Succesful Invasions of Britain

There have been numerous failed invasions since then, but there have also been some successful ones. These are not always remembered as such, since the successful invader was often British to begin with or soon became British.

But here is a list, which is not necessarily complete.

• 1139 Matilda lands to fight King Stephen. She captures him at the battle of Lincoln (1141) and becomes Queen. But he later regained the throne.
• 1153 Her son, Henry, invaded again with 36 ships and 3,000 men to attack Stephen. He forced Stephen to declare him his "heir" and became King Henry II in 1154.
• 1399 The exiled Henry Bolingbroke landed in England to fight against Richard II. Henry won and was crowned King Henry IV later that year.
• 1470 Warwick "the Kingmaker" landed at Dartmouth and Plymouth during the War of the Roses and overthrew Edward IV and restored Henry VI.
• 1471 The deposed Edward IV invades England at Yorkshire with an expeditionary force from Burgundy and fought battles at Barnet and Tewkesbury to regain the throne that year.
• 1485 Henry Tudor invades Britain, landing at Pembrokeshire in Wales with a Franco-Scottish force. He fights Richard III at Bosworth Field and becomes King Henry VII.
• 1660 Charles Stuart, son of Charles I, comes to England with the British fleet to become Charles II (by invitation) at the end of the Cromwellian republic.
• 1688 William of Orange invades Britain at Brixham with a Dutch army. He is declared joint monarch with his wife Mary, deposing James II.

I am indebted for this list to the chronology of naval actions from the following two splendid books about British Naval History:

• The Safeguard of the Sea: a Naval History of Britain 660-1649, NAM Rodger (1997)
• The Command of the Ocean: a Naval History of Britain 1649-1815, NAM Rodger (2004)