Author Timeline Flashcards
General Timeline of Key Literary Events
Date 400-1300 (Period/Notes)
Old English (English language became strongly influenced by medieval French) (c. 1000) Battle of Hastings (William of Normandy killed King Harold Godwinson - decisive victory of Normans) (1066)
Date 400-1300 (Authors)
Caedmon (earliest English poet) (late 7th cen.)
Author of Beowulf (late 8th cen.)
Date 1300-1500 (Period/Notes)
Middle English Battle of Agincourt (Turning point for England against France in Hundred Years' War, Shakespeare [Henry V]) (1415) Gutenberg Bible (1456)
Date 1300-1500 (Authors)
William Langland (Piers Plowman) (late 14th cen.) Geoffrey Chaucer (late 14th cen.) Thomas Malory (mid 15th cen.)
Date 1500-1558 (Period/Notes)
Elizabethan period (Reign of Elizabeth I)
Date 1500-1558 (Authors)
Philip Sidney (Defence of Poesy) Edmund Spenser John Lyly (Euphues) Christopher Marlowe William Shakespeare
Date 1603-1625 (Period/Notes)
Jacobean period. Reign of James I
James I had alienated both popular and elite opinion at the time by staying out of European religious conflict (Thirty Year War). In retrospect a very good move. Late Shakespeare’s patrons included not only James I but also his queen Anne of Denmark.
Date 1603-1625 (Authors)
Ben Jonson (Volpone) Francis Bacon
Date 1625-1649 (Period/Notes)
Caroline period
Reign of Charles I
Conflict between the Royalist Party (King and his supporters) and the Puritans was gaining a darker hue, what with the ongoing Thirty Years’ War. English colonization of the American continent continued.
Date 1625-1649 (Authors)
John Donne John Webster (The Duchess of Malfi)
Date 1649-1660 (Period/Notes)
Charles I executed in 1649. Cromwell and the Interregnum.
English Civil War / War of the Three Kingdoms (1642-1651): War between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers). Ended with trial and execution of Charles I, exile of Charles II, end of Church of England’s monopoly in English christian worship.
England during the interregnum underwent various forms of republican government. Oliver Cromwell claimed executive power for life but died soon. Puritan influences on law were credited to him, but were actually brought in by Commonwealth Parliament.
Date 1649-1660 (Authors)
John Milton
Robert Herrick ("To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time")
Andrew Marvell ("To His Coy Mistress")Date 1660-1714 (Period/Notes)
Restoration Period
Reign of Charles II (1660-1702)
Exiled royalists returned and rewarded. Regicides punished. General John Lambert was abandoned by his army and George Monck marched to London. Lambert was captured by Richard Ingoldsby who hoped to win a pardon for his regicide.
Date 1660-1714 (Authors)
William Congreve George Etherege ([The Comical Revenge or, Love in a Tub(1664)]) John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress) John Dryden (was so prominent that restoration period was also known as "Age of Dryden". [Absalom and Achitophel]. [Mac Flecnoe])
Due to decreased Puritan influence, theater thrived again, making bawdy “Restoration Comedy” a recognizable genre. Women were able to be actresses for the first time.
Date 1714-1727 (Period/Notes)
Reign of Anne, the last Stuart monarch (1702-1714)
James II (Charles II’s brother) and VII removed from monarch of England and Scotland, respectively. Mary and William III of Orange as joint monarchs. Mary dies, then William dies, Anne succeeds him.
Anne favored moderate Tories than Whigs because they were likely sympathetic towards her Anglican views.
