1570s in England
Events from the 1570s in England.
Incumbents
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