Periods of English Literature

Periods of English literature

Old English: sixth through eleventh centuries

c. 410: Withdrawal of Roman legions

449 :Jutes arrive in Kent under Hengest

477 :First Saxon invasion (Sussex)

495 :Second Saxon invasion (Wessex)

537 :Death of King Arthur (resistance of Britons at an end)

547: Norwegian (Viking) colony in Northumbria

565 :St. Columba: Irish mission

597 :St. Augustine at Canterbury (Roman mission)

664 :Synod of Whitby eighth century Mercia (Midlands) predominant among seven kingdoms (Northumbria, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Wessex)

802: Egbert of Wessex rules over Essex, Kent, Sussex

866 :Danish "Great Army" (Vikings) lands in East Anglia and occupies Northumbria and Mercia as well

871 :Alfred the Great King of Wessex (d. 899)

878: boundary to Danelaw between London and Chester tenth century English forces re-occupy Danelaw

c. 990: another Danish invasion in the south (Sweyn)

1016: Canute, son of Sweyn, king of England

1042 :Death of Canute´s son; Edward the Confessor

1066: Death of Edward the Confessor; Harold (queen´s brother) defeats the Norwegian invaders at Battle of Stamford Bridge (near York), but is defeated himself in the Battle of Hastings by William the Conqueror (Normandy).