The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in Eighteen Volumes (1907–21).
Volume II. The End of the Middle Ages.

Table of Principal Dates.



1070Hereward’s rising at Ely.
12th cent. ff.Religious plays.
1100–1135.King Henry I.
1119P. de Thaun’s Comput.
c. 1130P. de Thaun’s Bestiaire.
1135–1154King Stephen.
c. 1148Gaimar’s History.
(?) 1149Vacarius teaches civil law at Oxford.
1154–1189King Henry II.
fl. 1160–1180Chrètien de Troyes.
1162St. Thomas á Becket, abp of Canterbury (murdered, 1170).
c. 1167Canute Song.
1167Oxford as a studium generale.
fl. 1170Wace.
c. 1173Garnier de Pont Sainte Maxence.
1173–4Jordan Fantosme.
fl. 1180Marie de France.
1189–1199King Richard Cœur de Lion.
1193–1280Albertus Magnus.
c. 1196Ambroise’s Hist. de la guerre sainte.
1199–1216King John.
fl. 1200Layamon.
1214?–1294Roger Bacon.
1216–1272King Henry III.
1217Dominicans settle in Paris.
1221Dominicans at Oxford.
1224Franciscans at Oxford and Cambridge.
c. 1226Histoire de Guillaume le Marèchal.
fl. 1230–1250Bartholomaeus Anglicus.
1230?–1298Jacobus a Voragine.
c. 1237Romance of the Rose, William of Lorris, continued (c. 1278) by John Clopinel of Meun.
1253Death of Robert Grosseteste.
c. 1263Foundation of Balliol College.
c. 1263–1274Walter de Merton’s foundations at Malden and Oxford.
1265–1321Dante.
fl. 1270–1287Guido delle Colonne.
1272–1307King Edward I.
1272?–1305Sir William Wallace.
1274Dominicans at Cambridge.
1274Foundation of Merton College, Oxford.
1280–1284Hugo de Balsham’s scholars in Cambridge and foundation of Peterhouse.
1298Battle of Falkirk.
c. 1300–1349?Richard Rolle of Hampole.
1300–1325Auchinleck MS.
1300?–1352?Laurence Minot.
1304–1374Petrarch.
1305–1377The Popes at Avignon.
c. 1307Peter of Langtoft’s Chronicle.
1307–1327King Edward II.
1313–1375Boccaccio.
1314Battle of Bannockburn.
c. 1320–1395John Barbour.
c. 1320–1384John Wyclif.
1325?–1408John Gower.
1326–1412John Trevisa.
1327–1377King Edward III.
c. 1330Nicole Bozon.
1330–1335Guillaume de Deguileville’s Pilgrimages.
c. 1337–1340?Froissart.
1338Vows of the Heron.
1340?–1400Geoffrey Chaucer.
c. 1340Tale of Gamelyn.
?1342–1442Juliana of Norwich.
1349, 1361, 1369The Black Death.
1349?Death of William Ockham.
c. 1350The alliterative revival.
c. 1350Higden’s Polychronicon.
1351Statute of Labourers.
1355Gray’s Scalacronica.
1360Death of Richard FitzRalph, abp of Armagh.
1362 ff.Piers Plowman.
1362Pleadings in law courts to be conducted in English.
1362–1364Parliaments opened by English speeches.
1364Death of Ranulf Higden.
c. 1368–c. 1450Thomas Occleve.
c. 1370–c. 1450John Lydgate.
1370–80Vernon MS.
1371Earliest (French) MS. of the Mandeville travels.
1373–1393William of Wykeham founds Winchester.
1376Barbour’s Bruce.
c. 1376–1377Death of Sir Hew of Eglintoun.
1377–1399King Richard II.
1378–1417The Great Schism.
1379–1386William of Wykeham founds New College, Oxford.
1379–1471Thomas á Kempis.
1381Peasants’ revolt: Wat Tyler, John Ball.
1382The “earthquake” council.
c. 1382Gower’s Vox Clamantis.
c. 1383Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.
c. 1384–1387Fordun’s Scotichronicon
c. 1386Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women.
1388Execution of Thomas Usk.
c. 1387Canterbury Tales begun.
1387Trevisa’s translation of Polychronicon.
1388Otterburn (Percy and Douglas).
1390Confessio Amantis first completed.
1391–1447Humphrey duke of Gloucester.
1391Chaucer’s Astrolabe.
1393–1464John Capgrave.
1396Death of Walter Hylton.
1398Trevisa’s translation of Bartholomaeus.
1399–1413King Henry IV.
1401The statute De Heretico Comburendo.
1401Execution of Sawtrey.
1401–1402Jacke Upland.
1403Stationers’ guild incorporated.
1405Archbishop Scrope’s revolt.
1406The English capture Prince James (James I of Scotland).
1413–1422King Henry V.
1413St. Andrews recognised as a studium generale.
1414The Lollard Act.
1415The Crowned King.
1415Battle of Agincourt.
1415Council of Constance condemns Wyclifite “errors.”
1417End of the Great Schism.
1417Execution of Sir John Oldcastle.
1418Peterhouse library catalogued.
1422–1471King Henry VI.
c. 1420Wyntoun’s Orygynale Cronykil.
1421–1466John Paston, letterwriter.
1421–1428–1491William Caxton.
1422Yonge’s translation of Secreta Secretorum.
c. 1423The Kingis Quair.
c. 1425–c. 1500Robert Henryson.
1431François Villon born.
1440–1441Henry VI founds King’s College, Cambridge, and Eton.
1442–1479Sir John Paston, letterwriter.
1450–1620Period of Middle Scots.
fl. 1450–1482Richard de Holand.
1450MS. of some Robin Hood ballads.
1450Jack Cade’s rebellion.
1450Glasgow recognised as a studium generale.
c. 1450Printing at Mainz.
1453Constantinople captured by the Turks.
1455–1471Wars of the Roses.
c. 1455Pecock’s Repressor.
1456Sir Gilbert Hay’s translations.
c. 1460Blind Harry’s Wallace.
c. 1460–c. 1520William Dunbar.
1461–1483King Edward IV.
c. 1470Fortescue’s De Laudibus Legum Angliae.
1474–5–c. 1530Stephen Hawes.
c. 1475–1522Gavin Douglas.
c. 1475Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, the first book printed in the English language.
1476Caxton press at Westminster.
1477Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, the first dated book issued in England.
c. 1477Caxton’s edition of the Canterbury Tales.
1480The first London press (John Lettou’s).
1483King Edward V.
1483–1485King Richard III.
1483Caxton’s Golden Legend.
1484Caxton’s Book of the Knight of the Tower.
1485Battle of Bosworth.
1485–1509King Henry VII.
1485Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur published (finished 1469).
1486–1487John Mirk’s Liber Festivalis published.
1490Caxton’s Eneydos.
1492Columbus sets sail from Spain and discovers the West Indies.
1494The Venetian press of Aldus begins work.
c. 1495Wynkyn de Worde’s edition of Trevisa’s Bartholomaeus.
1497Cabot reaches America.
1498Execution of Savonarola.
1498Erasmus comes to Oxford.
1500King’s College, Aberdeen, completed.
1503Arnold’s Chronicle (in which was first published The Nut Brown Maid).
1505–1506Hawes’s Passetyme of Pleasure.
1509–1547King Henry VIII.
1510Dean Colet founds St. Paul’s school.
1511The Pilgrimage of Sir Richard Guilforde (Guildford’s dates are 1455?–1506).
1513Battle of Flodden.
c. 1515Asloan MS.
1516Fabyan’s Chronicles printed.
1519Field of the Cloth of Gold.
1523–1525Berners’s translation of Froissart’s Chronicle printed.
1532First collected edition of Chaucer (Thynne’s).
1568Bannatyne MS.
c. 1650MS. of Percy folio.
1765Percy’s Reliques printed.
1775Tyrwhitt’s edition of Chaucer.