1550s in England explained
Events from the
1550s in England. This decade marks the beginning of the
Elizabethan era.
Incumbents
Events
- 1550
- 1551
- 1552
- 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.[4]
- 16 June – King Edward founds Christ's Hospital for London orphans.
- 21 June – King Edward, having no male heir or brother, nominates Lady Jane Grey as his successor (without her knowledge).
- 6 July – King Edward VI dies aged 15, probably of tuberculosis, at the Palace of Placentia (Greenwich).[5]
- 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[6] and would be the country's first queen regnant.[1]
- 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.[7]
- 3 August – Mary rides triumphantly into London to claim the throne, accompanied by Elizabeth.[8]
- 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 – Coronation of 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.[1]
- 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.[5]
- 17 March – Princess Elizabeth is imprisoned in the Tower of London, suspected of involvement in Wyatt's rebellion.[1]
- 21 May – a royal charter is granted to Derby School.
- 25 July – the wedding of 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.[1]
- November – English captain John Lok voyages to Guinea.[9] [10]
- 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,[11] 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[1] 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 (founded by Sir John Gresham) and Ripon Grammar School (re-foundation).
- 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.[12]
- 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.[1]
- 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.[1]
- May – Benedictine monks are allowed to return to Westminster Abbey.
- 5 June – publication in London of Tottel's Miscellany (Songes and Sonettes), the first printed anthology of English poetry.
- 7 June – Italian War of 1551–59: England, now allied with Spain, declares war on France.[1]
- Summer – 1557 influenza pandemic reaches the British Isles.[13] [14]
- 10 August – Italian War: English and Spanish victory over the French at the Battle of St. Quentin.[1] 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
- 1559
Births
- 1550
- April 12 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain (died 1604)
- October 25 – Ralph Sherwin, Roman Catholic priest and saint (martyred 1581)
- Approximate date
- 1551
- 1552
- 22 January (or 1554?) – Walter Raleigh, soldier, politician, courtier, explorer, historian, poet and spy (executed 1618)
- 1 February – Edward Coke, colonial entrepreneur and jurist (died 1634)
- 30 December – Simon Forman, occultist and astrologer (died 1611)
- Thomas Aufield, Catholic martyr (died 1585)
- Philemon Holland, translator (died 1637)
- Edmund Spenser, poet (died 1599)
- 1553
- John Croke, judge and Speaker of the House of Commons (died 1620)
- John Florio, writer and translator (died 1625)
- Richard Hakluyt, author, editor and translator (died 1616)
- Approximate date
- 1554
- 1555
- 1556
- 1557
- 1558
- 1559
Deaths
- 1550
- 1551
- 1552
- 1553
- 1554
- 1555
- 1556
- 1557
- 1558
- 1559
Notes and References
- Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. registration. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8. 218–223.
- Book: Friar, Stephen. The Sutton Companion to Local History. rev.. Stroud. Sutton Publishing. 2001. 0-7509-2723-2. 93.
- Book: Orme, Nicholas. Nicholas Orme
. Nicholas Orme. 2001. Medieval Children. New Haven. Yale University Press. 0-300-08541-9. 201.
- Book: Loades, David. David Loades. John Dudley Duke of Northumberland 1504–1553. 1996. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 0-19-820193-1.
- Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
- Book: Ives, Eric. Eric Ives
. Eric Ives. 2009. Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery. Wiley-Blackwell. 978-1-4051-9413-6.
- Web site: 30 July 1553 – Elizabeth rides to greet Mary. 2018-07-30. Claire. Ridgway. The Tudor Society. 2024-01-16.
- Book: Waller, Maureen. Sovereign Ladies: The Six Reigning Queens of England. 2006. St. Martin's Press. 0-312-33801-5. New York. 9516816M. 57–9.
- Book: Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. 3rd. New York. Simon & Schuster. 1991. 0-671-74919-6. 245. registration.
- Book: Kerr, Robert. A general history and collection of voyages and travels. 7. Robert Kerr (writer). Edinburgh. Blackwood. 1824. 229. 2011-11-27.
- Book: Fink, D. P. J.. 1954. Queen Mary's Grammar School 1554–1954. Walsall. Queen Mary's Club.
- Andrew. Hadfield. Eden, Richard (c.1520–1576). 2004. 10.1093/ref:odnb/8454. 2011-12-12.
- Book: Creighton, Charles. A History of Epidemics in Britain: From the extinction of plague to the present time. 1894. Cambridge University Press.
- Book: Thompson, Theophilus. Annals of Influenza Or Epidemic Catarrhal Fever in Great Britain from 1510 to 1837. 1852. Sydenham Society. 101.
- Web site: Philip II of Spain. The Elizabeth Files. 2024-01-19.
- Book: Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. 3rd. New York. Simon & Schuster. 1991. 0-671-74919-6. 247. registration.
- Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer . Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 150–153. 0-7126-5616-2.
- Book: Button, Henry G.. The Guinness Book of the Business World. Enfield. Guinness Superlatives. 1976. 0-900424-32-X. 107.
- Web site: BBC - History - Historic Figures: Mary I (1516 - 1558) . www.bbc.co.uk . 27 March 2019.