Chronology of

Relevant Events
B r i t i s h and Irish L i t e r a t u r e
and Its Times

THE BUILDING OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND

The peopling of the British Isles occurred over a span of several millennia. An-
thropological evidence suggests that the first settlers may have arrived in Ireland
during the Bronze Age and that the "Beaker Folk"—so called because of their dis-
tinctively shaped drinking cups or "beakers"—settled in Great Britain around 2000
B.C.E. After the Beaker Folk came perhaps the most populous settlers to appear in
the British Isles, the Celts, who arrived in waves from the first millennium B.C.E.
Their migration was followed by the invasions of different peoples—the Romans,
the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and finally, the Normans, each of whom left a signifi-
cant cultural impression that contributed to the development of traditions on the
Isles. Monks distinguished themselves as early historians of this developmental
phase.

Historical Events Related Literary Works

8000-1750 B.C.E. First people arrive in Ireland across land

bridge from Scotland; Beaker Folk arrive in Britain;
Stonehenge is built.

1000-55 B.C.E. Celtic peoples arrive and settle in Britain and King tear by William Shakespeare; The Mabinogion; The Tain
Ireland (The Cattle Raid of Cooley)

55-54 B.C.E. Julius Caesar leads two expeditions into Britain

43 c.E. Roman conquest of Britain begins; Londinium (London) Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
founded

48-79 Southeastern Britain is conquered, Roman roads

constructed

60-62 Queen Boudicca raises revolt against the Romans in

East Anglia; Romans suppress revolt but suffer severe losses
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122-33 Romans build defensive barrier, Hadrian's Wall, to

protect northwestern frontier of Britain from invaders

407-10 Roman army withdraws from Britain

427-500s Invasions by Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; Britons try to Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
fight invaders; founding of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms begins

500 I 500 Members of the Irish kingdom of Dal Riata cross to

I today's Scotland

547 British monk Cildas writes De Excidio Britanniae

(Concerning the Fall of Britain), outlining early history
involving the Britons and Saxons; the tract criticizes various
individuals for their behavior

731-32 Bede completes his Historia ecclesiastica

(Ecclesiastical History of the English People), a record of
events in Britain from Caesar's invasion in 55 B.C.E. to 731
C.E.

786-95 First Viking raids; Norsemen arrive on Lambay Island

off the Dublin Coast

800 I 800-5014 Viking settlements in Ireland evolve into towns

802 Welsh monk Nennius writes Historia Brittonum (History Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
of the Britons), including the alleged founding of Britain by
Brutus and mentioning Arthur, a British commander

842-58 Under leadership of Kenneth Mac Alpin, Scots

assimilate Picts to form what will become the kingdom of
Scotland

860s-70s Viking army overruns parts of England, including

Northumbria and East Anglia

871-99 Reign of Saxon king Alfred the Great, who defeats

Vikings (Danes) on land and sea; Alfred agrees to a boundary
that confines Vikings to area of northern and central England
called the Danelaw

899-924 Alfred's son, Edward, conquers the southern Danelaw

937 Edward's son Athelstan conquers the northern Danelaw

976-1014 Brian Boru conquers and unifies most of Ireland,

becoming High King

991 August 11—The Vikings defeat the English forces, led by The Battle of Maldon
Byrhtnoth, at the Battle of Maldon

ISiOU | 1014 Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, is killed after victory
over Vikings in the battle of Clontarf

1017-35 Cnut of Denmark defeats Aethelred's son Edmund, Beowulf

becomes uncontested king of England, reigning as well over
Denmark and, from c. 1028, over Norway

1040 Mac Bethad Mac Findlaech (Macbeth) kills Donnchad

(Duncan), begins peaceful 17-year reign as king of Scotland

1057 Macbeth is killed by Malcolm Macbeth by William Shakespeare

1066 William of Normandy defeats and kills King Harold II at

the Battle of Hastings and is crowned William I (the
Conqueror) of England.

XVIII
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THE MIDDLE ENGLISH ERA

FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE TUDOR
ACCESSION
The aftermath of the Norman Conquest saw the establishment of a centralized gov-
ernment in England. The heirs of William the Conqueror safeguarded this central-
ized government even when succession struggles, such as the one between Stephen
of Blois and Mathilda of Anjou, threatened to tear the realm apart. In retrospect,
the founding of the House of Anjou, or Plantagenet, as it was later called, produced
a royal dynasty that brought England some of its most glorious triumphs (English
victories over France at the Battles of Crecy and Agincourt) and its most dismal fail-
ures (the loss of Normandy during the reign of John I and the loss of France less
than 50 years after Agincourt). Rivalries among the Plantagenets and their succes-
sors led to bloody civil wars and the shocking depositions of the anointed kings
Richard II and Henry VI. Two powerful factions, the Yorkists and the Lancastrians,
battled intermittently over the English throne for 30 years before Richard III, a York-
ist, was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The leader of the Lancastrian faction,
Henry Tudor, became the new king and the founder of his own royal dynasty.

1066-87 William I centralizes authority of the English Crown

and establishes a Norman aristocracy

1087 The Domesday Book, a survey of English landholdings,

is completed; William I dies; William II accedes to the throne

1106 Henry I, successor to William II, conquers Normandy for

himself, establishing England's first foothold in France

1135 Henry I dies, naming his daughter Mathilda as

successor; his nephew Stephen of Blois argues that an oath of
allegiance to Mathilda was forced and so is void; Stephen
seizes the throne

c. 1138 Geoffrey of Monmouth completes Historia Regum Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir
Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), spreads myth that Thomas Malory
Britain was founded by Brutus, a descendant of the hero
Aeneas from the fallen city of Troy, creates the Arthur adapted
by subsequent writers of Arthurian romance

1138-49 Mathilda attempts to take the English throne from

Stephen, sparking a decade of bitter civil war that ends with
Mathilda being forced to leave England

1152 Henry of Anjou, son of Mathilda and Count Geoffrey of

Anjou, marries Eleanor of Aquitaine, after her marriage to
Louis VII of France is annulled

1154-89 Reign of Henry II, Mathilda's son and first ruler of

House of Plantagenet (or of Anjou)

1190-92 Richard I ("The Lionhearted") leads third crusade,

later (1199) dies of an arrow wound while attempting to take
a treasure from his vassal

1200 c. 1200 Layamon's Brut appears, containing the first treatment

of King Arthur in English; poem is an English translation of a
French adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia, which
was written in Latin

1199-1216 Reign of John I, Richard's brother, who loses

Normandy to Philip II of France

1215 King John signs the Magna Carta-a decree to protect

feudal rights against royal abuse; establishes the idea that no
one is above the law, even the king; establishes trial by jury
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1225 University at Cambridge is founded by students from

Oxford, whose own founding is often placed at 1167

1283 Edward I conquers Wales

1296-1305 Scotland is militarily occupied by England;

William Wallace commands Scottish resistance at battles of
Stirling Bridge (1297) and Falkirk (1298)

1300s The Age of Chivalry, which began in the 1100s, Sir Cawain and the Green Knight
flourishes; a code of conduct for knights becomes idealized as
French romances are introduced into England

1301 Edward of Caernarvon, the royal heir, becomes the first

English Prince of Wales

1314 Scots decisively defeat the English at Bannockburn

1337 England's Edward III issues claim to French throne;

Hundred Years' War between England and France begins

1346 Edward, the Black Prince of Wales, the son of Edward

III, defeats the French at Crecy

1349 England is ravaged by the "Black Death," an epidemic

of the bubonic plague

1350-1450 Rise of English as a literary language in England, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
replacing French

1360 Edward III signs a peace treaty with the French; English
kings continue to style themselves as kings of France

1376-77 Edward, Black Prince of Wales, dies; his young son

inherits the throne from Edward III as Richard II

1381 Peasants' Revolt—possibly the most significant popular Piers Plowman by William Langland
rebellion in English history—occurs; the revolt is suppressed
and its leader, Wat Tyler, is killed by the Lord Mayor of London

1388 As a result of the Black Death, Parliament enacts the

Statutes of Laborers, to control prices, prevent laborers from
reneging on their contracts, and force "the idle" to work

1388-89 Lords Appellant lead "Merciless Parliament" to purge

the government of Richard ll's handpicked advisors and
supporters

1399 Richard II seizes the estate of his deceased uncle, John

of Gaunt

1399-1413 Henry, duke of Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt,

revolts against Richard II, deposing him and reigning as Henry
IV, first ruler of the House of Lancaster

1400 Richard II dies in Pontefract Castle, probably early this Richard II by William Shakespeare
year

1400-1409 Owen Glendower leads last Welsh revolts against

England; English suppress uprisings in other regions too

1411 St. Andrews University is founded in Scotland

1415-20 Henry V defeats French at Battle of Agincourt; five Henry Vby William Shakespeare
years later, he signs Treaty of Troyes, designating him France's
next king, and weds Catherine, daughter of French king
Charles VI

1422 Henry V dies of dysentery; his infant son, Henry VI,

succeeds him as king of England

1429-31 Joan of Arc has the French Dauphin crowned as

Charles VII at Rheims; she is later captured, sold to the
English, put on trial, found guilty by a mainly English court,
and burned at the stake
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14S3 English are expelled from most of France at the close of

the Hundred Years' War; they retain the city of Calais.

1455-85 War of the Roses, a civil war between Houses of

Lancaster and York, begins; the most intense fighting occurs in
1460-61

1461-83 Edward of York defeats the Lancastrians, wins throne,

and reigns as Edward IV

1477-91 William Caxton produces first books in England with Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
printing press

1483 Richard, duke of Gloucester, usurps throne from Edward

V and is crowned Richard III

1485 Richard III is killed in battle at Bosworth Field; Henry

Tudor claims English throne, reigning as Henry VII, the first
Tudor king

THE EVOLUTION OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT

FROM ABSOLUTE MONARCHY TO THE REGENCY
Although the Tudor dynasty was to be short-lived, its five monarchs left an indeli-
ble stamp on the nation. Shrewd, ruthless, and intensely proud of their Welsh an-
cestry, the Tudors ruled as absolute monarchs. They demonstrated a sure grasp of
practical politics, not hesitating to introduce shattering political and religious
changes. After the Tudors came the Stuart dynasty, whose rule saw the eruption of
civil war. Tension had mounted between monarchs determined to reign absolutely
and parliaments that were equally determined not to renounce any hard-won leg-
islative powers. The defeat of the Royalists in the Civil War led to the outlawing of
the monarchy altogether. From 1649 to 1660, England was ruled as a republic,
whose government collapsed after the death its leader Oliver Cromwell, which led
to the restoration of the monarchy under the Stuart king Charles II. The king, how-
ever, had less authority than before. Parliamentary power grew, leading to the rise
of England's first political parties, the Whigs and Tories, and to interference with
the royal succession in 1688 when William of Orange and Mary took the throne
at Parliament's behest. The following year, a Bill of Rights affirmed parliamentary
power, limited the authority of the Crown, and established a constitutional monar-
chy. Accepting the redefinition of their roles, the remaining Stuart monarchs and
the succeeding Hanoverians ruled without interruption, except for a brief interval
when the madness of George III necessitated that his eldest son, the Prince of Wales,
reign in his stead as Prince Regent.

1485-1509 Reign of Henry VII, who strengthens Crown

against nobles; lingering Yorkist threat is eliiminated

1487 Court of the Star Chamber gains prominence as a court

with special prerogatives; later it becomes greatly hated
because of perceived abuses (this court is abolished in 1640)
1500
1509 Accession of Henry VIII

1534 Act of Supremacy makes Henry VIII head of the Church

of England, sanctioning an authority he has exercised for more
than two years

1536 and 1542-43 Acts of Union integrate England and

Wales; Wales first receives representation in Parliament in
1542
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1547-53 Reign of Edward VI, who pursues his father's

I religious policy, upholding England's break with the Roman
Catholic Church

1553-58 Reign of Mary I, who attempts to reinstate

Catholicism as the official religion

1558 England loses city of Calais, its last possession in France

1558-1603 Reign of Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen," who The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
resolves sectarian disputes and fosters strong sense of English
nationalism

1567 Mary, queen of Scots, flees intrigue in Scotland and

seeks refuge in England

1571 English government uncovers the Ridolfi Plot, in which

Spanish troops have planned to invade England and replace
Elizabeth with her Catholic cousin, Mary, queen of Scots.

1577 Raphael Holinshed writes The Chronicles of England, Henry V, King Lear, Macbeth, and Richard II by William
Scotland, and Ireland Shakespeare

1587 Mary, queen of Scots, is executed after English agents

discover evidence of a plot, led by Anthony Babington, to kill
Queen Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne

1588 English ships defeat the Spanish Armada, badly crippled

by a storm at sea; victory breaks Spanish monopoly on
empire, opens up the New World to English settlement

1599-1601 Elizabeth I puts down revolt led by the earl of

Essex, who is later executed
1600
1603-25 After death of Elizabeth I, James I (James VI of Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Scotland, son of Mary, queen of Scots) succeeds to English
throne; James becomes the first monarch to rule England and
Scotland simultaneously

1605 Band of Catholics attempt to kill James and blow up

English Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot

1610-15 Arbella Stuart, cousin to James I, secretly weds The Duchess ofMalfi by John Webster
William Seymour, who has distant claim to throne; imprisoned
in the Tower of London, Arbella commits suicide

1625 Accession of Charles I

1628 Parliament forces Charles I to sign Petition of Right,

broadening Parliament's powers

1629 Charles I dissolves Parliament, attempts to govern

without a legislative body

1640-53 "Long Parliament" convenes, places severe curbs on

royal power

1641 Publication of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, which

justifies absolute sovereignty and authoritarian government

1642-46 Charles I rejects parliamentary demands; Civil War Paradise Lost by John Milton
erupts between Cavaliers or Royalists, who favor king, and
Roundheads (named for their short, cropped hair), who favor
Parliamentarians; Puritans dominate in Roundhead army

1642-60 Puritans close theaters; players go "underground,"

performing short entertainments, called drolls

1648-52 Second Civil War ends in conquest of Ireland and

Scotland by armies of Oliver Cromwell

1649 Charles I is executed by the Parliamentarians

1650 1649-60 Interregnum, period of republican rule, has two main
phases: in 1649-53 England operates as a Commonwealth run
by a Council of State, in 1653-58 as a Protectorate under
1
Oliver Cromwell
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1660 Under protection of General George Monck, a free The Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys
election is held and Parliament recalls the late king's eldest
son to be monarch; Charles II is restored to the English throne

1678-81 The Popish Plot—Titus Oates alleges a Jesuit plot to

murder Charles II, leading to the arrest and execution of
suspected conspirators; the Whig party attempts to bar the
king's brother, James, from the royal succession, in favor of
Charles's illegitimate son, the duke of Monmouth.

1680s Whigs and Tories struggle for dominance of Parliament "Mac Flecknoe" by John Dryden

1685 Accession of Catholic James II

1688 "Glorious Revolution"—in a bloodless revolt, English

Protestants offer crown to William of Orange and his wife
Mary, Protestant daughter of James II

1689 Bill of Rights limits the Crown's authority, affirms An Essay on Human Understanding by John Locke
parliamentary power, and establishes a constitutional monarchy
1700
1702-14 Reign of Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

1707 Act of Union between England and Scotland—the nation

becomes known as Great Britain

1711 Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele found The The Spectator by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele
Spectator, a periodical that offers cultural commentary and
moral instruction while avoiding partisan politics

1714 George I of the House of Hanover succeeds Queen

Anne

1715 First Jacobite uprising—The "Old Pretender," son of Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
James II, supported by Scots, attempts to regain throne

1721-42 Robert Walpole becomes first British Prime Minister, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift; The Beggar's Opera by
serving George I and George II John Gay

1727-60 Reign of George II

1745-46 Second Jacobite uprising—"Bonnie Prince" Charlie The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
attempts to reclaim British throne for the Stuarts; he is defeated
at Culloden and flees to France; Scottish resistance ends
1750
1760 Accession of George III

1776 Scotland's Adam Smith writes Wealth of Nations,

promotes laissez faire and free trade, attacks mercantile
doctrine of the day

1780 Gordon Riots—Parliament passes a Roman Catholic Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
relief measure, leading to mob violence and widespread
destruction, including burning of Newgate Prison; riots deal
severe blow to parliamentary reform

1788 George III suffers outbreak of madness, recovers but

leaves political administration under William Pitt the Younger
intact
1«00
1810 George III suffers incurable attack of madness

1811-20 The Regency—George, Prince of Wales, becomes

Prince Regent by parliamentary act, ruling England in his
father's stead; after death of George III, the Prince Regent is
crowned George IV
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RELIGION AND SCIENCE

The Roman Catholic Church would dominate many aspects of British and Irish daily
life from c. 200 C.E., when it was introduced to Britain, until 1534 when Henry VIII
broke with Rome and established the Church of England, with himself as its head.
This break with Rome was the culmination of centuries of conflict between Eng-
land's Church and its kings. (As early as 1170, Thomas Becket was assassinated on
the orders of King Henry II because Henry objected to Becket's attempts to keep
the Church independent of royal control.) The Protestant Reformation spread
throughout England, Scotland, and Wales, but failed to take root in Ireland, a cir-
cumstance that led to centuries of bitter religious strife. England remained com-
mitted to Protestantism, despite Mary I's attempt to reestablish Catholicism as the
official religion, the later accession of the Catholic Stuart monarchs, and bloody
civil wars. In fact, anti-Catholic feeling continued to run high, with Catholics be-
ing denied the right to worship as they chose or to hold public office. The late eigh-
teenth and early nineteenth centuries saw a relaxation of this rigid stance with the
passage of the Catholic Relief Act and the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. Mean-
while, the Enlightenment—an intellectual movement exploring new political, sci-
entific, and philosophic developmentsCbegan to spread throughout Europe in the
late seventeenth century, contributing to works as diverse as the gravitational the-
ories of Sir Isaac Newton and the philosophical essays of John Locke.

200 c. 200 C.E. Christianity is introduced into Britain

313 C.E. Christianity is tolerated throughout the Roman

Empire, including Britain; Roman emperor Constantine issues
Edict of Milan, saying Christianity can be practiced freely

mid 400s The missionary St. Patrick converts Gaelic kings to

Christianity in Ireland

c. 450 Anglo-Saxon pagans invade; Christian church in Britain

is driven underground

c. 450-64 Christian church in Britain veers from Roman

practices, develops Celtic identity

597 St. Augustine preaches Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons;

conversion begins

664 Synod of Whitby resolves differences between Celtic and

Roman Catholic Church, makes Roman practices supreme
throughout England

731 In his Historia ecclesiastica (Ecclesiastical History of the

English People), Bede documents the spread of Christianity in
England
1000
1170 Assassination of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury

1290 Edward I decrees that all Jews be expelled from England

1380s Disciples of John Wyclif start translating Holy Scripture Piers Plowman by William Langland
into English

1500 1500s Intellectual movement known as humanism, Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
emphasizing dignity of the individual and worth of earthly life,
takes hold in England

1534-40 Protestant Reformation begins in England; Henry VIII Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
breaks with the Roman Catholic Church and establishes the
Church of England, with himself as head
XXIV
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1535 Sir Thomas More is executed for refusing to swear an

oath to the new royal succession or acknowledge Henry VIII
as supreme head of the English Church

1547-53 Protestantism becomes the official faith in England

during reign of Edward VI

1553-58 Reign of Mary I, eldest daughter of Henry VIII;

"Bloody" Mary marries Philip II of Spain and attempts to
restore Catholicism as official faith of England; Protestant
heretics are burned, increasing anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic
feelings

1558-59 Elizabeth I ascends throne, establishes moderate The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
Protestantism as official religion of England; Elizabethan Act of
Supremacy demands oath from officials acknowledging queen
as supreme head of the church

1560 John Knox, leader of Scottish Protestant Reformation and

a follower of Martin Luther and John Calvin, becomes minister
of High Kirk (Church) of St. Giles in Edinburgh

1563 Elizabethan Settlement is completed; its Thirty-nine

Articles define the Anglican Church doctrine

1569 German humanist Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Nettesheim's work Of the Vanitie and uncertaintie of artes and
sciences, which repudiates science and the occult, is translated
into English

1570 Louis Lavater writes De Spectris, which becomes one of The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
the most prominent Protestant books on supernatural
occurrences

1580s Changes in the English theater—professional actors

replace clerics and other amateurs; Protestant authorities in
London are hostile to professional actors and regard new
playhouses as sinful places

1580s-1603 Parliamentary Acts fine Catholics, 20 for each

absence from Anglican services; English Catholic priests are
arrested as traitors if found in the country; 183 Catholics are
executed for their faith

1593-94 William Harrington and Henry Donne are arrested Songs and Sonnets by John Donne
after Harrington is suspected of being a Catholic priest; under
torture, Donne betrays Harrington, who is later disembowelled;
Donne dies of plague
1600
1605 Catholic extremists are accused of trying to blow up the Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Houses of Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot

1611 Publication of the King James Bible

1614 John Donne, a Catholic, converts and becomes an Songs and Sonnets by John Donne
Anglican priest

1642-48 Religious differences between the Royalists (mainly Paradise Lost by John Milton
Catholic) and Roundheads (Protestants, mainly Puritan) help
fuel the English Civil War

1650 1650s Expansion of Puritan sects during the Interregnum years Paradise Lost by John Milton; The Pilgrim's Progress by John
Bunyan

1655-56 Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel petitions the

Commonwealth of England on the legal readmission of Jews
into England; Whitehall Conference decides to allow Jews to
reside in England "on an unofficial basis"

1660 Authority of established Church of England is restored

after accession of Charles II

1661 John Bunyan is arrested for lay preaching and The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
imprisoned for 12 years
 Historical Events Related Literary Works

1662 Parliament reimposes Book of Common Prayer on all

ministers and congregations; founding of the Royal Society for
the Advancement of Science

1664 Religious meetings that do not follow forms of the

Church of England are declared illegal

1673 Test Act prohibits non-Anglicans from holding public

office

1679-81 Exclusion crisis: Lord Shaftesbury introduces bills to "Mac Flecknoe" by John Dryden
exclude James, duke of York, from succession to the throne,
on the grounds of James's Catholicism

1680s-90s Beginning of the Enlightenment—European Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

movement exploring new philosophical, scientific, and
political developments; movement celebrates reason and the
power of people to improve the human condition

1684-87 Isaac Newton proposes his laws of motion and

theory of gravity

1687 James II issues Declaration of Indulgence, suspending

Test Act and penal laws against Catholics and Dissenters—
those who refuse to worship in accordance with all the
principles of the Anglican Church

1689 Toleration Act grants religious freedom to Dissenters;

Dissenters, Roman Catholics, and Jews are still excluded from
political participation and from universities

1690 John Locke proposes that the mind of newborn humans An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John
is a "tabula rasa" (blank slate), ideas are formed by experience, Locke;Pame/a by Samuel Richardson
the mind uses words to stand for ideas, and all knowledge
results from the interplay of ideas

1695 Penal laws forbid Catholics in Ireland from keeping

weapons
1700
1704 Act to Prevent the Further Growth of Popery prohibits Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
Catholics from buying land, inheriting it from Protestants, or
taking leases for more than 31 years

1740s Methodist movement begins to grow rapidly, in

opposition to the long-established practices of the Anglican
Church

1780s-90s The number of religious Dissenters or Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Nonconformists—so called because their beliefs did not
conform to the tenets of the Church of England—increases
among university students, especially those attending
Cambridge; scientists conduct experiments involving electricity

1787 Religious leaders argue that England cannot be a moral Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
leader if slave trade continues; Thomas Clarkson founds
Committee for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade
1800
1802 Sir Humphrey Davy delivers A Discourse, Introductory Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
to a Course of Lectures On Chemistry at newly founded Royal
Institution; Erasmus Darwin writes The Temple of Nature, a
discussion on the origins of life

1829 Catholic Emancipation Act eliminates most

discrimination against Catholics in Britain and Ireland;
Catholics can now hold all government offices except those of
lord chancellor of England, lord lieutenant of Ireland, and the
monarchy
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THE AGE OF EXPLORATION AND FOREIGN RELATIONS

England's Age of Exploration began in earnest with the founding of the Company
of Merchant Adventurers during the later years of Edward Vl's brief reign (1547-
53). Until then, Portugal and Spain had been the dominant European explorers,
launching naval expeditions that led to the discovery of the so-called New World
in the late fifteenth century. Entering into this new enterprise with gusto, the Eng-
lish explored both Asia and the Americas. Francis Drake, one of Queen Elizabeth's
favored courtiers, circumnavigated the globe and on his return was knighted by the
queen herself on the deck of his ship, The Golden Hind. Another favorite, Sir Wal-
ter Raleigh, set out to establish a colony in North America at Roanoke. Meanwhile,
England competed with its longtime enemy Spain and its new rival, the Nether-
lands, for commercial resources—including gold, ivory, spices, tea, and slaves—in
Africa, India, and Asia. Much of the eighteenth century saw England at war with
the Netherlands, France, Spain, and even its own colonies in North America. By
the time the American colonies achieved independence, England had gained enough
territory and wealth overseas to sustain this loss. A new threat surfaced in the last
two decades of the eighteenth century during the French Revolution. Much of Eu-
rope felt exhilarated, then dismayed, by the Revolution, which gave rise to Napoleon
Bonaparte and the Reign of Terror. In 1793 France declared war on Britain, be-
ginning a fight that—save for a brief interval of peace in 1814Cwould persist for 22
years, until Napoleon's defeat by British and Allied troops at the Battle of Water-
loo.

1500
1547-53 Reign of Edward VI; English Age of Exploration
begins with the founding of the Company of Merchant
Adventurers; English start to explore Asia and North America

1560s-90s English privateers conduct raids on Spanish ships; The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe,Tne Spanish
rivalry between the two nations mounts; English and Dutch Tragedy by Thomas Kyd
piracy escalates in the Mediterranean Sea while banditry
flourishes in northern Italy

1570 Publication of Roger Ascham's treatise The Schoolmaster, Volpone by Ben Jonson
which criticizes the Italian influence on English travelers

1577-80 Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe and is

knighted by Queen Elizabeth

1585-87 Sir Walter Raleigh attempts to establish Roanoke

Colony; two attempts at colonization there founder

1588 England's victory in the Spanish Armada breaks Spanish

monopoly on New World, opens it up to permanent English
settlement

1599-1623 East India Company is founded, concentrates trade

on the Indian subcontinent

1600 1600s-50s British build forts in West Africa and compete with Oroonoko by Aphra Behn
Dutch and Portuguese for African gold and slaves

1603 James I becomes king of England, supports explorations Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
in the Americas, entertains hopes of empire

1604 James I negotiates peace with Spain

1607 Jamestown settlement founded in Virginia colony

1623 East India Company begins to concentrate on trade with

India
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1650 1651-63 England passes Navigation Acts to enforce idea that

colonies exist only to benefit mother country, restricts trade
between colonies and other European nations

1652-54 First Anglo-Dutch War: under Oliver Cromwell and

naval strategist Admiral Robert Blake, England successfully
challenges Dutch commercial preeminence

1665-67 Second Anglo-Dutch War erupts after British navy The Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys
attacks New Amsterdam in North America; war ends
inconclusively; peace of Breda restores existing situation before
conflict but allows England to retain New Amsterdam, later
renamed New York

1689-90 Two Treatises of Government by England's John

Locke justifies revolution; it argues that government is
bestowed by the consent of the governed; if their trust is
broken, they have the right to withdraw power from their
rulers

1689-97 War of the League of Augsburg—European nations,

including England, form secret league to restrain the territorial
advances of France; Treaty of Ryswick compels France to
surrender much of its territory in Lorraine

1697 William Dampier sails to Australia, publishes New Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Voyage round the World, which renews British interest in the
Pacific

1700 1702-13 England engaged in War of Spanish Succession

against France and Spain; John Churchill, duke of
Marlborough, wins famous victory at Battle of Blenheim
(1704)

1709 East India Company achieves trade monopoly with China The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope

1711 Britain negotiates a separate peace with France—

conditions include France ceding territories such as Gibraltar
and Minorca to Britain and giving up rights to African slave
trade with Spanish South America; Britain becomes the
world's leading naval, commercial, and colonial power

1713-1807 Britain traffics in slaves, is considered world's Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
largest slave trader

1718 Parliament passes Transportation Act, allowing for Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
punishment of criminals by exile to colonies

1719-20 South Sea Company has trading privileges in the

Americas, plans to take over three-fifths of the national debt; a
speculation craze follows, the company collapses, thousands
of investors are ruined

1740-48 War of the Austrian Succession, France loses

Louisburg in North America to the British, and the British lose
Madras in India to the French in 1746, get it back in 1748
1750
1756-57 After the governor of Bengal imprisons British
soldiers in Black Hole of Calcutta, British retaliate with a
punitive expedition led by Robert Give; Give wins control of
Bengal at Battle of Plassey

1756-63 Seven Years' War—Britain defeats France, gains

sovereignty in North America by the conditions of the Peace
of Paris

1770s-1800s Abolitionist movement in Britain gathers Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen;Songs or" Innocence and
momentum; Britain extends its rule over most of India of Experience by William Blake

1772 Mansfield decision—Lord Mansfield rules that slavery is

not legal within England

1775-83 American War for Independence; Britain ultimately The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
cedes the 13 colonies
 Historical Events Related Literary Works

1781 Aboard the long, a slave-ship, 133 slaves are murdered

by being thrown overboard, outraging abolitionists

1784 East India Act places political activities of British East

India Company under control of British government, leaves
company's commercial activities relatively untouched

1788 Dolben's Act limits number of slaves transported on ships

1789-92 The French Revolution begins with the storming of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
the Bastille; English radicals enthusiastically support the Coleridge; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary
uprising and hope for similar political changes at home Wollstonecraft

1793-1815 Fearing the spread of the French Revolution,

England wages war with France
1800
1805 British naval forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson
defeat French at the Battle of Trafalgar at Trafalgar

1807 Britain outlaws the slave trade

1812-15 War between Britain and the United States confirms

American independence

1814 Dutch cede Cape Town, South Africa, to the British; Don Juan by George Gordon, Lord Byron
Paris falls to Allies (Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria) in
Napoleonic Wars; Allies exile Napoleon to Elba and restore
Louis XVIII to French throne, meet at Congress of Vienna to
reorganize Europe

1815 Napoleon escapes Elba and returns to France, gathering Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
supporters; his "Hundred Days" of freedom end with his
defeat at Waterloo by a combined British-Prussian force, led
by the duke of Wellington

1823 Anti-Slavery Society forms; abolition achieved in the

British Empire in 1834

IRISH SOCIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY

FROM THE NORMAN INVASION TO THE ACT OF UNION
The relationship between Britain and Ireland has long been a thorny one, from the
Anglo-Norman Invasion in 1170 to the present day. In 1171 Henry II, the first Eng-
lish king to personally appear in Ireland, established English lordship over the area,
and colonization began. By the close of the thirteenth century England may have
ruled as much as two-thirds of Ireland. It lost much of this power in succeeding
years, but Henry VIII reestablished the authority of the English sovereign over Ire-
land in the early sixteenth century. In 1536 he gained recognition as head of the
Church of Ireland and in 1541 as king (rather than lord) of Ireland. But, if they were
obligated to acknowledge English political sovereignty, the Irish resisted the Protes-
tantism that was spreading through Britain. Despite efforts by the Tudor monarchs,
the Reformation failed to take root in Ireland, contributing to centuries of strife. Nor
did the Irish cease to fight for their freedom from the English—rebellions and revolts
flared throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Tudor monarchs
meanwhile renewed efforts to colonize Ireland. In the mid-seventeenth century, Irish
Catholics suffered a serious blow when Oliver Cromwell invaded and exiled Catholic
landowners—who held 59 per cent of Irish land—to Connaught. After the Irish sided
with England's king James II in the era of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, England
confiscated more Irish lands and passed penal laws aimed at Irish Catholics. Eng-
land's harshness towards Ireland did not abate until the passage of the Catholic Re-
lief Acts in 1780. Following another failed Irish revolt in 1798, an Act of Union in
1800 brought Great Britain and Ireland together as the United Kingdom.
 Historical Events Related Literary Works

1150
1169-72 Normans conquer Ireland The Tain (The Cattle Raid of Cooley)

1170-71 Earl of Pembroke ("Strongbow") and Norman army

arrive in Ireland, capture Waterford, then Dublin, becomes
lord of Leinster

c. 1170-1270 Colonization results in settlement of Irish rural

areas and towns by Anglo-Normans

1171 England's Henry II arrives with license from the pope to

invade Ireland to reform its Church; Henry accepts homage
from Norman victors; Strongbow recognizes him as overlord
of his Irish holdings

1315-18 Edward Bruce of Scotland successfully invades

Ireland, proclaims self King of Ireland; after his death in battle,
Ireland once again falls under English rule

1366 England institutes Statute of Kilkenny, a series of

repressive measures intended to prevent Anglo-Normans in
Ireland from adopting the ways of the Irish

1394-95, 1399 Richard II travels to Ireland to suppress Irish Richard II by William Shakespeare
revolts; his second expedition is inconclusive and he loses his
own throne as a result of his absence from England

1449-50 Richard, duke of York, wins submission of many Irish

and English rebels to English king (Henry VI)

1495 Poynings' Law decrees that the Irish Parliament obtain

prior English approval of proposed legislation

1500 1536 Henry VIII is officially made head of the Church of

Ireland

1541 Irish Parliament first acknowledges England's king,

Henry VIII, to also be king of Ireland

1553-58 Mary I of England confiscates the property of Irish

rebels, giving it to loyal English lords in Ireland

1556 The English settle colonists in Ireland, establish

"plantations" there

1558 Accession of Elizabeth I; Protestant Reformation fails to

take root in Ireland

1570s Private colonization efforts undertaken by English in

Ireland

1570s-1603 Elizabeth I suppresses numerous Irish revolts; Henry V by William Shakespeare

English law enforced throughout Ireland, especially in Ulster

1590s Plantation scheme results in mass transfer of Irish lands

to English; government plans to settle 20,000 English on lands
in Munster; Munster revolts; truce in 1599

1594-1607 English suppress rebellion in Ulster. The leaders of

the revolts, the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, flee Ireland

1600 1641 Catholic-Gaelic rebellion calling for the return of

confiscated lands erupts; Old English Catholics in Ireland join
movement; uprising ravages crops, precipitates famine;
Catholics hold 59 per cent of land in Ireland

1649-50 Oliver Cromwell arrives in Ireland, captures

Drogheda and Wexford; he levies harsh repressive measures
against Catholics and exiles Catholic landowners to
Connaught, a mountainous region in western Ireland

1688-91 Irish support lames II in his bid to keep English

throne; after his defeat, England confiscates more Irish lands

1690-91 William of Orange defeats Catholic armies at

Aughrim, they surrender at Limerick; key leaders of Catholic
Ireland emigrate
XXX
 Historical Events Related Literary Works

1695-1728 Series of penal laws aimed at Catholics are Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
enacted, banning Catholics from teaching, voting, and so forth.

1713 Jonathan Swift is made Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in

Dublin

1714 Catholics hold only 7 per cent of land in Ireland

1724 Jonathan Swift helps direct Irish resistance to English

oppression, publishing—under the pseudonym "M. B.
Drapier"—a series of letters to persuade the Irish to refuse
100,000 in copper coins from England that would debase
their own currency

1729 Swift publishes A Modest Proposal, a satiric essay that

critiques authorities by offering an absurd solution to Irish
poverty—breed poor children for profit and for food

1740 Potato crisis stimulates widespread famine

1774-93 Catholic Relief Acts allow Irish Catholics to buy land, The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
practice law, vote, and marry Protestants

1780 Colonial trade opens to Irish goods

1782 Irish Parliament wins legislative independence from Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
Britain

1796-98 Inspired by the French Revolution, the United

Irishmen plot and stage a revolt, which ultimately fails; its
leaders are imprisoned or executed.

1800 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland forms

the United Kingdom and abolishes the Irish Parliament

1803 Robert Emmet leads failed uprising against the English, is

executed along with 21 others

1829 Final Catholic Relief Act allows Catholics to sit in

parliament

INDUSTRIAL AND RURAL ENGLAND

FROM THE ENCLOSURE ACTS TO THE FIRST RAILWAYS
The very topography of Great Britain underwent rapid change in the mid-eighteenth
century when Parliament started passing enclosure acts. Fields and farmlands that
had been common grounds for public use were partitioned off into private hold-
ings. The Industrial Revolution, which began in the 1760s with James Watt's in-
vention of the steam engine, transformed England even more dramatically; ma-
chinery replaced hand-labor, factories supplanted cottage industries, and mill towns
sprang up in northern and central England, to which a new laboring population mi-
grated in search of work. Slums and tenements arose to house these migrant la-
borers, whose workday tended to begin at dawn and end well after dusk. Although
the passage of such measures as Hanway's Act in 1788 and the Health and Morals
of Apprentices Acts in 1802 alleviated some of the worst abuses in the urban labor
force, workers' situations remained generally grim. Because of the Napoleonic Wars
and England's associated fear of revolution, workers' attempts to better their situa-
tion met with little success. Efforts to protest abysmal working conditions and mea-
ger pay tended to meet with harsh punishment by the law, even when the protest
was essentially peaceful.

XXXI
 Historical Events Related Literary Works

1750 1750-1830 Parliament passes more than 4,000 enclosure acts Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
transferring communal land into private holdings Coleridge; She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith

1760 Jonas Hanway and D. Porter campaign against the

exploitation of children as chimney Sweeps

1760s-1830s Industrial Revolution transforms England from an Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

agrarian, handicraft-based economy into an urban, machine-
driven economy; factories and mill towns are built in northern
and central England

1760-71 Duke of Bridgewater constructs canals to link

industrial centers to local coal field and each other

1766-90 Textile industry is revolutionized by invention of the

spinning jenny, spinning frame, and power loom

1769 James Watt patents the steam engine

1788 Hanways Act for the Better Regulation of Chimney Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
Sweepers and Their Apprentices is passed, raising the
minimum age for sweeps to eight years old and adding a
primitive licensing system
1800
1802 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act restricts child
labor in cotton mills to those over nine years old and reduces
workday to 12 hours

1811 Luddite riots—textile workers protest the new machinery

in the textile industry, smash textile looms

1815 Corn Laws passed to protect British agricultural interests

from competition by raising tariff on imported grain

1819 August 16—100,000 millworkers gather in St. Peters "England in 1819" and Other Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley;
Field to demonstrate for higher wages and listen to Radical The Mask of Anarchy
speaker Henry Hunt; armed militia, who arrive to arrest Hunt,
kill 11 and injure hundreds; incident is called "Peterloo"
Massacre

1825 The Darlington and Stockton Railway, the worlds first

passenger railway, opens; trade unions are legalized

1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens

SOCIAL CHANGE AND FAMILY LIFE

FROM THE BIRTH OF ELIZABETH I TO THE REFORM BILL
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, family life in England changed sig-
nificantly. Henry Vlll's bid to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn
redefined even a royal marriage as a dissoluble institution. In the end, the marriage
was annulled. Resistance to divorce continued for centuries. On the whole, divorce
by private parliamentary act was seldom granted to any but the wealthy and titled
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Other family dynamics, however,
were changing: relationships between parents and children became less formal and
rigid as the nuclear family and the individual gained importance in the 1700s. These
transitions developed against a background of broader social changes: London grew
into a true metropolis and cultural capital of the world; the crime rate rose, as did
the number of laws to combat crime; schools were established and literacy grew;
and, in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, an increasingly populous and in-
fluential middle class—merchants, inventors, and investors—developed and even-
tually wrested power from the landed aristocracy. There was a parliamentary act
that marked this shift in power—the Reform Bill of 1832.
 Historical Events Related Literary Works

1533 English Ecclesiastical Court under Thomas Cranmer,

archbishop of Canterbury, grants Henry VIII an ecclesiastical
annulment to marry Anne Boleyn; Elizabeth I is born

1540-1660 Elders usually control family unit, dictating King Lear by William Shakespeare
children's marital partner; children show deference to parental
authority

1591 Sir Philip Sidney revives popularity of the Petrarchan Songs and Sonnets by John Donne
love sonnet in England with Astrophel and Stella

1601 Poor Law Act mandates that each parish be responsible King Lear by William Shakespeare
for its own poor

1604 Canonical law prohibits remarriage of divorced persons

1643-45 John Milton publishes pamphlets arguing for the

legitimacy of divorce and Areopagitica to defend freedom of
the press

1650-1750 Growth of public sphere—London becomes a The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope; The Spectator by
social metropolis; newspapers, coffee houses, and clubs are Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele;77ie Way of the World
established by William Congreve

1650s Puritans impose anti-recreational measures, suppressing

stage plays, horseracing, and brothels; adultery becomes
punishable by death

1660-85 King Charles II becomes notorious for keeping Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys;Mo// Flanders by
mistresses, court life is licentious; extramarital affairs increase Daniel Defoe;7"r>e Way of the World by William Congreve
in the upper class

1660s-1800 Child-rearing theories range from Locke's An Essay on Human Understanding by John Locke; Songs of
argument that at birth children's minds are "blank slates" to Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
be shaped by adults, to Rousseau's view that children are
naturally good but corrupted by society

1665-66 The Great Plague, the last major epidemic of bubonic The Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys
plague, breaks out; the Great Fire of London consumes much
of the city

1670-1799 Private Act of Parliament grants 130 divorces,

most instituted by husbands

1688-1820 London underworld develops; capital statutes The Beggar's Opera by John Gay; Moll Flanders by Daniel
increase; death becomes the usual sentence for theft of property Defoe

1700s Nuclear family gains importance; young people are The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; She Stoops to
increasingly granted the right to approve or refuse potential Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith; The Way of the World by
spouses William Congreve;Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

1700s-50s Gradual rise in literacy occurs; by mid-century, Pamela by Samuel Richardson; Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
about half of England's married couples can sign their names;
many of the elite have their children educated at home

1702 First daily newspaper in England appears

1705 Richard "Beau" Nash arrives in Bath, reorganizes and The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
renovates city into thriving "spa" town

1724 Prostitutes abound in London; Society for the Suppression Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
of Vice tries to close down brothels

1724-25 Arrests and executions of the thief jack Sheppard and The Beggar's Opera by John Gay
the crime organizer Jonathan Wild take place at Tyburn

1736-1760s Gentleman's clubs become the rage, serving as

gambling dens, places of intellectual exchange, sources of
patronage

1739 Captain Thomas Coram establishes London's Foundling Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Hospital

1750s-1820s Medieval revival gathers momentum, manifesting The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats; Don Juan by George
itself in art, architecture, and literature; the "bluestockings" Gordon, Lord Byron;The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann
—intellectual women—organize social gatherings to discuss Radcliffe
XXXIII
intellectual matters