| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1550 | - 1550—1550: Walloon Protestants arrive as refugees from the Low Countries
|
| 2 | 1551 | - 1551—1551: Scotland: General Provincial Council orders each parish to keep a register of baptisms
and banns of marriage
|
| 3 | 1552 | - Mar 1552—Mar 1552: An 'Act of Uniformity' imposes the Protestant prayerbook of 1552 in England
|
| 4 | 1553 | - 6 Jul 1553—6 Jul 1553: Edward VI dies; Lady Jane Grey queen for a few days only
- 19 Jul 1553—19 Jul 1553: Mary Tudor ('Bloody Mary') comes to the throne
|
| 5 | 1554 | - 1554—1554: Brief Catholic restoration under Queen Mary Tudor - married priests forced to separate
at least 30 miles from their wives
|
| 6 | 1556 | - 21 Mar 1556—21 Mar 1556: Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer burned at the stake in Oxford
|
| 7 | 1558 | - 1558—1558: System of Counties adopted
- 1558—1558: Scottish parish registers start
- 7 Jan 1558—7 Jan 1558: French take Calais, last English possession in France
- 17 Nov 1558—17 Nov 1558: Queen Mary Tudor of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister
Elizabeth - Protestantism restored in England
|
| 8 | 1559 | - 1559—1559: Tobacco introduced to Europe
- 1559—1559: John Knox returns from Continent - strengthens case for Presbyterianism in Scotland
- 15 Jan 1559—15 Jan 1559: Elizabeth crowned in Westminster Abbey by Owen Oglethorpe, the Bishop of
Carlisle
- 29 Apr 1559—29 Apr 1559: Acts of Supremacy passed in Parliament, ending papal jurisdiction over England
& Wales; established Church of England
|
| 9 | 1560 | - 1560—1560: Establishment of Protestantism in Scotland - commissary courts thrown into confusion
- some records lost
- 27 Feb 1560—27 Feb 1560: Treaty of Berwick between Duc du Chatelherault (as governor of Scotland) and
the English, agreeing to act jointly to expel the French from Scotland
|
| 10 | 1561 | - 1561—1561: Spire of St Paul's, highest in England, destroyed by fire
- 1561—1561: The first coins produced by machinery (known as a 'mill') rather than by hand, but it
was a slow process and did not replace hand struck coinage until new machinery was
introduced in 1663
|
| 11 | 1562 | - 1562—1562: Earliest English slave-trading expedition, under John Hawkins - between Guinea and
the West Indies
|
| 12 | 1563 | - 28 Jul 1563—28 Jul 1563: The English surrender Le Havre to the French after a siege
|
| 13 | 1564 | - 26 Apr 1564—26 Apr 1564: Shakespeare baptised - he is said to have been born on Apr 23, St George's
Day; he certainly died on Apr 23, 1616
|
| 14 | 1567 | - 24 Jul 1567—24 Jul 1567: Mary Queen of Scots deposed and replaced by her 1 year old son James VI
|
| 15 | 1569 | - 1569—1569: Elizabeth I approved Sunday sports
|
| 16 | 1570 | - 25 Feb 1570—25 Feb 1570: Pope Pius V issued the papal bull 'Regnans in Excelsis' to excommunicate
Elizabeth I and her followers in the Church of England
|
| 17 | 1571 | - 1571—1571: Presbyterianism introduced into England by Thomas Cartwright
- 1571—1571: Repeal of Act prohibiting lending of money on interest - gradual change from
'subsistence economy' to 'cash economy' resulted
- 1571—1571: Beginning of penal legislation against Catholics in England
|
| 18 | 1577 | - 1577—1577: James Burbage opens first theatre in London
|
| 19 | 1579 | - 1579—1579: Act of Uniformity in matters of religion enforced
|
| 20 | 1580 | - 1580—1580: Congregational movement founded by Robert Browne about this time
- 1580—1580: Colonisation of Ireland
- 6 Apr 1580—6 Apr 1580: Dover Straits earthquake, largest in the recorded history of England, mentioned
by Shakespeare - dozens of ships sunk and a tsunami hit Calais
|
| 21 | 1581 | - 1581—1581: English Levant Company founded
- 16 Jan 1581—16 Jan 1581: English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism
- 4 Apr 1581—4 Apr 1581: Francis Drake knighted by Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind after
circumnavigating the world
|
| 22 | 1583 | - Aug 1583—Aug 1583: Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempts to establish English authority at St John's,
Newfoundland
|
| 23 | 1584 | - 4 Jun 1584—4 Jun 1584: Sir Walter Raleigh establishes first English colony in the New World, on
Roanoke Island, Virginia (now in North Carolina) - the so-called 'Lost Colony'
|
| 24 | 1587 | - 1587—1587: Introduction of potatoes to England
- 19 Apr 1587—19 Apr 1587: Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz harbour
- 11 Aug 1587—11 Aug 1587: Raleigh's second expedition to New World lands in North Carolina - first child
born in the New World of English parents was Virginia Dare (Aug 18)
|
| 25 | 1588 | - 29 Jul 1588—29 Jul 1588: Defeat of Spanish Armada off Gravelines
|
| 26 | 1592 | - 1592—1592: A Congregational (or Independent) Church formed in London
|
| 27 | 1593 | - 1593—1593: British statute mile established by law
|
| 28 | 1597 | - 1597—1597: Poor Law Act for erection of parish workhouses for the Poor - Poor Rate collection
allowed
|
| 29 | 1598 | - 1598—1598: Bishop's transcripts of English and Welsh parish registers start - parish records were to
be kept in 'great decent books of parchment' and copies or 'Bishop's Transcripts' of new entries
were to be sent each month to the diocesan centre
|
| 30 | 1600 | - 31 Dec 1600—31 Dec 1600: British East India Company founded
|
| 31 | 1601 | - 1601—1601: Great English Poor Law Act passed
- 1601—1601: First use of fruit juice as a preventative for scurvy by James Lancaster
|
| 32 | 1602 | - 20 Mar 1602—20 Mar 1602: Dutch East India Company founded
|
| 33 | 1603 | - 24 Mar 1603—24 Mar 1603: Death of Elizabeth I: union of Scottish and English crowns - under King James
VI of Scots and I of England (d. 1625)
- 25 Jul 1603—25 Jul 1603: Coronation - James VI of Scotland is crowned first king of Great Britain
|
| 34 | 1604 | - 1 Nov 1604—1 Nov 1604: Shakespeare: Othello' first presented
|
| 35 | 1605 | - 5 Nov 1605—5 Nov 1605: Gunpowder plot at Westminster (Guy Fawkes, etc)
|
| 36 | 1606 | - 1606—1606: The London Company chartered to colonise Virginia: the Susan Constant, Godspeed,
and Discovery leave England on 19th De c taking 144 days to reach America
- 12 Mar 1606—12 Mar 1606: Adoption of Union Flag as the flag of Great Britain' (the term Union Jack is
used officially only when the Union Flag is flown from the Jack Mast of a Royal Naval vessel)
|
| 37 | 1607 | - 14 May 1607—14 May 1607: Jamestown, Virginia settled - to become the first permanent British colony in
North America
|
| 38 | 1608 | - 1608—1608: First use of telescope by Galileo - he observed the moons of Jupiter two years later in
Jan 1610
|
| 39 | 1611 | - 1611—1611: Authorised (King James) Version of Bible in Britain
|
| 40 | 1613 | - 1613—1613: A copper farthing was produced, as a silver coin would be too small
|
| 41 | 1619 | - 4 Dec 1619—4 Dec 1619: (Nov 24 old style): Colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in
Virginia and give thanks to God (considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the
Americas)
|
| 42 | 1620 | - 1620—1620: Manufacture of coke (the fuel, not the drink!) patented by Dud Dudley
- 21 Dec 1620—21 Dec 1620: (Dec 16 old style): The Mayflower reaches America - founds Plymouth, New
England (had initially set sail from Southampton on Aug 5)
|
| 43 | 1621 | - 1621—1621: Chimneys to be made of brick and to be four and a half feet above the roof
|
| 44 | 1622 | - 1622—1622: First English newspaper appeared - Weekly News'
|
| 45 | 1624 | - 1624—1624: Edmund Gunter introduces the surveyor's chain (measurement of length)
|
| 46 | 1625 | - 1625—1625: The size of bricks standardised in England around this time
- 27 Mar 1625—27 Mar 1625: Death of King James VI & I
|
| 47 | 1628 | - 1 Mar 1628—1 Mar 1628: Writs issued by Charles I that every county in England (not just seaport towns)
pay ship tax by this date
|
| 48 | 1629 | - 10 Mar 1629—10 Mar 1629: Parliament dissolved by King Charles I - did not meet for another 11 yea
|
| 49 | 1633 | - Jun 1633—Jun 1633: Galileo summoned by Inquisition for publishing in favour of Copernican theory
|
| 50 | 1635 | - 1635—1635: Letter Office of England & Scotland started
- 1635—1635: Flintlock small arms invented around this time (replaces matchlock)
|
Est 1550 - 1635 (~ 85 years)