On the death of his father, James I, James II becomes king of Scotland

An engagement at St Albans is the first battle in the 30-year struggle between the white and red roses of York and Lancaster

On the death of his father, James II, James III becomes king of Scotland

The first success in the Wars of the Roses goes to the white rose, with the Yorkist prince crowned as Edward IV

Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur

Edward IV, landing at Calais with a large army, is bought off at Picquigny with a bribe - ending his attempt to revive the Hundred Years' War

Caxton establishes the first English printing press in London, after working in the new trade in Bruges

The English king Edward IV dies and his succeeded by his 12-year-old son as Edward V

The two royal princes, Edward V and his younger brother, are confined in the Tower of London by their uncle - soon to be Richard III

Richard III has himself proclaimed king by a parliament held at Westminster, and begins a short reign of only two years

Henry Tudor kills Richard III at Bosworth Field and takes the crown as Henry VII

Henry VII, whose mother is Lancastrian, marries the Yorkist heiress Elizabeth and thus unites the roses - in the Tudor rose

On the death of his father, James III, James IV becomes king of Scotland

Henry VII commissions the Italian navigator John Cabot to cross the Atlantic in search of new territories for England

John Cabot, searching for a trade route to China, probably reaches Newfoundland

The marriage of James IV, king of Scotland, to Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, leads a century later to the Union of the Crowns

On the death of his father, and as the result of the death of his elder brother Arthur, Henry VIII becomes king of England

Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism

The earliest surviving curling stone, discovered in Scotland, dates from this year

James IV of Scotland dies at Flodden, in the disastrous defeat of his army by the English

On the death of his father at Flodden, the one-year-old James V becomes king of Scotland

Catherine of Aragon gives birth to a daughter, Mary, who becomes the only one of her six children to live beyond infancy

William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English

Hans Holbein the Younger pays his first visit to England, and stays with Thomas More in Chelsea

Discussion of Henry VIII's proposed divorce hinges on rival verses from the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy and Leviticus