1550s in England

• Monarch – Edward VI (until 6 July 1553), Jane (disputed, 6 July to 19 July 1553), Mary I (starting 19 July 1553, until 17 November 1558) and Philip (starting 25 July 1554, until 17 November 1558), then Elizabeth I • Regent – John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (starting 2 February 1550, until 19 July 1553) ==Events==

• 1550 • 1 February – Parliament's Putting away of Books and Images Act 1549 receives royal assent, encouraging iconoclasm. • 24 March – England and France sign the Treaty of Boulogne; England withdraws from Boulogne in France and returns territorial gains in Scotland. • 29 March – Sherborne School in Dorset is refounded by King Edward VI. • c. May – Vestments controversy begins: Protestant reformer John Hooper declines appointment as Bishop of Gloucester because he objects to the vestments and oath prescribed in the new Ordinal. He is imprisoned for a time. • 24 July – French Protestant Church of London established by royal charter. • The value of the angel is raised from eight to ten shillings. • 1551 • 14 February – Alice Arden conspires with her lover and others to carry out the murder of her husband, Thomas Arden, Mayor of Faversham. The conspirators will be executed. • 8 May - John Hooper submits to consecration as Bishop of Gloucester, ending the vestments controversy. • By July – fifth and last outbreak of sweating sickness in England. John Caius of Shrewsbury writes the first full contemporary account of the symptoms of the disease. • 11 October – John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, de facto Lord Protector of England, is created Duke of Northumberland. • St Thomas' Hospital is re-established on its former site in Southwark by the Corporation of London, taken as the founding date for St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. • Silver sixpence and crown first minted. • 1552 • January – Act of Uniformity imposes the Second Book of Common Prayer • 22 January – execution of the former Lord Protector Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset for treason. • 16 June – King Edward founds Christ's Hospital for London orphans. • 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 and would be the country's first queen regnant. • 3 August – Mary rides triumphantly into London to claim the throne, accompanied by Elizabeth. • 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. • 30 November – England formally rejoins the Roman Catholic Church. 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. • 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. • 10 August – Italian War: English and Spanish victory over the French at the Battle of St. Quentin. • Elizabeth grants rest and refreshment to pilgrims and travellers who pass by the Holy Well Spring at Malvern, Worcestershire. • English explorer Anthony Jenkinson travels from Moscow to Astrakhan and Bukhara. • 1559 • 15 January – Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey • 2 April – the Italian War of 1551–1559 is ended by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in which France makes peace with England and Spain; among the few gains retained by France is the formerly English town of Calais. ==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 • Henry Barrowe, Puritan and Separatist (died 1593) • Philip Henslowe, theatrical entrepreneur (died 1616) • Judith Ivye, wife of Anthony Prater (died 1578) • Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester (died 1628) • 1551 • 2 May – William Camden, historian (died 1623) • George Tuchet, 1st Earl of Castlehaven (died 1617) • 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 • Henry Robinson, Bishop of Carlisle (died 1616) • William Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Thornhaugh, military leader (died 1613) • Jack Ward, pirate (died 1622) • 1554 • March – Richard Hooker, Anglican theologian (died 1600) • April – Stephen Gosson, satirist (died 1624) • 3 October – Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, poet (died 1628) • 30 November – Philip Sidney, courtier and poet (died 1586) • James Lancaster, navigator (died 1618) • John Lyly, writer (died 1606) • John Smyth, Baptist minister (died 1612) • Francis Throckmorton, conspirator (died 1584) • 1555 • 1 August – Edward Kelley, spirit medium (died 1597) • Lancelot Andrewes, clergyman and scholar (died 1626) • 17 July – Richard Carew, Cornish translator and antiquary (died 1620) • Henry Garnet, Jesuit (executed 1606) • 1556 • February – Henry Briggs, mathematician (died 1630) • 6 June – Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, politician and diplomat (died 1625) • Margaret Clitherow, Catholic martyr (died 1586) • 1557 • Julius Caesar, judge and politician (died 1636) • Thomas Morley, English composer (died 1602) • 1558 • 3 November – Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy (died 1594) • Robert Greene, writer (died 1592) • Chidiock Tichborne, conspirator and poet (died 1586) • 1559 • c. 23 April – William Watson, a Catholic priest and conspirator (executed 1603) • George Chapman, dramatist (died 1634) • John Overall, bishop and academic (died 1619) • John Spenser, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (died 1614) ==Deaths==

• 1550 • 30 July – Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, politician (born 1505) • 1551 • 13 July – John Wallop, soldier and diplomat (born 1490) • 14 July • Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, heir to the Dukedom of Suffolk of the second creation (sweating sickness) (born 1535) • Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, heir to the Dukedom of Suffolk of the second creation (sweating sickness) (born 1537/8) • 1552 • 22 January – Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, politician (born 1509) • 18 April – John Leland, antiquary and historian (born 1502) • 10 June – Alexander Barclay, poet (born 1476) • October – Simon Haynes, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, ambassador and Dean of Exeter • 1553 • 6 July – King Edward VI (born 1537) • 22 August – John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, politician (executed) (born 1504) • George Joye, Bible translator (born c. 1495) • 1554 • 12 February • Lady Jane Grey, claimant to the throne of England (executed) (born 1537) • Guilford Dudley, consort of Lady Jane Grey (executed) (born c. 1535) • 23 February – Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, politician (executed) (born 1517) • 11 April – Thomas Wyatt the Younger, rebel (executed) (born 1521) • 4 August – Sir James Hales, judge (suicide by drowning) (born c. 1550) • 25 August – Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, politician (born 1473) • December – John Taylor, Bishop of Lincoln (born 1503) • Sir Hugh Willoughby, explorer (in the Arctic Sea) • 1555 • 4 February – John Rogers, clergyman and Bible translator (burned at the stake) (born c. 1500) • 8 February – Laurence Saunders, clergyman (burned at the stake) (born 1500s) • 9 February • John Hooper, deposed bishop (burned at the stake) (born c. 1497) • Rowland Taylor, clergyman (burned at the stake) (born 1510) • 14 March – John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (born 1485) • 18 April – Polydore Vergil, historian (born 1470) • 25 August – Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (born 1473) • 5 October – Edward Wotton, zoologist (born 1492) • 16 October • Hugh Latimer, clergyman (burned at the stake) (born c. 1487) • Nicholas Ridley, clergyman (burned at the stake) (born c. 1500) • 12 November – Stephen Gardiner, bishop and Lord Chancellor (born 1493) • 1556 • 21 March – Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (burned at the stake) (born 1489) • 11 August – John Bell, Bishop of Worcester • 10 November – Richard Chancellor, Arctic explorer (born c. 1521) • 23 December – Nicholas Udall, dramatist (born 1504) • 1557 • 28 May – Thomas Stafford aristocrat and rebel (executed) (born c. 1533) • 16 July – Anne of Cleves, queen of Henry VIII of England (born 1515) • 13 September – John Cheke, classical scholar and statesman (born 1514) • 25 October – William Cavendish, courtier (born 1505) • 18 December – Joyce Lewis, gentlewoman, Protestant convert and martyr (burned at the stake) • 1558 • 31 May – Philip Hoby, politician (born 1505) • 17 November • Queen Mary I of England (born 1516) • Reginald Pole, Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1500) • (bur.) Hugh Aston, composer (born 1485) • 15 December – Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (born c. 1485) • 1559 • 8 March – Thomas Tresham I, a Catholic politician • 16 March – Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland (born 1496) • 10 September – Anthony Denny, a confidant of Henry VIII of England (born 1501) • 18 November – Cuthbert Tunstall, Prince-Bishop of Durham (born 1474) • 20 November – Lady Frances Brandon, claimant to the throne of England (born 1517) • 31 December – Owen Oglethorpe, deposed Bishop of Carlisle • Approximate date – Leonard Digges, mathematician and surveyor (born c. 1515) ==References==