1570s in England

Other decades

1550s | 1560s | 1570s | 1580s | 1590s

Events from the 1570s in England.

Incumbents[edit]

• 
  Monarch – Elizabeth I
  


• 
  Parliament – 3rd of Queen Elizabeth I (starting 2 April, until 29 May 1571), 4th of Queen Elizabeth I (starting 8 May 1572)

Events[edit]

• 
  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]
    
  
  
  • During this decade, Humphrey Gilbert produces his proposal for The erection of an achademy in London for educacion of her Maiestes wardes, and others the youth of nobility and gentlemen [sic].
  
  
  • 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.^[5]
    
  
  
  • May – All papal bulls declared treasonable by Act of Parliament.^[5]
    
  
  
  • 25 June – 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.^[5] 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
  
  
  
  • 2 June – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is executed for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.^[8]
    
  
  
  • 11 July – Humphrey Gilbert leads 1500 English volunteers on an expedition to assist the Dutch Sea Beggars in their struggle against Spanish Habsburg rule.^[8]
    
  
  
  • Vagabonds Act prescribes punishment for rogues. This includes actors' companies lacking formal patronage.
  
  
  • 
    Harrow School founded.^[9]
    
  
  
  • Publication of a revised version of the Bishops' Bible.
  
  
  
  


• 
  1573
  
  
  
  • 17 April – English troops capture Edinburgh Castle.^[5]
    
  
  
  • 18 December – Francis Walsingham becomes Secretary of State.^[5]
    
  
  
  • 
    Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys established in Barnet at the petition of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.
  
  
  
  


• 
  1574
  
  
  
  • 18 August – Treaty of Bristol settles commercial disputes with Spain.^[5]
    
  
  
  • Construction of Longleat House completed.^[5]
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  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.^[5]
    
  
  
  • 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.^[5]
    
  
  
  • 
    Christopher Saxton publishes his County Atlas of England and Wales.^[5]
    
  
  
  • 
    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.^[5]
    
  
  
  • 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.^[5]
    
  
  
  • 6 July – 'Black Assize' in Oxford results in an outbreak of epidemic typhus killing around three hundred in the city.^[10]
    
  
  
  • 29 November – Seminary priest Cuthbert Mayne executed for treason.^[5]
    
  
  
  • 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.^[5]
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1578
  
  
  
  • 19 November – Walter Ralegh leads an expedition to establish a colony in North America; forced to turn back six months later.^[5]
    
  
  
  • December – Publication of John Lyly's didactic prose romance Euphues: the Anatomy of Wyt, originating the ornate prose style known as Euphuism.
  
  
  
  


• 
  1579
  
  
  
  • 17 June – Drake claims New Albion on the Pacific coast of North America for England.^[8]
    
  
  
  • The English College for the training of Roman Catholic priests is established in Rome.^[8]
    
  
  
  • 
    Eastland Company chartered to trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea states.
  
  
  • Publication of Edmund Spenser's poetry The Shepheardes Calender.^[8]
    
  
  
  
  

Births[edit]

• 1570
  
  
  
  • 22 January – Robert Bruce Cotton, politician (died 1631)
  
  
  • 13 April – Guy Fawkes, conspirator (died 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)
  
  
  • 
    John Smyth, Baptist minister (died 1612)
  
  
  
  


• 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 (died 1606)
  
  
  
  


• 1572
  
  
  
  • 22 January – John Donne, writer and prelate (died 1631)
  
  
  • 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)
  
  
  • 
    Robert Catesby, leader of the Gunpowder Plot (died 1605)
  
  
  • 
    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)
  
  
  • 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, conspirator (died 1606)
  
  
  • 
    Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, lawyer (died 1640)
  
  
  • 
    Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland (died 1632)
  
  
  • 
    Ambrose Rookwood, Gunpowder Plot conspirator (died 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[edit]

• 1571
  
  
  
  • 12 February – Nicholas Throckmorton, diplomat and politician (born 1515)
  
  
  • 1 June – John Story, Catholic (martyred) (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 (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, saint (born 1543)
  
  
  
  


• 1578
  
  
  
  • 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)
  
  
  
  

References[edit]