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17th Century:

Afternoon tea may have been started by the French. It is a little known fact, but after its introduction to Europe in the 17th century tea was tremendously popular in France.  It first arrived in Paris in 1636 (22 years before it appeared in England) and quickly became popular among the aristocracy. Also. it was a Frenchwoman, the Marquise de la Sablie, who initiated the fashion of adding milk to tea. The English delighted in this “French touch” and immediately adopted it.

 

1600 – Queen Elizabeth l,  granted permission for the charter of the British East India Company on December 31, 1600 to establish trade routes, ports, and trading relationships with the FarEast, Southeast Asia, and India Trade in spices was its original focus, but later traded in cottons, silks, indigo, saltpeter, and tea.  Due to political and other factors, the tea trade did not begin until the late 1670s.

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1662 – King Charles II, while in exile, married the Portuguese Infanta Catherine de Braganza.  When the monarchy was re-established, they brought this foreign tea tradition to England with them.  Her influence made tea more popular amongst the wealthier classes of society, as whatever the royals did, everyone else wanted to copy.  Soon tea mania spread swept across England, and it became the beverage of choice in English high society, replacing ale as the national drink.

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The reign of Charles II was crucial in laying the foundations for the growth of the British tea trade.  The East India Company was highly favored by Charles II. Charles confirmed its monopoly, and also extended it to give the Company unprecedented powers to occupy by military force places with which they wished to trade.

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1663 – The poet and politician Edmund Waller (1606-1687) wrote a poem in honor of Queen Catherine for her birthday crediting her with making tea a fashionable drink among courtiers:

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Venus her Myrtle, Phoebus has his bays;
Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise.
The best of Queens, the best of herbs, we owe
To that bold nation which the way did show
To the fair region where the sun doth rise,
Whose rich productions we so justly prize.
The Muse’s friend, tea does our fancy aid,
Regress those vapours which the head invade,
And keep the palace of the soul serene,
Fit on her birthday to salute the Queen

 

18th Century:

By 1700, tea was on sale by more than 500 coffee houses in London.  Tea drinking became even more popular when Queen Anne chose tea over ale as her regular breakfast drink.  Anne’s character was once portrayed as a tea-drinking, social nonentity with lesbian tendencies.

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During the second half of the Victorian Period, known as the Industrial Revolution, working families would return home tired and exhausted.  
The table would be set with any manner of meats, bread, butter, pickles, cheese and of course tea.  None of the dainty finger sandwiches, scones and pastries of afternoon tea would have been on the menu. Because it was eaten at a high, dining table rather than the low tea tables, it was termed “high” tea.

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19th Century​

According to legend, one of Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting, Anna Maria Stanhope, known as the Duchess of Bedford, is credited as the creator of afternoon teatime.  Because the noon meal had become skimpier, the Duchess suffered from “a sinking feeling” at about four o’clock in the afternoon.

 

At first the Duchess had her servants sneak her a pot of tea and a few breadstuffs. Adopting the European tea service format, she invited friends to join her for an additional afternoon meal at five o’clock in her rooms at Belvoir Castle.  The menu centered around small cakes, bread and butter sandwiches, assorted sweets, and, of course, tea.  

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This summer practice proved so popular, the Duchess continued it when she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for “tea and a walking the fields.”  The practice of inviting friends to come for tea in the afternoon was quickly picked up by other social hostesses.