1066 - The year the Battle of Hastings took place and William I is crowned King of England. 

1067 -  the Forest Laws were introduced.

1069 - the Harrying of the North began and in 1070 it end.

1070 - Murdrum fine introduced for killing Normans. 

1086 - the Domesday book is created.

1194 - Richard I introduces coroners to investigate suspicious deaths.

1150-60 - Henry II reorganises courts and tries to limit church’s power over crime and punishment.   

1215 - Trial by Ordeal ends. 

1327 - Justices of the Peace appointed for all areas. 

1351 -  the Statute of Labourers were made.

1414 -  Justices of the Peace could arrest suspected heretics.

1485 - Henry Tudor becomes King Henry VII of England. 

1494 - Vagabonds and Beggars Act was introduced. 

1542 - Witchcraft Act makes witchcraft punishable by death. 

1547 - the Vagrancy Act, an able bodied vagabond, who was without work for more than three days, was to be branded with the letter V, was made.

1556 - the introduction of the Bridewell, used to punish vagabonds and reform them as well as house orphans. 

1597 -  Demonologie was published.

1601 - Poor law introduced and houses of correction set up in each county. 

1603 -  transportation to America begins. 

1605 - the year of  the Gunpowder Plot.

1645-47 - Matthew Hopkins witch hunts. 

1671 - the Game Act was passed which meant that individuals who were poor were not allowed to own equipment or dogs that could be used for poaching.

1688 - Law lists 50 crimes punishable by death. 

1723 - Black Acts make poaching game punishable by death. 

1736 -  witchcraft was decriminalised.

1748 - Fielding brothers set up Bow Street Runners. 

1777 -  The State of Prisons was published.

1810 - the law lists 222 crimes punishable by death. 

1829 -  the Metropolitan Police Force was introduced.

1833 - Tolpuddle matrys. 

1842 -  the detective branch in Scotland Yard was set up.

1842 -  Pentonville prison was opened and the separate system introduced.

1857 - Transportation is abolished. 

1869 - the first National Crime Records were set up.

1877 - all prisons brought under government authority. 

1888 - Jack the Ripper murders. 

1900 - Borstals introduced for young offenders. 

1901 - the Fingerprint branch was set up in the Metropolitan Police Force.

1916 - Military service act introduces conscription. 

1925 - driving whilst drunk become a crime.

1933 - execution of under -18s ends. 

1953 - the Derek Bentley case occurred. 

1965 - Death penalty abolished. 

1971 - the Misuse of Drug Act, making many drugs illegal for the first time, was passed.

1976 - Domestic Violence Act makes domestic violence a crime. 

2006 - Racial and Religious Hatred Act makes racial abuse a crime.