Maestra

Words in English public website
Ling/Engl 215 course information
Rice University
Prof S. Kemmer
Chronology of Events in the
History of English

pre-600 A.D. | THE PRE-ENGLISH PERIOD |
ca. 3000 B.C.
(or 6000 B.C?) | Proto-Indo-European spoken in Baltic area. 
(or Anatolia?) |
ca. 1000 B.C. | After many migrations, the various branches of Indo-European have become distinct. Celticbecomes most widespread branch of I.E. in Europe; Celtic peoples inhabit what is now Spain, France, Germany, Austria, eastern Europe, and the British Isles. |
55 B.C. | Beginning of Roman raids on British Isles. |
43 A.D. | Roman occupation of Britain. Roman colony of "Britannia" established. Eventually, many Celtic Britons become Romanized. (Others continually rebel). |
200 B.C.-200 A.D. |Germanic peoples move down from Scandinavia and spread over Central Europe in successive waves. Supplant Celts. Come into contact (at times antagonistic, at times commercial) with northward-expanding empire of Romans. |
Early 5th
century. | Roman Empire collapses. Romans pull out of Britain and other colonies, attempting to shore up defense on the home front; but it's useless. Rome sacked byGoths. |
| Germanic tribes on the continent continue migrations west and south; consolidate into ever larger units. Those taking over in Rome call themselves "Roman emperors" even though the imperial administration had relocated to Byzantium in the 300s. The new Germanic rulers adopted the Christianity of the late Roman state, and began what later evolved into the not-very-Roman "Holy Roman Empire".|
ca. 410 A.D. | First Germanic tribes arrive in England. |
410-600 | Settlement of most of Britain by Germanic peoples (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, some Frisians) speaking West Germanic dialects descended from Proto-Germanic. These dialects are distantly related to Latin, but also have a sprinkling of Latin borrowings due to earlier cultural contact with the Romans on the continent. |
| Celticpeoples, most of whom are Christianized, are pushed increasingly (despite occasional violent uprisings) into the marginal areas of Britain: Ireland, Scotland, Wales. Anglo-Saxons, originally sea-farers, settle down as farmers, exploiting rich English farmland. |
| By 600 A.D., the Germanic speech of England comprises dialects of a language distinct from the continental Germanic languages. |ca. 600-1100 | THE OLD ENGLISH, OR ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD |
600-800 | Rise of three great kingdoms politically unifying large areas: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex. Supremacy passes from one kingdom to another in that order. |
ca. 600 | Christianity introduced among Anglo-Saxons by St. Augustine, missionary from Rome. Irish missionaries also spread Celtic form of Christianity to mainland Britain. |793 | First serious Viking incursions. Lindisfarne monastery sacked. |
800 | Charlemagne, king of the Franks, crowned Holy Roman Emperor; height of Frankish power in Europe. Wessex kings aspire to similar glory; want to unite all England, and if possible the rest of mainland Britain, under one crown (theirs). |
840s-870s | Viking incursions grow worse and worse. Large organized groups set uppermanent encampments on English soil. Slay kings of Northumbria and East Anglia, subjugate king of Mercia. Storm York (Anglo-Saxon Eoforwic) and set up a Viking kingdom (Jorvik). Wessex stands alone as the last Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain. |
871 | Vikings move against Wessex. In six pitched battles, the English hold their own, but fail to repel attackers decisively. In the last battle, theEnglish king is mortally wounded. His young brother, Alfred, who had distinguished himself during the battles, is crowned king. |
871-876 | Alfred builds a navy. The kings of Denmark and Norway have come to view England as ripe for the plucking and begin to prepare an attack. |
876 | Three Danish kings attack Wessex. Alfred prevails, only to be attacked again a few months later. His cause...