| 1780 | Anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in London Royal Academy moves to Somerset House |
| 1781 | John Downman The Ghost of Clytemnestra |
| 1782 | Henry Fuseli The Nightmare exhibited at RA |
| 1783 | America granted independence |
| 1784 | Sir Joshua Reynolds Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse exh at RA Beginnings of Evangelical Movement in England |
| 1785 | Jacques-Louis David Oath of the Horatii exh in Paris The Times newspaper founded William Cowper The Task published |
| 1786 | William Beckford Vathek published William Blake Oberon, Titania and Puck (c1786) |
| 1788 | George III’s madness announced Macklin’s Poets’ Gallery opens in London |
| 1789 | French Revolution starts Mutiny on the Bounty John Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery opens in London William Blake Songs of Innocence published |
| 1790 | Edmund Burke Reflections on the Revolution in France published Henry Fuseli Titania and Bottom (c1790) Philip James de Loutherbourg Visitor to a Moonlit Churchyard |
| 1791 | Thomas Paine Rights of Man Part 1 published James Gillray The Weird Sisters |
| 1792 | Mary Wolstonecraft Vindication of the Rights of Woman published First Republic begins in France Louvre opens as public museum in Paris |
| 1793 | Execution of Louis XVI in France France declares war on Britain Henry Fuseli Macbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head (1793-4) |
| 1794 | William Blake Songs of Experience published Ann Radcliffe Mysteries of Udolpho published |
| 1795 | Methodist secession from Church of England William Blake The House of Death (1795/c1805) |
| 1796 | Jenner vaccinates against smallpox Matthew Lewis The Monk published |
| 1798 | William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Lyrical Ballads published Nelson wins Battle of the Nile |
| 1799 | Francisco Goya Los Caprichos Fuseli’s Milton Gallery opens in London |
| 1800 | Maria Edgeworth Castle Rackrent published William Blake The Blasphemer |
| 1801 | Political union with Ireland Joanna Southcott The Strange Effects of Faith |
| 1802 | William Paley Natural Theology Treaty of Amiens James Gillray Tales of Wonder! |
| 1803 | War with France resumes James Gillray A Phantasmagoria |
| 1804 | Napoleon becomes Emperor William Godwin Caleb Williams published |
| 1805 | Battle of Trafalgar JMW Turner The Shipwreck exhibited |
| 1806 | Death of Pitt Charlotte Dacre Zofloya; or or The Moor published |
| 1807 | Abolition of Slave Trade Founding of Clapham Sect Henry Fuseli The Debutante |
| 1808 | Peninsular War begins |
| 1809 | William Blake one-man exhibition in London |
| 1811 | Prince of Wales declared Regent First Luddite disturbances Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility published |
| 1812 | Lord Byron Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage published JMW Turner Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps |
| 1813 | Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice published |
| 1814 | Abdication of Napoleon Stephenson’s first locomotive built |
| 1815 | Battle of Waterloo. End of wars with France |
| 1816 | Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel and Kubla Khan Thomas Love Peacock Headlong Hall John Martin Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still |
| 1817 | John Constable Flatford Mill exhibited John Martin The Bard exhibited |
| 1818 | Jane Austen Northanger Abbey published posthumously Lord Byron Don Juan published M Shelley Frankenstein published |
| 1819 | John Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn published John Polidori The Vampyre published Peterloo massacre William Blake The Ghost of a Flea (c1819-20) |
| 1820 | William Blake completes Jerusalem Death of George III, accession of George 1V Cato Street Conspiracy Charles Maturin Melmoth the Wanderer published |
| 1821 | Thomas De Quincey Confessions of an English Opium Eater published |
| 1824 | Founding of National Gallery James Hogg Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner published |
| 1825 | Death of Fuseli |
| 1827 | Jane C Loudon The Mummy published |
| 1829 | Catholic Emancipation Act |
| 1830 | Death of George IV, accession of William IV Walter Scott The Black Dwarf published Theodore von Holst Bertalda Frightened by Apparitions (c1830-35) |
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