Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1215
King John, under pressure from barons and London's powerful trade guilds,
signs the Magna Carta, establishing that even kings must follow the rule of
law.
1280
Old St. Paul's Cathedral is finished.
1337
Start of the Hundred Years' War with France.
1348
The Black Death (bubonic plague) kills half of London.
c. 1400
Poet Geoffrey Chaucer's (often bawdy) collection of stories,
The Canter-
bury Tales,
helps popularize common English.
1415
British victory over the French at Battle of Agincourt.
1431
In France, Joan of Arc—who has led French armies to victory against in-
vading English troops—is burned at the stake by English forces and local
French supporters.
1455
-
1485
Prosperous London plays kingmaker in the Wars of the Roses, helping de-
termine which noble becomes king.
Related Sights
• Magna Carta,
The Canterbury Tales
(British Library)
• Temple Church
Powerful, charismatic Henry VIII thrusts England onto the world stage by defying the
pope and sparking a century of Protestant/Catholic warfare. His daughter, Elizabeth I,
reigns over a cultural renaissance of sea exploration, scientific discovery, and literature
known as the “Elizabethan Age.”
