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Kingdom of England

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The kingdom of the English, counted from Athelstan's control of York in 927. Norman kings took the crown in 1066, King John sealed Magna Carta in 1215, and a king was tried and beheaded in 1649. In 1707 England joined Scotland in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

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Key events

  1. William of Normandy, who beat Harold at Hastings on 14 October, is crowned king in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day

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  2. William's commissioners survey the landholders of England for the Domesday Book

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  3. Rebel barons force King John to seal Magna Carta at Runnymede on 15 June; the pope annuls it in August

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  4. The Black Death comes ashore at Melcombe Regis in June and spreads to most of England within a yearDisputed

    Estimates of the dead differ: the National Archives says around a third of the population by 1349, and the Oxford Companion says the first outbreak probably killed between a third and a half.

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  5. – Lancaster and York fight for the crown from St Albans in 1455; Richard III dies at Bosworth in 1485 and Henry Tudor takes the throne

    The conflict is dated 1455 to 1487, with the last resistance ending at Stoke.

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  6. Parliament makes Henry VIII supreme head of the Church of England, ending the pope's authority over it

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  7. Charles I is tried by a court Parliament creates and beheaded outside the Banqueting House on 30 January; England becomes a republic

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  8. – William of Orange lands at Torbay in November, James II flees, and Parliament crowns William and Mary in 1689 under a Bill of Rights

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  9. The Acts of Union take effect on 1 May: England and Scotland become the Kingdom of Great Britain with one parliament

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