Events Timeline

Orlando includes short event entries, freestanding and embedded in author profiles, about moments and processes relevant to literary history and organized into four categories: Women writers, Writing Climate, Political Climate, and Social Climate. Explore the timelines by searching for date(s) and/or words or phrases associated with them.

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15 June 1215: King John signed the Magna Carta or Great...

National or international item

15 June 1215

King John signed the Magna Carta or Great Charter at Runnymede (near Egham, Surrey) at the behest of powerful barons.
Bozman, Ernest Franklin, editor. Everyman’s Encyclopaedia. 4th Edition, J. M. Dent, 1958, 12 vols.
7: 348
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 76
Gillingham, John. “The Early Middle Ages (1066-1290)”. Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 104-65.
131

Marie de France: 1216

Women writers item
Author event in Marie de France

1216

If the writer Marie de France was indeed Abbess of Shaftesbury, then she died in this year.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

19 October 1216: King John died and Henry III succeeded to...

National or international item

19 October 1216

King John died and Henry III succeeded to the throne.
Poole, Austin Lane. From Domesday Book to Magna Carta 1087-1216. Clarendon, 1951.
486

1226: Abbess Euphemia became director of a Benedictine...

Building item

1226

Abbess Euphemia became director of a Benedictine monastery in Hampshire.
Dolan, Josephine A. History of Nursing. 12th ed., Saunders, 1968.
107

1231: Cambridge University was granted its first...

National or international item

1231

Cambridge University was granted its first charter, by Henry III.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
210
Leach, Arthur Francis. Educational Charters and Documents, 598-1909. AMS Press, 1971.
xxv
Cobban, Alan B. The Medieval Universities: Their Development and and Organization. Methuen, 1975.
110, 111

15 May 1252: Pope Innocent IV, in his bull Ad exstirpanda,...

National or international item

15 May 1252

Pope Innocent IV, in his bull Ad exstirpanda, authorized the Inquisition 's use of torture as a means of eliciting information and confessions from suspected heretics.
“The Catholic Encyclopedia”. New Advent.
under Inquisition

1255: A child later known as Hugh of Lincoln was...

Building item

1255

A child later known as Hugh of Lincoln was found dead in that city, and his murder (and torture with other aggravating circumstances) was unjustly blamed on the Jewish community, against whom savage reprisals...

1263: Balliol College, Oxford, was founded by Sir...

Building item

1263

Balliol College, Oxford, was founded by Sir John de Balliol, with the eventual help of his wife, Dervorguilla.
The World of Learning. 47th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1997.
1552
Whitaker’s Almanack. 119th ed., J. Whitaker, 1987.
504

20 January 1265: Simon de Montfort, statesman and leader of...

National or international item

20 January 1265

Simon de Montfort, statesman and leader of a rebellion against King Henry III (his brother-in-law), summoned an assembly, including two knights from each county and two elected representatives of each borough, to bolster support...

Dante Alighieri: Between 18 May and 17 June 1265

Writing climate item
Author event in Dante Alighieri

Between 18 May and 17 June 1265

Dante Alighieri, Italian poet, was born at Florence, under the sign of Gemini.
“The Catholic Encyclopedia”. New Advent.
Freccero, John, editor. Dante: A Collection of Critical Essays. Prentice-Hall, 1965.
178

1270: Eleanor of Castile followed her husband,...

Building item

1270

Eleanor of Castile followed her husband, the future Edward I of England, on crusade.
Prescott, Sarah. Women, Authorship, and Literary Culture, 1690-1740. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
63

2 August 1270: Louis IX of France (also called St Louis)...

National or international item

2 August 1270

Louis IX of France (also called St Louis) died at Carthage on the final crusade (the second of his reign).
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.

Late 1272: Edward I heard of his succession to the English...

National or international item

Late 1272

Edward I heard of his succession to the English throne (on the death of Henry III on 16 November) while travelling home from the final crusade.
Morgan, Kenneth O., editor. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. Oxford University Press, 1984.
135
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Edward I, Henry III

6 December 1273: The Dominican friar Thomas Aquinas, aged...

Writing climate item

6 December 1273

The Dominican friar Thomas Aquinas, aged nearly fifty, had some kind of spiritual experience which caused him to break off writing the centrepiece of his writings. He died the next year, and his Summa...

Dante Alighieri: 1277

Writing climate item
Author event in Dante Alighieri

1277

Dante was betrothed while still a child to his future wife, Gemma Donati.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Sixth edition, Oxford University Press, 2000.

1277: Thomas de Cantelupe, Bishop of Hereford,...

Building item

1277

Thomas de Cantelupe, Bishop of Hereford, had his letters to the nuns of Limebrook, Herefordshire, translated from Latin into English or French so that they could understand them.
Orme, Nicholas. From Childhood to Chivalry: The Education of the English Kings and Aristocracy, 1066-1530. Methuen, 1984.
160

1281: A City of London Regulation prohibited pigs...

Building item

1281

A City of London Regulation prohibited pigs wandering in the streets. A further Regulation in 1297 required the removal of all pigsties from city streets.
Warren, Michael. “A Chronology of State Medicine, Public Health, Welfare and Related Services in Britain: 1066 - 1999”. Michael Warren’s Chronology, 6 Jan. 2003.

22 August 1282: Dervorguilla sealed the statutes for Balliol...

Building item

22 August 1282

Dervorguilla sealed the statutes for Balliol College, Oxford, thus confirming and completing its foundation by her late husband, John de Balliol.
Jones, John, 1942 -. Balliol College: A History. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1997.
6
Jones, John, 1942 -. Balliol College: A History. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1997.
3

11 December 1282: The victory of Edward I over Llywelyn ap...

National or international item

11 December 1282

The victory of Edward I over Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and Llywelyn's death on this day, brought Wales under English rule in what today would be called a colonial situation.
Prescott, Sarah. Women, Authorship, and Literary Culture, 1690-1740. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
63
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Llywelyn

1285: A statute set the penalty for raping a woman...

Building item

1285

A statute set the penalty for raping a woman married maid or other at death, or branding on the hand for those claiming benefit of clergy.
Schwarz, Joan I. “Eighteenth-Century Abduction Law and Clarissa”. Clarissa and Her Readers, edited by Carol Houlihan Flynn and Edward Copeland, AMS Press, 1999, pp. 269-08.
276
Benefit of clergy, designed to protect churchmen...

1290: King Edward I expelled all remaining Jews...

Building item

1290

King Edward I expelled all remaining Jews from England. According to Michelene Wandor's The Music of the Prophets, they were to be gone by All Saints' Day, November the first.
Collins Dictionary of British History. Collins, 2002.
252
Wandor, Michelene. The Music of the Prophets. Arc Publications, 2006.
16

1291: Christian-held Acre was besieged and recaptured...

National or international item

1291

Christian-held Acre was besieged and recaptured by Islamic forces, ending the last of the crusades.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
Chisholm, Hugh, editor. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Eleventh, Cambridge University Press, 1911.
7: 545

1296: Edward I signalled the presumed success of...

National or international item

1296

Edward I signalled the presumed success of his invasion and subjugation of Scotland (of which he claimed feudal overlordship) by removing to Westminster Abbey the Stone of Scone, which was linked to the crowning...

22 July 1298: The English-Welsh army of Edward I, having...

National or international item

22 July 1298

The English-Welsh army of Edward I, having been lured dangerously deep into an already devastated Scottish countryside offering no sustenance, attacked the Scots under William Wallace at Falkirk.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Wallace

11 September 1298: William Wallace, fighter for the independence...

National or international item

11 September 1298

William Wallace, fighter for the independence from England of Scotland (invaded in 1296 by Edward I), won the victory of Stirling Bridge on the edge of Stirling, the narrow wooden structure giving...