The Chronology of The British Kingdom

History depicts that there are traces of Paleolithic man in England. But he was usurped in the era between 2500-2000 BC by Neolithic man, and this man introduced a rudimentary agriculture, mined flints for tools, built fortifications and also established well worn lines of communication. The Beaker people were next in line to arrive. They were also known for their distinctive pottery thereby instituting the working of copper and bronze. However, the use of iron spread from Europe as early as  the 5th century B.C with the arrival of the Celts, whose culture soon dominated England. Still, little is known of the contemporary tribal organization. Cunebelinus (Cymbeline) were kings who flourished on the eve of the Roman Conquest, are shadowy and legendary figures which leave little to the imagination. Yet creative and insatiable desire for inquest. Powerful institutions and the religious sect of Druids are vague and little is known about them. Next came the Roman occupation of England from 43-410 A.D, and this left remarkably few permanent traces. Raids by the German seafaring tribes of the Anglo Saxons and Jutes had begun in the 3rd century, A.D, and with the retirement of the Roman legions in 410, Britain collapsed into a chaos of disassociated tribes led by legendary figures like Vorttigen, Germanus( St. Germanus of Auxene) and Arthur .


The 5th -7th Century AD

The Saxon settlement began in the late 5th century. However, not until the late 7th century was it possible to distinguish the tribal kingdoms of Sussex, Wessex, Kent and Essex in the South. Mercia and East Anglia in the midlands, and Northumbria in the north.



597-663 AD

Kent was converted to Christianity by the Roman missionary, Augustine. He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Northumbria was converted a generation later by Aidan and other missionaries from Iona, the center of Celtic Christianity, and the differences between the two communions were reconciled at the Synod of Whitby in 663. For two centuries, Northumbria was the  center of  English civilization and in association with Ireland, had a profound influence on contemporary European culture.


The 9th and 10th Centuries


The history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was one of almost incessant warfare arising largely from the fact that royal  succession was only partly hereditary. Wessex in the 9th and 10th centuries were actually the first to establish a true hereditary dynasty, whose members were known and distinguished      
for their military and diplomatic skills. This however, enabled the kingdom to survive the gruesome and hostile invasion of the Vikings and the Danes who conquered and settled Northumbria and eastern Mercia between 865 and  878. Alfred the Great threw them back from Wessex in 878, and drove them into Essex and East Anglia. Alfred recaptured London in 886 and became acknowledged as overlord of all England outside Dane law. He also strove to preserve learning and literature, and codified and supplemented the existing laws. Alfred’s son and successor conquered the remaining Dane law and the Viking raids subsided after 955.
In 980, the raids however resumed but at this time the Christianized settlers in the Danelaw showed no sympathy to their Scandinavian cousins. The successful levy of a national tax, the Dane gold helped to purchase immunity from further Danish attacks. This showed to a large extent, England’s unity and the efficiency of its government. Again in 1013, Sweyn, king of Denmark deposed Aethelred the Unready, king of the English. Sweyn’ s Son, Canute, respected English laws and customs but failed to found a dynasty, and so in 1042, the House of Wessex returned to the throne in the person of Edward the Confessor, who was the son of Aethelred the Unready, king of the English, 978-1016, and Emma, daughter of the Duke of Normandy.
However, in 1066, shortly after Edward’s death, without direct heirs, England was invaded and conquered by William, Duke of Normandy. He became William I Of England, and thus, began the genealogy of the British Mornachs.....