1540s in England

• Monarch – Henry VIII (until 28 January 1547), then Edward VI • Regent – Catherine, Queen Consort (starting 15 July, until 30 September 1544) • Lord Protector – Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (starting 4 February 1547, until 20 March 1549) ==Events==

• 1540 • 1 January – King Henry VIII meets Anne of Cleves in person for the first time, informally at Rochester. • 2 January – Gloucester Abbey is surrendered to the Crown as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. • 6 January – King Henry VIII marries German noblewoman Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort. • 14 January – Southwark Priory in London is surrendered to the Crown as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. • 29 January – Bolton Abbey, a Yorkshire priory, is closed down as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. • January – Shap Abbey and Dunstable Priory are closed down as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. • 16 February – Thetford Priory is closed down as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. • 23 March – Waltham Abbey is the last abbey to close as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. • 30 July – at Smithfield, London, three Lutheran pastors, Robert Barnes, Thomas Gerrard and William Jerome, are burnt at the stake on a charge of heresy and three Roman Catholic priests, Thomas Abel, Richard Fetherstone and Edward Powell, are hanged, drawn and quartered on a charge of high treason. • Summer – Council of the West last sits. • 17 September – Anglican Diocese of Westminster formed. • Completion of the first of the Device Forts along the coast: Calshot, Deal, Sandgate, Sandown and Walmer Castles. • "Big Sun Year": Great heat and drought. • Regius Professorships endowed at the University of Cambridge. • 1541 • 18 June – by the Crown of Ireland Act, the Parliament of Ireland declares King Henry VIII of England and his heirs to be Kings of Ireland, replacing the Lordship of Ireland with the Kingdom of Ireland. • Early summer – Collyer's School opens to scholars in Horsham. • 14 August – Anglican Diocese of Chester formed. • 3 September – Anglican Diocese of Gloucester formed from part of the Diocese of Worcester with John Wakeman (last Abbot of Tewkesbury) as first Bishop of Gloucester. • 1 November – the King receives allegations against Queen Catherine. • 23 November – Catherine is stripped of her title as queen and imprisoned in the new Syon Abbey, Middlesex. • 1542 • 7 February – Parliament passes a bill of attainder against Catherine Howard. The Royal Assent by Commission Act 1541 makes her guilty of treason. • Composer Thomas Tallis becomes a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. • 1544 • March – Third Succession Act, reinstating Princesses Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession to the English throne, given Royal Assent (having been passed by Parliament in July 1543). • July – Italian Wars: Attempted French invasion of the Isle of Wight. • 24 April – Navy Board established. • 28 January – Henry VIII dies at the Palace of Whitehall and is succeeded as King by his 9-year-old son Edward VI, • Dissolution of collegiate churches and chantries: • Beverley Minster in Yorkshire is suppressed as a collegiate church on Easter Sunday. • Howden Minster in Yorkshire is suppressed as a collegiate church. • Destruction of the religious colleges of Glasney and Crantock in Cornwall end the formal scholarship that has helped sustain the Cornish language and cultural identity. • King's School, Pontefract, re-founded. • John Bale writes Kynge Johan, the earliest English historical drama. • 6 August – Prayer Book Rebellion: Battle of Clyst Heath – John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford defeats rebels. • 8 August – France declares war on England. • 9 August – England declares war on France. • 17 August – Battle of Sampford Courtenay: Prayer Book rebellion quashed. • 26 August – Battle of Dussindale, near Norwich: Kett's Rebellion quashed. ==Births==

• 1540 • 24 January – Edmund Campion, Jesuit and Roman Catholic martyr (died 1581) • 25 February – Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, courtier and scholar (died 1614) • c. February or March – Sir Francis Drake, explorer and soldier (died 1596) • 11 June – Barnabe Googe, poet (died 1594) • William Byrd, composer (died 1623) • George Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, nobleman (died 1604) • Christopher Hatton, politician (died 1591) • 1541 • Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, nobleman (died 1576) • 1542 • 5 May – Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, politician (died 1623) • 6 June – Richard Grenville, soldier and explorer (died 1591) • 1543 • 8 November – Lettice Knollys, noblewoman (died 1634) • Thomas Deloney, novelist and balladeer (died 1600) • Douglas Sheffield, Baroness Sheffield, née Howard, lover of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (died 1608) • 1544 • April – Thomas Fleming, judge (died 1613) • 24 May – William Gilbert, scientist (died 1603) • Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1610) • Thomas Hobson, carrier and origin of the phrase "Hobson's choice" (died 1631) • John Knewstub, Puritan (died 1624) • George Whetstone, writer (died 1587) • 1545 • 2 March – Thomas Bodley, diplomat and library founder (died 1613) • Nicholas Breton, poet and novelist (died 1626) • John Field, Puritan clergyman and controversialist (died 1588) • John Gerard, botanist (died 1612) • 1546 • 13 June – Tobias Matthew, archbishop of York (died 1628) • 24 June – Robert Persons, Jesuit priest (died 1610) • Thomas Digges, astronomer (died 1595) • 1547 • Peter Bales, calligrapher (died 1610) • George Carey, Baron Hunsdon, politician (died 1603) • Richard Stanyhurst, translator of Virgil (died 1618) • 1548 • William Stanley, soldier (died 1630) • 1549 • 12 July – Edward Manners, Earl of Rutland (died 1587) • 30 November – Sir Henry Savile, educator (died 1622) • John Rainolds, scholar and Bible translator (died 1607) ==Deaths==

• 1540 • c. January – Elizabeth Blount, mistress of King Henry VIII (born 1502) • 28 July – Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, statesman (executed) (born c. 1485) • 30 July • Thomas Abel, priest (martyred) (born c. 1497) • Robert Barnes, reformer (martyred) (born 1495) • 1541 • 27 May – Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, courtier (executed) (born 1473) • 24 November – Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII and queen consort of James IV of Scotland (born 1489) • 10 December – Thomas Culpeper, courtier (executed) (year of birth unknown) • 1542 • 13 February – Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII (executed) (born c. 1522) • 3 March – Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, illegitimate son of King Edward IV (year of birth unknown 1461–1475) • 6 October – Thomas Wyatt, poet and diplomat (born 1503) • 1543 • 19 July – Mary Boleyn, mistress of Kings Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England (born 1500) • 20 September – Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland (born 1492) • October/November – Hans Holbein the Younger, painter (born c. 1497 in Germany) • Margaret Lee, lady-in-waiting, sister of poet Thomas Wyatt (born 1506) • 1544 • 30 April – Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, Lord Chancellor (born 1488) • 1545 • April/October – William Latimer, churchman and scholar (born c. 1467) • May – Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, noblewoman (born c. 1477) • 24 August – Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, politician and husband of Mary Tudor (born c. 1484) • 18 October – John Taverner, composer (born c. 1490) • 1546 • 26 March – Thomas Elyot, diplomat and scholar (born c. 1490) • 16 July – Anne Askew, Protestant (burned at the stake) (born 1521) • 1547 • 19 January – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, nobleman, politician and poet (executed) (born c.1517) • 28 January – King Henry VIII (born 1491) • c. May – Edward Hall, chronicler and lawyer (born c.1496) • October or November – John Redford, composer, poet and playwright (born c. 1500) • 1548 • 7 September – Catherine Parr, dowager queen consort of Henry VIII (complications from childbirth) (born c. 1512) • 1549 • 10 March – Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, politician and diplomat (born 1508) • April – Andrew Boorde, traveller (born 1490) • 15 April – Henry Somerset, Earl of Worcester (born 1496) • 7 December – Robert Kett, rebel (executed) (year of birth unknown) ==References==