•
1580 • March –
Thomas Legge's
Richardus Tertius, the first known
history play performed in England, is acted at
St John's College, Cambridge. • 6 April –
Dover Straits earthquake. • 9 April –
Anglo-Spanish War:
English Fury at Mechelen: English and Scottish mercenaries, assisting the
Dutch Republic, storm the city of
Mechelen in the
Spanish Netherlands, killing 60 civilians and plundering houses and churches. • 21 June – England signs a commercial treaty with the
Ottoman Empire. • 6 July – new buildings banned within three miles of the
City of London. the first made by an Englishman. • First recorded appearance of the ballad
Greensleeves. •
1581 • 18 March – Act against Reconciliation to Rome establishes heavy fines for
recusancy or attending
Catholic Mass. • 1 December – Edmund Campion is
hanged, drawn and quartered for treason with two other priests at
Tyburn. • 26 July –
Battle of Ponta Delgada (
Anglo-Spanish War): English mercenary
galleons are among the fleet decisively defeated by the
Spanish in the
Azores. • 29 November – marriage of
William Shakespeare and
Anne Hathaway, perhaps at
Temple Grafton. • Publication of
Richard Hakluyt's
Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America. • Publication of the first part of
Richard Mulcaster's textbook on the teaching of
English, the
Elementarie. •
1583 • 10 March –
Queen Elizabeth's Men acting company founded. • 19 April – Queen Elizabeth dissolves
her 4th Parliament which had been convened in 1572 but last met in 1581. • 23 April – the Kingdom of England establishes diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire. • 11 June – Sir
Humphrey Gilbert sails from
Dartmouth, Devon, to establish a colony in North America. • 17 June –
Anglo-Spanish War:
Battle of Steenbergen in the Netherlands: the Spanish
Army of Flanders is victorious over combined French, English and Dutch forces. • 5 August – Humphrey Gilbert, in what is to become the city of
St. John's, claims the island of
Newfoundland on behalf of England. • 10 December – great fire of
Nantwich in Cheshire breaks out. • Posthumous publication of
Thomas Smith's treatise
De Republica Anglorum: the Maner of Gouernement or Policie of the Realme of England (written 1562–65). • Publication of
Philip Stubbs' tract
The Anatomie of Abuses. •
The Bunch of Grapes, Limehouse opens as a public house in London. •
1584 • 11 January – Sir
Walter Mildmay is granted a royal licence to found
Emmanuel College, Cambridge. • 10 July – execution of Francis Throckmorton. • Publication of the
cookbook A Booke of Cookry. •
1585 • 6 January –
Walter Ralegh knighted. • 21 January –
Robert Nutter,
Thomas Worthington and 18 other Roman Catholic priests are perpetually banished from England by order of Queen Elizabeth, placed on the ship
Mary Martin of Colchester and transported to France. • 2 March –
William Parry executed for plotting Queen Elizabeth's murder. •
1586 • 4 February –
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester accepts the title governor of the
Netherlands. • 11 February –
Battle of Cartagena de Indias concludes after 2 days with an English assault force led by
Francis Drake capturing the port of
Cartagena in the Spanish
Viceroyalty of Peru. • 14 March –
Black Assize of Exeter opens: "gaol fever" (jail fever, probably
epidemic typhus), spreading from
Rougemont Castle in
Exeter, kills 8 judges, 11 of 12 jurors, and ravages the surrounding population for several months; many prominent members of the
Devonshire gentry are among the dead. • 25 March – Catholic convert
Margaret Clitherow of York is tortured and crushed to death by
peine forte et dure for refusing to plead to a charge of harbouring priests; in 1970 she will be
canonized as one of the
Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. • 7 May –
John Davis sets out from
Dartmouth, Devon, for a second attempt to find the
Northwest Passage. • 1 July –
Treaty of Berwick agreed between Queen
Elizabeth I of England and King
James VI of Scotland. • 28 July –
Thomas Harriot returns from a voyage to
Colombia with the first
potatoes seen in England. •
Oxford University Press is recognised by decree of the
Star Chamber. • From about this date an informal College or
Society of Antiquaries begins to meet. •
1587 • 8 February – Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at
Fotheringay Castle. of which 50% goes to Queen Elizabeth and 10% to Drake; it also includes valuable documents relating to the Indies trade. • 22 July –
Roanoke Colony: A group of English settlers arrive on
Roanoke Island off
North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony. • 21 December –
Lord Howard of Effingham given command of both army and navy in the war against Spain. by the
Admiral's Men with
Edward Alleyn playing the lead. •
The Rose (theatre), the first on
Bankside in London, is built by
Philip Henslowe and functioning by the year's end. •
Everard Digby's
De Arte Natandi, the first treatise on
swimming in England, is published. • The doctrine
Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos is established in
common law by
Edward Coke. •
1588 • 1 January – the
Children of Paul's act at the court of Queen Elizabeth, probably performing
John Lyly's
Gallathea. • 18–20 May (28–30 May NS) – the
Spanish Armada sets sail from the
Tagus estuary for an attempted invasion of England. • 19 July (29 July
NS) – the Armada is sighted off
The Lizard in
Cornwall; the news is relayed to
London via a series of beacons built along the south coast. • 2 August (12 August NS) – the fleeing Spanish fleet sails past the
Firth of Forth and the English call off their pursuit. Much of the Spanish fleet will be destroyed by storms as it sails for home around
Scotland and the
west coast of Ireland. • 9 August – Queen Elizabeth makes her
speech to the Troops at Tilbury. • October–November – the
Marprelate Controversy, a war of pamphlets between
Presbyterians and supporters of the
established church, breaks out with publication of the
Epistle by "Martin Marprelate" on
Robert Waldegrave's secret press at
Molesey and
Fawsley. •
George Gower paints the
Armada Portrait of Queen Elizabeth. •
Nicholas Hilliard paints the
portrait miniature Young Man Among Roses. • First record of
marbles being played at
Tinsley Green, West Sussex. • 1588–1589 – earliest probable date for the composition and first performance of
Christopher Marlowe's
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus in London. •
1589 • 13 April – an
English Armada led by Sir Francis Drake and Sir
John Norreys and largely financed by private investors sets sail to attack the
Iberian Peninsula's Atlantic coast but fails to achieve any naval advantage. • Publication of
Richard Hakluyt's
The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation begins. ==Births==