Chapter 3

A long and illustrious history

From early Britain to the present — the dates, people and events the test asks about most often.

558 practice questions

Early Britain

1Stonehenge in Wiltshire was built in stages during the Stone Age and Bronze Age. Skara Brae is a Stone Age settlement in Orkney.
2Iron Age Britain was home to peoples often called Celts, who built hill forts. Celtic languages survive in parts of Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
3Julius Caesar raided in 55 BC but did not stay. Emperor Claudius began the conquest in AD 43.
4Boudicca, queen of the Iceni in East Anglia, led a major revolt against the Romans.
5Hadrian’s Wall was begun in AD 122 to keep out the Picts. The Romans left Britain in AD 410.

1Angles, Saxons and Jutes came from what is now Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Their language developed into English. Kingdoms included Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex.
2St Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 597, became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
3King Alfred the Great of Wessex defeated the Vikings and is the only English monarch called ‘the Great’.
4At the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold. The Norman Conquest followed. The Domesday Book (1086) surveyed England.

1Magna Carta was sealed in 1215. Robert the Bruce defeated the English at Bannockburn in 1314.
2The Black Death (1348) killed about one third of the population and weakened the feudal system.
3The Wars of the Roses (1455–1485) were between Lancaster (red rose) and York (white rose). Henry Tudor won at Bosworth Field and became Henry VII.
4Henry VIII broke with Rome and established the Church of England. Elizabeth I’s navy defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.

1James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603 (Union of the Crowns). The Gunpowder Plot was 5 November 1605.
2Civil War began in 1642. Charles I was executed in 1649. Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector. The monarchy was restored in 1660 under Charles II.
3The Glorious Revolution (1688) brought William and Mary. The Bill of Rights followed in 1689.
41707 united England and Scotland as Great Britain. 1801 brought Ireland into the United Kingdom.
5The slave trade was abolished in 1807; slavery in the Empire in 1833, after campaigning by people including William Wilberforce.
6Queen Victoria reigned 1837–1901. The Great Exhibition was held in 1851 at the Crystal Palace.

1Women over 30 who met a property qualification gained the vote in 1918; equal terms with men (age 21) in 1928. Emmeline Pankhurst led the suffragettes.
2The First World War lasted 1914–1918. Armistice Day is 11 November. The Battle of the Somme (1916) saw very heavy casualties.
3Ireland was partitioned in 1921; the Irish Free State was created in 1922. Northern Ireland remained in the UK.
4Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940. The Battle of Britain was fought in the air that summer. D-Day was 6 June 1944.
5The NHS was established in 1948 by Aneurin Bevan, following the Beveridge Report. The Empire Windrush arrived the same year.
6Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. The Falklands War was in 1982.
7The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly were established in 1999.