-
William invaded England to become King and claim the throne from Harold Godwinson.
-
First European paper produced; the technique arrives via Italian ports with active commercial relations with the Arab world and also, probably, by the overland route from Spain to France.
-
The Magna Carta is a document that King John of England was forced into signing. It greatly reduced the power he held as the King of England.
-
The eighth crusade was the last major crusade aimed at the Holy Land, and a failure that well symbolises the end of the crusades.
-
The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population and reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.
-
The first allusion to a literary tradition of Robin Hood tales occurs in William Langland's Piers Plowman.
-
Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
-
Richard the Duke of York led a small force toward London and was met by Henry's forces; the relatively small First Battle of St Albans was the first open conflict of the civil war.
-
Le Morte d'Arthur is a compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of Romance tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table. The book interprets existing French and English stories about these figures, with some of Malory's own original material.
-
Henry was able to negotiate alliances with the Yorkist faction, and, together with his own Lancastrian forces and French mercenaries, he invaded England. His defeat of Richard at Bosworth Field gave him the crown.
-
Richard III's corpse was stripped naked and taken to Leicester, where it was displayed publicly to prove his death. The crown (supposedly found in a hawthorn bush) was placed on Henry's head.