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In his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people
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This interactive timeline shows you the evolution of English language and literature.
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The first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons
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Taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy
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The purpose of a 'Book of Life' (or Liber Vitae), was to record the names of members and friends of monasteries or convents: the belief was that these names would also appear in the heavenly book opened on the Day of Judgement.
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Probably made at Winchester, although it is not certain by or for which religious house there, the Arundel Psalter seems to have been a personal prayerbook. Use of the psalter in the middle ages could be for church services or personal prayer.
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Battle Abbey was founded in 1066 by William the Conqueror, on the site of his famous victory over King Harold at the Battle of Hastings (which actually took place about 7 miles from Hastings). This manuscript, created in 1150, contains two historical accounts of the abbey, almost certainly written there.
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Most sermons (or homilies) in this collection are copies of earlier ones in Old English. But this one is different. It is an English translation of a Latin sermon in which we can see many of the changes that signal the end of Old English.
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‘The Owl and the Nightingale’ is a poem in which two competing characters trade insults with each other. It is the earliest example in English of a popular literary form known as a verse contest.
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This manuscript is the oldest known musical round with English words, written in the 13th century for six voices. Singers can choose between Middle English lyrics in black or Latin ones in red. The English version celebrates the arrival of spring, and many of the words are recognisable.
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Known as the Subtle Doctor in medieval times, later provides humanists with the name Dunsman or dunce
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Advocates paring down arguments to their essentials, an approach later known as Ockham's Razor
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In gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur.
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Studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English
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They are born in the same year, with Marlowe the older by two months
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In Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age
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Publishes A Description of New England, an account of his exploration of the region.
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England's leading Metaphysical poet, becomes dean of St Paul's
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Makes an early protest against the inhumanity of the African slave trade
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Publishes his Essay concerning Human Understanding, arguing that all knowledge is based on experience.
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Claiming comparison with the equivalent flowering under Augustus Caesar.
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With its detailed realism, can be seen as the first English novel
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Publishes The Lay of the Last Minstrel, the long romantic poem that first brings him fame.
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Brings back to England the bones of Thomas Paine, who died in the USA in 1809
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Browning publishes a vivid narrative poem about the terrible revenge of The Pied Piper of Hamelin
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Begins the publication in monthly numbers of David Copperfield, his own favourite among his novels
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Puts forward the theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, the result of 20 years' research
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Publishes Middlemarch, in which Dorothea makes a disastrous marriage to the pedantic Edward Casaubon
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Publishes the A volume of its New English Dictionary, which will take 37 years to reach Z
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Publishes his novel Lord Jim about a life of failure and redemption in the far East
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Publishes his novels about the Forsyte family as a joint collection under the title The Forsyte Saga
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Publishes Men at Arms, the first novel in the Sword of Honour trilogy based on his wartime experiences
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Play Copenhagen dramatizes the visit of Werner Heisenberg to Niels Bohr in wartime Denmark
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Completes Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials
