--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eighteenth Century
1727
Liam: Galway, Ireland
Liam is born in Galway, Ireland. The son of a Catholic silk-and-linen merchant. (Blind Date; The Prodigal)

Since Galway is in the predominantly Catholic part of Ireland it is not surprising that Liam’s family were Catholics. However, it is worth remembering that his religion would have prevented his father from prospering in business as much as he might otherwise have done. A Catholic could not vote or hold land with any security of tenure, and the most advantageous business contracts would tend to be given to Protestants.

In addition, Galway at this date was one of the poorest regions of Ireland. The linen trade, which earlier in the century had been amongst the most profitable businesses in the country, was by 1753 entering a serious decline as the cotton industry took off in England. It is therefore highly likely that Liam’s family suffered a fall in their standard of living throughout his life. Which would explain a lot.

Lindsey: What was your father? He was a merchant, right? Linen and silk? Did pretty well? Had a couple of servants, until you killed them?

Angel: Just the one.

(Blind Date)

1753
Darla, Liam: Galway, Ireland
Twenty-six year old Liam is living at home with his father, mother and young sister, Kathy. The household has silver cutlery but only one servant, Anna. The young Liam has achieved a reputation for himself amongst the local women and passes his time drinking, fighting, whoring and encouraging his father to despise him. (The Prodigal; Becoming, Part 1)

(To only have one servant at this date means that the family were teetering on the brink of poverty.)

After the latest row with his father, Liam packs a bag and leaves home. But he only makes it as far as the local pub where he is spotted by Darla, who subsequently draws on her experience as a prostitute to encourage him into a dark alley. There, on the basis of his expressed desire to see the world, she vamps him. (The Prodigal; Becoming, Part 1)

Newly risen as a vampire, Liam kills the grounds-keeper of the churchyard and likes the taste so much he goes on to slaughter his entire village. And, after his sister invites him into their home thinking he has come back as an angel, kills his family. (Angel; The Prodigal)

Buffy: I invited you into my home and then you attacked my family!

Angel: Why not? I killed mine. I killed their friends… and their friend’s children… For a hundred years I offered ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart.

(Angel)

Sometime between 1753 and 1760
Darla, Angelus: South Wales and northern England including Yorkshire
Liam is renamed ‘Angelus’. Angelus and Darla have fun through South Wales and northern England, including Yorkshire. Angelus finds the Yorkshire cuisine tough. (Darla)

Master: Angelus – the Latinate for Angel. It’s marvelous.

Darla: His name would already be legend in his home village – had he left anyone alive there to tell the tale.

Master: Ah, you had a nice trip. I’m so glad.

Darla: On the way back we cut a bloody swath through South Wales and northern England. He was magnificent.

Angelus: Hmm, Yorkshire men – tough as leather.

(Darla)

Oddly enough, at just this time Daniel Holtz (who has a house in York) becomes a vampire-hunter… (Dad)

Record’s Woman: Holtz, Daniel, vampire killer, circa seventeen fifty four. He hunted Angel and Darla halfway around the world until his mysterious disappearance in seventeen seventy three. Larson Macmillan Vampiricus Conquestus page four twelve.

Lilah: How did you…

Record’s Woman: I’m files and records. It’s my job.

(Dad)

1760
Darla, Angelus, the Master: London, England
Darla takes Angelus to meet the Master, where he is so rude he gets thrown across the room a few times before persuading Darla to leave with him for the benefits of soft beds and a view. Since the alternative is living in a sewer, she wisely decides to go with him (possibly to Naples, as Angelus suggests, but this is never confirmed.) The Master lets them leave, calculating that the relationship won’t last longer than a century. (Darla)

Angelus: So Darla here tells me you’re some sort of master?

Darla: The Master. He commands our order.

Angelus: There’s an order?

Master: The Order of Aurelius. We are the select. The elite.

Angelus: And you live in the sewers, do you?

(Darla)

Sometime between 1753 and 1764
Darla, Angelus
Angelus and Darla attract the attention of the Catholic vampire-hunter Captain Daniel Holtz, and his team of torch-waving sidekicks. They know Holtz well enough to be aware of where he lives and the name of his daughter – ‘the apple of his eye’. (Quickening; Lullaby; Offspring)

1764
Darla, Angelus: York, England
Angelus and Darla, already being chased by Holtz, charm their way into Holtz’ home while he is away. (The month of Holtz’s vow of revenge is given as May.) They kill his wife, Caroline, and baby son, Daniel. His daughter, Sarah, they turn into a vampire – leaving Holtz to find and deal with the result. (Quickening; Lullaby; Dad)

Sarah: Mummy won’t wake up.

Holtz: Shush… quiet now. (He sings:)
Sleep my love and peace attend thee,
All through the night;
Guardian angels God will lend thee,
All through the night;
Soft the drowsy hours are… creeping…

(Lullaby)

Between 1764 and 1765
Darla, Angelus: Italy
Angelus and Darla are in Italy when Angelus gets a yen for more travel. (The Trial)

Darla: In Italy you said we should go someplace like France.

(The Trial)

1765
Darla, Angelus: near Arles, France
Having gone to France because Angelus fancied the rich food (specifically waiters from the best hotels), Darla and Angelus flee on horseback from Holtz and another torch-waving crowd. They end up in a barn in a valley near Arles. Their proposed roll in the hay being interrupted by flaming arrows, Darla knocks Angelus unconscious with a shovel and escapes on their only horse. (The Trial)

Angelus: This is outrageous! Don’t these people know who we are?

Darla: I believe they do. Which would explain the lynch mob.

(The Trial)

Sometime between 1765 and 1767
Darla, Angelus: Vienna, Austria
Darla and Angelus meet up in Vienna, and he brings home to her the error of her ways. Repeatedly. (The Trial; Heartthrob)

Darla: Of course when he finally caught up with me in Vienna I had to pay for my sins. Again and again.

(Heartthrob)

Sometime prior to 1767
Darla, Angelus: Madrid, Spain
Angelus and Darla have a cultural dinner. (Heartthrob)

Darla: Didn’t we eat a poet in Madrid?

Angelus: Troubadour.

(Heartthrob)

(A troubadour in the eighteenth century? Odd people, vampires meet.)

1767
Darla, Angelus, James, Elisabeth: Marseilles, France
Angelus and Darla – in company with James and Elisabeth, a young and extremely silly vampire couple – eat the Count de Leon, steal his gold, and burn his villa to the ground. This attracts the attention of Holtz (with yet another torch-waving crowd – does he have an agency?), who catches up with them when James dawdles to shoplift a locket for Elisabeth.

Giving the women time to escape to a ship, James and Angelus stay to delay the crowd, which they do by the cunning scheme of getting surrounded and then picking an argument with each other to get away again. (Heartthrob)

Darla: Young love.

Angelus: I give it a century.

James: A century? A mere hundred years?

Elisabeth: I would need a thousand to sketch the perfect plain of your face.

James: And I would need ten thousand just to name the colour of your eyes.

Angelus: They’re green, but take your time.

(Heartthrob)

Sometime between 1767 and 1771
Darla, Angelus: Morocco
Our heroes manage to shake off Holtz. (Offspring; Heartthrob)

Darla: He’s killed scores of us, hunted Angelus and me across half of Europe. God, if he follows us to Morocco, what then, the New World?

(Heartthrob)

Holtz: You lost me in North Africa.

(Offspring)

1771
Darla, Angelus: Rome, Italy
Darla and Angelus visit Rome so Darla can admire the Botticelli frescos in the Sistine Chapel (specifically The Temptation of Christ). Angelus is finally captured by Holtz in a sewer tunnel, thanks to Holtz being assisted by torch-waving monks this time, rather than laymen. Angelus is then tortured by Holtz and an excommunicated Monseigneur (who apparently performed Holtz’ wedding – nice to know they kept in touch) using a particularly nasty fork thing. This gives Darla time to organise a few minions for a rescue. (Offspring)

Angelus: Darlin’?

Darla: What?

Angelus: Shouldn’t we be killing Holtz?

Darla: I know, but it’s just so much fun ruining his life.

(Offspring)

c. 1771
Pavayne: California
Mathias Pavayne, an aristocratic practitioner of surgery and the black arts, flees Europe for California and begins a twenty year killing spree. (Hellbound; Harm’s Way)

Angel: Mathias Pavayne, dark soul number 182.…European aristocrat, 18th century. He was a doctor, nicknamed ‘The Reaper’ for performing unnecessary surgery on his patients.

Fred: Well, what kind of surgery?

Wesley: The kind you don’t recover from.

(Hellbound)

1773
Holtz: York, England
Back in York, (having racked up 378 vampire kills to date) Holtz is given the chance to travel into the future for his revenge. He accepts. Angelus and Darla presumably appreciate the break. (Quickening; Dad)

1775
Angelus
Angelus does something involving a well-dressed young woman that is worthy of record in the Watchers’ diaries. (Halloween)

Willow, working from the incorrect statement of his age that Angel previously gave, mistakenly assumed that he was still eighteen and human – not knowing that vampires do not add their human life-span when calculating their age. Unfortunately, Buffy and Willow’s conversation drifted on and we never found out any details of why this incident was recorded, or who drew the sketch of the woman involved.

Buffy: Man, look at her.

Willow: Who is she?

Buffy: It doesn’t say, but the entry’s dated seventeen seventy-five.

Willow: Angel was eighteen. And still human.

Buffy: So that’s the kinda girl he hung around? She’s pretty coiffed.

(Halloween)

Between 1753 and 1898
Angelus
Angelus develops various habits. A notable nun thing. (Dear Boy; The Girl in Question)

Angel: Saint Bridget’s, in Fremont. A convent, built on native burial grounds. The land’s cursed, they had eight murders in two years before the whole place burned to the ground – which is nothing compared to what happened at Our Lady of Lochenbee… I have a thing for convents.

(Dear Boy)

Angelus: Those were my nuns!

William: Yeah. Nuns are your thing. Everybody knows that. They respect it – they respect us.

(The Girl in Question)

Also a tendency to displays of feeling around Valentine’s Day. (Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered)

(The tradition of exchanging cards and other gifts as valentines dates from the 16th century and by 1800 was common enough that hand-painted copperplates were specially produced. Of course Angelus gave the feast his own special twist.)

Giles: Since Angel, er… turned… I’ve been reading up on his earlier activities. You know, feeding patterns and the like.

Buffy: And?

Giles: Around Valentine’s Day he’s rather prone to, well, brutal displays of… He would think of it as affection, I suppose.

Buffy: Like what?

Giles: No need to go into details.

Buffy: That bad?

…

Giles: Look, here’s another. Valentine’s Day. Yes, uh… Angel nails a puppy to the…

Buffy: Skip it.

Giles: But it…

Buffy: I don’t wanna know. I don’t have a puppy. Skip it.

(Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered)

Naturally it wasn’t all high jinks, but then some people are difficult to impress.

Lilah: (Sitting on the floor, surrounded by papers from the thirty-five cabinets of Angel’s Wolfram and Hart file.) Two hundred seventy five years of the most inane… (Picks up a paper and looks at it.) What kind of wussy name is Liam anyway?

(Dad)

1786
Angelus, Penn
Angelus turns a young man, Penn, and teaches him to mark his victims with a cross on the cheek. Further following his sire’s example, Penn kills his entire family, but then shows a distinct lack of creativity by going on to repeat the pattern for the next two hundred odd years. (Somnambulist)

(Date from shooting script. The location is uncertain, though some believe the actor playing Penn is attempting an Irish accent.)

Penn describes himself as having been a ‘puritan’, but the term has very little relevance after the seventeenth century. We can only take it as meaning a member of some unspecified Protestant sect.

Angelus: Your first kill. Aptly done.

Penn: Strange… She was my sister—

Angelus: And yet you feel nothing.

Penn: No. I feel… hungry.

(Somnambulist)

1789
Angelus: Prussia
Taking a shortcut on his way to Vienna, Angelus gets the feeling someone is watching him and then runs into the Beast engaged in a rather nasty massacre, for demonstration purposes. They get along fine for all of two seconds before Angelus is knocked out and the Beast is banished by some conveniently passing Svea Priestesses. (Soulless)

Over in France of course they were storming the Bastille around this time, which may possibly have some relevance to the troops Angelus mentioned were ‘around’. It seems odd that Angelus would have voluntarily missed a nice bit of mob violence, but perhaps he had an important appointment in Vienna.

Wesley: So, you were in Prussia.

Angelus: You have been doing your homework. Hmm… those Prussian girls. Must be the pastries. Worth the trip – all that sweetness gets into their blood.

(Soulless)

c. 1789
Angelus: Vienna, Austria
Since he remembers he was on his way to Vienna when he met the Beast, it is reasonable to assume Angelus got there eventually. (Soulless)

Angelus: I was taking a shortcut on my way to Vienna.

(Soulless)

c. 1790
Angelus: Ireland
It was possibly around this time that Angelus got his tattoo – a winged demi-lion perched on the letter A. It is worth noting that the only information Giles could find on Angelus was in the diary of a former Watcher, which must mean at some stage a Watcher or Slayer got close enough to Angelus to see his naked back… (Angel)

The design of the lion is a slight variant of an illustration in the Book of Kells, it is the lion of St. Mark, one of the four traditional winged figures representing the Evangelists. Trinity College Dublin has owned the book since 1661, where it has been on display in the Old Library since the nineteenth century.

It is perhaps apt that Angelus should have a religious tattoo since tattooing was banned by the Christian Church (You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you - Leviticus 19:28). Tattooing was reintroduced to Europe in the 18th and 19th century, especially by sailors who had seen the art form amongst the Polynesians. There was a brief fad for it amongst the upper-classes in the late 19th century.

Giles: There’s nothing about Angel in the texts, but it suddenly occurred to me that it’s been ages since I’ve read the diaries of any of the watchers before me. … There’s mention some two hundred years ago in Ireland of Angelus, the one with the angelic face. … Does this Angel have a tattoo behind his right shoulder?

(Angel)

Sometime between 1786 and 1801
Penn: Italy
Penn goes to Italy, but Angelus doesn’t show up. They do not meet again until the year two thousand. (Somnambulist)

It could be posited that Penn waited until the twentieth century and got the name wrong. However, not only should someone who lived through the nineteenth century know what to call it but not even Penn would be so stupid as to wait that long.

Penn: Angelus! My god! It’s been a lifetime!

Angel: At least.

Penn: We were to meet in Italy, remember?

Angel: I remember.

Penn: I waited. Hell, I waited until the nineteenth century.

(Somnambulist)

Sometime between 1786 and 1801
Angelus: Rumania
Angelus has some involvement with Gypsies and gets held up in Rumania. Thus regrettably missing his appointment in Italy with Penn. (Somnambulist)

Penn: What happened?

Angel: Got held up in Rumania.

Penn: Rumania? What’s in Rumania?

Angel: Gypsies…

(Somnambulist)

Sometime between 1760 and 1898
Angelus, the Master
The Master and Angelus are at least partially reconciled. (Angel)

Master: Angel! He was the most vicious creature I ever met. I miss him. … He was to have sat at my right hand, come the day.

(Angel)

1791
Wolfram & Hart: El Pueblo de la Reyna de los Angeles, California
A mere ten years after the city itself was founded, the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart is established on the site of a Spanish mission. (Hellbound; Harm’s Way)

Announcer: Welcome to the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart. We’re the oldest and most powerful law firm in the city. Founded in 1791 on ground deconsecrated by the blood of mass murderer Mathias Pavayne…

(Harm’s Way)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nineteenth Century
c. 1830 to 1840
Drusilla: England
Presumed period of Drusilla’s birth. Possibly in Kent or London.

The future vampire Drusilla was English, and her accent is a London one, far closer to the true Cockney than Spike’s, and in her case this was her accent when she was alive. The glimpse we caught of her family show they were reasonably well dressed, so combined with her accent that would most likely make her father a skilled artisan. Since her vision was about a mining accent he was possibly employed in some skilled work associated with the mine, which would have given Drusilla a comfortable if not luxurious childhood. (Becoming, Part 1)

We do not know if Drusilla was her name when she was alive, it seems unlikely since it was hardly common and the most famous owner of that name – the sister of the Roman Emperor Caligula – had a less than savoury reputation in the nineteenth century. She mentions someone called Anne, but it is not clear if this is one of her sisters or someone else, it could even be Dru herself. She also mentions an uncle (whom Angelus killed). Her mother had a sweet voice and used to sing her a lullaby to sleep at night. ‘Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.’ (What’s my Line, Part 2; Lie to Me)

Drusilla: My mother ate lemons. Raw.
She said she loved the way they made her mouth tingle—
Little Anne – her favourite was custard… Brandied pears…
And pomegranates. They used to make her face and fingers all red.
Remember little fingers? Little hands? Do you?

Angel: If I could— I—

Drusilla: Bite your tongue… They used to eat cake. And eggs. And honey.
Until you came and ripped their throats out—

(What’s my Line, Part 2)

1838
Angelus: Dublin, Ireland
Angelus kills Daniel, a young man who has lost money to him at cards. He chooses to do this at Christmas, in the week Daniel was meant to be married. To add insult to injury, Angelus is wearing an unspeakable moustache. (Amends)

Angelus: Well, it happens that I’m hungry, Daniel, and seeing as you’re somewhat in my debt…

Daniel: Please… I can’t…

Angelus: A man playing at cards should have a natural intelligence or a great deal of money, and you’re sadly lacking in both.

(Amends)

1843
Luke: Madrid, Spain
Luke has a fight that his male opponent survives. This is considered a notable event. (The Harvest)

Master: A Slayer! Have you any proof?

Luke: Only that she fought me, and yet lives.

Master: Hmm, very nearly proof enough. I can’t remember the last time that happened.

Luke: Eighteen forty-three. Madrid. He caught me sleeping.

(The Harvest)

c. 1845
Angelus: near Tuscany, Italy
Angelus is not in Tuscany when he meets a vamp called Rosaria. Judging from his reaction to her in Los Angeles he clearly doesn’t remember the meeting with much fondness. (Salvage)

Since it is utterly bizarre to describe a place by it being ‘outside Tuscany’ this can only be an example of a vamp showing Italian snobbery. Anywhere but Tuscany, darling – it’s just so passe.

Rosaria: Angelus! Remember me?

Angelus: Not really.

Rosaria: Oh, come on! A little town outside Tuscany, eighteen forty-five, give or take. Rosaria!

(Salvage)

1853
William: possibly North London, England
Speculative date for William’s birth, based on the assumption he was twenty-seven when he died.

In 1997 Giles described Spike as ‘barely two-hundred’. (School Hard)
1997 - 200 = 1797
Some time after School Hard was screened, they decided to plan Spike’s back-story. Using Mutant Enemy’s normal approach to arithmetic and scrupulous consistency with existing canon, they decided he had been turned in 1900.
In 1999 Spike duly announced he was 126 years old. (The Initiative)
1999 - 126 = 1873
Then they remembered that he had to have known Angelus for long enough to consider him as his sire and Yoda. So they showed him having been turned in 1880. (Fool for Love)
But the maths could be said to still stand as regards his age.
1999 - 1900 = 99
126 - 99 = 27
Hence he must have been twenty-seven when he died. (On a good day I can even follow this argument.)
His mother’s name was Anne (from the shooting-script but not mentioned on-screen). We don’t know his surname but there is a slight possibility it was Sullivan since in the late 19th century all men with that surname would be given the inevitable nickname ‘Spike’ or ‘Spiky’.

William was born into a middle-class family although it is impossible to pin down his precise social status. We can only speculate why Cecily considered him ‘beneath’ her, but it may have had something to do with his mother’s illness since there was considerable social stigma attached to tuberculosis which was considered a working-class disease.

It is interesting that he referred to having heard ‘tales of London pick-pockets,’ since it seems to imply that he was not a native Londoner. Yet he later described his own home as being in ‘this city’ so we can say for certain that he lived in London. When alive he spoke middle-class ‘received’ English yet within a short time of being killed he had got the working-class North London accent down quite well, which probably meant he was familiar with it when alive. Nearly all middle-class Englishmen do have the irritating ability to speak both received English and the local accent from where they grew up, so it not at all surprising that he could talk ‘like that’.

Sometime between 1853 and 1856
Anyanka, Halfrek
The vengeance demons have some sort of competitive spat, details sadly unavailable. (Lessons)

Halfrek: Listen, Anya. I know I’ve always been a little competitive with you. I mean, there was that thing in the Crimean War. We laugh about it now.

(Lessons)

Sometime between 1821 and 1857
Angelus: probably France
Angelus meets the French poet, translator, and literary and art critic, Charles Baudelaire. (She)

Baudelaire was notorious for his dissolute lifestyle, with an expensive taste in wine, women, paintings, hashish and opium. He managed to fritter away most of his inheritance with remarkable alacrity. In June 1857 he published his premier work Les Fleurs du mal, now described as the most important and influential 19th century European poetry collection. It consisted of a hundred poems, including Le Vampire. Thirteen of them were immediately arraigned for offences to religion or public morality.

Just Angelus’s type.

Angel: And this brings us to Manet’s incomparable La Musique aux Tuileries. First exhibited in 1863, Manet’s depiction of modern life, along with his severe lighting contrasts and rich texture, outraged the Academic critics of the day. On the left one spies the painter himself. In the middle distance is the French poet and critic Baudelaire, a friend of the artist.
Now, Baudelaire, interesting fellow; in his poem, Le Vampire, he wrote,
‘Thou who abruptly as a knife
Didst come into my heart;’
He very much believed that evil forces surrounded mankind, and some have speculated the poem was about a real vampire.
Oh, and Baudelaire was actually a little taller and a lot drunker than he’s depicted here.

(She)

Sometime between 1753 and 1898
Angelus: France
Angelus fights demons. (Origin)

From the context it sounds as if Angelus snapped or nearly snapped a demon or demons in half. Regardless of what he did this is an interesting instance of Angelus fighting with demons rather than humans.

Connor: You almost broke that guy in half! That was awesome! … Seriously, that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

Angel: Well, it’s not a big deal. I mean, I do stuff like that a lot. There was this one time in France—

(Origin)

c. 1860
Darla, Angelus, Drusilla: London, England
After killing the skinflint Lord Nichols (royalty, according to Darla) and a prostitute, Darla takes Angelus – thankfully clean shaven again – to see her latest find: a family, reasonably well dressed, mother, father, and three virginal daughters in their teens to early twenties, one of whom has the sight… (Dear Boy)

Angelus: The one in the middle is something delicate and unique… Did you find me a Saint?

Darla: Better than that – she has the sight.

Angelus: Visions. She sees the future. She is pure innocence, yet she sees what’s coming, she knows what I’m going to do to her. I’ll really have to come up to snuff for this one.

Darla: Down boy, let the plum ripen.

Angelus You always come up something new.

Darla Keeps me young.

(Dear Boy)

1860
Angelus, Drusilla: London, England
In the confessional box of a remarkably rural looking London church, Angelus is just settling down after a light snack of priest when Drusilla, in some distress, asks him to hear her confession, even though it is only two days since her last one. Being an obliging sort he lends an ear to her tale of visions of a mining accident (a cave-in, killing two men) and offers some advice to the effect that she is doomed. (Becoming, Part 1)

There are mines in Southern England, notably the coal mines in Kent, and nearer still to London the chalk mines at Chislehurst, near Crystal Palace, on the outskirts of London. Chalk was an important ingredient for many industrial processes in the nineteenth century.

The fact Drusilla was attending confession implies she was a Catholic, but by this date it is possible she was not a Roman Catholic, but an Anglo-Catholic, that is a member of the Church of England that followed many of the practices of the Roman faith. However, even assuming she was a Roman Catholic, Drusilla would have grown up knowing little discrimination for her families religion and would have had a wide choice of convents to join, since by the mid Nineteenth Century (after the Emancipation Act of 1829) British Roman Catholics were almost free of any religious penalty. The only odd thing about her religion therefore is the appearance of the church: since all the old churches in England were converted to the Church of England rite and the building of Roman Catholic ones was not tolerated until the nineteenth century, all Roman Catholic churches would be relatively new at that date. They also tended to follow an architectural style more akin to continental churches than the native Protestant ones. This therefore makes Anglo-Catholicism slightly more likely than Roman Catholicism in Dru’s case.

Drusilla: Father, I beg you… help me.

Angelus: Very well. Uh, ten Our Fathers and an act of contrition. Does that sound good?

Drusilla: Yes, Father, thank you.

Angelus: The pleasure was mine. Oh, and my child?

Drusilla: Yes?

Angelus: God is watching you.

(Becoming, Part 1)

Sometime during or after 1860
Darla, Angelus, Drusilla: England
Angelus proceeds to drive Drusilla mad, killing her family (her parents were probably eaten in their own bed) massacring everyone she loves, and torturing her mentally in further unspecified ways. He finally slaughters all the nuns at the Sisters’ of Mercy convent she has fled to, on the day Drusilla was supposed to take her vows. He stops Dru from cutting her own throat just in time and after rutting with Darla in front of her, turns her into a vampire. He believes this was the worse thing he ever did. I am inclined to agree with him. (Lie to Me; Dear Boy)

Darla: So are we going to kill her during, or after?

Angelus: Neither. We turn her into one of us. Killing is so merciful at the end, isn’t it? The pain has ended.

Darla: But to make her one of us? She’s a lunatic.

Angelus: Eternal torment… Am I learning?

(Dear Boy)

It is often mistakenly stated that Dru was turned in 1860, but in fact there is no canon proof of this. The only fixed date we have is for the incident in the church, and we know neither how long before this Angelus first saw her, nor how long afterwards he might have waited until he killed her. It could be that driving someone mad takes longer than a few weeks or months.

1880
William: London, England
William, grown into a young man with glasses and floppy hair, lives somewhere in London with his mother who has a tendency to cough blood and sing folk songs. He, perhaps understandably, distracts himself with excruciatingly bad poetry. (Fool for Love; Lies My Parents Told Me)

At that time it would not have been at all unusual for a twenty-seven-year-old to still be living at home, especially if he was unmarried.

William: Should I send the coach for Doctor Gull?

Mother: I’ll be all right. It’s passed. Just sit with me a while, will you?

William: Of course.

(Lies My Parents Told Me)

1880
Darla, Angelus, Drusilla, William: London, England
After killing a young sailor, Drusilla complains that she is growing lonely since all Angelus’s attention is focused on Darla. Angelus therefore suggests that she find herself a playmate.

Meanwhile, William is in London mingling with a set of rude people who have odd notions of dress and propriety. After having his poetry justifiably condemned, he fails to woo Cecily and dashes out into the night, distraught, where he makes the mistake of bumping into the vampires. Drusilla follows him into an alley, makes a few personal remarks about fish, and bites him. (Fool for Love; Darla)

(In the shooting script of Fool for Love Cecily’s surname is given as Addams, but in Lies My Parent Told Me William’s mother asks if the Cecily mentioned in his poems is the Underwood’s eldest daughter. Either way the Cecily we see on screen looks quite remarkably similar to Halfrek the vengeance demon. Odd that.)

William: ‘Lu-mi-nous…’ no, no, uh, ‘irra-di-ant…’ better… Quickly, I’m the very spirit of vexation, what’s another word for ‘illuminate’? It’s perfectly perfect as many words go, but the bother is nothing rhymes, you see.

(Fool for Love)

Some days later, William returns to his home with Drusilla and turns his mother. Within a few minutes of meeting her as a vampire he rather sensibly dusts her. (Lies My Parents Told Me)

From Dru’s remark about the house smelling of daffodils we might be able to conclude that these events occurred around March or April. Or we might be able to conclude that Dru was rambling as usual.

William: I am no longer bound to this mortal coil. I have become a creature of the night. A vampire.

Mother: Are you drunk?

William: A little bit.

(Lies My Parents Told Me)

Meanwhile, Darla has left to visit the Master. And in her absence Angelus decides to state his recently reawakened, but most definitely not deviant, interest in men – something he elegantly demonstrates by sticking his hand in the sunlight. (Destiny)

William: Touch me again—

Angelus: Don’t mistake me. I do love the ladies. It’s just lately I’ve been wondering… what it’d be like to share the slaughter of innocents… with another man. Don’t… don’t think that makes me some kind of a deviant, do you?

(Staring at Angelus, William sticks his own hand in the light.)

Angelus: Ah! I like this one! You and me, we’re gonna be the best of friends.

(Destiny)

These palm-tingling events occurred in the suite of an Ambassador, in a place described as The Royal London Hotel. This presumably means the Royal Hotel on the Embankment at the corner of Blackfriars Bridge, described in 1888 as a moderate priced hotel though still with excellent accommodation.

1880
The Master, Darla
The Master and Darla have a family reunion. Not an unusual event according to Angelus. (Destiny)

Angelus: Darla and I had a little spat. Her precious Master sent for her. You know Darla: Master’s pet.

Drusilla: Oh. Poor Angelus.

Angelus: Ah, don’t fret, Dru, we’ll make up. Always do. (touches his bruised brow) After a little tit for tat. Shouldn’t let that spoil our fun here.

(Destiny)

1880
Darla, Angelus, Drusilla, Spike: Yorkshire, England
As a vampire, William has started combing his hair flatter, but his other behaviour has somehow led the family to hide in a Yorkshire coal-mine, where Angelus remonstrates with him, aided by a stake. Angelus has clearly been attempting to teach him a sense of caution and artistry, but William prefers a brawl. William, who has just started talking with a North London accent, reminds Angelus that he wishes to be called Spike from now on, and learns what a Slayer is for the first time. (Fool for Love)

Spike: After that, I was obsessed. I mean, to most vampires, the Slayer was this object of cold sweat and frightened whispers. But I never hid. Hell, I sought her out. I mean, if you’re looking for fun, there’s Death, there’s Glory, and sod all else, right? (shrugs) I was young.

(Fool for Love)

1880-1898
Angelus, Spike
Spike learns to consider Angelus his sire and Yoda. He watches Angelus’s back. Angelus teaches him to guard his perimeter, but fails to teach him history. Or German. Or Italian.(School Hard; Becoming, Part 1; Becoming, Part 2; Destiny; Why We Fight; The Girl in Question)

Angelus: Happy hunting. Go on. Just be home before sunrise.

(Destiny)

Angelus: Just don’t get it now, do you? Well, you’re new… and a little dim. So let me explain to you how things are now. There’s no belonging or deserving anymore. You can take what you want, have what you want… but nothing is yours. Not even her.

(Destiny)

Angelus: Spike, boy, you never did learn your history.

(Becoming, Part 1)

1883
Angelus: London, England
At a Christmas party Angelus (sporting that horrendous moustache again) kills a servant, Margaret, while her mistress is busy flirting with the Reverend Chalmers. The canapes go unserved. (Amends)

(Date from shooting script, location from an extra in the background mentioning ‘it’s nice to be back in London.’)

Angelus: We shall be quiet as mice. No matter what.

Margaret: Please… my son…

Angelus: He’ll make a fine dessert.

(Amends)

1886
Lyle and Tector Gorch: Mexico
Brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch massacre a Mexican village, they will go on to become vampires of some repute if little brain. (Bad Eggs)

Giles: Success! Your playmate is a fellow of repute, it seems. points out a picture in the book. That’s Lyle Gorch, and that one’s his brother, Tector. They’re from Abilene. They made their reputation by massacring an entire Mexican village in 1886.

Buffy: Friendly little demons.

Giles: That was before they became vampires.

(Bad Eggs)

Sometime between 1886 and 1898
Angelus
Angelus possibly meets Lyle and Tector Gorch since they seem to know him, and his fighting capabilities, by sight. (Bad Eggs)

Tector: That the Slayer?

Lyle: Yep.

Tector: Ain’t that Angelus with her?

Lyle: Yep.

…

Tector: Well, how come Angelus is gettin’ all cuddly with her, Lyle? I mean, does the man have no code?

Lyle: Tector, you gonna be pesterin’ me with these questions all damn day?

(Bad Eggs)

1890
Angelus
Angelus attends the Blinnikov World Ballet Corps production of Giselle – box seats. Since he knows the prima ballerina’s dressing room is unchanged he presumably visited it at some stage during the evening. (Waiting in the Wings)

Angel: I saw their production of Giselle in eighteen ninety – cried like a baby.

(Waiting in the Wings)

Sometime between 1880 and 1894
Angelus, Spike: Frankfurt, Germany
Angelus and Spike fall foul of the Immortal when he hatches a Rathruhn egg, leaving us wondering if the Immortal is demonically related to a chicken. Nuns are also involved. It is just possible this is the time when Spike gets beaten by an angry mob. And when they first ended up standing in the street holding a bag. (The Girl in Question)

William: Yeah, the man has no sense of indecency. You remember Frankfurt? He hatches the Rathruhn egg personally and just decides to give those nuns safe passage.

Angelus: Those were my nuns!

William: Yeah. Nuns are your thing. Everybody knows that. They respect it – they respect us.

(The Girl in Question)

Spike: It’s him. The Immortal. This is what he does. Every time he shows up, I either lose my girl, get beaten by an angry mob, or get thrown in prison for tax evasion. Long story.

(The Girl in Question)

Spike: The Immortal’s neck-deep in all of this.

Angel: Course he is. He’s screwin’ us. He’s screwed us before, and he’s screwin’ us now.

Spike: Yeah. Every time we hear his bleeding name, we end up standin’ in the strada holdin’ the bag.

(The Girl in Question)

1894
Darla, Angelus, Drusilla, Spike: Italy
After ‘actions against his concerns’ the boys have some trouble and the girls have some fun with the Immortal. The girls are of course entirely consenting since the Immortal doesn’t use magic, but given the boys’ taste in underwear he may not need to. (The Girl in Question)

William: He’s gonna curse the day he ever crossed purpose with Angelus.

Angelus: And William the Bloody.

William: We’ll see just how immortal he is when we’re done with him.

Angelus: We’ll carve him up like a Sunday roast and make him watch as we feast on his steaming flesh. Yaaaagh! Aah! Unh! …How you doin’?

William: Bugger.

(The Girl in Question)

Sometime between 1880 and 1897
Spike, Dracula
Spike gets to know and dislike Dracula, especially Dracula’s taste in big castles, special dirt, bug eating side-kicks, and showy gypsy trick magic. And Dracula owes him eleven pounds. (Buffy v. Dracula)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published in 1897. The implication is that Spike knew him before the book made him famous.

Riley: You know him?

Spike: Know him? We’re old rivals. But then he got famous and forgot all about his foes. I’ll tell you what, that glory hound’s done more harm to vampires than any slayer. His story gets out and suddenly everybody knows how to kill us, the mirror bit…

(Buffy v. Dracula)

sometime before 1897
El Eliminati: Sunnydale, USA
El Eliminati, having become acolytes of the overweight, Jacuzzi loving demon Balthazar, travel to the hellmouth where Balthazar is killed (at least temporarily), in all probability by the Mayor, and Balthazar’s amulet falls into the hands of one Gleaves, a wealthy landowner. (Bad Girls)

Wesley: They eventually became the acolytes of a demon called Balthazar, who brought them to the New World, specifically here.

Giles: You seem to know a lot about them.

Wesley: I didn’t get this job because of my looks.

(Bad Girls)

Sometime between 1880 and 1898
Angelus, Spike: St. Petersburg, Russia
Spike and Angel hold hands in order to kill something. (A Hole in the World)

Spike: Strategy?

Angel: Just hold my hand.

Spike: St. Petersburg.

Angel: Thought you’d forgotten.

(A Hole in the World)

c. 1898
Darla, Angelus: Budapest, Hungary
Angelus and Darla (possibly wearing a short skirt for some reason) behave very badly during an earthquake. (Angel)

Angel: What’s with the Catholic schoolgirl look? Last time I saw you it was kimonos.

Darla: And last time I saw you it wasn’t high school girls. Don’t cha like? Remember Budapest? Turn of the century? You were such a bad boy during that earthquake.

Angel: You did some damage yourself.

Darla: Is there anything better than a natural disaster? The panic. The people lost in the streets. It’s like picking fruit off the vine.

(Angel)

1898
Darla, Angelus, Drusilla, Spike: Borsa, Rumania
Angelus receives a birthday present from Darla – a beautiful, seventeen-year-old Gypsy girl of the Kalderash clan. He kills her, watched by Darla, and takes his time over it (Darla estimated an hour), during which he discovers she is ‘dumb as a post’.

The clan somehow find out who did the deed, and, since the girl was ‘the most beloved daughter of [the] tribe’, during her funeral they get an old woman to curse Angelus by restoring his soul in a ritual involving an Orb of Thesulah. This causes Angelus to run around the woods for a bit and have a glowy-eyed moment before writhing in pain. He then returns to Darla’s house to feel sorry for himself, but she comes back, and, revolted by his soul, tries to stake him then throws him out. (Becoming, Part 1; Five by Five; Angel; Surprise)

Angel: When you become a vampire the demon takes your body, but it doesn’t get your soul. That’s gone! No conscience, no remorse… It’s an easy way to live. You have no idea what it’s like to have done the things I’ve done… and to care. I haven’t fed on a living human being since that day.

(Angel)

Darla tries to get her boy back by massacring the gypsies. She hopes to persuade the father of the girl to reverse the spell in exchange for the lives of the rest of his family. But Spike (who presumably missed the memo on whom to save) has nipped in and killed the man’s family already, so Darla gives it up as a bad job, snaps the Gypsy man’s neck, and tells Spike and Dru to kill the rest of the camp. There are presumably sufficiently few survivors that the story of events gets garbled, because Angel is subsequently being blamed for the camp slaughter as well. (Darla; Surprise)

Jenny: I promise you, Angel still suffers. And he makes amends for his evil. He even saved my life.

Gypsy Man: So you just forget? That he destroyed the most beloved daughter of your tribe? That he killed every man, woman and child who touched her life?
Vengeance demands that his pain be eternal, as ours is. If this – this girl – brings him even one minute of happiness: that is one minute too many.

(Surprise)

Within a short time Angel tries to kill again, attacking a group of men and a woman in an alley, but he cannot bring himself to go through with it and staggers off into the night. (Five by Five)

Angel: Mie foame… (I’m hungry…)

Man: Pleaca de aici! (Get away!)

Woman: Lasal in pace. E un cersetor. (Let him be. He’s just a beggar.)

Man: (tossing a coin at Angel) Bea o Bere. (Have a pint on us.)

Angel: Nu vreau banii rai… (I don’t want your money.)

Man: Ce ai spus! (How dare you!)

Angel: O vreau pe ea. (I want her.)

Woman: E un monstru! (He’s a monster!)

Angel: Eu sunt monstru. (I’m a monster.)

(Five by Five)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twentieth Century
1900
Darla, Angel, Drusilla, Spike: China
Angel tracks down Darla, Spike and Dru enjoying the Boxer Rebellion, and persuades Darla to give him a second chance. For a while he gets by, killing rapists, murderers, thieves and scoundrels – of which there is presumably a large supply, given the war. Then one night he tries to distract Darla’s attention away from an alley where a missionary is hiding with his wife and child, and Darla starts to grow suspicious. (Darla)

Angel: You know what I am. You made me, Darla. I’m Angelus.

Darla: Not anymore.

Angel: I can be again. Just give me the chance to prove it to you.

Darla: You almost made me believe you…

Angel: Believe it. We can have the whirlwind back…

(Darla)

Meanwhile, Spike has fought and killed a Slayer in a Buddhist temple, gaining a sword-cut over his eye in the process. And after a spot of celebrating with Dru he comes to boast of his kill. Angel is less than thrilled, still intent on leading the family away from the missionaries, but he does tell Spike he is now ‘one of us.’ (Fool for Love; Darla)

Spike: It was the best night of my life. And I’ve had some sweet ones.

(Fool for Love)

But Darla is on to Angel. While he is down at the waterfront catching rats to eat, she returns and kills the missionaries, bringing back the baby as a test for Angel. He refuses to kill it, instead seizing its basket and running off into the night. (Darla)

Darla: I won’t be made a fool, Angelus. Not by you. Not by anyone.

Angel: I didn’t mean…

Darla: While Spike – Spike! – was out killing a Slayer – you were saving missionaries. From me.

(Darla)

Sometime between 1900 and 1902
Angel: Europe
Since Angel arrives in America at Ellis Island, on the East Coast, he must logically have gone there via Europe rather than travelling directly from China, in which case he would have landed on the West Coast. (Orpheus)

1902
Angel: New York, USA
Angel arrives in America at Ellis Island, having forgotten a few elementary rules of hygiene en-route. (Angel)

Faith: Seriously, man, did you miss the invention of the bath?

Angelus: The whole way over here, he crouched in the filth of animals just to avoid human temptation. This isn’t my life – it’s his!

(Orpheus)

1905
Anyanka, Halfrek: St. Petersburg, Russia
Anyanka is ‘somewhat responsible’ for the march on the Winter Palace which precipitated the putative revolution of 1905. As part of the same job there is also a nice messy massacre at a dinner party. Anyanka expresses her belief in the validity of Communist ideals. (Selfless)

Anyanka: I grant wishes. It’s all inside the girl. I just bring it out.

Halfrek: Yes, I’m sure this is what she had in mind.

Anyanka: Well, I don’t know about her mind, but it was in her heart. Besides, Russia was ready to explode. All we did is just give it a little push.

(Selfless)

Sometime between c.1890 and 1916
Nostroyev: Russia
Nostroyev, a vampire with an eye on his own reputation, has an affair with Rasputin. Something Angel doesn’t get to hear about. But then an incident of butchery at the Alexander Palace in St. Petersburg is not notoriously well known either. (Why We Fight)

Nostroyev: Angelus. Used to be quite the terror back in the day. Haven’t heard much of you lately, though.

Angel: Haven’t heard much of you, ever.

Nostroyev: Nostroyev! Scourge of Siberia and Butcher of Alexander Palace.

Angel: Sorry.

Nostroyev: I was Rasputin’s lover!

(Why We Fight)

1908
Penn: Boston, USA
Penn first shows up in America. New continent, old killing style. (Somnambulist)

Kate: Your friend has been in LA before … Oh, and I found something in Boston in 1908. I think he was there, too.

(Somnambulist)

1920s
Angel: Juarez, Mexico
Angel has a lengthy fight with Boone. (Blood Money)

Boone: Haven’t seen Angel since Juarez in the Twenties. We got into a little disagreement over a señorita. I called him out. We fought for three and a half hours.

(Blood Money)

1920s
Angel: probably Chicago, USA
Angel flings himself in front of a speeding car to rescue a Pomeranian puppy, and then refuses to let the owner say thank you properly. (Orpheus)

Faith: Dude, you just rescued a puppy.

(Orpheus)

1929
Penn: Los Angeles, USA
Penn follows his usual pattern of kills. (Somnambulist)

Kate: your friend has been in LA before. Did you know that? Yeah. At least twice. Once in 1929…

(Somnambulist)

Sometime between 1880 and 1987
Drusilla, Spike: Paris, France
Spike and Dru visit Paris. Dru hates it. (What’s My Line 2; Bring on the Night)

Drusilla: Ah. I was dreaming—

Spike: Of what, pet?

Drusilla: We were in Paris. You had a branding iron…
And there were worms in my baguette….

(What’s my Line 2)

Spike: Never figured you for existential thought, love. I mean, you hated Paris.

(Bring on the Night)

Sometime between 1900 and 1987
Spike
Spike has yet another run-in with the Immortal and this time gets tossed in prison for tax evasion. (The Girl in Question)

Spike: It’s him. The Immortal. This is what he does. Every time he shows up, I either lose my girl, get beaten by an angry mob, or get thrown in prison for tax evasion. Long story.

(The Girl in Question)

1930s
Angel: Missoula, USA
Angel feels depressed in Missoula but thinks it pretty. (City of)

Angel: Where’s home?

Tina: Missoula, Montana. (Sees Angels face) You’ve been to Missoula?

Angel: During the Depression— Ah, my depression. I-I was depressed there. It’s pretty country, though.

(City of)

1937
The Master: Sunnydale, USA
The Master arrives in Sunnydale and after a stay of a few months attempts to open the Hellmouth, but incompetently gets himself stuck like a cork in a bottle, in an accident involving an earthquake that swallowed half the town. Since the ‘rash of murders’ then stopped either he was alone, or any vamps with him then started hunting more discreetly. (The Harvest)

Giles: Some sixty years ago, a very old, very powerful vampire came to this shore, not just to feed.

Buffy: He came ‘cause this town’s a mystical who’s it.

(The Harvest)

Sometime before 1997
Darla, Luke: Sunnydale, USA
Darla and Luke come to Sunnydale. (Welcome to the Hellmouth)

Darla: Are you sure this is a good idea?

(Welcome to the Hellmouth)

1938
Angel: Los Angeles, USA
Since he was reading the headlines, Angel was presumably in Los Angeles when The Columns opera house was destroyed by an earthquake over in Nevada. (Destiny)

Angel: The Columns was an opera house in Death Valley. It was buried in an earthquake in ’38. Made headlines in Los Angeles.

(Destiny)

1943
Angel: New York, USA
The Second World War is well under way and Angel is dodging the draft. (Why We Fight)

Soldier: You ever considered joining the war effort?

Angel: No.

(Why We Fight)

1943
Spike, possibly Drusilla: Madrid, Spain
Spike is helping the war effort by giving his all at a Free Virgin Blood party kindly organised by the SS. (Why We Fight)

It is just possible this period in Spain was when Spike and Dru got up to Lord knows what at a party with bulls. (Presumably not the same party, since Dru was the hostess at the bull one.) (Surprise)

Drusilla: My gatherings are always perfect. Remember Spain? The bulls?

(Surprise)

Spike: Nabbed me in Madrid. Sneaky bastards, the SS. Don’t ever go to a Free Virgin Blood party – turns out it’s probably a trap.

(Why We Fight)

1943
Angel, Spike, Lawson: Mid Atlantic Ocean
Spike having been kidnapped by the SS and Angel by the U.S. Demon Research Initiative, the boys end up on a captured Nazi U-boat with Nostroyev (Rasputin’s lover, Scourge of Siberia, Butcher of Alexander Palace, obviously the sort of vamp Angel wouldn’t have heard of) and the Prince of Lies (an elderly vampire in dire need of a manicure). Spike eats most of the remaining crew and Angel is forced to make the one and only turning of his souled years: Ensign Sam Lawson, a young U.S. Navy officer. (Why We Fight)

(The sub was described as a prototype T-class, which is in fact a British submarine and only goes to show you can’t trust dodgy government agencies.)

Lawson: Funny what goes through a man’s mind when his life’s hanging in the balance. Boys talked about that a lot back on the boat. Always figured it’d be the special moments you freeze in time. Your mom singing you to sleep at night. Sneaking into the movies with your best friend. The way your girl’s hair shimmers in the sun. But the truth is the only thing that really goes through your head is, Wow, this really sucks. And then you’re gone.

(Why We Fight)

1943
Angel, Spike, Lawson: North East America
Spike and Lawson having been thrown off the U-boat by Angel, and Angel himself having jumped ship on his own initiative, they all swim to shore somewhere on the North American coastline. Angel specifically stated he was off Maine. (Why We Fight)

It is difficult to estimate where Spike and Lawson would have come ashore. By the end of the war the fastest experimental German submarines could achieve speeds of 20 knots submerged and 25 knots on the surface, but this one was damaged so a top speed of 10 to 15 knots seems more likely. Over the eight hours left to sunrise that meant the sub could cover 90-140 statute miles, which could cover a fair stretch of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine or alternatively Nova Scotia.

Angel: You’re new at this. I’m not. Let’s take a walk.

(Why We Fight)