1170 Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury

Thomas Becket (1118 (or 1120) – 1170, also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He engaged in conflict with Henry II of England over the rights and privileges of the Church and was murdered by followers of the king (four knights, Reginald fitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton) in Canterbury Cathedral. Soon after his death, he was canonized by Pope Alexander III.

1086 Domesday Book

Domesday Book (latin: Liber de Wintonia) is a manuscript record of the great survey, completed in 1086 on orders of William the Conqueror, of much of England and parts of Wales. The survey's key purpose was to determine what taxes had been owing under Edward the Confessor. The manuscript is held at The National Archives, London. In 2011, the Open Domesday site made the manuscript freely available for the first time. No survey approaching the scope and extent of the Domesday Book was attempted until the 1873 Return of Owners of Land (sometimes termed the "Modern Domesday") which presented the first complete, post-Domesday picture of the distribution of landed property in the British Isles.

1016 Cnut the Great of Denmark becomes king of all England

Cnut the Great (985/995 – 1035), more commonly known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway, and parts of Sweden, together often referred to as the Anglo-Scandinavian or North Sea Empire. As a Prince of Denmark, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim in 1028. On his way to Rome for this coronation, Cnut, in a letter written for the benefit of his subjects, stated himself "King of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes".

927 Athelstan unites the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy into the Kingdom of England

Athelstan or old English Æthelstan (893/895 – 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kings. In 927 he conquered the last remaining Viking kingdom, York, making him the first Anglo-Saxon ruler of the whole of England. In 934 he invaded Scotland and forced King Constantine of Scotland to submit to him, but Æthelstan's rule was resented by the Scots and Vikings, and in 937 they invaded England. Æthelstan defeated them at the Battle of Brunanburh, a victory which gave him great prestige both in the British Isles and on the Continent.

895 A Danish fleet was captured by Alfred the Great

The Danes, finding their position in mainland Europe precarious, crossed to England in 330 ships in two divisions. They entrenched themselves, the larger body at Appledore, Kent, and the lesser, under Hastein, at Milton, also in Kent. The invaders brought their wives and children with them, indicating a meaningful attempt at conquest and colonisation. Alfred, in 893 or 894, took up a position from which he could observe both forces.

Alfred the Great (849 – 899) (old English: "elf counsel") was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. He successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, and by the time of his death had become the dominant ruler in England. He is the only English monarch to be accorded the epithet "the Great".

825 Battle of Ellandun

The Battle of Ellandun was fought between Egbert of Wessex and Beornwulf of Mercia. It effectively ended Mercian Supremacy over the southern kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England and established West Saxon dominance in southern England. It is described as "one of the most decisive battles of English history". Ecgberht's power peaked in 829, when he occupied Mercia and secured recognition of his supremacy by the Northumbrians, making him temporarily the overlord of all England. Mercian independence was restored in the following year by Wiglaf, who achieved a significant recovery of Mercian prestige and was even able to extend his power over Berkshire. The independence of East Anglia and the West Saxon conquest of the south-east proved irreversible and Mercia never regained the primacy it had enjoyed in the century before Ellandun.

793 Vikings raided Lindisfarne

In 793, a Viking raid on Lindisfarne caused much consternation throughout the Christian west and is now often taken as the beginning of the Viking Age. The English seemed to turn their back on the sea as they became more settled. Many monasteries were established on islands, peninsulas, river mouths and cliffs. Isolated communities were less susceptible to interference and the politics of the heartland. The amazement of the English at the raids from the sea must have been matched by the amazement of the raiders at such (to them) vulnerable, wealthy and unarmed settlements. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne was an important centre of Celtic Christianity under Saints Aidan, Cuthbert, Eadfrith and Eadberht. A small castle was built upon it in 1550.