(From 1501 to 2003)
October 1501: Catherine of Aragon is married to Prince Arthur. She is the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain who sent Columbus on his way.
1503: Prince Arthur dies of pneumonia making his younger brother Henry the heir to the throne.
1503: Princess Margaret marries James IV of Scotland.
1506: Henry VII manages to arrest the last Yorkest with a claim to the throne.
April 1509: Henry VII dies and leaves the throne to his son Henry VIII. One of his firsts acts is to marry his brothers widow Catherine of Aragon. Then Henry leaves the decision making to Archbishop Warham who was Lord Chancellor, Bishop Foxe and Lord Surry who was Lord Treasurer.
1513: Henry joins the Holy League formed by Pope Julius II with Venice and Spain against France who had made conquests in Italy destroying the balance of power. Henry then crossed over into France resuming the Hundred Years War and won critical victories. While he was gone Lord Surry had won a victory against the Scots killing James IV and leaving Henry's sister regent for her infant son James V.
1514: With the help of Thomas Wolsey who is Archbishop of York and a Cardinal, England makes peace with France. Henry's youngest sister Mary is married to old King Louis XII but when he dies she runs off with Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. After some time she begs the kings pardon and returns to court to be a leader of the opposition party. She would begat the Suffolk Line of the Tudor family.
1515: Thomas Wolsey so impresses Henry VIII with his ability that he is made Lord Chancellor. Henry lets Wolsey do much of the work of ruling the kingdom so he can have fun playing sports and music. Wolsey gets richer as the years pass and builds York Place in Whitehall and Hampton Court.
1516: After many tries, Queen Catherine gives birth to Princess Mary the only child of their marriage to live.
1517: The Protestant Revolution begins in Germany when Luther nails his 95 theses on the door of a church. This will be important for England later on.
1519: With the death of Maximillion the Holy Roman Emperor, three candidates emerge. Charles V of Spain, Francis I of France, and Henry VIII of England. In the end Charles will win the office and Henry will blame France for making it a three-way race.
1520: Wolsey sets up a deal for Francis I and Henry VIII to meet. The gathering is called the Field of Cloth of Gold and although there was jousts and tournaments nothing comes of the deal. Then Pope Leo X dies and Henry tries to get Wolsey appointed Pope but Charles V's tutor, Adrian of Utrecht wins.
1521: Henry VIII writes a tract against Martin Luther called the Defense of the Seven Sacraments. For this act Henry is called Defender of the Faith in 1524.
1527: After many years Catherine of Aragon can no longer have children and so Henry, in his desire to have a male heir, convinces himself that the marriage was never valid since she had been married before. He sends Wolsey to Rome to convince the Pope while secretly seeing Anne Boleyn.
1528: Charles V sacks Rome and appoints his own puppet Pope Clement VII to the Papacy. Since Charles does not wish to see his aunt divorced he refuses to let Clement grant one.
1530: Henry VIII appoints Thomas Cromwell Chancellor and has Wolsey arrested for treason. Wolsey dies on the way to prison. Under Cromwell, the Parliament makes Henry Pope and King calling him Supreme Head of the Church of England.
1533: Henry and Anne secretly marry and after Cromwell states that the marriage with Catherine is null and void Anne is made Queen. Catherine is made Princess of Wales and lives out the rest of her days in Wales before here death in 1536. Henry gives Anne as a wedding present York Palace which he renames Whitehall. He takes for himself the nearby hospital of St. James, tears it down, and rebuilds St. James Palace. He then takes over all the other monasteries and uses the money for the royal treasury.
September 1533: Anne gives birth to Princess Elizabeth. Henry refuses to see wife or child since he wants a male heir. To distract himself he demands an oath from all subjects that they recognize him as Head of the Church of England. Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher two of Henry's closest friends refuse to take the oath. Henry has them tried for treason and executed.
1536: Henry VIII falls off his horse and is in serious danger. When the news reaches Anne she miscarries and Henry is angered. He accuses her of witchcraft and adultery.
May 19, 1536: Anne is executed for treason. The same day Henry marries Jane Seymour.
October 12, 1537: Jane Seymour gives birth to Prince Edward but dies while doing so.
1538: Cromwell orders that an English Bible be placed in all the churches in the country.
1539: Cromwell has Parliament pass the Act of Six Articles which state that the following Catholic traditions are to be upheld: transubstantiation, communion every mass, Clerical celibacy, vows of chastity, private masses and auricular confession.
1540: Henry VIII watches while Frances I and Charles V make an alliance. Fearing that he will be invaded and deposed as the Pope wishes, he looks around Europe for an ally. He settles on Cleves a German state and marries Anne of Cleves who he has heard is beautiful. When he meets her he discovers she is truly ugly and has Cromwell secure a divorce. However Cromwell refuses since Henry will marry his enemy's daughter and is arrested for treason and executed. Henry then marries Catherine Howard. February 13, 1542: Catherine is executed for adultery. 1543: Henry marries for a sixth and last time to Catherine Parr. Henry was suffering from being too much overweight at this time and from a bum leg caused by his fall. Catherine takes care of him and asks him to let his children come live with him. She also encourages Henry to found Trinity Collage, Cambridge, and Christ Church. England and the Holy Roman Empire become allies against Scotland and France.
1547: Henry VIII dies and sets up a balanced Council of Regents to rule until his son Edward VI is old enough to become king. As soon as Henry was dead the new king's uncle Edward Seymour overturned the Council and set himself up as Protector. Edward VI made him Duke of Somerset for this act. However Edward was now a puppet king.
1549: Somerset repeals the Catholic Act of Six Articles, abolishes chantries, and issues an English Prayer Book written by Thomas Cranmer. Two rebellions were crushed this year. In Wales rebels rebelled against he Prayer Book and were crushed, and in Norfolk rebels rebelled against the enclosure of common fields but were also defeated.
1550: Somerset is replaced as Protector by the Duke of Northumberland.
1552: Somerset passes an Act of Uniformity for public worship and issues a Second Prayer Book, which declares that Holy Communion was only a commemorative rite. Saints were torn down and masses for the dead were made illegal. The Bible was the only book allowed in church now. Then Somerset goes to war with Scotland for refusing to honor a treaty of marriage between Edward and Mary the Queen. When Mary flees, Somerset tries to pass a union agreement between Scotland and England in Parliament. However before the act can be passed John Dudley, Earl of Warwick has Edward VI send Somerset to the Tower of London and executed.
1553: By this time Edward VI was fanatically Protestant yet he was sick all the time. Next in line for the throne was his older sister Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, and very much Catholic. To keep the throne from passing to her, Warwick got Edward to agree to pass the crown to his cousin Lady Jane Gray.
July 6, 1553: Edward VI dies of consumption. His last wish is that Jane succeed him. However once dead the country rallied behind Mary and so Mary was crowned Mary I, the first queen regent since Matilda had challenged Stephen for the throne. Her first act is to have Parliament reverse all that Edward's reformation settlement had done and to celebrated the Roman Mass once more. Then she asked the pope to absolve England of heresy and make them once more part of the Catholic Church.
November 1553: Mary I decides to marry Philip II of Spain.
January 1554: Kent rises in rebellion led by Sir Thomas Wyatt. The rebels wish to force Mary to not wed Philip. The rebels lose after crossing Kingston Bridge. Mary I believes the Princes Elizabeth is in charge of the rebellion and sends her to the Tower. Lady Jane Grey is executed for trying to usurp the throne.
July 1554: Philip II and Mary I wed in Winchester Cathedral and then go to Hampton Court for their honeymoon. Philip then leaves for Spain never to return. He had bigger fish to fry since he was also ruler of the Netherlands, Milan, and Naples as well as the Spanish colonies in America.
February 1555: Parliament refuses to make Philip King of England, Mary I decides that God is mad at England for being heretical and starts to burn people at the stake. John Foxe's Book of Martyrs tells the gruesome deeds that were done in those days. England grows fearful with Mary and her leading minister Cardinal Pole.
1558: England joins Spain in fighting France. However she loses her last possession in France the city of Calais. Mary is blamed for it.
November 17, 1558: Mary I dies and leaves the throne to her stepsister Elizabeth. Elizabeth I orders the burnings to stop and feasts to be given all over England. Elizabeth also decides to take a middle ground in the religious question and makes it a law that everyone has to go to church on Sunday but they could go to anyone he or she so chose. She then appoints William Cecil as Lord Treasure and Principal Secretary.
January 15, 1559: Elizabeth is officially crowned Queen of England. She appoints Henry, Earl of Arundel as Lord High Steward of England. Parliament then asks when she was going to marry and to who.
July 11, 1559: Francis II becomes King of France and forms an allegiance with Mary Queen of Scots against England. The purpose is to make Mary queen of England.
1560: After a short border war with Scotland, the Scots agree that Elizabeth is rightful queen of England and not Mary. Mary refuses to obey the treaty unless she is made heir to Elizabeth.
1562: After nearly dying of smallpox, Elizabeth I makes Robert Dudley her next in line as Protector of the Throne. There may have been a relationship between the two of them also. Of course Dudley was not the only men chasing the Virgin Queen. She had the whole court who wished to marry and yet she never would marry. 1563: The Anglican Church is officially established by Elizabeth I. 1565: Mary Queen of Scots marries Lord Darnley over Elizabeth's protest. She had wanted Dudley to wed Mary. 1568: Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate the throne of Scotland. She flees to England and is arrested by Elizabeth I. 1569: The Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland start the Northern Rebellion aiming to restore Catholicism and place Mary on the throne of England. They are defeated in battle.1572: Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk confesses his part in the Northern Rebellion and is executed. Elizabeth I makes an alliance with France against Spain and becomes engaged to the Duke of Alencon. 1577: England and the Netherlands become official allies. Sir Francis Drake starts his voyage around the world.1579: The Puritans in England threaten to rebel if Elizabeth goes through with her marriage plans and so Elizabeth backs down and decides against marriage. Since she realizes that this is her last chance to marry and have children she goes into a deep depression.1581: Elizabeth's depression is lifted when Sir Walter Raleigh comes to court. For a time he will keep her happy even to the point of naming a colony after Elizabeth: Virginia. But he will eventually marry Bess Throckmorton and both will be banished from the court. 1582-1588: England is involved with many plots and counterplots during these years. Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded for trying to usurp the throne, Cecil is fired and sent to the Tower for treason, England sends a army to fight the Spanish in the Netherlands while refusing to admit that the Netherlands are free from Spain, and Sir Francis Drake makes many raids against Spanish colonies in America.
August 1588: Having enough of England, Spain sends its Armada to seize the Straits of Dover so that she can invade. Elizabeth raises an army and navy to fight but the Armada is wrecked in a storm and goes home. Spain vowed to keep fighting.
1597: Ireland rebels against English rule.
1600: Elizabeth establishes the East India Company.
1601: Robert Essex who is fighting in Ireland against the rebels comes back and tries to start a rebellion for the English Throne. He is found out and executed.
March 24, 1603: Elizabeth I dies of the flu. She would name no heir even though James VI of Scotland was the next in line. She was the last of the Tudor family to rule. Robert Cecil invited James to come rule. James becomes James I in England. James found out that in England kingship was different. Here he was chief executive, Supreme Governor of the Church, the possessor of hereditary wealth, the leader of his subject in war and peace. However he was constitutionally limited by tradition. The English Parliament was very independent. If he wished to wage war or the meet extraordinary expenses the House of Commons had to be asked to vote money for the king.
April 1603: By the time he got to London, James faced some problems. The Puritan movement wished to sweep all Roman Catholic rites from the church services and to revert to what was claimed to be primitive usages that laid stress on preaching and prayer rather then ceremonial and sacraments. Second the Parliament had grown stronger under the Tudors and wished to play a bigger part in state affairs. The third problem was that England was still at war with Spain. James also figured he could deal with the Puritans since he had been brought up as a Calvinist. He hosted a conference between Catholics and Puritans and granted the latter group much of what they wanted but refused to get rid of the bishops. He then issued a new bible called the King James.
1604: James I bans Jesuits from England. Spain and England sign a peace treaty.
November 5, 1605: The Gunpowder Plot is discovered. Roman Catholics tried to blow up the Parliament and James I reimposed penalties against Roman Catholics who did not go to Church of England services.
1604-1611: Parliament meets for the first time in James rule. James brings up two tasks for them to do. The first was to make a complete union between Scotland and England. The second was to have the House of Commons give him a regular and permanent income. To push for these plans Robert Cecil is made Earl of Salisbury and Lord Treasure. Parliament refuses to do either plan. First of all Commons was not ready to give equal rights to Scotland. For the second task Salisbury offered that in return for a regular revenue the King would give up all feudal dues belonging to the Crown and not levy new taxes without going to Parliament. The House of Commons would not budge and so James dissolved Parliament.
1607: Jamestown is founded.
1610: Hudson Bay is discovered.
1612: Salisbury dies and power passes into the hands of James's secret homosexual lover Robert Carr.
1613: James marries off his daughter to Fredrick the Elector Palatine who was a strong German Protestant. By doing so he entered into an alliance with the German Protestant Union. He then married his son off to the sister of King Philip IV of Spain and ended his alliance with the Dutch.
1614: Parliament again meets but refuses to give James money unless he gets rid of Carr. James dissolves the Parliament after two months.
1616: Robert Carr and his wife are accused of murder and lose their position at court. Power now goes to James's new lover George Villiers who was made Duke of Buckingham.
1619: James son in law starts the Thirty Years War with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire on one side and Germany on the other. Villiers forces James to declare war on Spain and hire a mercenary army to fight on the side of Germany.
1620: Plymouth is made a colony in America.
1621: Parliament meets for a third time but again refuses to pass war taxes unless James agreed to discuss their grievances. James instead has the four leading members arrested.
1624: England and France become allies. Parliament tries to force James to go to war with Spain. Virginia becomes a crown colony.
March 27, 1625: James I dies and warns his heir Charles to watch out for the growing power of the House of Commons. Charles I first order of business is to marry the sister of King Louis XIII of France. He soon found himself at war with both Spain and France.
1625-1626: With the war going badly for England and no money in site James is forced to extreme measures. He cashed his wife's dowry, made the wealth give him loans or face prison time, billeted soldiers without paying for them, and collected tonnage and poundage with Parliament approval.
1628: Parliament meets for a third time during Charles I reign. Since the war with Spain was going so badly the Commons were critical of Charles. They objected to the way he had raised money, the way he was fighting the war, and his attitude to the Church of England. They and the House of Lords condemn Charles for what he had done so far. Charles accepts the condemnation but did not abide by it. The House of Commons then threatened to impeach Buckingham and so Charles dismissed Parliament for a third time. Buckingham was later assassinated. Because of this Charles will not call Parliament back for 11 years.
1633: With the wars at an end and Charles with more money in his pocket, he appoints a friend as Archbishop of Canterbury who shares his view of religion. He then issues a service book in Scotland so based on English practice so that both England and Scotland will have uniform religious practice. The Scots refuse to follow the new service and reject it. Charles raises an army to enforce his will on Scotland. The first Bishops war finds Charles defeated and to raise a new army he has to call Parliament back in 1639.
1639: The Short Parliament insisted on discussing their grievances before granting the king money and so is dissolved. For a second time, the second Bishops War, Charles sends an army against Scotland and again is beaten. Since Charles needs money to pay the troops he calls back Parliament one more time.
1640: The Long Parliament starts to meet. Again before discussing what Charles I wants they wish to know about his methods during the last decade. Charles had raised money from towns to pay for a navy, had had continued to collect tonnage and poundage illegally, he had imposed medieval methods to get money such as fines upon gentry who refused to fight for him. Parliament was also scared that Charles would use his army in the north and in Ireland to enforce his absolute will on them. Parliament impeaches one of Charles ministers for treason and when they cannot come to a verdict force Charles is forced to sign a bill giving Parliament the right to kill the minister anyway. Charles then is forced to stop raising funds for a navy and cannot dissolve the Parliament without their approval.
1641: Charles refuses to let the Parliament reform the Church of England or control the militia. By this time Parliament was split into two factions. The first faction were the Puritans against Charles called the Roundheads and the second was the Royalists for Charles I. Charles feels that he has enough power to have arrested the five leading members of the Roundheads but when he goes into Commons to do so he finds that they have left the city. The English Civil War begins. Ireland revolts again.
1642: The two sides meet for negotiations but Charles refuses to give in to any of the terms and Charles goes to war.
1642-1647: The next few years see both sides win victories but not the war. Then Charles goes to Scotland to rally the people there and they hand him over to the Roundheads. All the Roundheads wanted at this time was a written constitution spelling out what the king could do and what Parliament could do. Charles refuses and escapes from custody.
1648: Charles reaches the Isle of Wright and asks Scotland for help which this time they agree to give him. But the Roundheads win the battle and arrest Charles for fighting against his subjects.
January 1649: Parliament is cleared out of all Royalists and the king is put on trial. The court sentenced him to death for treason.
January 30, 1649: Charles I is beheaded by Parliament. Parliament then abolished the monarchy along with the Privy Council, Courts of Exchequer Admiralty and the House of Lords. England was ruled by a Council of State and the Rump Parliament led by Oliver Cromwell.
1650-1653: Cromwell's army crushes all rebellion in the country including murdering 40% of the people of Ireland.
1651: The first Navigation Act gives England a monopoly on trade.
April 21, 1653: Cromwell orders the Rump Parliament to go home and orders elections of a new Parliament.
1655: Cromwell tires of his new Parliament and dissolves it deciding to rule alone. However Charles finds himself in debt due to keeping a army in the field and due to fighting trade wars with the Dutch. So Cromwell has a new version of Parliament. The House of Peers is packed with supporters of Cromwell and giving it true veto power. Cromwell is named Lord General of the Army and Lord Protector of the Realm. Jamaica is seized from Spain. England is divided into 12 districts by Cromwell.
1656: England and Spain go to war again.
September 3, 1658: Cromwell dies and gives the government to his son Richard.
1659: Richard Cromwell abdicate by the army. The Rump Parliament takes over. England and France defeat Spain and England is rewarded Dunkirk.
1660: The army marches on London and forces the Rump out of power. The General of the Army then opens the door to those royalists who had been banned in 1649 and they set up a council of state and call Charles I's son Charles back to rule as king. He agrees and is crowned Charles II. The Stuart house was restored to the throne. Charles II's first acts were to promise liberty of conscience to all Christians and demand the punishment of his father's murders. He then issued a new prayer book and an Act of Uniformity, which caused 2,000 clergy to leave their parishes in protest.
1661: Parliament refuses to accept a Declaration of Indulgence on other religions other then Anglican. Charles then appointed the General of the Army who had restored him as his chief minister. England wins Bombay.
1664: New Amsterdam is seized by the English and renamed New York.
1665: Great Plague in London.
1666: London is burned to the ground in the Great Fire
1667: England signs a treaty with the Dutch on terms of status quo. Charles II then fires his chief ministers and instead starts a council known as "The Cabal" consisting of Lord Clifford, Lord Arlington, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Ashley, and Lord Lauderdale.
1668: England, Netherlands, and Sweden sign an alliance treaty against the French.
1670: Charles signs a secret treaty with the French in which both countries would attack the Dutch and in return Charles II would declare himself to be Roman Catholic. The French would pay for the war and give Charles some Dutch ports once the war was won. Charles then published a Second Declaration of Indulgence and without consulting Parliament went to war. The first stage of the war went badly for the English and when Parliament met to consider giving Charles money they made him withdraw his Declaration and agree on an Act that would exclude Roman Catholics from holding office. Then they refused to give him money. Charles was forced to ask the Dutch for peace terms. Hudson Bay Company is founded.
1672: England and the Dutch go to war again.
1678: A "Popish Plot" was discovered in the English government when many officials at court admitted to being Catholic and planning to execute the king. Charles was forced to end his Cabal and the ministers were impeached and executed. Parliament then passed an act excluding Roman Catholics from sitting in Parliament and Charles dissolved Parliament.
1679-1685: A series of Parliaments meet to try to keep James Duke of York from becoming heir to the throne since he was Catholic. Charles kept dissolving Parliament whenever they brought it up and so a new Parliament was elected. The Parliament splits into two parties with the Whigs against the king and the Tories for him. Parliament also passes an Act of Habeas Corpus passed which forbids imprisonment without trial.
February 6, 1685: Charles II dies of a stroke. On his deathbed he is baptized Roman Catholic. His brother James takes over as James II. James went to Mass to celebrate his crown but informed his Privy Council and Parliament that he would protect the Church of England. Parliament in return decided to give James a chance and gave him some money.
June 1685: A rebel force invaded Scotland and the Duke of Monmouth invaded southwest England. Both rebel leaders figured that the country would rally to them and not to the Catholic James. However, Parliament chose to support James and the rebellion was put down.
Fall 1685: James insists on placing Roman Catholics as officers into the army and releasing all prisoners in jail for not going to services at the Church of England. Parliament protests the idea of James having a standing army at all and James had it recessed but not dissolved.
1686: James appoints an ecclesiastical commission to prevent the Anglican clergy from attacking the tenets of the Roman Catholic religion from their pulpits. The commission decides to make an example and suspends the Bishop of London for disobeying the king. Then James made a law that let him put Catholics into the Privy Council, army, and in Oxford.
April 4, 1687: James II issues a Declaration of Indulgence aiming at complete religious toleration. He instructed the clergy to read it from their pulpits the following Sunday. Then he fired his two brother-in-laws for being Protestants and appointed the Earl of Sunderland as Lord President of the Council and Secretary of State.
1688: James II makes an alliance with Catholic France. When the Archbishop of Canterbury makes a protest sermon, James has the Archbishop of Canterbury and six other bishops arrested for seditious libel. They were found innocent and the verdict was celebrated all over the country. Then James Queen gave birth to a son thus giving an heir to the throne. The seven bishops then secretly invited James nephew and son in law, William of Orange to come and take the throne.
November 5, 1688: William of Orange, who was married to Mary a daughter of James II by his first marriage, lands an invasion army in England. This act is known as the Glorious Revolution. James found that his army and navy refused to attack William and fled with his family to France abdicating the throne.
February 1689: Parliament decides to crown both William and Mary as William III and Mary II with the executive power in Williams's hands. They are both asked by Parliament to agree to a Bill of Rights condemning the way James II had governed and thus the limited monarchy was born.
1690's: Parliament with the power in its hands passes several acts. The first one is an Act of Indulgence permitting Christian nonconformists except Catholics to worship as the pleased under certain conditions. The second was a Triennial Act that required a Parliament be summoned every three years. Then they passed a Mutiny Act preventing the employment of a standing army in times of peace unless the House of Commons agreed. This was followed by a Civil List Act giving the Commons control over the King's expenses.
September 1690: England joins the first Grand Alliance with the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic with the goal of keeping France from becoming masters of Europe.
1691: Catholics in Ireland are allowed to practice their religion. The French war begins.
1694: England wins a battle against the French at Namur, Flanders. Mary II dies of smallpox leaving her husband as sole ruler.
1697: The Grand Alliance makes peace with France.
1701: Parliament passes an Act of Settlement, which among other things requires future monarchs to be members of the Church of England and forbade them to leave the kingdom without Parliament permission. They also could not fire judges unless Parliament agreed. Then they established a Bank of England, which enabled the government to borrow money in a sensible way. The Grand Alliance went back to war with France. The War of the Spanish Succession begins with England, Holland, and Austria fighting Spain and France.
March 8, 1702: William III dies after falling off his horse. On his deathbed he names Anne, Mary's sister, as heir. Queen Anne's first moves were to appoint her best friends John Churchill General of the Army and Sidney Godolphin Lord Treasurer.
1704: Churchill wins the battle of Blenheim in France. Anne then appoints Robert Harley to the cabinet as Speaker of the Commons. The three friends were known as Anne's Triumvirate. The British capture Gibraltar from Spain and expel France from the Netherlands.
1707: Scotland and England officially become the country of Great Britain.
1708: The Whigs win a huge victory in Parliament and Anne is forced to admit the leading members of the Whig party to her cabinet.
1710: The Whig government falls and a Tory one replaces it.
1713: The treaty of Utrecht is signed ending the War of the Spanish Succession.
August 1, 1714: Queen Anne dies in her sleep. The House of Stuart dies with her and the House of Hanover is beginning with a distant cousin named George Elector of Hanover the grandson of Elizabeth the sister of Charles I. Many English subjects did not want to see George rule, instead they wanted the son of James II to renounce Catholicism and rule. Also George was rumored to have murdered his wife's lover and hacked the body to pieces before divorcing his wife and putting her in prison. George put power into the hands of a Whig junta consisting of Lord Halifax, Sunderland, Stanhope, Townshend, and Robert Walpole. He then awarded friends from Germany with jobs, which made the English lords left out in the cold angry.
Fall 1714: England soon found reasons to laugh at the new king. He never dined in state, he issued his guards new uniforms which they refused to wear, he tried to close St. James park and plant it with turnips, he did not make friends easily, his three mistress were either extremely fat, skinny, or old, he spoke German and French but no English, and he loved Handel.
September 1715: The Jacobite's in Parliament who represent the Whig party, start a rebellion declaring the son of James II, James III as king. Scotland agreed and there were riots in England. The rebellion was defeated of course and George I had the leaders beheaded while he hosted a ball to celebrate. George I then went back to Hanover to fight against Sweden on the side of Peter the Great of Russia.
1716: George's cabinet forces Townshend and Walpole out of the government, which gives George more power. He orders Stanhope to make an alliance with France and Holland to fight in the Baltic. His dismissed ministers joined his son George as a member of the opposition party. Father and son hated each other deeply. Parliament makes a law to hold elections every seven years.
1717: Townshend and Walpole resign from the government.
1720: The South Seas Company crashes and thousands in England are ruined. George's ministers are implicated with fraud. George gives the Jacobites Sunderland and Stanhope who they execute and places Walpole as Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Treasury. Walpole is the first modern prime minister. George will spend most of his time in Germany now.
1726: First library opens in England. Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels.
June 10, 1727: George I suffers a cerebral hemorrhage in Germany. He is taken to his birthplace castle.
October 11, 1727: George I dies in the room in which he was born. The throne passes to his son George II. When told that he was king, George II figured that it was a lie and did nothing until Walpole could convince him. George decided to keep all the people in government there since they had the experience to govern and did not replace anyone. The one consistent fact in the first few years was that George and his son Fredrick argued just like George I and George II had done.
1729: Alexander Pope publishes Dunciad.
1738: John and Charles Wesley start the Methodist Church in England.
September 26, 1739: England goes to war with France and Spain.
February 1, 1742: Walpole resigns as Prime Minister and leaves the government. His contribution to history was establishing a modern cabinet, which reported to Parliament, which reported to the electorate.
June 15, 1743: King George II becomes the last British king to fight alongside his troops when he leads an army of British, Hanoverians, Hessians, Austrians, and Dutch to victory over the French at the battle of Dettingen.
Summer of 1745: The grandson of James II called the Young Pretender invades Britain. He takes Edinburgh, Carlisle, and Derby. George II remains calm and raises taxes to fight. To do so he is forced to let the Pelham family become powerful and give Parliament more power then before. The rebellion is defeated.
May 1751: Fredrick Prince of Wales dies before he can become king.
1752: The Gregorian Calendar is adopted in England.
1756: The Seven Year War begins with England fighting France. William Pitt becomes Prime Minister.
1757: The Indian province of Bengal is captured.
1759: British forces take Canada, India, and the Caribbean as well as ruling the sea.
October 25, 1760: George II suffers a fatal heart attack and is replaced by his grandson George III. Unlike the first two George's George III would never visit Hanover and spoke English. His first act was to issue a proclamation that encouraged piety and virtue. He then decided to rid himself of the Whig hold on the throne by firing Pitt and putting in place Lord Bute. He also began peace negations with France. The war ends in 1763.
1760's: England goes through several power struggles in George's quest to end corruption. Bute manages to get peace from France then leaves the government. He is replaced in rapid succession by George Greenville, Lord Rockingham, William Pitt, and the Duke of Grafton. The reason government failed is that George III failed to support the ministers and instead relied on Lord Bute to give him unofficial advice.
1769: The steam engine is invented in England.
1770: George III finds a man who seems to satisfy both Parliament and Crown. Lord North, the man who lost America and one of the worst Prime Ministers in history, is chosen to lead the government. He managed to keep Parliament happy for 10 years.
1776: Adam Smith publishes Wealth of Nations.
1781: America wins her independence although it takes two years to make a peace treaty and Lord North is fired. Lord Fox is placed into power and promises to reduce royal influence in politics. He forms a collation with Lord North to do so.
December 18, 1783: The House of Lords rejects the governments East India Bill and the king fires all members of the Fox-North collation. He then chooses William Pitt the younger as Prime Minister. Pitt shapes up the government mess caused by Fox
October 16, 1788: King George III suffers a bout of convulsions after riding in the rain. He goes around acting odd and never stops talking.
November 5, 1788: King George III attacks his son at dinner trying to smash his head into the wall. When he is separated it is noticed that foam is coming from his mouth, he is speaking gibberish and his eyes are bloodshot. He was taken to Kew where he was lectured, threatened, and put in straight jackets. He was tied to a iron chair if he refused to eat and had medicines put on him to draw out the madness. In spite of this "treatment" he managed to recover his wits by April 1789. It is believed that this was the first signs of porphyria, which he would die from.
1789: The French Revolution begins.
1793: England goes to war with France. Some republican ideas come to England although nothing drastic is done.
1797: England is the only country in Europe still fighting against France.
May 15, 1800: George III has an assassination attempt on him.
1801: George III suffers a brief relapse of madness. When he recovers he makes it his goal to keep Parliament from passing a Catholic Emancipation Act and letting Catholics sit in Parliament. He fires Pitt for trying to get such a act passed. He appoints Lord Greenville in Pitts place. Ireland is brought into Great Britain. The first British census is done. First commercial boom in England.
1802: England and France sign a peace treaty. Parliament passes laws regarding factories.
1803: France under Napoleon goes to war with England once more. Parliament passes legislation on enclosing common lands.
1804: Another relapse of madness comes on George III, which again he soon recovers from.
1807: Lord Greenville is fired for trying to pass the Catholic Emancipation Act. The slave trade is abolished in England.
1810: George III descends once more into madness. He will never recover and his son will take over as Prince Regent.
1812: England goes to war with the United States.
1813: Jane Austin publishes Pride and Prejudice.
1814: England signs a treaty with the United States and with France
1815: England defeats Napoleon at Waterloo.
1815-1817: Second Commercial boom in England.
1818: Mary Shelly publishes Frankenstein.
1819: Troops put down a strike and kill 400.
January 29, 1820: George III dies of madness. His last ten years have been spent blind, deaf, and mad. His son George IV who had been ruling for 10 years anyway becomes full King. The Cato Plot tries to kill the cabinet. George IV was a very fat man who was also a drunk most of the time. George spent most of his term as king fixing up the palaces that had not been fixed since the late 1600's.
1821-1823: Famine in Ireland.
1823: The Royal Academy of Music and the British Museum are established.
1824: The National Gallery is established.
1825: The world's first railroad is built in England. Trade Unions are made legal.
1829: Parliament sets up the Metropolitan Police Force. Parliament passes the Catholic Relief Act ending most restrictions on Catholic Civil Rights including the right to own property and run for office.
June 26, 1830: George IV dies after a series of strokes. The crown was passed on to his brother William IV.
Fall 1830: A Whig government comes to power under Lord Grey. William was asked by his new premier to dissolve the Parliament so that a bigger majority of Whigs could be elected and William agreed.
1830-1832: First massive cholera epidemic in Britain.
1831: So called Swing Riots occur against the mechanization of agriculture activities.
1832: First Reform Act passed giving the vote to 500,000 more people and redistributing the Parliament districts to be more equal.
1833: Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Empire. Parliament passes the Factory Act making it illegal to hire children under the age of nine and reducing the hours of women and older children. The Oxford movement in the Anglican Church begins.
1834: Parliament passes the Poor Law Act, which establishes workhouses for the poor. Fire destroys the Palace of Westminster. William fires Grey and replaces him with Lord Peel a stance Tory.
1835: Parliament passes the Municipal Reform Act which requires members of town councils to be elected by ratepayers and that the councils must keep track of all financial activities. William is forced to appoint Lord Russell of the Whigs as his premier.
1835-1836: Third Commercial boom in Britain.
June 20, 1837: William IV dies in his sleep. His niece Victoria replaces him. Births, marriages, and deaths are ordered to appear in the paper. Charles Dickens writes Oliver Twist.
1838: The Anti-Corn Law League is established. The People's Charter is published.
1839: The Chartist Riots take place.
1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
1841: The First British Census, which writes down the names of the populace, is done. The Tories come to power under Lord Peel.
1844: Parliament passes the Bank Charter Act. The Rochdale Co-Operative Society and the Royal Commission on the Health of towns are founded.
1844-1845: A railroad mania explodes across England with the laying of some 5,000 miles of track.
1845-1849: Irish Potato Famine kills more then a million people.
1846: Peel's government falls when the Whigs come to power. They repeal the Corn Laws.
1848: Major Chartist Revolution occurs in London. Parliament passes the Public Health Act.
1851: The Great Exhibition takes place.
1852: Derby's first minority Conservative government. Aberdeen's coalition government is established.
1853: Vaccination against smallpox is made law. Gladstone introduces his first balanced budget.
1854: Britain and France become Allies against Russia in the Crimea War.
1855: End of Aberdeen's coalition government. Palmerston's first government comes to power.
1856: The Crimea War ends. Queen Victoria establishes the Victoria Cross for bravery under fire.
1857-1858: China is opened to European trade after the second Opium War. India rebels against British rule.
1858: Derby establishes his second minority government. Parliament passes the India Act.
1859: Derby's government falls. Palmerston brings his second Liberal government to power. Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.
1860: Gladstone balances the budget. The Anglo-French Cobden Treaty codifies and extends the principle of free trade.
1861: Prince Albert dies. Queen Victoria never recovers from this event. The Trent Affair between the United States and Great Britain almost leads to war. .
1862: Parliament passes the Limited Liability Act in order to provide vital stimulus to accumulation of capital in shares.
1863: The Salvation Army is founded.
1865: Palmerston dies in office. Russell establishes his second Liberal government.
1866: Russell and Gladstone's Reform Bill fails and they lose power. Derby takes over in his third minority government.
1867: Derby and Disraeli's Second Reform Bill gives the vote to two million people. Canada becomes the first independent dominion in the British Empire under the Dominion of Canada Act.
1868: Disraeli becomes Prime Minister followed quickly by Gladstone.
1869: The Irish Church is disestablished. The Suez Canal is opened.
1870: Parliament passes the following acts: Foster-Ripon English Elementary Education Act which makes primary education compulsory in Britain, Women's Property Act, extending the rights of married women, and the Irish Land Act
1871: Trade Unions are made legal. Parliament fails in its effort to end the monarchy and replace it with a republic.
1872: The Secret Ballot is introduced and Parliament passes the Scottish Elementary Act.
1873: Gladstone's government falls after they fail to pass the Irish University Bill.
1874: Disraeli becomes Prime Minister for the second time.
1875: Britain buys a controlling interest in the Suez Canal. An Agriculture depression begins.
1876: Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India.
1877: Confederation of British and Boer states established in South Africa.
1879: A trade depression begins. The Zulu war starts in South Africa.
1880: Gladstone wins office again. First Anglo-Boer War starts.
1881: Parliament passes the Irish Land and Coercion Acts.
1882: Britain occupies Egypt.
1884: Parliament passes the third Reform Act, which gives more people the vote.
1885: Burma is annexed. Salisbury succeeds Gladstone with his first minority Conservative government. Parliament passes the Redistribution Act.
1886: Gladstone's third Liberal government fails to pass its first Irish Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons. Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister. Split in the Liberal Party. Salisbury establishes his second Conservative-Liberal-Unionist government. The Royal Niger Company is chartered. Gold is discovered in the Transvaal.
1887: Queen Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee. The Independent Labor Party is founded. The British East Africa Company is chartered.
1888: The County Councils' Act establishes representative county based authorities.
1889: London Dockers' Strike. The British South Africa Company is chartered.
1892: Gladstone forms his fourth Liberal government.
1893: Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass the House of Lords.
1894: Rosebery takes power with his minority Liberal government.
1895: Salisbury forms his third Unionist ministry.
1896: The British conquest of the Sudan begins.
1897: Queen Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.
1898: British rule over Sudan fully established.
1898-1902: Boer War in South Africa.
1900: Salisbury wins the Khaki election. The Labour Representation Committee is formed. Parliament passes the Commonwealth of Australia Act.
1901: Queen Victoria dies after the longest reign in British history. With her death the Hanover family died out and the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family begin with the accession of her son Edward VII to the throne.
1902: Parliament passes an education act giving subsided secondary education to those who wished to have it.
1903: England signs a treaty of alliance with France against Germany and her allies.
1906: The Liberal Party wins a majority in the Parliament and they pass many bills benefiting children.
1908: Russia joins Britain and France in her alliance now known as the Triple Entente. Parliament establishes old age pensions.
1909: Parliament passes the Labour Exchange Act, which lays the groundwork for national health insurance.
1910: The Conservative majority in the House of Lords refuses to pass a budget brought by the Liberal's. The Liberal party asked the king to appoint more Liberal peers so they could override the veto which Edward refuses to do.
May 6, 1910: Edward VII has a heart attack and dies. His son George V succeeds him.
November 16, 1910: George V agrees to grant more Liberal peers after which the House of Lords gave in to pressure and passed the budget.
1911: The House of Lords gives up the power of absolute veto. George V makes a tour of his empire later that year.
July 1914: George V holds a conference at Buckingham Palace on the question of whether Ireland should get Home Rule. The conference comes to no decision.
August 4, 1914: England joins World War I by declaring war against Germany, Austria-Hungry, and the Ottoman Empire.
October 1915: George V, while touring the front lines, falls from his horse and breaks his pelvis, which is not set properly and will give him great pain through the rest of his life.
1916: The Sinn Finn uprising in Ireland.
March 1917: George V refuses to give his cousin Nicholas II of Russia political asylum dooming him to death.
July 17, 1917: The Privy Council rules that the royal family will no longer bear the name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha but Windsor a name that it has kept to this day.
November 11, 1918: World War I comes to an end with England, France, and the United States as victors. Russia had made a separate peace earlier in the year.
1920: The government of Ireland Act divides Ireland along religious lines.
January 1924: The Labour party comes to power for the first time.
1926: A General Strike paralyzes England. George V calls for calm.
1929-1931: The Great Depression threatens England and George V has the heads of the three parties (Conservative, Liberal, and Labour) form a coalition government.
1931: Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand are given the right of self- government in the creation of the British Commonwealth of Nations Act.
1935: The Government of India Act gives India some self- government but not enough.
January 20, 1936: George V dies of bronchitis passing the throne to his son Edward VIII.
October 20, 1936: The Prime Minister asks Edward VIII to tell Mrs. Simpson an married American women his was seeing goodbye. Edward refused to do so.
December 1, 1936: The British Press announces that Edward is dating Mrs. Simpson.
December 2, 1936: The British Cabinet informs Edward that he cannot make Mrs. Simpson his Queen Consort nor can he marry her since it would be against church law.
December 10, 1936: Edward VIII abdicates the throne in favor of his brother George VI. Edward was made Duke of Windsor and ordered to leave the country.
December 11, 1936: Officially George VI is made king of Great Britain by Parliament.
June 3, 1937: The Duke of Windsor, also known as Edward VIII, marries his lover Mrs. Simpson. Buckingham Palace orders that no children of the marriage should be heirs to the throne.
June 1938: The king and queen make a state visit to France.
May and June 1939: George VI visits Canada and the United States.
September 3, 1939: World War II begins as England and France join against Germany.
May 1940: Chamberlain is fired as Prime Minister and replaced by Winston Churchill.
September 13, 1940: Buckingham Palace is bombed in daylight by the German Air Force. Two bombs land within 30 feet of George VI who survives.
May 8, 1945: World War II comes to an end in VE Day.
July 1945: Clement Atlee replaces Churchill as Prime Minister. His Labour party will pass several acts in the next five years. He will make the Bank of England as well as most facets of industry, transportation, energy production, health care, and other welfare problems part of public ownership. England will now be a welfare state.
1947: George VI visits South Africa. India is granted her independence.
September 1951: George VI has his left lung removed due to lung cancer.
February 6, 1952: George VI dies of lung cancer. His successor is his daughter Elizabeth II. Elizabeth is touring the Commonwealth with her husband at the time.
June 2, 1953: Elizabeth II is officially crowned Queen in a coronation that is televised for the first time.
1957: Harold Macmillan is made Prime Minister by Elizabeth.
1962: Buckingham Palace is opened for guided tours to the public. Jamaica is granted independence.
1965: Parliament takes away the rights of royalty to choose Prime Ministers.
1969: The royal family is televised for a series for the first time.
1970: Elizabeth visits Australia and New Zealand becoming the first ruling monarch to do so.
May 28, 1972: The Duke of Windsor (Edward VIII) dies of lung cancer. His wife and him never had any children to block his brother's family from the throne as was feared.
1972: The Queen visits communist Yugoslavia.
1975: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first monarch to visit Japan.
May 1977: Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her silver jubilee. She tours all of Great Britain and the Commonwealth in celebration.
1979: Elizabeth's cousin is assassinated by the IRA. Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister the first women to do so. Elizabeth becomes the first monarch to visit the Middle East.
1980: Elizabeth becomes the first monarch to visit the Pope in the Vatican.
1981: The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, weds Princess Diana.
1982: Great Britain sends troops to recover the Falklands. Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope in 450 years to visit Great Britain.
1988: The royal family visits Australia becoming the first time everyone in the royal family visited a country at the same time.
1991: England sends troops to Kuwait.
1993: The Queen visits Hungary, which is the first time ever.
1994: The Queen visits Russia in the first visit since before the Russian Revolution.
1996: The Queen visits Poland and the Czech Republic for the first time ever.
1997: Princes Diana dies in a car accident. Tony Blair is elected Prime Minister.
1999: Wales and Scotland are granted their own Parliament for the first time ever.
2002: Queen Elizabeth celebrates her golden jubilee.
