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1509
Marriage with Catherine of Aragon
She married Henry VIII, who had only just acceded to the throne, in a private ceremony in the church of the Observant Friars outside Greenwich Palace. She was 23 years of age. When the marriage did not produce a male heir, Henry VIII became desperate to divorce Catherine and find another wife. -
Period: 1509 to 1547
Henry VIII and the break with Rome
When Henry VIII discovered that Anne Boleyn was pregnant, Henry arranged to marry her in secret at Whitehall Palace and this marked the beginning of the break with Rome. Henry had asked Pope Clement VII for his marriage to Catherine to be dissolved, but the Pope would not agree. Part of the reason that the Pope refused was because Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, had taken control of Rome and Charles V was Catherine’s nephew. -
Period: 1509 to 1547
Henry VIII reign
Henry VIII (1491–1547) was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages. Moreover, his disagreement with Pope Clement VII about the annulment of his first marriage led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated by the pope. -
1529
The Pope rejected his petition of divorce
On January 5, 1531, Pope Clement VII sends a letter to King Henry VIII of England forbidding him to remarry under penalty of excommunication. Henry, who was looking for a way out of his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, ignored the pope's warning. -
1533
Annulation of the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII
Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon was finally annulled in the following May by Archbishop Cranmer, thus ending the first of Henry's 6 marriages. The divorce went against the Roman Catholic belief system, so Henry created his own church, the Church of England. -
1533
Act in Restraint of Appeals
Gave the King the legal powers to annul marriages. It meant that people could not appeal to the Pope to overturn Henry's rulings on the church. -
1533
Henry VIII married Ann Boleyn
Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation. -
1534
Act of succession
The first Act of Succession passed in 1534 required his subjects to accept the King's marriage to his second wife, Anne Boleyn, as 'undoubted, true, sincere and perfect'. Henry's annulment from his first wife, Catherine, had forced his break with the Roman Catholic Church. It made Ann Boleyn a legitimate queen. -
1534
Act of supremacy
The king was made “Supreme head of the Church of England” -
Period: 1534 to
Early modern period
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Period: 1536 to 1541
Dissolution of monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries was a policy introduced in 1536 by Henry VIII of England to close down and confiscate the lands and wealth of all monasteries in England and Wales. The plan was designed as a lucrative element of his Reformation of the Church. -
1537
English Bible
A permission was given for an English Bible and not a latine one. There were soon mandatory in every church. -
1537
The pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536, before spreading to other parts of Northern England including Cumberland, Northumberland, and north Lancashire, under the leadership of Robert Aske. The "most serious of all Tudor period rebellions", it was a protest against Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church and dissolution of the lesser monasteries. -
Period: 1547 to 1553
Edward VI reign : the youth king
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine.[1] Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first English monarch to be raised as a Protestant.[ -
1549
Publication of the book of Common Prayer
Written during the English Reformation, the prayer book was largely the work of Thomas Cranmer, who borrowed from a large number of other sources. Evidence of Cranmer's Protestant theology can be seen throughout the book; however, the services maintain the traditional forms and sacramental language inherited from medieval Catholic liturgies. Criticised by Protestants for being too traditional, it was replaced by the significantly revised 1552 Book of Common Prayer. -
Period: 1553 to 1558
Mary and the Catholic Restoration
To restore the Church as it had been prior to the Henrician reforms. Mary was a devout Catholic and wanted to restore Papal supremacy and ideally the monasteries. Haigh suggests a great deal of support for return to Catholicsm, including in London, traditionally thought of as Protestant. Mary has been known in history as "Bloody Mary" because of her persecution of Protestants, but in 1553, persecution was not something she anticipated. -
Period: 1553 to 1558
Mary Tudor’s reign (“Bloody Mary")
Mary I (1516 –1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. During her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions. -
Period: 1553 to 1553
Lady Jane Grey
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Period: 1555 to 1558
Protestants were burned
Protestants in England and Wales were executed under legislation that punished anyone judged guilty of heresy against Catholicism. Although the standard penalty for those convicted of treason in England at the time was execution by being hanged, drawn and quartered, this legislation adopted the punishment of burning the condemned. At least 280 people were recognised as burned over the five years of Mary I's reign by contemporary sources. -
Period: 1558 to
Elizabeth I reign
Elizabeth I (1533 –1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death in 1603. Sometimes referred to as the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor. -
1559
Act of uniformity
The Act of Uniformity of 1559 set out the groundwork for the Elizabethan church. It restored the 1552 version of the English Prayer Book but kept many of the familiar old practices and allowed for two interpretations of communion, one Catholic and one Protestant. -
1559
The Oath of Supremacy
Elizabeth declared herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and instituted an Oath of Supremacy, requiring anyone taking public or church office to swear allegiance to the monarch as head of the Church and state. Anyone refusing to take the Oath could be charged with treason. -
1563
Puritains demands at the Convocation
The Convocation of 1563 was a significant gathering of English and Welsh clerics that consolidated the Elizabethan religious settlement, and brought the Thirty-Nine Articles close to their final form -
Period: 1563 to 1571
39 articles of faith
The 39 Articles are a brief and condensed statement of what Anglican Christians believe and teach. These carefully summarized statements of biblical theology were compiled by the English Reformers (Thomas Cranmer and Joseph Ridley) as a means to guide and guard our identity in Christ. Adopted by the Church of England in 1571, the 39 Articles are designed to assist believers in thinking, discussing, applying, and sharing “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints”. -
Period: 1568 to 1573
Civil War in Scotland
The Marian civil war in Scotland was a period of conflict which followed the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her escape from Lochleven Castle in May 1568. -
1569
The Northern Rebellion
The Rising of the North of 1569, also called the Northern Rebellion, was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. -
1570
The Pope excommunicated Elizabeth
On 25 February 1570 Pope Pius v issued the bull “ Regnans in Excelsis”,which de-
clared Queen Elizabeth of England excommunicated from the Roman Cath-
olic Church and deprived her of her sovereignty in England and Ireland.In addition to excommunicating Elizabeth, the bull released the queen’s subjects from any loyalty they owed to her, and ordered them not to obey her
laws or commandments. If her subjects continued in their obedience, they
too would face excommunication. -
1571
The Treason Act
This Act stated that it was High Treason “..to intend bodily harm to the Queen, or to levy war against her, or incite others to levy war against her, or to say that she ought not to enjoy the Crown, or publish in writing that she is a heretic, tyrant or usurper…”. -
1572
The Vagabond Act 1572
The Act formally moved responsibility for poor citizens from the church to local communities by introducing a tax to raise funds for their provision. -
Period: 1577 to
Repression of Carholics
Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, group of Roman Catholic martyrs executed by English authorities during the Reformation, most during the reign of Elizabeth I. -
Period: to
Anglo-Spanish War
The Anglo-Spanish War was an intermittent conflict between the Habsburg Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of England. It was never formally declared.The war included much English privateering against Spanish ships, and several widely separated battles. It began with England's military expedition in 1585 to what was then the Spanish Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester, in support of the Dutch rebellion against Spanish Habsburg rule. -
The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots
Mary Queen of Scots was executed by beheading at the age of 44 on the orders of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England. She was accused of plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and sentenced to death. -
The Invisible Armada
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The Act against Puritains
This Act was the culmination of the measures taken by Elizabeth to repress Puritanism. -
Period: to
James I Reign
In 1603, he succeeded Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, who died childless. He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625. -
Peace with Spain
On the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, many hoped that the atmosphere of religious tension would diminish. Her successor was James VI, King of Scotland. James was a Protestant like Elizabeth but he thought of himself as a peacemaker.
As the son of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, he was also expected to treat Catholics better than Elizabeth. Some Catholics even believed that he might stop their persecution, and allow them to worship freely. -
The Treaty of London
The Treaty of London concluded the nineteen-year Anglo-Spanish War. The treaty restored the status quo between the two nations. -
The Great Contract
The Great Contract was a plan submitted to James I and Parliament in 1610 by Robert Cecil. It was an attempt to increase Crown income and ultimately rid it of debt. -
Period: to
The Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years War is one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle, famine, and disease, while some areas of what is now modern Germany experienced population declines of over 50%.Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco-Spanish War, and the Portuguese Restoration War. -
Period: to
Charles I Reign
Charles I was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life. -
The Petition of Rights
The Petition of Right, passed on 7 June 1628, is an English constitutional document setting out specific individual protections against the state, reportedly of equal value to Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689. It was part of a wider conflict between Parliament and the Stuart monarchy that led to the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, ultimately resolved in the 1688 Glorious Revolution. -
Period: to
The Eleven Years of Tyranny
The Eleven Year Tyranny was a period of political unrest in England lasting from 1629 to 1640. This was started because King Charles I thought he did not need Parliament to rule his country. -
The peace treaty of Ripon
The Treaty of Ripon was an agreement signed by Charles I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Scottish Covenanters on 28 October 1640, in the aftermath of the Second Bishops' War. -
The Irish Rebellion
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 was an uprising by Irish Catholics in the Kingdom of Ireland, who wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and to partially or fully reverse the plantations of Ireland. They also wanted to prevent a possible invasion or takeover by anti-Catholic English Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters, who were defying the king, Charles I. It began as an attempted “coup d'état”. -
Period: to
The First Civil War
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The Battle of Naseby
The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main Royalist army under Charles I and Prince Rupert. -
Period: to
The Second Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of religious freedom. It was part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The wars also involved the Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates. The war ended with Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. -
Execution of King Charles I
Despite the Lords rejecting it, Charles was convicted with 59 Commissioners signing his death warrant. Charles refused to answer the charges, arguing that he did not recognise the authority of the High Court, but he was found guilty and sentenced to death on 27 January 1649. -
Cromwell dissolved the Rump
Cromwell became disenchanted with the Rump as he disliked its aggressive nationalism and commercialism, seeing it as a divergence away from the main task of internal reform. It last for five years. -
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector
Oliver Cromwell was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, first as a senior commander in the Parliamentarian army and then as a politician. A leading advocate of the execution of Charles I in January 1649, which led to the establishment of the Republican Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. -
Declaration of Breda
The Declaration of Breda (4 April 1660) was a proclamation by Charles II of England in which he promised a general pardon for crimes committed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum for all those who recognized Charles as the lawful king; the retention by the current owners of property purchased during the same period; religious toleration; and the payment of arrears to members of the army, and that the army would be recommissioned into service under the crown. -
The Clarendon Code
The Clarendon Code was a series of four legal statutes passed between 1661-1665 which effectively re-established the supremacy of the Anglican Church after the interlude of Cromwell's Commonwealth, and ended toleration for dissenting religions. -
Charles II marries Catherine of Bragenza
He married to the Catholic princess Catherine of Braganza in 1662, and had a strong relation with Louis XIV (catholic absolutist that led a strong repression toward protestants). On 23 June 1661 a marriage treaty agreeing upon the union of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza was signed. Catherine brought a dowry of £500,000, as well as Bombay, Tangier and the right of free trade with the Portuguese colonies, and also popularised tea-drinking in Britain. -
The Plague
The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that originated in Central Asia in 1331 and included related diseases such as pneumonic plague and septicemic plague, which lasted until 1750. -
Period: to
The Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War was a conflict between England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas and trade routes, where England tried to end the Dutch domination of world trade during a period of intense European commercial rivalry, but also as a result of political tensions. After initial English successes, the war ended in a Dutch victory. It was the second of a series of naval wars fought between the English and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries. -
Great fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666,gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the wall to the west. The death toll is generally thought to have been relatively small,although some historians have challenged this belief. -
Period: to
The Exclusion Crisis
The Parliament tried to debar James from succession. Charles reaction was to dissolve Parliament. He ruled without it until his death in 1685 (he converted to Catholicism on his deathbed). He was succeeded by his brother.
It led to the polarization of the Parliament in two parties : the Whigs, that opposed James, and the Tories, that were loyal to the doctrine of royal hereditary rights. -
Period: to
Reign of James II
The first years of James II’s reign were quite peaceful. He tried to work toward toleration for both Catholics and dissenters, facing Parliament opposition on this issue. But he was old , and had no male heir.
But, his second wife,Mary of Modena, gave her a son, James Francis Edward, born the 10th of June 1688. -
William III becomes King
With about 20000 soldiers, William lands in England in the early November of 1688. He will met no resistance.
James II fled to France. Williams invited to take the throne. Became King William III.
The Glorious Revolution reinstalled a protestant monarch. Mary and William also accepted Parliamentary authority / limits to their power. England became a Constitutional Monarchy, framed by the 1689 Bill of Right. -
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights 1689 is an Act of the Parliament of England, which sets out certain basic civil rights and clarifies who would be next to inherit the Crown, and is seen as a crucial landmark in English constitutional law. It received Royal Assent on 16 December 1689 and is a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William III and Mary II in February 1689, inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. -
Period: to
Reign of William III
William III also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s, and King of England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702. He is sometimes informally known as "King Billy" in Ireland and Scotland. He ruled Britain alongside his wife and cousin, Queen Mary II, and popular histories usually refer to their reign as that of "William and Mary". -
Act of settlement
The Act of Settlement was passed in 1701, reinforcing the Bill of Rights agreed by William and Mary in 1689. The main aim of this legislation was to ensure a Protestant succession to the English throne. In 1707, as a result of the Act of Union, this Act was extended to Scotland. -
The war of Spanish succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Philip of Anjou and Charles of Austria, and their respective supporters, among them Spain, Austria, France, the Dutch Republic, Savoy and Great Britain. -
Period: to
Reign of Queen Anne
Anne became queen upon the death of King William III on 8 March 1702, and was immediately popular. She was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 8 March 1702 until 1 May 1707. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain. Anne continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death. -
The Act of Union
This Union was between England and Scotland. After that the Jacobite threat was tamed. A single kingdom, no more parliament in Scotland, but representatives in the House of Commons. The Presbyterian Scottish Kirk kept its independence from the Church of England. -
Death of Queen Anne
Anne was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 8 March 1702 until 1 May 1707. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain. Anne continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death. -
George I, King of the United Kingdom
George Louis of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the son of Ernest Augustus and Sophia of the Palatinate. George married his cousin Sophia Dorothea of Celle in 1682. He succeeded his father as elector of Hanover in 1698. The English Parliament’s Act of Settlement (1701), seeking to ensure a Protestant succession to the throne in opposition to the exiled Roman Catholic claimant, made George third in line for the throne after Princess Anne and his mother. -
Period: to
Hanoverian dynastie
The House of Hanover whose members are known as Hanoverians, is a European royal house of German origin that ruled Hanover, Great Britain, and Ireland at various times during the 17th to 20th centuries. The house originated in 1635 as a cadet branch of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, growing in prestige until Hanover became an Electorate in 1692. George I became the first Hanoverian monarch of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714. -
Period: to
Reign of George I
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The First Rebellion of the Jacobites
The Jacobite rising of 1689 was a revolt seeking to restore James VII, following his deposition in November 1688. Supporters of the exiled House of Stuart were known as 'Jacobites', the associated political movement known as Jacobitism. -
Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of Great Britain
Robert Walpole was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House of Commons, is generally regarded as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. -
Period: to
Reign of George II
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death in 1760. -
The Second Rebellion
The second rebellion, in 1745, to install the “young pretender”, Charles Edward Stuart (1720-88), aka “Bonnie Prince Charlie). Led to the final Jacobites’ defeat at the Battle of Culloden (1746). -
Period: to
The Seven Years War
The Seven Years War opposed a French coalition to the English, mostly over questions of colonial and naval control. -
Period: to
Reign of George III
George III was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820. He was the longest-lived and longest-reigning king in British history. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America, officially ended the American Revolutionary War and overall state of conflict between the two countries. The treaty set the boundaries between the British Empire in North America and the United States of America, on lines "exceedingly generous" to the latter. Details included fishing rights and restoration of property and prisoners of war. -
The Act of Union of 1801
The Acts of Union of 1801 unites the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, bound since 1541 by a personal union. It thus gives birth to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland