1570s in England explained

Other decades
		1570s		1590s

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^[1] 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.^[2]
  • The home and library of John Dee at Mortlake begin to serve as an informal prototype English academy for gentlemen with scientific interests.^[3]
  • Approximate date – Thomas Tallis composes his 40-part motet Spem in alium.
• 1571
  • 23 January – the Royal Exchange officially opened by Queen Elizabeth.^[4]
  • 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%.^[5]
    • 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.^[6]
  • 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.^[7]
  • Burford School is established in Oxfordshire.
• 1572
  • 13 February – Harrow School is founded by local landowner John Lyon under royal charter.^[8]
  • 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.^[9]
  • 11 July – Humphrey Gilbert leads 1500 English volunteers on an expedition to assist the Dutch Sea Beggars in their struggle against Spanish Habsburg rule.^[9]
  • 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).^[10]
  • 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.^[11]
  • 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.^[12]
  • 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.^[1]
  • December – James Burbage opens London's second permanent public playhouse (and the first to have a substantial life), 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 (completed 1570) 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.^[13]
  • 29 November – Catholic seminary priest Cuthbert Mayne is hanged, drawn and quartered at Launceston, Cornwall, for treason, first of the 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.^[14]
  • 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.^[15]
  • 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.^[9]
  • 17 June – Drake claims New Albion on the Pacific coast of North America for England.^[9]
  • 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.^[9]

Births

• 1570
  • 22 January – Robert Bruce Cotton, politician (died 1631)
  • 13 April – Guy Fawkes, Gunpowder Plot conspirator (hanged 1606)
  • 28 November – James Whitelocke, judge (died 1632)
  • John Cooper, composer and lutenist (died 1626)
  • John Farmer, composer (died 1601)
  • Simon Grahame, Scottish-born adventurer (died 1614)
• 1571
  • ? March – Barnabe Barnes, poet (died 1609)
  • Henry Ainsworth, Nonconformist clergyman and scholar (died 1622)
  • William Bedell, Anglican churchman (died 1642)
  • Charles Butler, beekeeper and philologist (died 1647)
  • Bartholomew Gosnold, lawyer and explorer (died 1607)
  • Thomas Storer, poet (died 1604)
  • Thomas Wintour, Gunpowder Plot conspirator (hanged 1606)
• 1572
  • 22 January – John Donne, writer and prelate (died 1631)
  • c. 3 March – Robert Catesby, leader of the Gunpowder Plot (killed 1605)
  • 11 June – Ben Jonson, dramatist (died 1637)
  • John Floyd, Jesuit (died 1649)
  • James Mabbe, scholar and poet (died 1642)
• 1573
  • 15 July – Inigo Jones, architect (died 1652)
  • 7 October – William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1645)
  • Richard Johnson, romance writer (died 1659)
  • John Kendrick, merchant (died 1624)
• 1574
  • 7 March (bapt.) – John Wilbye, composer (died 1638)
  • June – Richard Barnfield, poet (died 1627)
  • 1 July – Joseph Hall, bishop and satirist (died 1656)
  • 7 August – Robert Dudley, styled Earl of Warwick, explorer and geographer (died 1649)
  • 4 September – Thomas Gataker, clergyman and theologian (died 1654)
• 1575
  • 5 March – William Oughtred, mathematician (died 1660)
  • 14 August – Robert Hayman, poet (died 1629)
  • Edmund Bolton, historian and poet (died 1633)
  • Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, successful London merchant (died 1645)
  • William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle (died 1622)
  • Arbella Stuart, Duchess of Somerset (died 1615)
  • Cyril Tourneur, dramatist (died 1626)
• 1576
  • October – Thomas Weelkes, composer and organist (died 1626)
  • 7 October – John Marston, writer (died 1634)
  • 12 October – Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (died 1652)
  • William Ames, Protestant philosopher (died 1633)
  • Possible date – John Carver, first governor of Plymouth Colony (died 1621)
• 1577
  • 8 February – Robert Burton, scholar (died 1640)
  • 9 July – Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, governor of Virginia (died 1618)
  • 11 August (bapt.) – Barnaby Potter, Bishop of Carlisle (died 1642)
  • 20 November (bapt.) – Samuel Purchas, travel writer (died 1626)
  • Robert Cushman, Plymouth Colony settler (died 1625)
  • William Noy, lawyer and politician (died 1634)
  • Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester (died 1646)
• 1578
  • 2 March – George Sandys, traveller (died 1644)
  • 1 April – William Harvey, physician (died 1657)
  • 16 May – Everard Digby, Gunpowder Plot conspirator (hanged 1606)
  • 24 August – John Taylor, "The Water Poet" (died 1653)
  • Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, lawyer (died 1640)
  • Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland (died 1632)
  • Ambrose Rookwood, Gunpowder Plot conspirator (hanged 1606)
• 1579
  • 13 July – Arthur Dee, physician and alchemist (died 1651)
  • 20 December (bapt.) – John Fletcher, playwright (died 1625)
  • Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley of Reading, royalist commander in the English Civil War (died 1652)

Deaths

• 1571
  • 12 February – Nicholas Throckmorton, diplomat and politician (born 1515)
  • 1 June – John Story, Catholic lawyer, politician and martyr (executed) (born 1504)
  • 23 September – John Jewel, bishop (born 1522)
• 1572
  • January – Robert Pattison, actor (born c. 1535)
  • 10 March – William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester (born c. 1483)
  • 2 June – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (executed) (born 1536)
  • 24 October – Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, politician (born 1508)
  • Christopher Tye, composer and organist (born 1505)
• 1573
  • 12 January – William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral (born 1510)
  • 14 May (bur.) – Richard Grafton, merchant and printer (born c. 1506/7 or 1511)
  • 29 July – John Caius, physician (born 1510)
  • Late – Reginald Wolfe, printer (year of birth unknown)
• 1574
  • circa 7 November – Robert White, composer (born 1538)
• 1575
  • 17 May – Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1504)
  • 14 July – Richard Taverner, Bible translator (born 1505)
• 1576
  • 22 September – Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex (born 1541)
• 1577
  • 12 August – Thomas Smith, scholar and diplomat (born 1513)
  • 7 October – George Gascoigne, poet (born c. 1525)
  • 29 November – Cuthbert Mayne, recusant Catholic priest and martyr, canonised (executed) (born 1543)
• 1578
  • 7 March – Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, member of the royal family, diplomat (born 1515)
  • 29 March – Arthur Champernowne, admiral (born 1524)
  • 20 June – Thomas Doughty, explorer (executed) (year of birth unknown)
  • 27 July – Jane Lumley, translator (born 1537)
  • 4 August – Thomas Stucley, adventurer (born 1525)
  • December – Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor (born 1501)
• 1579
  • 20 February – Nicholas Bacon, politician (born 1509)
  • 20 May – Isabella Markham, courtier (born 1527)
  • 10 June – William Whittingham, Biblical scholar and religious reformer (born 1524)
  • 21 November – Thomas Gresham, merchant and financier (born 1519)

Notes and References

1. Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
2. Web site: 500 Years of History. Whitechapel Bell Foundry. 2010-11-05.
3. Book: French, Peter J.. John Dee. 60,171–2.
4. Web site: Chambers' Book of Days, January 23rd. 2007-12-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20071224224734/http://www.thebookofdays.com/months/jan/23.htm. 24 December 2007.
5. Book: Halio, Jay L.. Understanding The Merchant of Venice: A Student Casebook. Greenwood. 2000. 9780313310119. 123–5.
6. Book: Hibbert, Christopher. The Encyclopædia of Oxford. London. Macmillan. 1988. 0-333-39917-X. 198.
7. Web site: The Library of Parliament's research tool for finding information on legislation. Library of Parliament. 2010-01-28. 28 January 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100202015730/http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Language=E&list=faq. 2 February 2010.
8. Book: Tyerman, Christopher. A History of Harrow School. Christopher Tyerman. 8–17. 2000. Oxford University Press. 0-19-822796-5.
9. Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. registration. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8. 226–229.
10. Book: Beckett, Ian. Discovering English County Regiments. 2003. Shire. 978-0-747-80506-9. 52.
11. Web site: The Charter. Queen Elizabeth's SChool. Barnet. 2022-04-15.
12. Web site: Serfdom. 1902 Encyclopedia. 2023-04-07.
13. Book: The Nuttall Encyclopædia. 1907.
14. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/16th_century/humfrey.asp Letters Patent to Sir Humfrey Gylberte June 11, 1578
15. Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer. Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 156–159. 0-7126-5616-2.