1550s in England

Events from the 1550s in England. This decade marks the beginning of the Elizabethan era.

Incumbents

Monarch – Edward VI, [Lady Lady Jane Grey|Jane Grey|Jane], Mary I and Philip, then Elizabeth I
Regent – John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

Events

1550

* 1 February – Parliament's Putting away of Books and Images Act 1549 receives royal assent, encouraging iconoclasm.
* c. March – First Edwardine Ordinal published.
* 24 March – England and France sign the Treaty of Boulogne; England withdraws from Boulogne in France and returns territorial gains in Scotland.
* 29 March – Sherborne School in Dorset is refounded by King Edward VI.
* c. May – Vestments controversy begins: Protestant reformer John Hooper declines appointment as Bishop of Gloucester because he objects to the vestments and oath prescribed in the new Ordinal. He is imprisoned for a time.
* 24 July – French Protestant Church of London established by royal charter.
* The value of the angel is raised from eight to ten shillings.1551
* 14 February – Alice Arden conspires with her lover and others to carry out the murder of her husband, Thomas Arden, Mayor of Faversham. The conspirators will be executed.
* 8 May - John Hooper submits to consecration as Bishop of Gloucester, ending the vestments controversy.
* By July – fifth and last outbreak of sweating sickness in England. John Caius of Shrewsbury writes the first full contemporary account of the symptoms of the disease.
* 11 October – John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, de facto Lord Protector of England, is created Duke of Northumberland.
* St Thomas' Hospital is re-established on its former site in Southwark by the Corporation of London, taken as the founding date for St Thomas's Hospital Medical School.
* Silver sixpence and crown first minted.1552
* January – Act of Uniformity imposes the Second Book of Common Prayer. Parish priests are to give instruction in the catechism every Sunday afternoon.
* 22 January – execution of the former Lord Protector Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset for treason.
* 24 February – the privileges of the Hanseatic League are abolished in England.
* 15 April – Ale Houses Act 1551 receives royal assent, providing for licensing of taverns for the first time.
* 24 September – the Debatable Lands on the border of England and Scotland are divided between the two kingdoms by a commission creating the Scots' Dike in an unsuccessful attempt to halt lawlessness here, but giving both countries their modern borders.
* King Edward VI founds 35 grammar schools, including Shrewsbury; Leeds Grammar School is also established.1553
* 25 May – Lady Jane Grey is married to Lord Guildford Dudley, son of the Duke of Northumberland, in an elaborate ceremony at Durham House, London, in which her two sisters are also married. The bride and groom are both aged around 15 or 16.
* 16 June – King Edward founds Christ's Hospital for London orphans.
* 21 June – King Edward, having no male heir or brother, nominates his cousin Lady Jane Grey as his successor.
* 6 July – King Edward VI dies aged 15, probably of tuberculosis, at the Palace of Placentia.
* 7 July – Northumberland secures the Tower of London and other strategic locations against Mary.
* 9 July – Lady Jane Grey is summoned by Northumberland to Sion House and informed for the first time that she is to be queen. On the same day, Mary writes from Kenninghall requiring the Privy Council to proclaim herself as queen.
* 10 July – Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England by the Privy Council and the proclamation is set into print and sent around the country. She refuses to make her husband king and would be the country's first queen regnant.
* 12 July – Mary arrives at Framlingham Castle where she gathers armed supporters.
* c. 13 July – troops headed by Northumberland march from London to resist Mary, reaching Cambridge probably on 15 July.
* 15 July – the naval fleet intended to blockade Mary's access to the East Anglian coast largely transfers its loyalty to her and she has the use of its ordnance.
* 19 July – the Privy Council and Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London, proclaim the Catholic Queen Mary as the rightful Queen. Lady Jane Grey is imprisoned within the Tower after using the title of queen for nine days.
* 30 July – Mary is greeted at Wanstead on the approach to London by her half-sister Elizabeth, who has ridden out from her new London residence, Somerset House.
* 3 August – Mary rides triumphantly into London to claim the throne, accompanied by Elizabeth.
* 8 August – funeral of Edward VI at Westminster Abbey.
* 22 August – the Duke of Northumberland, who has promoted Lady Jane Grey's claim to the throne, is beheaded on Tower Hill.
* August – Richard Chancellor enters the White Sea and reaches Archangel, going on to the court of Ivan IV of Russia, opening up trade between England and Russia.
* September – Protestant bishops in England are arrested and Roman Catholic bishops are restored.
* 1 October – Mary I of England at Westminster Abbey.
* Approximate date – Ralph Roister Doister, the first known comedy in the English language, is written by London schoolmaster Nicholas Udall for his pupils to perform. Gammer Gurton's Needle by "Mr. S." follows.1554
* 25 January – Wyatt's rebellion: Sir Thomas Wyatt leads a rebellion against Queen Mary's proposed marriage to Prince Philip of Spain.
* 9 February – Wyatt's rebellion collapses and he surrenders in London.
* 12 February – after claiming the throne of England the previous year, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason as is her husband – he publicly on Tower Hill and she privately within the Tower of London, where she has remained since the proclamation.
* 17 March – Princess Elizabeth is imprisoned in the Tower of London, suspected of involvement in Wyatt's rebellion.
* 21 May – a royal charter is granted to Derby School.
* 25 July – the [Wedding of Mary I of England and Philip of Spain|wedding of Mary I of England|Queen Mary and Prince Philip of Spain], the only son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and her cousin, at Winchester Cathedral under the terms of the Act for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain, which effectively makes them joint monarchs.
* November – English captain John Lok voyages to Guinea.
* 30 November – England formally rejoins the Roman Catholic Church.
* c. December – Revival of the Heresy Acts: Parliament revives laws against heresy.
* Foundation of Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, and The Free Grammar School of King Philip and Queen Mary, Clitheroe.1555
* 4 February – John Rogers suffers death by burning at the stake at Smithfield, London, the first of the Protestant martyrs of the English Reformation under Mary I.
* 8 February – Laurence Saunders is the second of the Marian Protestant martyrs, being led barefoot to his death by burning at the stake in Coventry.
* 9 February – Rowland Taylor, Rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk, and John Hooper, deposed Bishop of Gloucester, are burned at the stake.
* 26 February – The Muscovy Company is chartered to trade with the Tsardom of Russia and Richard Chancellor negotiates with the Tsar.
* 1 May – the foundation of St John's College, Oxford.
* 30 May – the foundation of Trinity College, Oxford.
* 12 July – the first four Canterbury Martyrs are burned at the stake.
* 16 October – two of the Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, are burned at the stake.
* English captain John Lok returns from Guinea with 5 Africans to train as interpreters for future trading voyages.
* Establishment of the following grammar schools: Boston Grammar School, Gresham's School at Holt, Norfolk and Ripon Grammar School.
* Richard Eden translates The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, urging his countrymen to follow the lead of Spain in exploring the New World.1556
* January – Soldier Sir Henry Dudley, from France, plots to raise an invasion force which is planned to land on the Isle of Wight, march on London, remove Queen Mary to exile in Spain and place the Protestant Elizabeth on the throne. By July, the plot is discovered and abandoned.
* 21 March – the third of the Oxford Martyrs, Thomas Cranmer, deposed Archbishop of Canterbury, is burned at the stake for treason.
* 22 March – Reginald Pole enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
* 27 June – thirteen Protestant Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake in London.
* 18 July – three Protestant martyrs are burned at the stake in East Grinstead.
* Establishment of Laxton Grammar School.
* Period of rapid inflation; prices of many basic commodities double in 12 months.1557
* 28 February – a commercial treaty is signed with Russia.
* May – Benedictine monks are allowed to return to Westminster Abbey.
* 5 June – publication in London of Tottel's Miscellany, the first printed anthology of English poetry.
* 7 June – Italian War of 1551–59: England, now allied with Spain, declares war on France.
* Summer – 1557 influenza pandemic reaches the British Isles.
* 10 August – Italian War: English and Spanish victory over the French at the Battle of St. Quentin. First record of a Royal Artillery Band.
* 4 September – Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, is refounded by surgeon John Caius.
* The following schools are founded: Brentwood School, Essex, by Sir Antony Browne; Hampton School, Hampton, London, by Robert Hammond; and Repton School, Derbyshire, by Sir John Port.
* Robert Recorde's The Whetstone of Witte is published, the first English book on algebra, containing the first recorded use of the equals sign and also the first use in English of plus and minus signs.
* Thomas Tusser's instructional poem A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie is published.1558
* 7 January – French troops led by Francis, Duke of Guise take Calais, the last continental possession of England.
* 13 July – Battle of Gravelines: near the border between France and the Spanish Netherlands, Spanish forces assisted by the English Royal Navy inflict a major defeat on the French.
* By September – second wave of the 1557 influenza pandemic in England.
* 15 November – the last five Protestant martyrs of the English Reformation are burnt, at Canterbury.
* 17 November – Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I dies of uterine cancer at St James's Palace aged 42 and the English throne passes to her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth as her designated successor, who will rule for 44 years. 12 hours later, Mary's Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Reginald Pole, dies in London.
* 20 November – William Cecil is appointed principal Secretary of State.
* Mary's widower Philip II of Spain offers his hand in marriage to Elizabeth provided she adopts the Catholic faith. She takes time before replying and he remarries elsewhere the following year.
* Elizabeth grants rest and refreshment to pilgrims and travellers who pass by the Holy Well Spring at Malvern, Worcestershire.
* English explorer Anthony Jenkinson travels from Moscow to Astrakhan and Bukhara.1559
* 15 January – Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey by Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle.
* 23 January – Elizabethan Religious Settlement: The 1st Parliament of Elizabeth I assembles at Westminster and passes the Act of Supremacy 1558 and the Act of Uniformity 1558, re-establishing the Protestant Church of England.
* 10 February – House of Commons makes a 'Loyal Address', urging Queen Elizabeth to marry.
* 2 April – the Italian War of 1551–1559 is ended by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in which France makes peace with England and Spain; among the few gains retained by France is the formerly English town of Calais.
* 19 December – Matthew Parker enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
* Reintroduction of the Book of Common Prayer.
* Benedictine monks are once again expelled from Westminster Abbey.
* The predecessor of the private banking house of Child & Co. is established in London.

Births

1550
* April 12 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain
* October 25 – Ralph Sherwin, Roman Catholic priest and saint
* Approximate date
** Henry Barrowe, Puritan and Separatist
** Philip Henslowe, theatrical entrepreneur
** Judith Ivye, wife of Anthony Prater
** Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester
1551
* 2 May – William Camden, historian
* George Tuchet, 1st Earl of Castlehaven
1552
* 22 January – Walter Raleigh, soldier, politician, courtier, explorer, historian, poet and spy
* 1 February – Edward Coke, colonial entrepreneur and jurist
* 30 December – Simon Forman, occultist and astrologer
* Thomas Aufield, Catholic martyr
* Philemon Holland, translator
* Edmund Spenser, poet
1553
* John Croke, judge and Speaker of the House of Commons
* John Florio, writer and translator
* Richard Hakluyt, author, editor and translator
* Approximate date
** Henry Robinson, Bishop of Carlisle
** William Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Thornhaugh, military leader
** Jack Ward, pirate
1554
* March – Richard Hooker, Anglican theologian
* April – Stephen Gosson, satirist
* 3 October – Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, poet
* 30 November – Philip Sidney, courtier and poet
* James Lancaster, navigator
* John Lyly, writer
* John Smyth, Baptist minister
* Francis Throckmorton, conspirator
1555
* 1 August – Edward Kelley, spirit medium
* Lancelot Andrewes, clergyman and scholar
* 17 July – Richard Carew, Cornish translator and antiquary
* Henry Garnet, Jesuit
1556
* February – Henry Briggs, mathematician
* 6 June – Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, politician and diplomat
* Margaret Clitherow, Catholic martyr
1557
*Julius Caesar, judge and politician
* Thomas Morley, English composer
1558
* 3 November – Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy
* Robert Greene, writer
* Chidiock Tichborne, conspirator and poet
1559
* c. 23 April – William Watson, a Catholic priest and conspirator
*George Chapman, dramatist
*John Overall, bishop and academic
*John Spenser, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Deaths

1550
* 30 July – Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, politician
1551
* 13 July – John Wallop, soldier and diplomat
* 14 July
** Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, heir to the Dukedom of Suffolk of the second creation
** Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, heir to the Dukedom of Suffolk of the second creation
1552
* 22 January – Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, politician
* 18 April – John Leland, antiquary and historian
* 10 June – Alexander Barclay, poet
* October – Simon Haynes, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, ambassador and Dean of Exeter
1553
* 6 July – King Edward VI
* 22 August – John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, politician
* George Joye, Bible translator
1554
* 12 February
**Lady Jane Grey, claimant to the throne of England
**Guilford Dudley, consort of Lady Jane Grey
* 23 February – Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, politician
* 11 April – Thomas Wyatt the Younger, rebel
* 4 August – Sir James Hales, judge
* 25 August – Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, politician
* December – John Taylor, Bishop of Lincoln
* Sir Hugh Willoughby, explorer
1555
* 4 February – John Rogers, clergyman and Bible translator
* 8 February – Laurence Saunders, clergyman
* 9 February
**John Hooper, deposed bishop
**Rowland Taylor, clergyman
* 14 March – John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford
* 18 April – Polydore Vergil, historian
* 25 August – Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
* 5 October – Edward Wotton, zoologist
* 16 October
**Hugh Latimer, clergyman
** Nicholas Ridley, clergyman
* 12 November – Stephen Gardiner, bishop and Lord Chancellor
1556
* 21 March – Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury
* 11 August – John Bell, Bishop of Worcester
* 10 November – Richard Chancellor, Arctic explorer
* 23 December – Nicholas Udall, dramatist
1557
* 28 May – Thomas Stafford aristocrat and rebel
* 16 July – Anne of Cleves, queen of Henry VIII of England
* 13 September – John Cheke, classical scholar and statesman
* 25 October – William Cavendish, courtier
* 18 December – Joyce Lewis, gentlewoman, Protestant convert and martyr
1558
* 31 May – Philip Hoby, politician
* 17 November
** Queen Mary I of England
** Reginald Pole, Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury
** Hugh Aston, composer
* 15 December – Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
1559
* 8 March – Thomas Tresham I, a Catholic politician
* 16 March – Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland
* 10 September – Anthony Denny, a confidant of Henry VIII of England
* 18 November – Cuthbert Tunstall, Prince-Bishop of Durham
* 20 November – Lady Frances Brandon, claimant to the throne of England
* 31 December – Owen Oglethorpe, deposed Bishop of Carlisle
* Approximate date – Leonard Digges, mathematician and surveyor