Devon

ceremonial county of England

13 dated entries naming Devon, drawn from 13 separate years between 614 CE and 1952 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

JSONWikipedia articleWikidata Q23156

7th century

  • 614Battle of Bampton: King Cynegils of Wessex defeats the invading Britons in Dumnonia (modern Devon). They use the Roman road eastward from Exeter to Dorchester, and are intercepted by the West Saxons marching south.source
  • 661Battle of Posbury: King Cenwalh of Wessex invades Dumnonia (south-west England). He is victorious over the native Briton tribes near Crediton in Devon, and drives them to the coast.source

8th century

  • 710Kings Ine of Wessex and Nothhelm of Sussex fight against King Geraint of Dumnonia, who dies in battle. Ine's advance brings him control of what is now Devon; he establishes a fortress at Taunton.source

11th century

  • 1001Battle of Pinhoe: Vikings defeat the Anglo-Saxons in Devon.source
  • 1002November 13 – Pallig, Danish chieftain (jarl) of Devonshiresource
  • 1050King Edward the Confessor unites the English dioceses of Devon and Cornwall. He moves the see from Crediton to Exeter and gives the order to build a cathedral. Leofric becomes the first bishop of Exeter.source

12th century

  • 1198John of England captures a party of 18 French knights and many men-at-arms, in the ongoing conflict against France. His brother, King Richard I (the Lionheart) introduces a new Great Seal – in an attempt to keep the war against France funded. The government proclaims that charters previously struck with the old seal are no longer valid and must be renewed with a fresh payment. The office of Lord Warden of the Stannaries is also introduced, to tax the produce of tin mines in Cornwall and Devon.source

17th century

  • 1690July 26 – A French landing party raids and burns Teignmouth in Devon, England. However, with the loss of James II's position in Ireland, any plans for a real invasion are soon shelved, and Teignmouth is the last French attack on England.source

19th century

  • 1817April 3 – "Princess Caraboo" appears in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire in England, and convinces the local residents that she had come to their town from a far-off island kingdom of "Javasu" in the Indian Ocean. A Portuguese sailor named Manuel Enes soon arrives and says that he speaks her mysterious language, and translates her story of an escape from pirates. After publicity, Princess Caraboo is discovered to be a servant girl from the village of Witheridge in Devon.source
  • 1859May 4 – The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge, linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.source
  • 1879December 31 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance opens at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City (following a token performance the day before for U.K. copyright reasons in Paignton, Devon).source

20th century

  • 1944April 28 – WWII: Allied convoy T4, forming part of amphibious Exercise Tiger (a full-scale rehearsal for the Normandy landings) in Start Bay, off the Devon coast of England, is attacked by E-boats, resulting in the deaths of 749 American servicemen from LSTs.source
  • 1952August 16 – Lynmouth, North Devon, England is devastated by floods; 34 die.source

Named in the same entries