Kent

ceremonial county of England, United Kingdom

35 dated entries naming Kent, drawn from 33 separate years between 43 CE and 1925 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.

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1st century

43May – Aulus Plautius, crossing (probably) from Boulogne (Bononia) in the Classis Britannica, lands with four Roman legions (20,000 men) and a similar number of auxiliaries at Rutupiae (probably modern Richborough) on the east coast of Kent. General (future emperor) Vespasian plays a major role in the defeat of the Britons led by the brothers Caratacus and Togodumnus (leaders of the Catuvellauni) in the 2-day Battle of the Medway (probably at the river near Rochester) and the Romans drive them back to and across the River Thames; Togodumnus dies soon after. Plautius halts at the Thames and sends for the Emperor.source

4th century

368Great Conspiracy: Picts, Scotti and Saxons reach Roman London and plunder the city. Theodosius, a general (Comes Britanniarum), is sent with a relief force to Britannia. He marches from Richborough, Kent, to deal with the invaders.source

5th century

428King Vortigern invites a number of Germanic warriors to aid him in consolidating his position in Britain, according to the Historia Brittonum. He hires Saxons who are probably settled in Kent as mercenaries to fight against the Picts and the Scots beyond Hadrian's Wall.source
465Battle of Wippedesfleot: The Saxons under command of Hengist and Aesc are defeated by the Britons near Ebbsfleet (Kent). During the battle 12 Welsh leaders are killed (according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).source

7th century

604The See of Rochester is established, and Justus is appointed as bishop. He founds Rochester Cathedral (Kent).source
633Paulinus of York flees with Queen Æthelburga and her daughter Eanflæd, age 7, south to Kent, where he is made bishop of Rochester. Eanflæd grows up under the protection of her uncle, King Eadbald of Kent.source
675April 1 – King Hlothhere of Kent re-establishes Kentish supremacy in London.source
676King Æthelred of Mercia invades Kent, in an attempt to enforce overlordship and diminish Kentish influence in Surrey and London. His armies destroy the Diocese of Rochester (seat of the bishops in West Kent), and ravage the surrounding countryside.source

9th century

885Danish Vikings land in Kent and besiege Rochester. Town defences having been improved, the city holds out long enough for Alfred the Great to organize an army. He forces the Vikings to flee back across the Channel, to the Continent.source
892Autumn – A Viking force with a fleet of 250 longships arrives at the river mouth of the settlement of Lympne (East Kent). They attack the small fortification (called Eorpeburnan).source

10th century

957Mercia and Northumbria rebel against King Eadwig and switch their allegiance to his brother Edgar. The English nobles (in support of the church) agree to divide the kingdom along the Thames River, with Eadwig keeping Wessex and Kent in the south and Edgar ruling in the north. Edgar's advisers recall Dunstan from Flanders (see 956).source

11th century

1005November 16 – Ælfric of Abingdon, archbishop of Canterbury, leaves ships to the people of Wiltshire and Kent in his will, leaving the best, equipped for 60 men, to King Æthelred the Unready.source
1009August – A large Viking army led by Thorkell the Tall lands on Kent and proceeds to terrorize most of Southern England.source
1067Eustace II, count of Boulogne, supports the Kentishmen in an attempt to seize Dover Castle. The conspiracy fails, and Eustace is sentenced to forfeit his English fiefs.source
1088Spring – A rebellion led by William the Conqueror's half-brothers Odo of Bayeux and Robert (2nd Earl of Cornwall), begins against King William II with the aim to remove him from the throne. Odo's revolt in Kent and Sussex is supported by nobles across the country.source

12th century

1179Summer – Richard de Luci (or Lucy), High Sheriff of Essex, resigns his judicial office. He enters Lesnes Abbey (near London) that he founded in Kent, as penance for his part in the events leading to the murder of Thomas Becket (see 1170). Richard dies there on July 14.source

14th century

1381June 12 – Peasants' Revolt: In England, rebels from Kent and Essex, led by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, meet at Blackheath. There the rebels are encouraged by a sermon, by renegade priest John Ball.source

15th century

1447Unknown – Wye College is founded in Kent.source
1450May 8 – Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI of England.source
1495July – Perkin Warbeck, having failed to land in Kent in support of his claim to the English crown, retreats to Ireland before proceeding to Scotland. Walter St. Lawrence plays an active part in the defence of Dublin.source
1495July 3 – At the Battle of Deal, Perkin Warbeck's troops land in Kent, in support of his claim to the English crown, backed by Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy. They are routed before Warbeck himself can disembark, and he retreats to Ireland and then to Scotland.source

16th century

1525June 4 – 1525 Bayham Abbey riot; Villagers from Kent and Sussex, England riot and occupy Bayham Old Abbey for a week in protest against Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's order to suppress the monastery in order to fund two colleges founded by him.source
1547Huguenots increasingly immigrate to the English county of Kent, especially Canterbury, from France.source
1557June 18 – Mass executions by burning at the stake resume in England for Protestants convicted of heresy under the law of England's Catholic ruler, Queen Mary I. On the first day, four women and three men are put to death at Maidstone at Kent. The next day, at Canterbury, another seven prisoners are burned. On June 22, ten more people (six men and four women) burn at the stake at Lewes at Sussex. In all, 24 people (12 men and 12 women) are killed in a five-day periodsource
1591July 22 – The Durtnell (Dartnell) family of Brasted, Kent, England, begin to work as building contractors. The business continues under thirteen generations of the family until ceasing to trade in 2019.source

17th century

1625In England, a very high tide occurs, the highest ever known in the Thames, and the sea walls in Kent, Essex, and Lincolnshire are overthrown, thus great desolation is caused to the lands near the sea.source
168811 December – the defeated James II attempts to flee to France but is intercepted by fishermen in Kent.source

18th century

17291 May – a tornado destroys buildings in Sussex and Kent.source
1739July 9 – The first group purporting to represent an all-England cricket team, consisting of 11 players from various parts of England, comes to Kent and loses to the renowned Kent team, led by Lord John Sackville.source

19th century

18011 January – First one-inch-to-the-mile (1:63,360 scale) map based on the work of the Ordnance Survey is published, covering the county of Kent.source
182212 August – The Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh cuts his own throat at his house in Kent.source
1822August 12 – Lord Castlereagh, the British Foreign Secretary, commits suicide at his house in Kent. He is judged to have been insane at the time.source
1870June 9 – English novelist Charles Dickens dies at Gads Hill Place in Kent, leaving his last book, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.source
1896January 28 – Walter Arnold, of East Peckham, Kent, England, is fined 1 shilling for speeding at 8 mph, exceeding the contemporary urban speed limit of 2 mph, the first speeding fine.source

20th century

19259 April – Administration of Estates Act abolishes the legal rule of primogeniture in England and Wales and the remnants of gavelkind in Kent; Law of Property Act modernises the law relating to real estate (both Acts come into effect 1 January 1926).source