Baptism takes place in the Bible in a number of places including John baptising Jesus, but there were no godparents.

Sponsors were the birth parents of a child, as emphasized by St. Augustine who suggested that the sponsors could be other individuals in exceptional circumstances.

A Justinian decree outlawed marriage between godfather and goddaughter

the Corpus Juris Civilis shows that parents had been almost completely replaced by non-parents.

Male sponsors were being referred to as 'spiritual fathers'

Being referred to as compaters and commaters - i.e. spiritual co-parents

Mainz Council / Synod bans parents from being godparents

Emergence of sponsors for the new ceremony of confirmation (also included in the godaprent ban of marriage to a godchild)

By this time the laws had increased to ban any marriage between natural and spiritual parents (godparents) and anyone related to either...

Synod of Worcester (England and still RC at this time) stipulated 3 sponsors (or godparents), two of the same sex and one of the opposite sex. This has remained as the default in the Church of England since that time.

Martin Luther first published The Baptismal Booklet - an indication of how strongly Luther considered Baptism to be a key element of the Christian Faith

Church of England formed by Henry VIII

Church of England removed barriers of marriage and retained godparents in baptism.

Council of Trent decided that only one, or at most two (not being of the same sex) should be allowed as godparents

Council of Trent clarified that prohibition against marriage only applied to godparents - not sponsors at confirmation.

Council of Trent re-asserted that there should be either one or two godparents

Godparents were abolished by the Directory of Public Worship (replacement for the book of Common Prayer) during the English Civil War.

Godparents reintroduced post restoration of the monarchy.