Middle Ages

1485 first printing of Le Morte d’Arthur

1485 BCE

Le Morte d'Arthur was first published in 1485 by William Caxton. Le Morte d'Arthur is a reworking of traditional tales by Sir Thomas Malory about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table. Malory interprets existing French and English stories about these figures and adds original material

First Tudor king, Henry VII, is crowned

1485 BCE

Henry VII, known before accession as Henry Tudor, 2nd Earl of Richmond was King of England after seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death, the first monarch of the House of Tudor.

War of the Roses

1455 BCE

The Wars of the Roses were a series of wars for control of the throne of England. They were fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet, those of Lancaster and York.

1387 Chaucer writes The Canterbury Tales

1387 BCE

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucere. The tales are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from London to Canterbury in order to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.

1378 first appearance of Robin Hood in literature

1378 BCE

Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore who, according to legend, was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. He first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from the c. 1377 poem Piers Plowman, but the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads that tell his story date to the second half of 15th century or the first decade of the 16th century (1500s).

The Plague

1348 BCE

The Black Death was an epidemic of bubonic plague, a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that circulates among wild rodents where they live in great numbers and density.he Black Death or Black Plague was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–53.

end of the Crusades

1270 BCE

1095 – 1291. The Crusades were predominantly a series of religious wars undertaken by the Latin Church between the 11th and 15th centuries; historians cannot agree on any single definition of a crusade, or which specific military campaigns should be included.

Magna Carta

1215 BCE

Magna Carta Libertatumcommonly called Magna Carta (also Magna Charta; is a charter agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. The charter became part of English political life and was typically renewed by each monarch in turn, although as time went by and the fledgling English Parliament passed new laws, it lost some of its practical significance.

1150 paper is first mass-produced in Spain

1150 BCE

it took 500 years to find its way to Europe. (Hunter 1943, 115)By the end of the 10th century, paper had replaced parchment and papyrus in the Arab world.

William the Conqueror invades England

1066 BCE

usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. William argued that Edward had previously promised the throne to him, and that Harold had sworn to support William's claim. William built a large fleet and invaded England in September 1066, decisively defeating and killing Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066.