# 1570s in England

Events from the 1570s in England.

## Incumbents

* Monarch – Elizabeth I

## Events

* 1570
** 25 February – Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England with the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis 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.
** The home and library of John Dee at Mortlake begin to serve as an informal prototype English academy for gentlemen with scientific interests.
** Approximate date – Thomas Tallis composes his 40-part motet Spem in alium.
* 1571
** 23 January – the Royal Exchange officially opened by Queen Elizabeth.
** April – Treason Act forbids criticism of the monarchy.
** May – All papal bulls declared treasonable by Act of Parliament.
** 25 June
*** An Act Against Usury permits moneylending at interest rates not exceeding 10%.
*** 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.
** 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. 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.
** Burford School is established in Oxfordshire.
* 1572
** 13 February – Harrow School is founded by local landowner John Lyon under royal charter.
** May – Hexhamshire is annexed to Northumberland.
** 2 June – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is executed for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
** 11 July – Humphrey Gilbert leads 1500 English volunteers on an expedition to assist the Dutch Sea Beggars in their struggle against Spanish Habsburg rule.
** Formation of 'Thomas Morgan's Company of Foot', a group of 300 volunteers from the London Trained Bands to assist the Dutch, origin of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).
** Vagabonds Act, part of the Tudor Poor Laws, prescribes punishment for rogues. This includes actors' companies lacking formal patronage.
** Publication of a revised version of the Bishops' Bible.
* 1573
** 24 March – Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys established in Barnet at the petition of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.
** 17 April – English troops capture Edinburgh Castle.
** 18 December – Francis Walsingham becomes Secretary of State.
** 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].
* 1574
** 18 August – Treaty of Bristol settles commercial disputes with Spain.
** The Queen grants freedom to any remaining villeins on crown lands, ending serfdom in England.
** Construction of Longleat House completed.
* 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.
** 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.
** Christopher Saxton publishes his County Atlas of England and Wales.
** 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.
** December – James Burbage opens London's second permanent public playhouse (and the first to have a substantial life), The Theatre, in Shoreditch.
** 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.
** 6 July – 'Black Assize' in Oxford results in an outbreak of epidemic typhus killing around three hundred in the city.
** 29 November – Catholic seminary priest Cuthbert Mayne is hanged, drawn and quartered at Launceston, Cornwall, for treason, first of the Douai Martyrs.
** 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.
* 1578
** 11 June – Humphrey Gilbert is granted letters patent to establish a colony in North America.
** 19 November – Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh set out from Plymouth leading an expedition to establish a colony in North America; forced to turn back six months later.
** December – Publication of John Lyly's didactic prose romance Euphues: the Anatomy of Wyt, originating the ornate prose style known as Euphuism.
* 1579
** 23 April – The English College, Rome, is established for the training of Roman Catholic priests to serve in England.
** 17 June – Drake claims New Albion on the Pacific coast of North America for England.
** June – Humphrey Gilbert sails in an unsuccessful attempt to intercept Spanish forces sailing to support the Second Desmond Rebellion in Ireland.
** 17 August – Eastland Company chartered to trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea states.
** Publication of Edmund Spenser's poetry The Shepheardes Calender, anonymously.

## Births

* 1570
** 22 January – Robert Bruce Cotton, politician (died 1631)
** 13 April – Guy Fawkes, Gunpowder Plot conspirator (hanged 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)
* 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 (hanged 1606)
* 1572
** 22 January – John Donne, writer and prelate (died 1631)
** c. 3 March – Robert Catesby, leader of the Gunpowder Plot (killed 1605)
** 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)
** 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)
** 4 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, Gunpowder Plot conspirator (hanged 1606)
** 24 August – John Taylor, "The Water Poet" (died 1653)
** Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, lawyer (died 1640)
** Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland (died 1632)
** Ambrose Rookwood, Gunpowder Plot conspirator (hanged 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

* 1571
** 12 February – Nicholas Throckmorton, diplomat and politician (born 1515)
** 1 June – John Story, Catholic lawyer, politician and martyr (executed) (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 (executed) (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, recusant Catholic priest and martyr, canonised (executed) (born 1543)
* 1578
** 7 March – Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, member of the royal family, diplomat (born 1515)
** 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)