Medieval British Literary History/ Medievalism/ (Years are more or less accurate, but not days or months)

Sub-Roman Britain

Period: 43 to 400

Romans over Britain

Battle of Badon

500

Britons and Anglo-Saxons. Britons pushed A.S.'s away for a while. King Arthur may have fought in the battle

Gildas

Period: 500 to 570

Live of Gildas (Hagiography)--Involved King Arthur

Viking Incursions

Period: Apr 24, 700 to Apr 25, 1050

Norse

Nennius

Apr 24, 800

Welsh monk wrote Historia Brittonum

Battle of Hastings

Apr 24, 1066

Norman-French led by William he Conqueror, against Anglo-Saxons led by Harold. William won and began Norman Conquest

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Period: Apr 24, 1095 to Apr 25, 1155

Text: HIstory of the Kings of Britain (1136)
Pseudo-historical account of British History, first record of King Arthur as English monarch

Wace

Period: Apr 24, 1110 to Apr 25, 1175

Text: Roman de Brut (1155)
Takes history of Britain back to Rome, mentioned King Arthur
Based on History of the Kings of Britain

Layamon or Lawman

Period: Apr 24, 1125 to Apr 25, 1200

(late 1100s-early 1200s)
Text: Brut (1190)
Turns Wace’s piece into Middle English--Alliterative revival.

The Anarchy

Period: Apr 24, 1135 to Apr 25, 1153

A civil war that started when King Henry I’s only legitimate son, William, died

House of Plantagenet

Period: Apr 24, 1154 to Apr 25, 1485

Marie de France

Period: Apr 24, 1160 to Apr 25, 1215

Chretien de Troyes

Period: Apr 24, 1180 to Apr 25, 1220

(late 1100s-early 1200s)
Texts: Knight of the Cart (Lancelot), Percival (late 1100s)
Knight of Cart: Lancelot, abduction of Guinevere, first text with love affair between the two

Brut

Apr 24, 1190

Text: Brut (1190)

Chievrefueil, Lanval

Apr 24, 1200

Poems by Marie de France

Joseph of Arimathea Texts: Joseph of Arimathea, The Prose Merlin, Suite de Merlin

Apr 24, 1200

(late 1100s-early 1200s) Robert de Boron
Texts (1200s)
Joseph: Explains the Holy Grail and how England is connected to Christ
Prose Merlin: How Merlin came to be
Suite de Merlin: Merlin in later life/how he died

Beroul

Period: Apr 24, 1200 to Apr 25, 1240

Text: The Romance of Tristan, Cantare on the Death of Tristan (around 1240)
Romance: Medieval Romeo and Juliet
Death: How Tristan died (flags on the ship)

Magna Carta

Apr 24, 1215

Forced King John to sign

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight--Pearl Poet

Apr 24, 1300

Green Knight representative of perpetual mortality.
Sir Gawain’s sin was wanting to save his own life--kept the girdle instead of giving it up--wasn’t trusting in Christ and in the honor--afraid enough to not keep his word. Don’t be like Sir Gawain, trust in Christ (that’s why it’s mixed in with other religious stories in preacher’s book.

Famine in Britain

Apr 24, 1309

One Hundred Years' War

Period: Apr 24, 1337 to Apr 25, 1453

Between Plantagenet and Valois over succession to the throne. Valois won, made Pl. weak.

Black Plaque starts

Apr 24, 1347

Peasant's Revolt

Apr 24, 1381

Chaucer

Period: Apr 24, 1387 to Apr 25, 1400

Texts: “Canterbury Tales General Prologue, “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale”
Remarkably egalitarian for its time, telling stories of upper and lower classes at the same time.

Thomas Malory

Period: Apr 24, 1400 to Apr 25, 1490

Texts: Le Morte Darthur (maybe “Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady” (aka “The Marriage of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle”)) (mid 1400s)
How Arthur died
Wrote in response to the Wars of the Roses.

Wars of the Roses

Period: Apr 24, 1455 to Apr 25, 1485

A series of wars between two branches of the House of Plantagenet: Lancaster (red rose) and York (white rose). The Lancasters won and Henry VII took over (married Elizabeth of York) MONARCHS : Edward I -> Edward II -> Edward III -> Richard II (grandson) -> Henry IV (cousin) -> Henry V (son) -> Henry VI (son) -> Edward IV (York, cousin)-> (Edward V and Richard, sons)-> Richard III (Brother/Uncle) -> Henry VII (not really related, and that’s the end of the War of the Roses) -> Henry VIII

House of Tudor

Period: Apr 24, 1485 to Apr 25, 1603

Started with Henry VII (descended from mother who was from House of Lancaster) until Elizabeth died without an heir.
Henry VII claimed lineage back to Arthur through Welsh line of stepfather. Married Elizabeth of York and joined the houses of Lancaster and York, creating the House of Tudor.

John Leland (or Leyland)

Period: Apr 24, 1500 to Apr 25, 1550

Text: Defense of King Arthur (1544)
Leland writes a defense of Arthur (historical evidence) by visiting all the Welsh places that claim he was there or that he is still there and will come back
First to record tradition of Cadbury Castle as Camelot--found “Evidence” of Arthur and Grail myth Britain.

Edmund Spenser

Period: Apr 24, 1550 to Apr 25, 1599

Texts: The Faerie Queene (1596)
Revisionist mythology for England
Allegory
King Arthur: magnificence
Virtues: knights
Vices/antagonists: Catholics
Una: Protestant
Duessa: Catholicism (dual nature, a distraction for the hero)

House of Stuart

Period: Apr 24, 1603 to Apr 25, 1714

James I of Scotland takes the throne after the War of the Roses. This house ends with Anne who is pregnant 19 times but has no surviving heirs.

House of Hanover

Period: Apr 24, 1635 to Apr 25, 1901

German royal dynasty that became monarchs in Britain (in 1714) and ruled until the death of Queen Victoria

English Civil Wars

Period: Apr 24, 1642 to Apr 25, 1651

Fight over the kind of government England wanted. Ended with the execution of King Charles I, exile of Charles II, and Oliver Cromwell being declared Protectorate of England. (remember, this is all about Catholics vs. Protestants and Cromwell was THE Protestant)

Interregnum

Period: Apr 24, 1649 to Apr 25, 1660

Started with execution of Charles I and lasted until his son (Charles II) took the throne. Cromwell didn’t want a Catholic on the throne (Charles II)

Romanticism

Period: Apr 24, 1800 to Apr 25, 1850

Alfred Lord Tennyson-The Lady of Shallot (1832)

Period: Apr 24, 1809 to Apr 25, 1892

Example of Romanticising Camelot and the knights of Camelot.

Industrial Revolution

Period: Apr 24, 1820 to Apr 25, 1840

Queen Victoria

Period: Apr 24, 1837 to Apr 25, 1901

Era in British History of prosperity and expansion; the height of the British empire. There was a huge revival of medievalism during this era.

Algernon Charles Swinburne Texts: The Tale of Balen (1896)

Period: Apr 24, 1837 to Apr 25, 1909

Poem about the two brothers who end up killing each other. Example of the Arthurian revival during the Romantic era.
The emphasis here, as in the Tale itself, is upon Balen's deeds and his innocence. In this last truly important Victorian medievalist poem, the good knight's various attempts to cleanse and regenerate an irretrievably corrupt world are ineffectual.

Pre-Raphaelite artistic Brotherhood

Period: Apr 24, 1848 to Apr 25, 1854

-revival of King Arthur stuff and medieval artistic practice (1848-1854)

T.S. Eliot

Period: Apr 24, 1888 to Apr 25, 1965

Texts: The Waste Land (1922)
Title is a reference to The Fisher King stories; poem itself mentions the grail and a man finishing in a river.
Lots of references to Arthurian mythology as a metaphor for the West

Modernism

Period: Apr 24, 1900 to Apr 25, 1965

T.H. White

Period: Apr 24, 1906 to Apr 25, 1964

Text: The Sword in the Stone (1938)
The Once and Future King Cycle--defined Arthur mythology for the early 20th century