battle near Elgin Macbeth kills his cousin Duncan, a rival claimant to the Scottish throne

1042 Edward the Confessor king of England
Edward the Confessor, the rightful heir in the Anglo-Saxon royal line, becomes king of England

1057 Duncan's son slays Macbeth
Duncan's son, Malcolm, kills Macbeth in battle at Lumphanan - and in the following year is himself crowned at Scone

1066 Harold is promised English throne
On his death bed in Westminster, Edward the Confessor designates Harold - foremost among England's barons - as his successor

1066 Marvellous comet appears
Halley's comet, appearing in the Normans' annus mirabilis, is later depicted in the Bayeux tapestry

1066 Harold wins at Stamford Bridge
Harold defeats at Stamford Bridge the joint army of his brother Tostig and of the Norwegian king, Harald Hardraade

1066 Normans invade England in longships
The Normans, as seen in the Bayeux tapestry, invade England in Viking longships with fortified platforms for archers

1066 Harold loses at Hastings
Harold, hurrying south to confront the Normans after his victory at Stamford Bridge, is defeated and killed at Hastings

1066 William crowned in Westminster Abbey
William the Conqueror (William I) is crowned on Christmas Day at Westminster - giving the new abbey church two coronations and a royal funeral in its first year

1078 Anselm claims to prove that God exists
Anselm includes in his Proslogion his famous 'ontological proof' of the existence of God

1080 Work begins on Bayeux tapestry
Work begins on the story of the Norman conquest, narrated in embroidery in the Bayeux tapestry

1080 Marcher lords threaten the Welsh
Norman earls are given territories on the marches of Wales, with the specific task of raiding their neighbours

1087 William II is king of England
On the death of his father, William the Conqueror, William II becomes king of England

1087 Domesday Book
The Domesday Book provides the Normans with an inventory of England

1100 Henry I is king of England
On the death of his brother, William II, Henry I becomes king of England

1135 Stephen challenges Matilda
On the death of Henry I, his nephew Stephen moves quickly to keep Henry's daughter Matilda off the English throne

1136 Walter the steward becomes a Stewart
Walter FitzAlan takes a post as steward with the Scottish king, thus establishing the Stewart family and later dynasty

1154 Henry II rules from Tweed to Pyrenees
Henry II, coming to the throne of England, is king or feudal overlord of an unbroken swathe of territory from the Tweed to the Pyrenees

1162 Becket is archbishop
Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor to Henry II, is forced by the king to accept the vacant post of archbishop of Canterbury

1164 Becket flees to safety in France
Thomas Becket, having offended the king by his firm stand as archbishop of Canterbury, flees to a monastery near Paris

1170 'Young King' crowned in England
Henry II arranges for the archbishop of York to crown his son, the 'Young King', as a joint ruler

1170 Becket suspends English bishops
Thomas Becket, in France, suspends the English bishops who have participated in the coronation of the 'Young King'

1170 Becket returns to Canterbury
After an apparent reconciliation with Henry II, Thomas Becket leaves France and returns to Canterbury

1170 Murder in the cathedral
Four knights, acting on an unguarded hint from Henry II, murder Thomas Becket on December 29 in his cathedral at Canterbury

1176 London gets a bridge
Construction begins on London Bridge, the first stone bridge to be built across a tidal waterway

1176 First eisteddfod
The first known eisteddfod is held during Christmas festivities at Rhys ap Gruffydd's court in Cardigan castle

1190 Richard I goes on crusade
A year after succeeding to the throne of England, Richard I sets off east as one of the leaders of the third crusade

1192 Richard I recognized in Austrian inn
Richard I, returning from the Holy Land in disguise, is recognized in an inn near Vienna and is imprisoned until England pays a massive ransom

1199 John is king of England
On the death of his brother, Richard I, John becomes king of England

1200 Longbow in Wales
The longbow, a weapon of great use to English armies, is probably first developed in Wales

1215 Magna Carta and liberty
In Magna Carta's lesser clauses (39 and 40) there are enshrined certain basic guarantees concerning the rule of law

1216 Henry III is king of England
On the death of his father, King John, Henry III becomes king of England

1220 Llewellyn is called prince of Wales
Llewellyn ap Iorwerth acquires such authority over other Welsh chieftains that he is informally referred to as the prince of Wales

1225 Henry III reissues Magna Carta
Magna Carta is reissued slightly modified when Henry III comes of age; in the version which becomes enshrined in English law

1255 Pope offers Sicily to English prince
The pope, eager to fill the vacant throne of Sicily, offers it to a son of Henry III of England but gets no firm response

1258 Provisions of Oxford
Henry III accepts severe curtailment of his powers in the Provisions of Oxford, but then asks the pope to absolve him from his oath

1265 Prince kills de Montfort
Prince Edward, escaping from captivity, defeats and kills Simon de Montfort at Evesham

1267 English acknowledge prince of Wales
In a treaty agreed at Shrewsbury, the English king Henry III acknowledges Llewellyn ap Gruffydd as the prince of Wales

1268 Lens and spectacles invented
The first mention of a lens occurs in a manuscript by Roger Bacon, to be soon followed by the invention of spectacles

1272 Edward I is king of England
Edward I is in Sicily when he becomes king of England, on the death of his father, Henry III

1282 Uprising by prince of Wales
An uprising by Llewellyn ap Gruffydd, the prince of Wales, ends with his own death and the subjugation of Wales by the king of England, Edward I

1283 New castles to subdue the Welsh
Edward I begins a series of powerful castles - Harlech, Caernarfon and Conwy in this year alone - to subdue the Welsh

1290 Jews expelled from England
The Jews in England are driven out of the country, soon to be followed by those in France

1295 Model Parliament in Westminster Hall
The parliament summoned by Edward I in Westminster Hall is later seen as a 'model' for the breadth of its representation

1296 English remove Stone of Scone
Edward I invades Scotland, massacres the people of Berwick, captures John de Balliol and brings to Westminster the Stone of Scone

1297 William Wallace shows a brave heart
William Wallace's victory over the English at Stirling Bridge enables him to rule Scotland on behalf of John de Balliol

1298 Longbow too much for Scots
The English longbow, in one of its early appearances, proves too much for the Scots at Falkirk

1298 Edward I defeats Wallace at Falkirk
Edward I's victory at Falkirk ends the career of William Wallace, of whom nothing more is heard until his capture and execution in 1305

1299 First bowling green
Southampton boasts the earliest known bowling green, mentioned in a document of this year

1300 Duns Scotus, genius or dunce
Duns Scotus, known as the Subtle Doctor in medieval times, later provides humanists with the name Dunsman or dunce

1301 English prince of Wales
Edward I, conqueror of Wales, bestows the cherished title 'prince of Wales' on his own heir, the future Edward II

1306 Robert de Bruce is king of Scots
After the murder of his rival, in a church in Dumfries, Robert de Bruce is crowned king of Scots at Scone

1307 Edward II is king of England
On the death of his father, Edward I, Edward II becomes king of England

1314 Victory for Bruce at Bannockburn
After years of guerilla warfare, Robert de Bruce defeats the English conclusively at Bannockburn - and becomes at last secure in his kingdom

1326 Edward II imprisoned
Edward II is captured and imprisoned by his queen, Isabella, and her lover, Mortimer

1327 Edward III replaces his father
Isabella forces Edward II to renounce the English throne in favour of their 15-year-old son, Edward III

1327 Edward II murdered in Berkeley castle
Edward II, imprisoned by his wife and her lover, dies in Berkeley castle - almost certainly the victim of murder

1328 English accept independent Scottish kingdom
The English finally accept a treaty, in Edinburgh, declaring that Robert de Bruce is king of a Scotland 'free and divided from the kingdom of England'

1329 David II is king of Scots
On the death of his father, Robert the Bruce, David II becomes king of Scotland

1337 Property dispute launches Hundred Years' War
Philip VI of France confiscates Guienne, a fief belonging to Edward III of England - whose response begins the Hundred Years' War

1340 English king claims France
Edward III, in Ghent, publicly assumes the title and the arms of the king of France

1340 Ockham's Razor
William of Ockham advocates paring down arguments to their essentials, an approach later known as Ockham's Razor

1347 Knights of the Garter
Edward III establishes a new kind of knighthood with the Order of the Garter, conferred purely as an honour

1367 Will is possibly Langland
A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman

1367 Chaucer serves in palace
One of four new yeomen of the chamber in Edward III's household is Geoffrey Chaucer

1371 Stewart dynasty on Scottish throne
On the death of his uncle, David II, Robert Stewart becomes king of Scotland as Robert II

1375 Green knight issues challenge
The courtly poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells of a mysterious visitor to the round table of King Arthur

1376 Wycliffe critical of corrupt church
John Wycliffe, writing mainly in Oxford, is critical of the contemporary church and can find no basis for the pope's authority

1381 Peasants' revolt
A poll tax imposed in England provokes widespread unrest, which flares up in the Peasants' Revolt

1381 Wat Tyler meets Richard II
Wat Tyler, leader of the Kentish rebels, meets Richard II at Smithfield - before being struck and wounded by the Lord Mayor of London

1385 Chaucer completes Troilus and Criseyde
Chaucer completes Troilus and Criseyde, his long poem about a legendary love affair in ancient Troy

1386 Portugal and England pledge friendship
John I, newly victorious in Portugal, proposes an alliance with England which has never been revoked

1386 New clock in Salisbury Cathedral
A clock, designed only to strike the hours, is installed in Salisbury cathedral and is still working today

1387 Chaucer begins Canterbury Tales
Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death

1390 Robert III is king of Scots
On the death of his father, Robert II, Robert III becomes king of Scotland

1397 Richard II commissions a diptych
The English king, Richard II, commissions a diptych (the Wilton Diptych) showing himself being presented to the Virgin and Child

1399 Henry IV wins Richard's crown
Richard II cedes his crown to Bolingbroke, as Henry IV, and a few months later dies in Pontefract castle - probably starved to death

1400 Lollards follow Wycliffe
The followers of Wycliffe, after his death, become known as Lollards or 'mutterers'

1400 English mystery cycles
The English mystery cycles are performed by trade guilds, on carts pulled from audience to audience around the city

1400 Welsh prince of Wales again
The Welsh rise against the English and proclaim Owain Glyn Dwr as their own prince of Wales

1404 Owain Glyn Dwr victorious
Owain Glyn Dwr captures Aberystwyth and Harlech from the English and sets up an independent Welsh administration

1406 James I is king of Scots
On the death of his father, Robert III, James I becomes king of Scotland

1408 Owain Glyn Dwr loses support
Driven from Aberystwyth and Harlech, Owain Glyn Dwr loses support - and the last Welsh rebellion fades away

1413 Henry V is king
Henry V succeeds his father, Henry IV, as king of England

1420 English king heir to French crown
The treaty of Troyes, between the English and the Burgundian faction, grants Henry V the status of heir to the French throne

1420 Henry V marries Catherine
Henry V marries Catherine, daughter of the French king and sister of the rightful heir to the kingdom, the dauphin, who is on the opposing side

1422 Infant king of England and France
Henry VI, son of Henry V and Catherine of France, is king of England and theoretically king of France before his first birthday

1437 James II is king of Scots
On the death of his father, James I, James II becomes king of Scotland

1455 Clash between white and red roses
An engagement at St Albans is the first battle in the 30-year struggle between the white and red roses of York and Lancaster

1460 James III is king of Scots
On the death of his father, James II, James III becomes king of Scotland

1461 Edward IV triumphant
The first success in the Wars of the Roses goes to the white rose, with the Yorkist prince crowned as Edward IV

1469 Malory in gaol writes about Arthur
Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur

1475 Bribe ends renewed English attack on France
Edward IV, landing at Calais with a large army, is bought off at Picquigny with a bribe - ending his attempt to revive the Hundred Years' War

1476 Caxton sets up in London
Caxton establishes the first English printing press in London, after working in the new trade in Bruges

1483 Edward IV dies
The English king Edward IV dies and his succeeded by his 12-year-old son as Edward V

1483 Princes in the Tower
The two royal princes, Edward V and his younger brother, are confined in the Tower of London by their uncle - soon to be Richard III

1483 Richard III proclaimed
Richard III has himself proclaimed king by a parliament held at Westminster, and begins a short reign of only two years

1485 Henry VII wins at Bosworth Field
Henry Tudor kills Richard III at Bosworth Field and takes the crown as Henry VII

1486 Roses united in Tudor version
Henry VII, whose mother is Lancastrian, marries the Yorkist heiress Elizabeth and thus unites the roses - in the Tudor rose

1488 James IV is king of Scots
On the death of his father, James III, James IV becomes king of Scotland

1497 Cabot explores for England
Henry VII commissions the Italian navigator John Cabot to cross the Atlantic in search of new territories for England

1497 Cabot probably reaches Newfoundland
John Cabot, searching for a trade route to China, probably reaches Newfoundland

1503 Stewart and Tudor wedding
The marriage of James IV, king of Scotland, to Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, leads a century later to the Union of the Crowns

1509 Henry VIII is king of England
On the death of his father, and as the result of the death of his elder brother Arthur, Henry VIII becomes king of England

1510 Erasmus and Christian humanism
Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism

1511 Earliest curling stone
The earliest surviving curling stone, discovered in Scotland, dates from this year

1513 Scots defeated at Flodden
James IV of Scotland dies at Flodden, in the disastrous defeat of his army by the English

1513 James V is king of Scots
On the death of his father at Flodden, the one-year-old James V becomes king of Scotland

1516 Catherine of Aragon has a daughter
Catherine of Aragon gives birth to a daughter, Mary, who becomes the only one of her six children to live beyond infancy

1524 Tyndale at Wittenberg
William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English

1526 Holbein in Chelsea
Hans Holbein the Younger pays his first visit to England, and stays with Thomas More in Chelsea

1528 Bible studies affect divorce
Discussion of Henry VIII's proposed divorce hinges on rival verses from the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy and Leviticus

1529 Thomas More is Lord Chancellor
After the fall of Wolsey, Henry VIII appoints Thomas More as his Lord Chancellor

1533 Henry VIII divorces Catherine
Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, declares Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon null and void

1533 Henry VIII disappointed by another daughter
Anne Boleyn has a child (the future Elizabeth I) but not of the sex her husband wants

1534 Henry VIII head of English church
Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy forces prominent figures in English public life to accept him on oath as head of the Church of England

1535 Thomas More beheaded
Thomas More refuses to take the oath accepting the Act of Supremacy and is beheaded

1536 English king plunders monasteries
Henry VIII begins the process of gathering in the wealth of England's monasteries

1536 Wales merged in England
Wales is merged within the English kingdom as a principality

1536 Anne Boleyn executed
Henry VIII's queen, Anne Boleyn, is beheaded in the Tower of London on unsubstantiated charges of adultery

1537 Jane Seymour has a son
Jane Seymour gives birth to Henry VIII's long-awaited male heir (the future Edward VI)

1542 Mary is Queen of Scots
A one-week-old Scottish infant, daughter of James V, inherits the throne as Mary Queen of Scots

1546 Archbishop of St Andrews murdered
David Beaton, the archbishop of St Andrews, burns a leading Protestant, George Wishart, as a heretic and is murdered in retaliation

1547 Henry VIII succeeded by Edward VI
On the death of Henry VIII his 10-year-old son becomes king of England as Edward VI

1547 John Knox a galley slave
John Knox is captured in St Andrews and is sent to serve in the French fleet as a galley slave

1549 First English prayer book
The first version of the English prayer book, or Book of Common Prayer, is published with text by Thomas Cranmer

1553 Mary I tries to restore Catholic England
Mary I succeeds to the English throne, and devotes her energies to the restoration of the Catholic faith

1554 Mary I marries Catholic heir to Spain
Mary I causes grave offence in England by her marriage to the Catholic heir to the king of Spain

1555 Muscovy Company to trade with Russia
The Muscovy Company is granted a monopoly by the crown to trade with Russia, as the first of the English chartered companies

1558 Mary I succeeded by sister, Elizabeth
Elizabeth I succeeds peacefully to the throne of England, after the turmoil of Mary's Catholic reign

1558 Mary Queen of Scots marries heir to French throne
Mary Queen of Scots marries the heir to the French throne, who a year later succeeds as Francis II

1558 Stewart become Stuart
With its strong French connection, the Scottish royal name of Stewart begins to be spelt Stuart (there being no 'w' in native French words)

1559 Knox back in Scotland
John Knox returns to Scotland from Geneva and inspires the Protestants to march on Edinburgh

1560 Mary Queen of Scots widowed at seventeen
A year after Mary has become queen of France, her husband Francis II dies

1561 Knox and Mary disagree
Mary Queen of Scots returns from France to Edinburgh, and to an inevitable clash with John Knox

1564 Marlowe and Shakespeare born
Marlowe and Shakespeare are born in the same year, with Marlowe the older by two months

1565 Mary marries her cousin Darnley
Mary Queen of Scots marries her Catholic cousin, Henry Darnley

1566 Rizzio assassinated
Mary Queen of Scots' secretary, David Rizzio, is dragged from her presence and stabbed to death

1566 Darnley involved in murder of Rizzio
Mary Queen of Scots' husband Darnley is treacherously involved in the murder of her secretary, Rizzio

1567 New Testament in Welsh
The Book of Common Prayer and the New Testament are published in Welsh, to be followed by the complete Bible in 1588

1567 Darnley murdered, Mary marries suspect
Darnley is murdered, almost certainly at the instigation of Mary Queen of Scots' lover, Bothwell, whom she marries just three months later

1567 Letters implicate Mary Queen of Scots
A casket of letters seems to incriminate Mary Queen of Scots herself in the murder of her husband, Darnley

1567 Mary Queen of Scots is deposed
The events of this year give the Protestant nobility the occasion and opportunity of deposing Mary Queen of Scots

1567 James VI is king of Scots
On the removal of Mary from the Scottish throne, her one-year-old son succeeds her as James VI

1568 Mary Queen of Scots at Elizabeth's mercy
Mary Queen of Scots flees across the border to seek the help of her English cousin, Elizabeth, but finds herself kept under close guard

1569 English rebels support Mary
A rebellion in the north of England aims to put Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne

1570 Pope excommunicates English queen
Pope Pius V excommunicates the English queen, Elizabeth I, causing a severe crisis of loyalty for her Catholic subjects

1571 Ridolfi in plot for Mary
Roberto di Ridolfi, a Florentine banker, coordinates a scheme to win the English throne for Mary Queen of Scots

1575 Day of the galleon
English sailor and slave-trader John Hawkins turns the top-heavy carrack into the more seaworthy galleon

1576 London gets its first theatre
James Burbage builds London's first theatre and calls it the Theatre

1577 Drake heads west from Plymouth
Francis Drake sails from Plymouth, heading west for the Pacific and the East Indies

1580 Jesuits target England
The first Jesuit missionaries arrive in England, with Edmund Campion among their number

1580 Drake home from trip round world
Francis Drake returns to England after his three-year voyage round the world and is knighted by Queen Elizabeth on board his Golden Hind

1582 Shakespeare marries Anne
The 18-year-old William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon

1583 Newfoundland for England
Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland on behalf of England's queen Elizabeth

1585 England supports Dutch rebels
England's queen Elizabeth sends 6000 troops to support the Dutch rebels against Spain

1585 Catholic martyrs in England
Catholics are now the martyrs in England, their numbers almost matching the Protestant martyrs of the previous reign

1586 Babington plots for Mary
Anthony Babington is involved in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne

1587 Mary Queen of Scots beheaded
Mary Queen of Scots, implicated in the Babington plot, is beheaded in Fotheringay castle

1587 Marlowe pioneers blank verse
Marlowe's first play, Tamburlaine the Great, introduces the swaggering blank verse of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama

1587 Raleigh sends settlers to Virginia
A new group of English settlers arrives at Roanoke Island and makes a second attempt at a settlement

1587 English girl born in America
Virginia Dare becomes the first English child to be born in America, on Roanoke Island

1587 Drake singes king's beard
Francis Drake sails into a crowded Cadiz harbour and destroys some thirty Spanish ships

1588 Spanish Armada defeated
The more nimble English fleet destroys the galleons of the Spanish Armada, introducing a new kind of naval warfare

1588 Men-of-war command the seas
The tactics used against the Armada reveal that the sailing ships themselves have become fighting machines, as men-of-war

1589 Lee knitting machine 1589
An English clergyman, William Lee, develops the world's first industrial machinery, to knit stockings

1590 Spenser flatters Fairy Queen
English poet Edmund Spenser celebrates the Protestant Elizabeth I as The Faerie Queene

1592 Shakespeare shows his paces with Richard III
After tentative beginnings in the three parts of Henry VI, Shakespeare achieves his first masterpiece on stage with Richard III

1596 Flush toilet in England
A flush toilet is illustrated in an English pamphlet, The Metamorphosis of Ajax by John Harrington

1598 Earliest known reference to cricket
A manuscript, the Guildford Book of Court, uses the word 'creckett' for a game played in a Guildford school

1599 Globe built on Bankside
The Globe, where many of Shakespeare's plays are first performed, is built on Bankside in London

1600 Earth is a magnet says Elizabeth's physician
William Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth, concludes that the earth is a magnet and coins the term 'magnetic pole'

1600 British East India Company
Britain's East India Company is established when Elizabeth I grants a charter to a 'Company of Merchants trading into the East Indies'

1600 Electricity named
Electricity is given its name (in the Latin phrase vis electrica) by the English physician, William Gilbert

1601 Hamlet catches spirit of age
Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age

1603 James VI is James I
James VI of Scotland inherits peacefully the crown of his English cousin Elizabeth, and becomes James I of England

1603 Union of the Crowns
The accession of James I and VI to the throne of England brings the union of the crowns of England and Scotland

1604 King says smoking loathsome
The British king James I launches a blistering attack on the smoking of tobacco, which he considers a loathsome custom

1604 Authorized version commissioned
James I commissions the Authorized version of the Bible, which is completed by forty-seven scholars in seven years

1605 Masque at court of James I
Ben Jonson writes The Masque of Blackness, the first of his many masques for the court of James I

1605 Gunpowder Plot damages Catholic cause
The Gunpowder Plot, attempting murder and treason, severely damages the Catholic cause in Britain

1606 Ben Jonson's Volpone
The satirical voice of the English playwright Ben Jonson is heard to powerful effect in Volpone

1607 Flight of the Earls
The earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel sail from Ireland with their families, in the event known as the Flight of the Earls

1608 English Puritans sail to Holland
A shipload of Puritans, among them some of the future Pilgrim Fathers, sail from Boston in Lincolnshire to seek religious freedom in Holland

1609 Shakespeare's sonnets
Shakespeare's sonnets, written ten years previously, are published

1611 The Tempest
Shakespeare's last completed play, The Tempest, is performed