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Nov 17, 1558
Queen Elizabeth begins her 45 year reign as queen of England
Queen Mary died. Over 280 Protestants were burned under her rule. Elizabeth I ascended to the throne. With her reign, came a new statement of doctrine by the Church of England. -
Nov 17, 1558
Reginald Pole, an English cardinal, died.
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Dec 1, 1558
The religious climate in England changed
The change for the better lead to Protestants returning home from Geneva and Zurich where they had fled during the reign of Mary I. -
Jan 15, 1559
Queen Elizabeth is crowned in Westminster Abbey
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May 8, 1559
Queen Elizabeth I appointed supreme governor of the Church of England
An act of supremacy defined Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the Church of England. Some 200 Catholics were strangled and disemboweled after she commenced her reign -
Mar 9, 1562
Kissing in public was banned in Naples and made punishable by death
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Dec 19, 1562
The French Wars of Religion began
These wars raged between the Huguenots (Calvinists) and the Catholics, commencing with the Battle of Dreux. The Huguenot leader signed the Treaty of Hampton Court with Queen Elizabeth I that called for the English troops to occupy Dieppe and La Havre -
Mar 19, 1563
The Peace of Amboise granted rights for Huguenots
This ended the first war of religion in France. The Huguenots gained limited tolerance. The French regained La Havre from the English -
Dec 1, 1563
The Canterbury Convocation
This drastically revised the 42 Articles of the Church of England. The 39 Articles combined Protestant doctrine with Catholic Church organisation to establish the Church of England. -
Feb 18, 1564
Michaelangelo dies in Rome
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Apr 23, 1564
William Shakespeare in born in Stratford-on-Avon, England
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Apr 26, 1564
William Shakespeare is baptized
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Jan 1, 1565
The Royal College of Physicians permitted to carry out human dissections
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Jan 1, 1566
The Spanish Inquisition is abolished
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Jun 19, 1566
King James I, son of Mary Queen of Scots, is born
Also known as King James IV of Scotland -
Jul 2, 1566
Nostradamus, astrologer and physician, dies
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Jun 11, 1567
Borthwick Castle Seige
A thousand Scottish nobles cornered Mary, Queen of Scots, who fled the castle by jumping out the window, disguised as a pageboy. The nobles cornered her and her husband, and demanded her husband's head and Mary's renunciation of her husband and his influence. -
Jul 24, 1567
Mary, Queens of Scots imprisoned
She was forced to abdicate her thrown to her one year old son, James IV -
May 13, 1568
Mary, Queen of Scots, was defeated by the English at the battle of Langside
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May 16, 1568
Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England
Upon her arrival in England, she is imprisoned by Elizabeth I -
Oct 5, 1568
The Conference of York began the trial of Mary Stuart
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Jan 11, 1569
The first recorded lottery in England was drawn
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Jan 1, 1570
Giambattista della Porta invents the pinhole camera
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Apr 27, 1570
Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth I
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Nov 2, 1570
A tidal wave in the North Sea destroyed sea walls from Holland to Jutland
Over a thousand people are killed -
Jan 1, 1571
A permanent gallows in London is erected
This became a source of enteratinment and profit -
Aug 24, 1572
Charles IX attempts to rid Fance of the Huguenots
The slaughter of French Protestants at the hands of Catholics behan in Paris. Charles, under the sway of his mother, Catherine de Medici, believed the Huguenot Protestants were plotting a revolution -
Jan 1, 1573
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe is the first to observe a supernova
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Jan 1, 1573
The first maps of England were made by Christopher Saxon
He produced an atlas with 37 county maps and a large country map -
Feb 23, 1574
The Fifth War of Religion against the Huguenots broke out in France
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Feb 28, 1574
On the orders of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, two Englishmen and an Irishman were burnt for heresy
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Nov 18, 1575
Franch Catholics and Huguenots signed a treaty
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Jan 1, 1576
An epidemic of plague in Venice, Italy
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May 6, 1576
The peace treaty of Chastenoy ended the fifth war of religion
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Jan 1, 1577
The sixth war of religion erupts in France.
After five months it ends with the Peace of Bergerac. The Huguenots gain more concessions. -
Jan 1, 1577
London's second playhouse, The Curtain, opened in Finsbury
The Curtain opened close to London's first playhouse, The Theatre, and was one of a number of early theatres built outside the city's walls. It was the main arena for Shakespeare's play between 1597 to 1599 until the Globe was completed in Southwark -
Dec 13, 1577
Sir Francis Drake begins his circumnavigation of the world
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Jul 11, 1578
England granted Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent to explore and colonize the United States
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Jan 1, 1580
"Little Ice Age" begins to grip the Northern Hemisphere
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Nov 26, 1580
French Huguenots and Catholics signed a peace treaty
France's seventh war of religion broke out and ended with the Peace of Fleix -
Jan 16, 1581
English Parliament passed laws against Catholicism
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Dec 1, 1581
Edmund Campion, an English Jesuit, was hanged, drawn and quartered for sedition after being tortured
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Oct 2, 1582
The Church Council at Trent, Italy discussed the error of 10 days in the calendar
Pope Gregory announced a correction, "The Gregorian Adjustment" and had 4 October followed by 15 October. -
William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway
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William Shakespeare's first child, Susanna, is born
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Humphrey Gilbert, English explorer, annexed Newfoundland
This was the first English settlement in the New World. His colony subsequently disappeared. -
Francis Throckmorton was arrested
He made a full confession of the Throckmorton Plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and retore papal authority. -
Sir Walter Raleigh renews Humphrey Gilbert's patent to explore North America
He went on to settle the Virginia colony of Roanoke Island (North Carolina), naming it after the Virgin Queen -
Francis Throckmorton is executed
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The English Parliament expels the Jesuits
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William Shakespeare becomes a father to twins, Hamnet and Judith
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The Dutch use the first time-bombs in floating mines actuated by clockwork at the Siege of Antwerp
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Period: to
William Shakespeare leave his family in Stratford and heads to London
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The English secret service discovered Anthony Babington's murder plot against Elizabeth I
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Colonists sail from Roanoke Island after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America
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Sir Walter Raleigh returns to England from Virginia with the first sample of tobacco
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Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England
She was accused of committing treason against Elizabeth I. Mary was beheaded in February 1587 -
Rose Theatre Built
It was demolished after 1606 when the Globe Theatre surpassed it in popularity. -
Period: to
Shakespeared authored his play Titus Andronicus
It tells the fictional story of Titus, a general in the Roman Army, who is engaged in a cycle of revenge with Tamora, Queen of the Goths -
Spanish Armada is battered by the English navy before escaping around the Scottish coast
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Thomas Cavendish returned to England, becoming the third man to circumnavigate the globe
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William Lee of England invents the first knitting machine
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Henry V, Part I becomes William Shakespeare's first play to open onstage
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The microscope was invented
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French bishops recognised Henri IV as King of France
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Outbreak of plague in London. 17,00 deaths over the next twelve months. All theatres are closed
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Henri IV of France converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism
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In Ireland, the Nine Years Wars begins
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James Burbage won the patronage Lord Chamberlain
He established the 25 member "Lord Chamberlain's Men" of which William Shakespeare was one -
William Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet, and Love's Labours Lost
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William Shakespeare completes A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Period: to
Shakespeare wrote his tragedy "King John"
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Sir Francis Drake died off the coast of Panama of fever
He was buried at sea -
William Shakespeare buries his only son, Hamnet who died at the age of 11 of unknown causes
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British Parliament passes the Vagabonds Act introducing penal transportation of convicted criminals to England's colonies (including Australia)
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Charitable Uses Act introduced
The Tudor establishment, deeply concerned by the possibility of social upheaval brought on by an agricultural crisis and increasing urban migration, introduced this Act to promot philanthropy amongst the aristocracy and burgeoning merchant classes -
Richard and Cuthbert Burbage led a crew to begin the demolition of the Theatre in London
They and partners (that included William Shakespeare) used the timbers to build the Globe theatre. -
Period: to
As You Like It, a pastoral comedy, is believed to have been written
It was first published in the folio of 1623 and included a monologue that begins with "all the world's a stage" and catalogues seven stages of a man's life (the seven ages of man) -
The Globe Theatre has its first recorded performance.
The 20 sided timber building was constructed on the South Bank of the Thams. The new structure held 3,000 spectators in three galleries. -
Charles I of England is born
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The British East India Company was chartered by Elizabeth I
To carry on the trade in the East Indies in competition with the Dutch who controlled nutmeg from the Banda Islands -
The first recorded performance of Twelfth Night took place
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Queen Elizabeth 1 dies. James VI of Scotland rises to the English throne, uniting England and Scotland under one crown under his new name, James I
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James I departed Edinburgh for London
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England and Spain agreed and signed the Treaty of London
This ended the 19 year long Anglo-Spainish war -
William Shakespeare's Othello was first presented at Whitehall Palace
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Guy Fawkes and other Roman Catholic conspirators fail in their attempt to blow up Parliament and James I (Gunpowder Plot)
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William Shakespeare writes Othello, King Lear and Macbeth
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Shakespeare wrote King Lear, Antony & Cleopatra and Macbeth
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Guy Fawkes was hanged drawn and quartered
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King James I decreed the design of the original Union Flag
Known as the Union Jack, which combined the flags of England and Scotland -
Bristol channel floods (possibly a tsunami) kill 2,000 people
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William Shakespeare writes Cymbeline, and the original text of his 154 sonnets is published
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Shakespeare wrote Cymbeline
The original text of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets was also published -
Galileo demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers
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The song "Three Blind Mice" was published in London
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William Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale was first performed
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William Shakespeare returns to his birthplace, Stratford.
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William Shakespeare's comedy The Tempest is first presented at Whitehall
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Four women and one man are hanged as a result of the Northampton Witch Trials
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Shakespeare was commissioned to write a serious play about Henry VIII
The commission was probably made to celebrate the marriage of one of King James' daughters -
The Globe Theatre is destroyed by a fire started during a performance of William Shakespeare's Henry VIII
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English settler John Rolfe marries Pocahontas, the daughter of a Native American chief
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Spanish Inquisition delivered an injunction to Galileo
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William Shakespeare dies
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William Shakespeare is buried at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford
