routledge+history+of+literature+in+english

546 Timelines
1189 Accession of King Richard I (‘the Lionheart’); he was
closely involved in foreign wars, including the Middle
Eastern ‘Crusades’ (which continued into the late
thirteenth century). Richard died in France in 1199,
and his brother John became king
1204 England lost political control of Normandy. There was
a strong feeling in the early thirteenth century towards
democratic politics and the establishment of a new
‘English’ national identity after centuries as ‘Anglo-
Saxons’. This nationalist feeling was encouraged by
the heroic status of King Richard I, who died young.
His successor, King John, was never popular. One of
John’s adversaries was Robin Hood, Earl of Huntingdon,
who was probably the first democratically inclined
nobleman in English history
1210 English colonisation of Ireland began
1215 Pope Innocent III convoked the fourth Lateran Council
of the Roman Catholic church, to give new moral
guidelines to thirteenth-century Europe
1215 King John signed the Magna Carta at Runnymede; this
document transferred many of the King’s political powers
to landowning noblemen. A new distinction between
‘government’ (which remained at the royal court) and
‘parliament’ (which was the prerogative of the aristocracy)
emerged at this time. This new division of power was
not changed until the First Reform Bill of 1832
1265 Simon De Montfort convoked the first true English
Parliament of landowning barons, to advise the courtbased
government
1282 Wales was subjected to the English forces of King Edward
I. In 1284, Edward’s heir (later to become King Edward
II) was created Prince of Wales – the title for the monarch’s
first-born son continues to the present day
1286 Death of the Scottish King Alexander III: English forces
tried to subject Scotland to English rule. For twenty
years there was no Scottish king
1305 The Scottish nationalist William Wallace (‘Braveheart’)
killed by English forces
1306 Robert I (‘the Bruce’) declared King of Scotland
1314 Battle of Bannockburn: English forces destroyed, and
Scottish independence reasserted. In the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, Scotland frequently sided with