Medieval Britain — from Anglo-Saxons to Bosworth

This is the era where most of the constitutional content of the test starts: Magna Carta, the Domesday Book, and the first time a king is forced to sign anything by people who are not other kings. Before all that, though, it is six centuries of invasion, conversion, and gradual nation-shaping.

After Rome — three saints and three invasions

With the Romans gone, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms establish themselves across what is now England by around AD 600. Christianity arrives — or rather, returns — in this period through three saints whose names the test loves to swap:

Saint	Place	Mission
St Augustine	Canterbury (south of England)	Becomes the first Archbishop of Canterbury
St Columba	Iona (off the west coast of Scotland)	Founds a monastery, brings Christianity to the north
St Patrick	Ireland	Patron saint of Ireland

Augustine is south, Columba is north, Patrick is across the sea — that’s the geography to anchor.

AD 789 is the standard date for the first Viking raids, coming from Denmark and Norway. The Viking story produces three more names you need:

• King Alfred the Great — the Anglo-Saxon king who defeats the Vikings and starts welding the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into one.
• King Cnut (sometimes written Canute) — the first Danish king of England, after the Vikings came back successfully.
• Kenneth MacAlpin — the first king of Scotland, who unites the Scottish kingdoms partly in response to the Viking pressure from the north.

If a question asks for “the first king of Scotland,” it is MacAlpin, not Robert the Bruce. (Bruce comes later, and is a different kind of “first” — see below.)

1066 — the last successful invasion of England

Battle of Hastings, 1066. This is the most-tested single date in the entire chapter and one of the great anchor dates in British history. William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) defeats King Harold and becomes king of England.

Two artefacts the test sometimes asks about:

• The Bayeux Tapestry — a long embroidered cloth made shortly after the battle, narrating it in pictures. It is in France today.
• The Domesday Book — William’s commissioned survey of every shire, manor, and tax base in his new kingdom. The most thorough land record in medieval Europe.

After 1066, no foreign army has ever successfully invaded England again. Spain tried (1588 Armada — failed). Napoleon tried (defeated at Trafalgar 1805 and Waterloo 1815). Hitler planned to (Battle of Britain 1940 stopped him). 1066 is the last entry on the list.

1215 — Magna Carta and the limiting of royal power

Magna Carta, 1215. King John is forced by his nobles to sign a document — at Runnymede — that for the first time limits the king’s power under English law. It is the start of a long thread that runs through the whole rest of the chapter:

The arc of constitutional monarchy: Magna Carta (1215) → Civil War and execution of Charles I (1649) → Habeas Corpus (1679) → Glorious Revolution (1688) → Bill of Rights (1689). Five points, half a millennium, one direction.

If a date question gives you “1215,” the king is John and the document is Magna Carta. Don’t reach for Edward I — Edward comes next.

Edward I, Wales, and Scotland

1284 — Statute of Rhuddlan. Edward I annexes Wales and brings it under English law. This is “the conquest of Wales.” The last native Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, is killed in 1282 just before the statute is enacted.

Llywelyn vs Owain Glyndŵr. Llywelyn (1282) is the last native ruler — killed during Edward’s conquest. Glyndŵr (early 1400s) leads a rebellion over a century later. Conquest first, rebellion after — the order matters because the test sometimes asks for one and offers the other as a distractor.

Scotland resists more successfully than Wales. 1314 — Battle of Bannockburn. Robert the Bruce defeats the English and Scotland keeps its independence for several more centuries. Magna Carta and Bannockburn are exactly 99 years apart, and they sit in your memory together — both about limiting English royal power, one through legal documents and one through battle.

The 14th–15th centuries — plague, war, roses

A run of dates worth holding loosely:

• 1348 — the Black Death arrives in Britain and kills roughly a third of the population.
• 1415 — Battle of Agincourt. Henry V defeats the French. This is the high-water mark of the Hundred Years War and the source of Shakespeare’s most quotable English-vs-French speeches.
• 1455 — the Wars of the Roses begin. The English nobility splits into two houses fighting for the throne: Lancaster (red rose) vs York (white rose). This is dynastic, not popular — the colours are heraldic.
• 1485 — Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard III (York) is killed. Henry VII wins, founds the Tudor dynasty, and ends the Wars of the Roses.

Bosworth (1485) → Gunpowder Plot (1605) → Great Fire (1666). Three “1XX5/6” dates that get confused. Tudor founding → Stuart treason → Stuart London ablaze.

What to take from this chapter

1. Three saints by region: Augustine south, Columba north, Patrick Ireland.
2. MacAlpin first king of Scotland; Alfred united Anglo-Saxon England; Cnut first Danish king.
3. 1066 — William of Normandy. Last successful invasion. Bayeux Tapestry and Domesday Book.
4. 1215 — Magna Carta — King John. First check on royal power.
5. 1284 — Edward I conquers Wales (Llywelyn killed 1282). 1314 — Bannockburn — Robert the Bruce keeps Scotland free.
6. 1485 — Bosworth ends the Wars of the Roses; the Tudors begin.