Medieval

  • 1057: Macbeth is killed at Lumphanan

    Macbeth, King of Scots, was killed at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire on 15 August 1057. His opponent was Malcolm, the son of Duncan I and the man who would become Malcolm III. Macbeth had ruled Scotland for about 17 years. He became king in 1040 after Duncan was killed in battle against him, rather than murdered…

  • 1066: William, Duke of Normandy, lands at Pevensey

    On 28 September 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, landed with his invasion force at Pevensey in Sussex. The arrival began the Norman invasion of England that would lead to the Battle of Hastings little more than two weeks later. William had spent months assembling men, horses, ships and supplies, but crossing the Channel depended on…

  • 1066: William Defeats Harold at the Battle of Hastings

    On 14 October 1066, King Harold II’s English army fought William, Duke of Normandy’s invading forces, near Hastings. By the end of the day, Harold was dead, and William had won the battle that opened the way for the Norman conquest of England. Harold became king in January after Edward the Confessor died. William claimed…

  • 1087: William the Conqueror Dies

    William I died on 9 September 1087 at the priory of St Gervase near Rouen, ending a reign that had begun with his conquest of England 21 years earlier. William had left England for the last time in 1086. The following year, he campaigned in the French Vexin after disputes with Philip I of France.…

  • 1100: William II is killed in the New Forest

    On 2 August 1100, William II was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest. His death left no agreed successor and allowed his younger brother Henry to take the English throne before their elder brother could return from abroad. William, known as William Rufus, had ruled England since 1087. He was a…

  • 1157: Richard I is born in Oxford

    Richard was born at Beaumont Palace in Oxford on 8 September 1157. He was the son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose family controlled England and extensive territories in what is now France. Richard was not born simply waiting to inherit the English crown. He was the couple’s third son, and his family’s…

  • 1159: Pope Adrian IV dies

    Pope Adrian IV died at Anagni, Italy, on 1 September 1159. Born Nicholas Breakspear in Hertfordshire around 1100, he remains the only Englishman to have become pope. Breakspear left England as a young man and eventually joined the religious community of St Ruf near Avignon. He became prior, and then abbot before Pope Eugenius III…

  • 1170: Thomas Becket is killed at Canterbury

    On 29 December 1170, Thomas Becket was killed inside Canterbury Cathedral. The murder was carried out by four knights, but it grew out of a longer conflict between Becket and Henry II. Becket was not a distant critic of the king. He had been Henry’s chancellor, a close royal servant and a man trusted with…

  • 1199: King John is crowned at Westminster Abbey

    John was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey on 27 May 1199. His brother Richard I had died the previous month after being wounded in France. John now took the crown. The ceremony gave him public recognition in England, but his claim was open to challenge. John was Richard’s younger brother. Arthur of Brittany,…

  • 1216: Prince Louis lands in Kent to challenge King John

    On 21 May 1216, Prince Louis of France landed at Thanet in Kent with an army. He came into a kingdom already broken by civil war. Less than a year earlier, King John had agreed to Magna Carta at Runnymede. The agreement had not restored peace. John rejected the limits placed on him, the rebel…

  • 1217: Second Battle of Lincoln helps secure Henry III’s cause

    On 20 May 1217, royalist forces relieved Lincoln Castle and defeated a French-backed rebel army during the First Barons’ War. The battle came two years after Magna Carta, but England was still unsettled. King John had died in 1216, leaving his nine-year-old son, Henry III, as king. That changed the war. The quarrel over John’s…

  • 1283: Dafydd ap Gruffudd is executed at Shrewsbury

    Dafydd ap Gruffudd was executed at Shrewsbury on 3 October 1283, months after his capture brought organised resistance to Edward I’s conquest of Gwynedd close to an end. Dafydd was the younger brother of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales. His relationship with the English king had not always been hostile. Edward had granted him…

  • 1297: The Scots win the Battle of Stirling Bridge

    On 11 September 1297, a Scottish army commanded by William Wallace and Andrew Moray defeated English forces at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. The English army had assembled south of the River Forth. To reach the Scots, positioned on higher ground near Abbey Craig, its soldiers had to cross a narrow wooden bridge. The ground…

  • 1298: Edward I defeats William Wallace at Falkirk

    On 22 July 1298, an English army led by Edward I defeated William Wallace’s Scottish forces near Falkirk. It was Edward’s largest military success in Scotland, but it did not end the war. Wallace had become Guardian of Scotland after the Scottish victory at Stirling Bridge in September 1297. The English army there had attempted…

  • 1305: William Wallace is tried and executed in London

    William Wallace was tried for treason and executed in London on 23 August 1305, nearly eight years after his victory over an English army at Stirling Bridge. Wallace had emerged as one of the leaders of Scottish resistance to Edward I in 1297. Fighting alongside Andrew Moray, he defeated an English force at Stirling Bridge…

  • 1307: Edward I dies on campaign against Scotland

    On 7 July 1307, King Edward I died at Burgh by Sands in Cumberland while leading another campaign against Scotland. He had ruled England since 1272 and spent much of his later reign trying to bring Scotland under English control. Edward was about sixty-eight years old when he died. His army was moving north to…

  • 1337: Philip VI confiscates Guyenne from Edward III

    On 24 May 1337, Philip VI of France declared Edward III’s lands in Guyenne forfeit. The act was legal in form, but political in effect. Edward was king of England, yet he held land in south-west France as Duke of Aquitaine. For that land, he owed duties to the French king. The arrangement left him…

  • 1346: Edward III wins the Battle of Crécy

    Edward III’s English army defeated a larger French force under Philip VI at the Battle of Crécy on 26 August 1346. It was the first major land battle of the Hundred Years’ War and allowed Edward to continue north and besiege Calais. Edward had landed in Normandy in July and led his army across northern…

  • 1381: Peasants’ Revolt begins at Brentwood

    On 30 May 1381, resistance to the poll tax broke out in Brentwood, Essex. The government was trying to raise money for the war with France. The poll tax had already caused anger because it was difficult to avoid and fell on many ordinary people. When officials came to investigate unpaid taxes in Essex, they…

  • 1399: Henry Bolingbroke becomes King Henry IV

    On 30 September 1399, Henry Bolingbroke claimed the English throne and became King Henry IV after deposing his cousin, Richard II. Only months earlier, Henry had been an exile. Richard had banished him after a dispute with Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. When Henry’s father, John of Gaunt, died in February 1399, Richard seized control…

  • 1399: Henry IV Is Crowned at Westminster Abbey

    On 13 October 1399, Henry Bolingbroke was crowned King Henry IV at Westminster Abbey. His coronation followed the deposition of his cousin Richard II less than two weeks earlier. Henry was the son of John of Gaunt, a son of Edward III, and belonged to the House of Lancaster. Richard exiled him in 1398. When…

  • 1400: Richard II dies in captivity

    Richard II is usually said to have died at Pontefract Castle on or about 14 February 1400. The year before, his cousin Henry Bolingbroke had deposed him and taken the throne as Henry IV. Richard was now a former king. He was still dangerous. Henry IV’s rule began with force, ceremony and argument. Richard had…

  • 1400: Owain Glyndŵr Is Proclaimed Prince of Wales

    On 16 September 1400, supporters of Owain Glyndŵr proclaimed him Prince of Wales. The declaration marked the beginning of a rebellion against English rule that continued for more than a decade. Glyndŵr was a Welsh landowner from a family connected to the old Welsh princely houses. The immediate causes of his revolt included a long-running…

  • 1403: Henry IV Defeats Hotspur at the Battle of Shrewsbury

    On 21 July 1403, King Henry IV defeated a rebel army led by Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy in fields north of Shrewsbury. Hotspur was killed during the fighting, and the most serious immediate challenge to Henry’s rule collapsed with him. The two men had once been allies. The powerful Percy family supported Henry Bolingbroke when he…

  • 1420: Treaty of Troyes makes Henry V heir to France

    On 21 May 1420, Henry V of England and Charles VI of France agreed on the Treaty of Troyes. The treaty made Henry regent of France and heir to the French throne. He was also to marry Charles’s daughter, Catherine of Valois. On paper, it was an extraordinary settlement. Henry had turned military success into…

  • 1431: Joan of Arc is executed at Rouen

    On 30 May 1431, Joan of Arc was executed at Rouen. Rouen was under English control at the time, and the execution took place during the later stages of the Hundred Years’ War. Joan had been captured the year before and put through a trial process that served English political interests as well as church…

  • 1452: Richard III is born at Fotheringhay Castle

    Richard III was born at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire on 2 October 1452. He was the youngest surviving son of Richard, Duke of York and Cecily Neville, and at his birth there was little reason to expect he would become king. Richard was born during Henry VI’s reign. His father was one of England’s most…

  • 1455: First Battle of St Albans opens the Wars of the Roses

    On 22 May 1455, a Yorkist force defeated the royal army at St Albans. Henry VI was captured. Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, was killed. The battle was small beside later fighting in the Wars of the Roses, but its consequences were serious. It showed that the king’s government could no longer contain the rivalries…

  • 1485: Richard III is killed at the Battle of Bosworth

    Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485 while defending his crown against Henry Tudor. His death ended his two-year reign and more than three centuries of Plantagenet rule in England. Henry had landed at Milford Haven in Wales on 7 August after years in exile. His claim to the…