History

A short chronological overview of the British past, from prehistory to the present, and a map of where the other entries in…

The Germanic peoples who settled in Britain after Rome withdrew, whose kingdoms became England and whose language became English.

Retired British Army soldiers living at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, recognisable across London by their scarlet coats and tricorne hats.

The Yorkshire-born conspirator caught guarding the gunpowder beneath Parliament in 1605, and burned in effigy on British bonfires every November since.

The British record of invention, from the steam engine and the railway to the telephone, television, jet engine, computer and World Wide…

The stark white memorial in Whitehall to the dead of the world wars — deliberately empty, deliberately secular, and the focus of…

The transformation, beginning in Britain around 1760, from farming and handcraft to factories, coal, steam and mass production — the change that…

The French-speaking descendants of Vikings who conquered England in 1066 under William the Conqueror, replacing its ruling class and reshaping its language…

The four centuries from AD 43 to around 410 when most of Britain was a Roman province, leaving behind roads, towns, baths…

The dynasty that ruled England from 1485 to 1603: Henry VIII, his six wives, the break with Rome, and Elizabeth I.

The era of Queen Victoria's reign, 1837 to 1901: industrial power, imperial expansion, railways, reform, and the invention of much of modern…

Scandinavian raiders and settlers who attacked Britain from 793, conquered much of England, and left place names, words and DNA behind them.

Prime minister during the Second World War, whose speeches and refusal to negotiate with Hitler in 1940 made him the defining figure…

The 1939-45 war that Britain entered on 3 September 1939, endured alone for a year, and emerged from victorious and effectively bankrupt.