1570s in England

Events from the 1570s in England.

Incumbents

Monarch – Elizabeth I

Events

1570

* 25 February – Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England with the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis which is affixed to the door of Old St Paul's Cathedral in London on 24 May.
* Florentine banker Roberto di Ridolfi devises the Ridolfi plot to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots.
* Whitechapel Bell Foundry known to be in existence in London. By 2017, when it closes its premises in Whitechapel, it will be the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain.
* The home and library of John Dee at Mortlake begin to serve as an informal prototype English academy for gentlemen with scientific interests.
* Approximate date – Thomas Tallis composes his 40-part motet Spem in alium.1571
* 23 January – the Royal Exchange officially opened by Queen Elizabeth.
* April – Treason Act forbids criticism of the monarchy.
* May – All papal bulls declared treasonable by Act of Parliament.
* 25 June
** An Act Against Usury permits moneylending at interest rates not exceeding 10%.
** Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle, is founded in Lincolnshire.
* 27 June – Establishment of Jesus College "within the City and University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's foundation" by Welsh cleric and lawyer Hugh Price.
* 25 July – The Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth of the Parishioners of the Parish of Saint Olave in the County of Surrey is established in Tooley Street, London.
* 29 August – Ridolfi plot discovered. On 7 September Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is arrested for his part in the conspiracy.
* The first Pro forma bill is introduced, symbolising Parliament's authority over its own affairs.
* Burford School is established in Oxfordshire.1572
* 13 February – Harrow School is founded by local landowner John Lyon under royal charter.
* May – Hexhamshire is annexed to Northumberland.
* 2 June – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is executed for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
* 11 July – Humphrey Gilbert leads 1500 English volunteers on an expedition to assist the Dutch Sea Beggars in their struggle against Spanish Habsburg rule.
* Formation of 'Thomas Morgan's Company of Foot', a group of 300 volunteers from the London Trained Bands to assist the Dutch, origin of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).
* Vagabonds Act, part of the Tudor Poor Laws, prescribes punishment for rogues. This includes actors' companies lacking formal patronage.
* Publication of a revised version of the Bishops' Bible.1573
* 24 March – Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys established in Barnet at the petition of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.
* 17 April – English troops capture Edinburgh Castle.
* 18 December – Francis Walsingham becomes Secretary of State.
* Humphrey Gilbert produces his proposal for '.1574
* 18 August – Treaty of Bristol settles commercial disputes with Spain.
* The Queen grants freedom to any remaining villeins on crown lands, ending serfdom in England.
* Construction of Longleat House completed.1575
* March – Spain opens the port of Antwerp to English traders, in return for Queen Elizabeth agreeing to stop aiding Dutch rebels against Spanish rule.
* 7 July – Raid of the Redeswire: Sir John Carmichael of Scotland defeats Sir John Forster of England in a border skirmish which will be the last battle between the two kingdoms.
* 26 July – Edmund Grindal succeeds Matthew Parker as Archbishop of Canterbury.
* 14 November – Elizabeth declines an offer of rule over the Netherlands.
* Christopher Saxton publishes his County Atlas of England and Wales.
* William Byrd and Thomas Tallis are granted a royal monopoly for the publication of most types of music.1576
* 8 February – Peter Wentworth is imprisoned for speaking in Parliament against royal interference in its affairs.
* 11 August – Explorer Martin Frobisher discovers Frobisher Bay whilst searching for the Northwest Passage.
* December – James Burbage opens London's second permanent public playhouse, The Theatre, in Shoreditch.
* The following schools are founded in Kent:
** Dartford Grammar School, by William d'Aeth, Edward Gwyn and William Vaughn.
** Sutton Valence School, by William Lambe.
* William Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent is published, first of the English county histories.
* Composer Thomas Whythorne writes a Booke of songs and sonetts with longe discourses sett with them, an early example of autobiographical writing in English.1577
* June – Edmund Grindal suspended for refusing to suppress Puritanism.
* 6 July – 'Black Assize' in Oxford results in an outbreak of epidemic typhus killing around three hundred in the city.
* 29 November – Catholic seminary priest Cuthbert Mayne is hanged, drawn and quartered at Launceston, Cornwall, for treason, first of the 158 Douai Martyrs.
* 13 December – Francis Drake leaves Plymouth aboard the Pelican with four other ships and 164 men on an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas which will become a circumnavigation.1578
* 11 June – Humphrey Gilbert is granted letters patent to establish a colony in North America.
* 19 November – Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh set out from Plymouth leading an expedition to establish a colony in North America; forced to turn back six months later.
* December – Publication of John Lyly's didactic prose romance Euphues: the Anatomy of Wyt, originating the ornate prose style known as Euphuism.1579'
* 23 April – The English College, Rome, is established for the training of Roman Catholic priests to serve in England.
* 17 June – Drake claims New Albion on the Pacific coast of North America for England.
* June – Humphrey Gilbert sails in an unsuccessful attempt to intercept Spanish forces sailing to support the Second Desmond Rebellion in Ireland.
* 17 August – Eastland Company chartered to trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea states.
* Publication of Edmund Spenser's poetry The Shepheardes Calender'', anonymously.

Births

1570
* 22 January – Robert Bruce Cotton, politician
* 13 April – Guy Fawkes, Gunpowder Plot conspirator
* 28 November – James Whitelocke, judge
* John Cooper, composer and lutenist
* John Farmer, composer
* Simon Grahame, Scottish-born adventurer
1571
* ? March – Barnabe Barnes, poet
* Henry Ainsworth, Nonconformist clergyman and scholar
* William Bedell, Anglican churchman
* Charles Butler, beekeeper and philologist
* Bartholomew Gosnold, lawyer and explorer
* Thomas Storer, poet
*Thomas Wintour, Gunpowder Plot conspirator
1572
* 22 January – John Donne, writer and prelate
* c. 3 March – Robert Catesby, leader of the Gunpowder Plot
* 11 June – Ben Jonson, dramatist
* John Floyd, Jesuit
* James Mabbe, scholar and poet
1573
* 15 July – Inigo Jones, architect
* 7 October – William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury
* Richard Johnson, romance writer
* John Kendrick, merchant
1574
* 7 March ' – John Wilbye, composer
* June – Richard Barnfield, poet
* 1 July – Joseph Hall, bishop and satirist
* 7 August – Robert Dudley, styled Earl of Warwick, explorer and geographer
* 4 September – Thomas Gataker, clergyman and theologian
1575
* 5 March – William Oughtred, mathematician
* 14 August – Robert Hayman, poet
* Edmund Bolton, historian and poet
* Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, successful London merchant
* William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle
*Arbella Stuart, Duchess of Somerset
* Cyril Tourneur, dramatist
1576
* October – Thomas Weelkes, composer and organist
* 7 October – John Marston, writer
* 12 October – Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony
* William Ames, Protestant philosopher
* Possible date – John Carver, first governor of Plymouth Colony
1577
* 8 February – Robert Burton, scholar
* 9 July – Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, governor of Virginia
* 11 August ' – Barnaby Potter, Bishop of Carlisle
* 20 November ' – Samuel Purchas, travel writer
* Robert Cushman, Plymouth Colony settler
* William Noy, lawyer and politician
* Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester
1578
* 2 March – George Sandys, traveller
* 1 April – William Harvey, physician
* 16 May – Everard Digby, Gunpowder Plot conspirator
* 24 August – John Taylor, "The Water Poet"
* Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, lawyer
* Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland
* Ambrose Rookwood, Gunpowder Plot conspirator
1579
* 13 July – Arthur Dee, physician and alchemist
* 20 December ' – John Fletcher, playwright
* Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley of Reading, royalist commander in the English Civil War

Deaths

1571
* 12 February – Nicholas Throckmorton, diplomat and politician
* 1 June – John Story, Catholic lawyer, politician and martyr
* 23 September – John Jewel, bishop
1572
* January – Robert Pattison, actor
* 10 March – William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester
* 2 June – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
* 24 October – Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, politician
* Christopher Tye, composer and organist
1573
* 12 January – William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral
* 14 May – Richard Grafton, merchant and printer
* 29 July – John Caius, physician
* Late – Reginald Wolfe, printer
1574
* circa 7 November – Robert White, composer
1575
* 17 May – Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury
* 14 July – Richard Taverner, Bible translator
1576
* 22 September – Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex
1577
* 12 August – Thomas Smith, scholar and diplomat
* 7 October – George Gascoigne, poet
* 29 November – Cuthbert Mayne, recusant Catholic priest and martyr, canonised
1578
* 7 March – Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, member of the royal family, diplomat
* 29 March – Arthur Champernowne, admiral
* 20 June – Thomas Doughty, explorer
* 27 July – Jane Lumley, translator
* 4 August – Thomas Stucley, adventurer
* December – Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor
1579
* 20 February – Nicholas Bacon, politician
* 20 May – Isabella Markham, courtier
* 10 June – William Whittingham, Biblical scholar and religious reformer
* 21 November – Thomas Gresham, merchant and financier