Blanket and some other inhabitants of Bristol, set up looms for
weaving those woollen cloths that yet bear that name.
1341 Gold first coined in England.
1346 Cannon first used by the English at Cressy.
1347 So great a plague in England, that in one year there was
buried in London 50,000; and there succeeded a famine and
murrain. August 3rd, king Edward took the City of Calais, which
he filled with English inhabitants; and it remained in the
possession of the Crown of England 210 years after.
1348 The Order of the Garter instituted by Edward the Black
Prince, April 3. The plague destroyed one-half of the people.
1352 The largest silver coin in England was groats.
1357 Coals first imported into London.
1362 Council obliged to plead in English.
1364 Four kings entertained at one time, by Sir Henry Picard,
lord mayor of London.
1377 The first champion at coronation. Orders to arm the clergy.
1378 The plague in the north of England. In this year Greenland
was discovered.
1379 Every person in the kingdom taxed, April 25.
1381 Bills of Exchange first used. Wat Tyler’s rebellion begun
May 3. 1506 rebels hung, July 2.
1385 The French land in Scotland, in order to invade England,
whereupon king Richard went to fight them, and put Edinburgh into
flames, but they refusing to fight, he returns.
1386 Linen-weavers company first settled.
1387 The first high-admiral of England appointed. William of
Wickham, bishop of Winchester, and lord treasurer, and chancellor
of England, laid the foundation of the college in Winchester, as
a nursery for his college in Oxford.
1388 Bombs invented.
1391 A great plague and famine. Cards invented for the King of
France. Charles VI.
1392 Thirteen counties charged with treason, and obliged to
purchase their pardons. Provision seized, without payment, for
the army. Duke of Lancaster landed, and declared his pretensions
to the crown, July 4. Richard confined in the tower, August 20.
Resigned his crown, September 29. In this reign piked shoes were
worn tied with ribands and chains of silver to the knees. Ladies
began to ride on side saddles, before which time they used to
ride astride like men.
1399 Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, died. A conspiracy formed to
restore Richard.
1400 Richard II murdered in Pontefract Castle. Emperor of
Constantinople visited England.
1403 The battle of Shrewsbury, July 22, gained by Henry and the
valour of his sons.
1405 Great guns first used in England, at the siege of Berwick.
1407 A plague destroyed 30,000 persons in London.
1409 Wickliffe’s doctrine condemned.
1414 King Henry sends his brother, the Duke of Bedford, &c.,
with 200 sail of ships, who fell upon the French fleet, sunk 500
French vessels, and took three great Carricks of Genoa; relieved
Harfleur, and so forced the French to raise the siege. In this
action many thousands of the French were killed.
1415 The battle of Agincourt gained by Henry, with a loss of
10,000 men to the French, killed, and 14,000 prisoners, October
25th. Henry sent David Gam, a Welsh captain, to view the strength
of the enemy, who reported, “There were enough to be killed,
enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away.”
1418 Sir John Oldcastle burnt for heresy in St. Giles’s fields.
1419 Vines and sugar-cane first planted in Madeira.
1420 Henry assumes the title of King of France, on a new coin,
April 18th. Kings of France and England make a magnificent entry
into Paris.
1421 The Duke of Clarence, making an inroad into Anjou, in an
unhappy engagement with the French, he and about 2,000 English
were slain.
1422 The two Courts of England and France held at Paris, on
Whitsunday: the two Kings and Queens dined together in public,
May 21st. In this reign it was enacted that knights, citizens,
and burgesses, should be resident in the place for which they
were chosen. The crown and jewels were pawned to raise money for
maintaining the war with France.
1422 The French King enlisted 15,000 Scots.
1424 The King of Scotland ransomed.
1430 Every person possessed of £40 per annum, obliged to be
knighted.
1436 Paris taken by the English.
1437 James, King of Scotland, murdered, February 19th. So great
a dearth, that bread was made of fern roots and ivy berries.
1447 The Bodleian library at Oxford founded.
1448 Duke of York asserts his title to the crown.
1449 A rebellion in Ireland.
1450 The King and his forces defeated at Seven-oaks, by Jack
Cade, in May. Cade killed, and his followers dispersed, in June.
1453 The first Lord Mayor’s show. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of
York, encounters the Queen’s army, near Wakefield in Yorkshire,
in which he was killed, and his army routed. Edward Plantagenet,
Earl of March, hearing of his father’s death, took upon him the
title of Duke of York, and in a battle, at Mortimer’s-cross, near
Ludlow, overthrew the Earls of Pembroke, Ormond, and Wiltshire,
and beheaded Owen Tudor, the King’s father-in-law. And in another
battle with the Queen, he killed the Earls of Northumberland, and
Westmoreland; the Lords Dacres, Wells, Clifford, Beaumont, and
Grey. This was the bloodiest battle that England ever knew, for
there were killed that day 36,776 men.
1454 The king defeated by the Duke of York, at Barnet.
1459 Engravings and etchings invented.
1460 The King taken prisoner at the battle of Northampton.
1461 Edward, the Duke of York, proclaimed King. Richard
Plantagenet, brother to Edward IV, created Duke of Gloucester.
Henry, Margaret, their sons, and adherents, attained by
parliament, November 6th.
1463 Woollens, laces, ribands, and other English manufactures,
prohibited exportation.
1464 Henry, in disguise, taken prisoner, and conveyed to the
Tower.
1469 5,000 Welsh slain at the battle of Branbury.
1470 Warwick, being offended at the marriage of Edward IV, landed
September 13th, with 60,000 men from France. Edward IV flies to
the Duke of Burgundy, his brother-in-law, in Holland.
1471 King Edward, endeavouring to re-obtain the crown, encounters
King Henry in a bloody battle, upon Gladmore heath, near Barnet,
and King Henry taken prisoner a second time. On both sides were
slain 10,000 men. King Henry’s Queen, in a battle with King
Edward, was taken prisoner, 3,000 on her side were slain, and
her son Edward killed; and soon after, King Henry himself was
murdered by the hand of the crook-back’d Duke of Gloucester.
1472 A plague in England destroyed more than preceding fifteen
year’s war.
1475 Margaret of Anjou, ransomed for £12,500.
1481 James, King of Scotland, caused one of his brothers to be
murdered. Thomas Parr born this year, and lived 152 years. A
remarkable act was passed in this reign, which enacted what sort
of dress each class of men should wear. Another enacted that no
peaked shoes should be worn.
1483 Gloucester conveyed the King to Northampton. Lords
Hastings, Rivers, and Grey beheaded. The Lord Mayor, &c., at the
instigation of the Duke of Buckingham, offered the crown to the
Duke of Gloucester, who, with affected hesitation, accepted it,
June 17th. King Edward V, and his brother, the Duke of York,
murdered in the Tower. Jane Shore, concubine to King Edward
IV, and afterwards to Lord Hastings, was obliged to do penance
publicly in St. Paul’s. She was afterwards starved to death, no
person being allowed to relieve her, and died in a ditch; to
which circumstance, Shoreditch is said to owe its name. Edward V
was born in Westminster Abbey, November 4th, 1470; reigning two
months and eighteen days, was murdered in the Tower, and buried
there privately. His remains were afterwards found in 1674,
and removed to Westminster. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, (the
English Nero,) proclaimed King of England. Post-horses and stages
established. Earl of Richmond landed at Pool in Dorsetshire.
Being nearly surprised by Richard, he embarked again, and
returned to Picardy.
1484 Anne, the Queen of Richard, died March 16th. Richard treats
with Laudais, the Duke of Bretagne’s prime minister, for
surprising and delivering up the Earl of Richmond. Richmond,
escaping from Bretagne, went to Angers, in Anjou.
1485 Lord Stanley raises 5000 men, and his brother 2000, with
whom they joined Richmond. The sweating sickness, raged in London.
1486 King Henry, to balance the power of the Lords, found a way
to raise that of the Commons, which ever since has carried a much
greater sway than formerly in the government.
1487 Lambert Simnel, who personated the Duke of York, was made a
scullion in the King’s kitchen. The star chamber instituted.
1488 The King of Scotland, James III, killed by his subjects.
Cape of Good Hope discovered.
1489 Maps and sea charts first brought into England by
Bartholomew Columbus.
1491 The Greek language first introduced into England.
1492 3rd August, Columbus set sail from Palos, a port of Spain,
and on the 12th of October, to his unspeakable gratification,
he made his first discovery in the New World. This was one of
the Bahama Islands, called by the natives Guanahani, named by
Columbus St. Salvador, and afterwards, by some unpardonable
caprice, called by the English Cat Island. He landed the same
day, took possession of it in the name of the Spanish sovereigns,
and assumed the titles of Admiral and Viceroy, which had been
awarded to him before he sailed from Europe.
1493 15th March. Columbus arrived in Spain after a stormy and
dangerous voyage, having taken not quite seven months and a-half
to accomplish this momentous enterprize.
1494 Poyning’s law, which enacted that the statutes in England,
respecting the English, should be observed in Ireland likewise,
first instituted by Sir Edward Poyning.
1495 Cicely, Duchess of York, mother to King Edward IV, died,
being very old, who had lived to see three Princes born of her
body, crowned, and four murdered.
1497 Perkin Warbeck besieged Exeter. The passage to the Indies by
the way of the Cape of Good Hope discovered. 3rd July, John Cabot
discovered Newfoundland. He sailed from the Port of Bristol, in
the spring of 1497, and, on the 3rd of July, discovered the coast
of Labrador. The opposite Island, now called Newfoundland, they
called St. Johns, having landed there on St. John’s day. To the
mainland they gave the name of _Terra prima vista_--or Primavista
(first seen). The English navigators thus reached the continent
of North America only five years after Columbus had discovered
the West Indies, and more than a year before he had landed on the
continent or main land.
1499 Perkin Warbeck taken and hung at Tyburn, and the last Earl
of the Plantagenet line was beheaded on Tower-hill, November
28th.
1500 A plague in London, which destroyed 30,000 of its
inhabitants. A marriage was concluded between James IV, King of
Scotland, and Margaret, the daughter of King Henry VII, which
afterwards united England and Scotland under one King.
1505 Shillings first coined in England.
1513 Earl of Surrey gained the battle of Flodden-field, over the
Scots, whose King, James IV, fell in the contest. King Henry
invades France in person, takes Terwin and Tournay, at the siege
of which, the Emperor Maximilian served under the King’s pay. At
which siege likewise, was fought that battle called the battle
of Spurs, because the English put some of the French troops to
flight who made great use of their spurs.
1514 Enacted that surgeons should not sit on juries, nor be
employed in parish offices.
1517 Oxford depopulated by stagnated waters. Martin Luther began
the reformation in Germany.
1521 King Henry derived the title to him and his successors
of Defender of the Faith, from writing a book against Luther.
Musquets first invented. Mexico city yielded, after a prolonged
siege, to Cortez, in August.
1522 Magellan performed his voyage under the auspices of Charles
V, of Spain. He set sail from Seville, in Spain, in August, 1519.
After spending several months on the coast of South America,
searching for a passage to the Indies, he continued his voyage
to the South, passed through the strait that bears his name,
and after sailing three months and twenty-one days, through
an unknown ocean, he discovered a cluster of fertile islands,
which he named the Ladrones, or the Islands of Thieves, from
the thievish disposition of the natives. The fair weather and
favourable winds which he experienced induced him to bestow
on this the name of the Pacific, which it still retains.
Proceeding from the Ladrones, he discovered the islands which
were afterwards called the Philippines in honour of Philip,
King of Spain, who subjected them forty years after the voyage
of Magellan. Here, in a contest with the natives, Magellan was
killed, and the expedition was prosecuted under other commanders.
After taking in a cargo of spices at the Moluccas, the only
vessel of the squadron then fit for a long voyage, sailed for
Europe by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived in Spain
in September, 1522.
1530 The palace of St. James built.
1535 Brass cannon first cast in England by John Owen. Jacques
Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence on that Saint’s day. He
explored the north-east coast carefully, and, passing through
the Strait of Belleisle, traversed the great Gulf of the St.
Lawrence, and arrived in the Bay of Chaleurs in July. He was
delighted with the peaceable and friendly conduct of the natives,
“who,” says Hakluyt, “with one of their boats, came unto us,
and brought us pieces of seals ready sodden, putting them upon
pieces of wood: then, retiring themselves, they would make signs
unto us, that they did give them to us.” From this hospitable
place, where the natives seem to have displayed some of the
politeness of modern society, Jacques Cartier proceeded to Gaspé
Bay, where he erected a cross thirty feet high, with a shield
bearing the three fleurs-de-lis of France, thus taking possession
in the name of Francis the First. He carried off two natives from
Gaspé, who were of great use to him on his succeeding voyage.
It appears, however, that it was with their own consent, as
they allowed themselves to be clothed in shirts, coloured coats
and caps, and to have a copper chain placed about their neck,
“whereat they were greatly contented, and gave their old clothes
to their fellows that went back again.” Cartier coasted along
the northern shores of the Gulf, when, meeting with boisterous
weather, he made sail for France, and arrived at St. Malo on the
5th of September. This celebrated navigator deserves especial
notice, inasmuch as he was the first who explored the shores
of Canada to any considerable extent, and was the very first
European who became acquainted with the existence of Hochelaga,
and in 1535 pushed his way through all obstacles till he
discovered and entered the village which occupied the very spot
on which now stands the city of Montreal.
1536 376 monasteries suppressed.
1539 Leaden pipes to convey water invented.
1540 645 religious houses seized, and their property, amounting
to £161,000, given to the King. The number of monasteries
suppressed in England and Wales, were 313, Priories 290, Friaries
122, Nunneries 142, Colleges 152, and Hospitals 129; in all 1148.
1541 1st voyage to India by an English ship.
1543 Mortars and cannon first cast in iron.
1544 Pistols first used.
1545 William Foxley slept fourteen days, and lived forty-one days
after.
1547 The vows of celibacy before taken by priests, annulled, and
the communion ordered to be administered in both kinds. Evening
prayers began to be read in English in the King’s chapel, April
16th. The Scots refusing to marry their young Queen to King
Edward (according to their promise in his father’s life-time),
the protector enters Scotland with an army of 12,000 foot, and
600 horse, and fights them in Pinkey-field, near Musselburgh, and
kills 14,000 Scots, and takes 1500 prisoners, having lost but
sixty of his own men.
1548 Some ceremonies were now abrogated, and an order of council
against the carrying of candles, on Candlemas-day, ashes on
Ash-Wednesday, and palms on Palm-Sunday.
1549 Telescopes invented.
1551 The sweating-sickness broke out this year In England with
such contagion, that 800 died in one week of it in London. Those
that were taken with it were inclined much to sleep, and all
that slept died; but if they were kept awake a day, they got
well. A college founded in Galway in Ireland. Common-prayer
books established by act of parliament. Monks and nuns allowed
inheritances. Sternhold and Hopkins translated and put the Psalms
into verse.
1553 There was so great a plenty of malt and wheat, that a barrel
of beer with the cock sold for six-pence, and four great loaves
for one penny. The King founded St. Bartholomew’s Hospital,
Bridewell, improved the Hospital of Christchurch and St. Thomas’
Hospital, Southwark. Judge Hales, in his circuit into Kent,
required the justices to see to the execution of King Edward’s
laws: for which he was committed, and removed from prison to
prison, and threatened so, that he attempted to cut his own
throat, and at last drowned himself.
1553 Spitzbergen, the White Sea, and Nova Zembla, discovered by
the English.
1554 The laws against Lollards and Heretics were revived, and
the statutes of Mortmain repealed. There was at this time a
discovery in London of the imposter of the Spirit of the Wall,
who, by the help of a whistle, uttered several things relating to
religion, and the state, through a hole in a wall. It was found
to be Elizabeth Croses, and one Drake, her accomplice, who were
both made to do penance for it publicly at St. Paul’s. Scory,
bishop of Chichester, renounced his wife, and did penance for his
marriage. It is supposed there were 12,000 of the clergy deprived
for being married, and most of them were judged upon common fame,
without any process, but a citation.
1555 The church lands, in the Queen’s possession, restored.
Coaches first used in England.
1556 300 Protestants burnt for heresy.
1557 This year began with a visitation of the Universities.
Commissioners were sent to Oxford, where they burnt all the
English Bibles and heretical books they could find; and took up
the body of Peter Martyr’s wife, who they said was a heretic,
and buried it in a dunghill. And at Cambridge, they dug up the
bodies of Bucer and Fagius, two heretics, and tied their coffins
to stakes, and burnt them and their heretical books together.
Cardinal Pole died November 15th.
1576-77-78 Three voyages by Frobisher in search of a North-west
passage. Greenland explored.
1580 Drake, the first English circumnavigator.
1584 Virginia discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh.
1587 Davies’ Straits discovered by Davies, an English navigator.
February 9th. Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay
Castle.
1588 Destruction of the Spanish Armada.
1595 Falkland Islands, discovered by Hawkins.
1596 The first trading expedition to the East Indies.
1599 East India Company. Chauvin made two voyages to Tadousac.
1603 Death of Queen Elizabeth on 24th March, and accession of
James VI.
1604 The present translation of the Bible made.
1605 The gun-powder plot discovered. The channel for the New
River allowed to be cut. 97,304 person died in London, this year,
whereof 68,596 died of the plague.
1608 Virginia planted by the English. Champlain returned to
Canada, and Quebec founded 3rd July.
1609 East India company’s patent removed. Chelsea college
founded. Alum brought to perfection by Sir J. Bouchier.
Silk-worms first brought into England.
1610 Thermometers invented. King Henry IV of France murdered at
Paris, by Ravillac, a Romish priest.
1611 Bartholomew Legat was condemned by the convocation for an
Arian heretic. Legat was burnt at Smithfield for an Arian.
1612 Edward Wightman of Burton, burnt at Lichfield for a heretic.
1614 Sir Thomas Overbury poisoned in the Tower. The New River
brought to London. Champlain returned to France. An inundation
of the sea overflowed an extent of twelve miles in Norfolk and
Lincolnshire.
1618 Sir Walter Raleigh is executed for high treason, at the
instigation of the Spanish ambassador. The poet Shakspeare
flourished during the beginning of this and the latter part of
the preceding reign. Synod of Dort began: who generally agreed
to condemn the doctrines of Arminius, concerning election,
reprobation, and the universality of Christ’s death, and man’s
redemption by it.
1623 The fatal Vespers at Black-Friars.
1625 A plague in London destroyed 35,417 of its people.
1626 The king raised money by sale of the crown lands, loans, and
ship-money.
1628 Dr. Lamb murdered in the streets of London. The city fined
for Dr. Lamb’s death, £6,000.
1629 Quebec surrendered to Sir David Kirkt.
1635 Thomas Parr, reported to be aged 152 years, died November 15.
1640 The fatal Long Parliament, began November 3. An act to
abolish the Star-chamber.
1641 The princess Mary married to William of Nassau, prince of
Orange, at Whitehall. The earl of Strafford attained, May 8:
executed May 12. A bill passed for pressing soldiers.
1642 Edge-Hill fight: the number of the slain amounted to
above 5,000, whereof two-thirds were conceived to be of those
of the parliament party, and a third part of the king’s. June
17th, Montreal founded by Champlain. In the year 1640 the King
ceded the whole Island of Montreal to the St. Sulpicians and
in the following year M. de Maisonneuve brought out several
families from France, and was appointed governor of the island.
On the 17th of June, 1642, the spot destined for the city was
consecrated by the Superior of the Jesuits, the “Queen of Angels”
was supplicated to take it under her protection, and it was named
after her “la Ville Marie.” On the evening of this memorable
day, Maisonneuve visited the mountain. Two old Indians who
accompanied him, having conducted him to the summit, told him
that they belonged to the nation which had formerly occupied the
whole of the country he beheld, but that they had been driven
away, and obliged to take refuge amongst the other tribes, except
a few who, with themselves, remained under their conquerors.
The governor kindly urged the old men to invite their brethren
to return to their hunting-grounds, assuring them they should
want for nothing. They promised to do so, but it does not appear
that they were successful. In the year 1644, the whole of this
beautiful domain became the property of the St. Sulpicians of
Paris, and was by them afterwards conveyed to the Seminary of the
same order at Montreal, in whose possession it still remains.
1644 York relieved by Prince Rupert, after which happened the
fight on Marston-Moor, in which action about 7000 were slain, and
3000 of the King’s party taken prisoners, with all their baggage.
1645 The fatal battle of Naseby, in which 600 private soldiers
were killed on the King’s side, and 4500 were taken prisoners;
3000 horse, &c. Montrose defeated the Scotch army at Ketsith,
near Glasgow, in Scotland. Cromwell made lieutenant-general.
1646 The whole order of archbishops and bishops abolished,
October 9th.
1646-7 Charles delivered up by the Scotch to the English for the
consideration of £400,000, January 30th.
1648-9 The King sentenced to be beheaded as a tyrant, traitor,
murderer, and public enemy.
1649 Oliver Cromwell made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, August 13th.
1650 The Marquis of Montrose defeated in Scotland, taken
prisoner, sentenced, and barbarously murdered.
1651 Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland, July 22nd. Charles II
defeated at Worcester by Oliver, September 3rd.
1653 Oliver chosen protector of England, December 16th. The Rump
parliament turned out by the army, which had sat twelve years
six months and thirteen days. Scotland and Ireland united in
one commonwealth with England, April 12th. Jamaica taken by the
English.
1655 Cromwell dissolved the parliament.
1656 Oliver would not suffer the French King to call himself the
King of France.
1656-7 A plot to destroy Oliver discovered.
1657 Doctor William Harvey, the first discoverer of the
circulation of the blood, died January 5th.