Schools will also be required to teach more facts and events to ensure children develop what Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has called a “connected narrative” of history.
The key figures were among those dropped from the history curriculum by Labour in 2007, which wanted to give schools more flexibility about what to teach.
In January Mr Gove signalled he wanted to overhaul the teaching of history in schools, attacking Labour for removing “actual content” in favour of a thematic approach.
The only historical figures mentioned in the 2007 curriculum, he noted were William Wilberforce, the slavery abolitionist, and Olaudah Equino, who bought his own freedom before campaigning against the practice.
Labour’s history curriculum has been attacked from the right for being driven by political correctness and, while some teaching have also criticised its emphasis on teaching skills, saying it has failed to give children the bare bones of a historical education.
Under the draft curriculum, to be published in the New Year, schools will be required to teach episodes including the Norman Conquest, Henry II’s dispute with Thomas Becket, the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses, and execution of Charles I, the union with Scotland and the rise and fall of the British Empire. They will also have to learn about social movements including the abolition of slavery and the suffragettes.
The changes have been drawn up with the help of advisers including the historian Simon Schama.
Earlier this year, Mr Gove said he was “genuinely worried” that the curriculum and exams system “mean that children thirsting to know more about our past leave school woefully undernourished”.
Schools will have to show that they cover matters stipulated in the national curriculum, but they can go beyond that are teach other areas as they see fit.
The Department for Education said: 'We do not comment on leaks.'