Historical TIMELINE of the Tudors
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Historical Timeline of the Events of the Tudor Era 1485-1603 Click EasyEdit to update this page! (Don't see the EasyEdit button above? <a href="/#signin" target="_self">Sign in</a> or <a href="/accountnew" target="_self">Sign up</a>.) |
See also : <a class="external" href="http://www.sho.com/site/tudors/timeline.do" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="The Showtime Site's Time line">The Showtime Site's Time line</a> where Michael Hirst (writer and creator of the series discusses the time line of the Tudors |
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| Event | Comments |
August 22nd, 1485 | Battle of Bosworth Field - Henry Tudor defeats King Richard III & the Yorkist forces... | ... thus bringing an end to the War of the Roses. Henry VII became king by right of conquest. |
October 30, 1485 | Henry Tudor is crowned King of England | Henry Tudor claimed royal blood through his mother's paternal descent from the illegitimate line of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, in addition Henry's father Edmund Tudor was the grandson of Catherine of Valois, former Queen Consort of King Henry V. |
December 16th, 1485 | Katherine of Aragon is born to Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon | Youngest child of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand |
January 18, 1486 | Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York | The marriage was a politically savvy one for Henry, in that it bound the warring houses of York and Lancaster so the heir to the throne of England would be from both families |
September 20, 1486 | Prince Arthur is born to King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York | The prince was named after King Arthur of Cadwaldr, from whom the King's genealogists traced his ancestry. |
November 25, 1487 | Elizabeth of York is crowned Queen consort of England | |
March 27, 1489 | Treaty of Medina el Campo between England & Spain | Accomplished 3 goals: - the betrothal of Katherine of Aragon & Arthur, Prince of Wales -a common policy of the two countries toward France - reduced tariffs between the two countries |
November 28, 1489 | Princess Margaret is born to King Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth | Foundress of the Stuart dynasty |
June 28th, 1491 | Prince Henry Tudor is born | The future King Henry VIII. Out of the three sons of Henry VII: Arthur (d.1502) and Edmund (d.1500), only Henry survived to reign. |
1492/1498 | Christopher Columbus, under contract to King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella, makes 4 voyages to the New World | However, Columbus does not realize the extent of his discovery; he believes he is somewhere in India. |
January 2, 1492 | Conquest of Granada - defeat of Emir Muhmmad XII of Granada, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella take Granada as a tributary kingdom | Final act of the "reconquista", reconquest of Spain |
March 31, 1492 | Alhambra Decree signed by Ferdinand and Isabella commanding the expulsion of Jews from Spain | Approximately 200,000 Jews left Spain as a result and resettled in Portugal, North Africa, South Eastern Europe, Netherlands and England |
November 3, 1492 | Treaty of Etaples signed by Henry VII and Charles VIII of France | France agreed to stop supporting Perkin Warbeck as rightful king of England and pay Henry an indemnity in exchange for England recognizing French control of Brittany |
March 5, 1496 | Italian merchant and explorer John Cabot receives a patent from King Henry VII authorizing him to search for land in the New World | |
March 18, 1496 | Princess Mary is born to King Henry and Queen Elizabeth | Youngest surviving child of Henry VII |
May 24, 1496 | Lambert Simnel is crowned "King Edward VI" in Dublin | pretender to the throne supported by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln |
June 16, 1497 | Battle of Stoke Field: ended the Lambert Simnel uprising | |
June 17, 1497 | Battle of Blackheath: Henry VII led 25,000 men to defeat the rebels of the First Cornish Rebellion | Rebels were encouraged by the pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck who claimed to be Richard the Duke of York (Elizabeth of York's younger brother, uncle of Henry VIII). |
June 24, 1497 | On his second voyage, Cabot landed in what is today Newfoundland, Canada and claimed it for his patron King Henry VII calling it "Prima Vista" | Although his second voyage was a great success and Cabot was welcomed back to London as a hero, disaster struck during his third voyage when his ship was lost at sea, a major setback for English exploration, the Tudors would not fund another voyage until 1517. |
1497 | The Bonfire of the Vanities occurs in Florence, Italy in which Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned objects considered sinful, including original paintings by Botticelli. | |
February 21, 1499 | Prince Edmund is born to King Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth | The prince would die 15 months later of unknown causes. |
November 23, 1499 | Perkin Warbeck is executed at Tyburn | Warbeck was drawn on a hurdle and then read his confession, his face was badly beaten in order to disguise his resemblance to the York family before he was taken to Tyburn to be executed. |
1499 - 1500 | Plague outbreak in London | 30,000 die |
C.1501 | Anne Boleyn is born. | Earlier historians considered 1507 to be the accepted date but in 1981, the art historian Hugh Paget successfully demonstrated that a letter Anne had written in 1513 from Brussels when she was a maid of honour in the court, a position which was only open to a 12 or 13 yr old was not the hand of a 6 yr old. [Ives - Life & Death of Anne Boleyn] |
November 4th, 1501 | Prince Arthur meets his betrothed, Katherine of Aragon for the first time | |
November 14th, 1501 | Katherine of Aragon marries Prince Arthur Tudor | Arthur was 15 years old and Katherine was 16 years old. |
April 2nd, 1502 | Prince Arthur Tudor, heir to the throne, dies. | His younger brother, Henry who is 11 years old, becomes heir apparent. |
1502 | Treaty of Perpetual Peace Treaty signed as part of the marriage negotiations of Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England and James IV, King of Scotland. | |
February 10, 1503 | Henry VII's queen consort, Elizabeth of York dies in childbirth. | The queen delivered a daughter named Catherine who died shortly after birth. |
June 23, 1503 | Betrothal of Henry Prince of Wales and Katherine of Aragon, his brother's widow | Henry is just 12 years old and Katherine is 18 |
July 2, 1503 | Margaret Tudor departs Richmond Palace to begin her journey to Scotland | On her way, Princess Margaret payed a visit to her paternal grandmother and namesake, Lady Margaret Beaufort, at her estate at Collyweston. |
August 8, 1503 | Margaret Tudor marries King James IV of Scotland at Holyrood House in Edinburgh | Margaret was 13 years-old while King James was 30. |
December 26, 1503 | Pope Julius grants dispensation allowing Prince Henry to marry his brother's widow. | |
February 18, 1504 | Henry is created the Prince of Wales. | |
November 24, 1504 | Isabella of Castille dies. | The kingdom of Castille was ruled by Isabella's eldest daughter Joanna and her husband Archduke Phillip "the Fair" |
1505 | Christ College of the University of Cambridge is established | Founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort |
June 27, 1505 | Prince Henry formally repudiates his betrothal to Princess Katherine | 14 year-old Henry had reached the age of consent and under pressure from his father he repudiated his betrothal in order to free up alternative marriage negotiations |
c. 1507 | The husband of Lisa del Giocondo commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint the 'Mona Lisa' | Shortly after she had 3 teeth pulled and false teeth fitted. |
1507 | The second outbreak of sweating sickness in England. | |
c.1508/9 | Jane Seymour is born | Her exact birth date is debated, but at her funeral, 29 women walked in succession & as it was customary for the attendant company to mark every year of the deceased's life in numbers, this implies she was born in 1508. |
1508 | Michelangelo begins painting the Sistine Chapel in Rome (1508-1512). | |
1509 | The humanitarian thinker Desiderius Erasmus publishes In Praise of Folly, which he wrote at Sir Thomas More’s home, satirizing the behavior of Church clergy. | |
April 21st, 1509 | King Henry VII dies & King Henry VIII takes the throne. | |
1509 - 1547 1509 - 1533 | is Queen Consort | 38 years 24 years |
June 11th, 1509 | King Henry VIII marries Katherine of Aragon. | He was 18 years old and she was 24 years old. |
June 24, 1509 | Joint Coronation of King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon | |
June 29, 1509 | Lady Margaret Beaufort dies | Mother of Henry VII, she held considerable influence over her son and pushed a marriage alliance between England and Spain in order to join the House of Tudor with the bloodlines of the most powerful nation in Europe. |
January 31, 1510 | Queen Katherine of Aragon delivers a stillborn daughter | She continues to have either a phantom pregnancy or infection and leaves the birthing room without a baby in May. Angry words are shared between her and Henry. |
January 1, 1511 | Queen Katherine of Aragon delivers a son, Henry, who dies 52 days later leaving Katherine heartbroken. | |
April 9, 1511 | Henry VIII grants charter establishing St. John's College of the University of Cambridge | Henry's grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort is credited as the college foundress, because the funds to build the school came from her estate. However, this was not expressed in her will. Bishop John Fisher, her chaplain, was largely responsible for obtaining the approval of the college from Henry. |
April 11, 1512 | Margaret Tudor gives birth to Prince James at Linlithgow | Unlike her three previous pregnancies, James survives to adulthood. |
November 1, 1512 | Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are completed and first exhibited to the public. | |
c.1512 | Catherine Parr is born | |
August 16, 1513 | Battle of Spurs at Therouanne King Henry VIII leads an army of 35,000 from England, lands at Calais and surrenders six days later. | |
September 9, 1513 | Battle of Flodden Field, the Scots under King James IV versus the English army headed by Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. | The largest battle (in terms of numbers) fought between the two nations. Queen Katherine of Aragon sent King Henry the bloody cloak of the dead King of Scotland to verify his death while Henry fought in France. |
September 21, 1513 | In accordance to his father's will, Prince James is crowned as King James V, Margaret Tudor is queen regent while her son is underage provided she doesn't remarry | At this time Margaret is also pregnant with her late husband's child |
1513 | Anne Boleyn leaves England to become one of 18 maids of honour in the Habsburg court of Margaret of Austria, regent of the low countries for her young nephew Charles who would become Emperor Charles V | Regent Margaret was known as a strict chaperon. |
October 9, 1514 | Mary Tudor marries King Louis XII of France | Henry VIII's sister is 18 and Louis is a decrepit 52. |
November 5, 1514 | Mary Tudor is crowned Queen of France | |
1514 - 1521 | Anne Boleyn is placed in the retinue of Queen Claude (wife of Francis I) and finishes her education in France. | Claude was only 15 years old in 1514 & her appearance bordered on deformity but she was known as warm & gentle |
January 1, 1515 | Louis XII of France dies and Francis I takes the throne | |
Early February, 1515 | Queen Katherine of Aragon gives birth to a male, stillborn child after miscarrying another child in October 1513. | |
April 1515 | Now a widow, Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor returns to England | Mary Boleyn returns with her. |
September 22, 1515 | Anne of Cleves is born | |
December 24, 1515 | Cardinal Thomas Wolsey is created Lord Chancellor of England | |
1515/17 | Henry VIII establishes the Royal Workshops for armor production at Greenwich, headed by Martyn van Royne (active 1515–40). | |
February 18, 1516 | Queen Katherine of Aragon gives birth to Princess Mary Tudor | |
February 23, 1516 | Ferdinand II of Aragon dies | |
May 13, 1516 | Mary Tudor marries Charles Brandon at Greenwich | Henry VIII's sister, Mary, and Brandon will have a daughter named Frances. Her daughter, Lady Jane Grey, will rule England for nine days after the death of King Edward VI and Mary I will sentence her to death by beheading for treason. |
October 31, 1517 | Martin Luther nailed to the church door at Wittenberg a list of 95 theses on indulgences, denying the pope had any right to forgive sins. Luther's posting was meant to foster scholarly debate at Wittenberg, but some of his students and colleagues thought it was such a good point that they printed and distributed it. | Martin Luther was a German monk whose ideas inspired the Protestant Reformation. He challenged the authority of the Papacy by holding that the Bible was the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians are a priesthood. According to Luther, salvation was a free gift of God, received by true repentance and faith. |
1518 | Treaty of London a non-aggression pact between the major European nations. The signatories were France, England, the Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy, Spain, Burgundy & the Netherlands, all of whom agreed not to attack each other and to come to the aid of any that were attacked | Sponsored & designed by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Although peace was short- lived, it did begin a peace movement which continued for centuries. |
November 18, 1518 | Queen Katherine of Aragon miscarries another child. | This would be her last pregnancy. |
January 12, 1519 | Maximilian I, Roman Emperor dies | |
1516 & 1519 | Charles V succeeds both his grandfathers, Maximilian I & Ferdinand II of Aragon | |
June 15, 1519 | The King's teenaged mistress, Elizabeth Blount, gives birth to an illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy | |
February 1520 | Mary Boleyn marries William Carey of the Privy Chamber with King Henry VIII as principal guest | It is thought that she became the King's mistress in the year previous to this |
June 8-26, 1520 | Field of the Cloth of Gold held between King Henry VIII and King Francis I of France. By one French account it apparently turned sour for Henry when he lost a wrestling match with Francis. | Political results were very small. Relations between the two countries worsened soon after the event when Cardinal Thomas Wolsey arranged an alliance with Charles V, who declared war on France later that year. |
July 10, 1520 | King Henry VIII meets Emperor Charles V at Gravelines | |
January 28 - May 25,1521 | The Diet of Worms Charles V presides over a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire (Worms is a small town on the Rhine River in what is now Germany). | Martin Luther is summoned to renounce or reaffirm his views. He confronts Charles, who declares him an outlaw and tries to arrest him, but Luther disappears into exile. |
May 17, 1521 | Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, executed for high treason. | |
August 15, 1521 | Treaty of Bruges Secret treaty between Emperor Charles V and King Henry VIII providing for a joint invasion of France before March 1523. | Did not materialise. English staged campaign (autumn 1523), and with minimal help from Charles got nowhere |
October 11, 1521 | Pope Leo X grants King Henry VIII the title of 'Defender of the Faith' | |
October 1521 | A marriage between James Butler, Earl of Ormonde & Anne Boleyn is proposed | |
1522 | Treaty of Windsor Treaty between England and the Holy Roman Empire. Was to include a marriage between Princess Mary Tudor and the Emperor, Charles V. | Broken in 1525. |
November 1521 | Anne Boleyn is recalled to England | |
March 1522 | Anne Boleyn made her debut in court & plays 'Perseverance' while Mary Boleyn plays 'Kindness" in a court pageant | Mary Tudor was 'Beauty' & Jane Parker (George Boleyn's future wife) was 'Constancy' |
July 24, 1524 | Queen Claude (wife of Francis I) dies | |
February 24, 1525 | The Battle of Pavia The Habsburg army defeats the French and King Francis I is captured by Charles V & forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid | Upon his return to France, however, Francis argued that his agreement with Charles was made under duress and also claimed that the agreement was void, as his sons had still been taken hostage suggesting his word alone was not trusted, and he repudiated it. |
c. 1524 | King Henry VIII no longer shares Queen Katherine of Aragon's bed because she is past childbearing age. | Katherine is aged 39 and Henry is 33 |
c.1525 | Katherine Howard is born | One of ten children and youngest daughter of Edmund Howard, second son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk |
Jun 18, 1525 | Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII, is created Duke of Richmond. Thomas Boleyn is created Viscount Rochford. | |
1526 | German-born artist Hans Holbein the Younger first visits England | |
February 1526 | King Henry VIII starts courting Anne Boleyn | Henry is aged 35 & Anne 25 (in accordance with a birth date of 1501) |
July, 1526 | Charles V marries Isabella of Portugal, spurning young Mary | Charles needed a wife and could not afford to wait for Mary to grow up. Isabella brought a vast dowry and promise of future land conquests. Henry takes his anger out on Katherine. |
1527 | Treaty of Westminster. Treaty between King Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France against Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire | |
May 6, 1527 | German and Spanish troops under Emperor Charles V sack Rome, Pope Clement VII is taken prisoner | |
May 17, 1527 | Ecclesiastical court established at Westminster to hear King Henry VIII's arguments requesting an annulment of his marriage to Queen Katherine of Aragon | |
May 21, 1527 | Prince Phillip of Spain is born to Emperor Charles V and Queen Isabella | Only legitimate son of the Emperor, future husband of Princess Mary |
June 22, 1527 | King Henry VIII tells Queen Katherine of Aragon he doubts the validity of their marriage | After 18 years of marriage, Henry decides that the biblical scripture that says a couple would be childless if a man married his brother's widow was the reason they had no living son. Katherine states that her union with his brother was never consummated & she had borne him children, but Henry's mind is made up. |
September 1527 | King Henry VIII asks the Pope for an annulment | |
September 29, 1528 | Cardinal Campeggio sent by Pope to hear Henry VIII's case | |
May 31, 1529 | Legatine court opens at Black Friars | |
June 21, 1529 | King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon (along with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey) appear before the legatine court. | Katherine kneels before the king and begs for "pity and compassion" and declared that she was a virgin when she married him. Henry VIII delivers a speech outlining his scruples about his marriage. |
August 3, 1529 | Treaty of Cambrai also called the Paix des Dames (The Ladies' Peace) because it was negotiated by Louise of Savoy , mother of King Francis & regent in his absence, and Margaret of Austria, aunt of Emperor Charles & regent of the Netherlands | Agreement ending one phase of the wars between King Francis I of France and Emperor Charles V, temporarily confirming Spanish (Habsburg) control in Italy. |
August 1529 | Sir Thomas More, on the continent, helps negotiate a general peace between all the major players in Europe. | The peace will hold for fifteen years |
1529 | The "Sweating Sickness" hits Europe | 100,000 die. This was the 4th virulent episode. France was spared. |
October 17, 1529 | Henry VIII strips Cardinal Wolsey of his titles of office. | This was due to his failure to secure an annulment of his marriage to Katherine from the Pope. |
October 26, 1529 | Sir Thomas More appointed Lord Chancellor of England to replace Cardinal Wolsey | |
December 8, 1529 | Sir Thomas Boleyn created Earl of Wiltshire | |
June 1530 | King Henry VIII convenes a meeting of lords and prelates to sign a letter to Pope Clement asking that he grant the king's request for an annulment of his marriage | Sir Thomas More does not sign the document. |
July 4, 1530 | Eleanor of Habsburg (Charles V's favourite sister) marries Francis I | as part of "the Ladies' Peace" treaty |
September 1530 | King Henry VIII issues a proclamation preventing enforcement of any papal bull inconsistent with his own view concerning the unlawfulness of his present marriage | Sir Thomas More openly expresses his disagreement with Henry's action, believing it to be a direct attack on the authority of Rome. |
November 29, 1530 | Cardinal Thomas Wolsey dies at Leicester while en route to London to be executed. | He had begun a secret plot to have Anne Boleyn forced into exile and he began communication with Katherine and the Pope, to that end. When this was discovered, Henry ordered Wolsey's arrest |
c. 1531 | Joyce Culpeper, mother of Katherine Howard, dies | Since Katherine's father Edmund Howard did not have the means to raise his ten children he sent them off to wealthier relatives, Katherine was sent to live with her step-grandmother Agnes Tilney, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk |
Early 1531 | An angry King Henry VIII summons the clergy to Westminster, where he demands reimbursement for the costs of sending a delegation to Rome after it failed to achieve its goal of securing an annulment of his marriage. | Henry also demands that he be recognized as the "sole protector and supreme head of the English Church and clergy." In the Parliament, John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, expresses strong disagreement with giving this new title to Henry. |
February 11, 1531 | Parliament first recognises King Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church of England | Henry was the first monarch to break with the Roman Catholic Church. |
March 1531 | Sir Thomas More tells the House of Lords that King Henry VIII is seeking annulment of his marriage not "out of love for some lady," but for reasons of conscience. | |
Late May, 1531 | A group of royal councilors meets with Queen Katherine of Aragon and unsuccessfully urges her to drop her opposition to the annulment of her marriage to King Henry VIII. | |
July 14, 1531 | King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon separate and he banishes her from court | |
March 1532 | Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex acting on behalf of the king, moves to limit the authority of the Church (and Sir Thomas More) to punish heretics. | |
Early May 1532 | Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex prepares a bill to transfer powers of the Church to Parliament. Cromwell also asks that the bishops be denied their longstanding authority to arrest heretics--an action that Sir Thomas More cannot stomach. | |
May 15, 1532 | In accord with king's demands, the clergy submits, thus accepting that all ecclesiastical law required royal consent. The submission effectively makes King Henry VIII the head of the Church of England. | |
May 16, 1532 | Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor | Henry tells More, "For your service you have done me, you will find me a good and gracious lord..." |
May 30, 1532 | Thomas Harding burnt at the stake for heresy in Chesham | one of the last of the Lollards to be persecuted in England |
September 1, 1532 | Anne Boleyn created Marchioness of Pembroke | Anne accompanies Henry on a state visit to Calais, France |
September, 1532 | major riots in Zurich and Wittenburg begin the iconoclasm in Reformation Germany | Statues and images of Saints are destroyed in order to comply with Lutheran doctrine, it was actions such as this that gave Evangelicals the name Protestants |
November 15, 1532 | Pope Clement VII threatens King Henry VIII with excommunication if he does not leave Anne and return to his lawful wife Katherine | |
January 25, 1533 | Henry & Anne Boleyn marry in a secret ceremony | This may have been a second ceremony, the first taking place in late November, 1532 |
March 30, 1533 | Thomas Cranmer is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. | |
May 23, 1533 | Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declares the marriage of King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon to be invalid | Even threatening Henry with excommunication if he visited Katherine |
May 28, 1533 | Thomas Cranmer validates King Henry VIII& Anne Boleyn's marriage | |
1533 - 1536 | Queen Consort | 3 years "a thousand days" |
June 1, 1533 | Coronation of Anne Boleyn | |
Summer 1533 | Sir Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex begins an investigation into the activities of Sir Thomas More | |
June 8, 1533 | Parliament extinguishes Papal authority in England | |
June 25, 1533 | Mary Tudor, younger sister of Henry VIII, dies at Westhorpe, Suffolk. | |
July 10, 1533 | It is reported that Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and George Boleyn, caught up with the French court. While they were there both Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond became violently sick, at the same time. Richmond was so ill, that for a while, it was feared he might die. | The boys had shared a cup of wine and the physicians thought the symptoms were characteristic of poisoning. Because the wine had been shared, Richmond had not taken enough to kill him. George Boleyn was found to have departed immediately the boys became ill, leaving all his luggage and entourage behind. Later, George Boleyn's wife, Jane Boleyn stated that Anne and her brother had tried to poison the Duke of Richmond and Princess Mary Tudor. |
July 11, 1533 | Pope Clement VII excommunicates King Henry VIII & his advisers (including Thomas Cranmer) | |
September 7, 1533 | Anne Boleyn gives birth to Princess Elizabeth Tudor | |
November 25, 1533 | Henry Fitzroy, Henry VIII's illegitimate son, marries Mary Howard (daughter of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk) Anne Boleyn is said to have worked for this pairing | |
February 1534 | Parliament enacts the Act of Annates, which provides that bishops in England will be selected by the king. Parliament also indicts Elizabeth Barton for treason by a Bill of Attainder. A bill drafted by Sir Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex identifies Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More as among her accomplices. | Cromwell requests More visit him for an informal meeting on the issues of the king's marriage annulment and papal supremacy More reaffirms his belief in papal supremacy based, he claims, on a writing of Henry himself. He adheres to a policy of silence on the matter of the king's marriage |
March 5, 1534 | Sir Thomas More writes letters to Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell stating his loyalty to the king, denying any conspiracy with Barton, and expressing his desire to see the king's interests furthered. | The same month More is called to appear before the king's commissioners. The commissioners threaten More, and call him a "villainous" servant, but depart without taking action against him. |
March 23, 1534 | Parliament passes the Act of Succession. Only children of King's marriage to Anne Boleyn are his lawful heirs | The Act also specifies various offenses, such as "derogating" the royal family, to be treasonous. Most significantly for More, the Act also requires all of the king's subjects to take an oath promising to maintain "the whole effects and contents of the present Act." |
March,1534 | Pope Clement VII declares the marriage between Henry VIII and Katherine valid | |
April 12, 1534 | While leaving church, Sir Thomas More is handed a summons to appear before the king's commissioners at Lambeth Palace and take the oath of succession. | |
April 13, 1534 | Sir Thomas More leaves Chelsea for Lambeth after telling his family he will likely be imprisoned. At Lambeth, More, when asked to take the oath, requests to see both it and the Act of Succession. More tells the commissioners that although he will deny nothing contained in the oath, he would not swear to it | Asked a second time to take the oath after being threatened with imprisonment, More again refuses to do so--and also refuses to explain why he refuses to take the oath. More is turned over to the Abbot of Westminster, who keeps him for four days |
April 17, 1534 | Sir Thomas More is imprisoned in the Tower of London | |
Apr 20, 1534 | Elizabeth Barton, known as the "Nun of Kent" is executed for high treason at Tyburn. | |
May 11, 1534 | King Henry VIII makes peace with Scotland | |
July, 1534 | Anne Boleyn delivers a stillborn baby | |
September 25, 1534 | Pope Clement VII dies | |
October 13, 1534 | Alessandro Farnese, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia becomes Pope Paul III | |
November 1534 - Early 1535 | A bill is introduced, and later enacted, called the Act of Supremacy, which declares Henry to be the supreme head of the Church of England | Also, Parliament considers, and eventually enacts, the Treason Act which makes it a capital offense to "maliciously wish, will, or desire, by words or writing" to deny to members of the royal family their "dignity, title, or name of their royal estates." Parliament also targets More with and Act of Attainder for "intending to sow sedition" by his refusal to take the oath. |
Christmas 1534 | Henry discusses with Cranmer and Cromwell the chances of leaving Anne Boleyn without having to return to Katherine of Aragon | |
January 15, 1535 | King Henry VIII assumes the title "Supreme Head of the Church." | |
May 2, 1535 | Sir Thomas More meets with Cromwell and four others in a room at the Tower. He was told that Henry VIII demanded his opinion on the recently enacted Act of Supremacy. | More said that he refused to "meddle" in such affairs. Although told that the king would be merciful if he consented to the Act, More says that his whole concern now is for his living the best possible Christian life. |
Late May 1535 | King Henry VIII is angered to learn that the Pope has made Bishop Fisher, an outspoken opponent of his marriage to Anne Boleyn, a cardinal. | |
June 3, 1535 | Sir Thomas More appears for a third interrogation before Cromwell and other councilors of the king. He is asked to give an oath to the supremacy of Henry as head of the Church of England, but he remains silent. | |
June 1535 | Solicitor-General Richard Rich visits More's cell and takes away his books and writing materials. Rich later will testify that during the course of his visit, More, in responding to a hypothetical question, suggested that Parliament had no more power to enact the Act of Supremacy than it did to pass a law declaring God not to be God. | More's statement, if actually made, would violate the Treason Act because it denied the king's title as the supreme head of the Church. (More later denies ever making any such statement to Rich.) Two days later, More is questioned by official investigators--a sort of preliminary hearing for his trial. |
June 22, 1535 | Five days after being convicted of treason, John Fisher is beheaded on Tower Hill. | |
June 26, 1535 | A special commission is established to hear the case of Sir Thomas More | |
June 28, 1535 | A 2000-word indictment accusing Sir Thomas More of treason is presented to the special commission. | |
June 1535 | Anne Boleyn has a miscarriage | Rumoured & not all historians record this |
July 1, 1535 | Sir Thomas More is tried for treason in Westminster Hall. More pleads "not guilty,"After one hour of deliberation, the jury of twelve men finds More guilty. | |
July 5, 1535 | Sir Thomas More's wife, Alice, visits her husband in the Tower. He gives her a letter composed in charcoal for his daughter Margaret. By this time, he also knows that his sentence had been commuted by Henry from disembowelment to beheading. | *the transcript of the letter appears on Sir Thomas More's character profile here on the Wiki* |
July 6, 1535 | Execution of Sir Thomas More | |
September 10, 1535 | King Henry VIII visits Sir John Seymour at Wolf Hall, Savernake, Wiltshire. He meets his daughter, Jane Seymour for the first time. | |
November 1535 | King Henry VIII begins courting Jane Seymour | |
1536 | Act of Union - annexation of Wales and all existing laws to England | Current borders between England and Wales are established, marcher lordships are abolished, English becomes the only permissible language for public office |
1536 | Katherine Howard starts an intimate relationship with music teacher Henry Manox | During her adultery trail both Katherine and Manox confessed to having a sexual relationship but without intercourse |
January 7, 1536 | Death of Queen Katherine of Aragon | |
January 8, 1536 | Both Henry & Anne appear in joyful yellow from top to toe and 16 month old Princess Elizabeth is paraded triumphantly in Church that Sunday morning | |
January 24, 1536 | King Henry VIII's horse falls heavily in the tilt-yard at Greenwich knocking him unconscious for 2 hours | |
January 29, 1536 | Anne Boleyn delivers a stillborn son | The Aragonese Faction which supported Mary, The Seymour Faction & Thomas Cromwell joined in mobilising against the Boleyns |
January 29, 1536 | Queen Katherine of Aragon buried at Peterborough Abbey | |
February , 1536 | Rumours start circulating about the future of Anne Boleyn & Jane Seymour amongst the foreign ambassadors | |
March, 1536 | Henry sends Jane Seymour a letter & a purse of sovereigns. She returns it unopened. | The letter implies a summons to the King's bed. Jane showed her price was now marriage and nothing less. |
1536 | Hans Holbein the Younger becomes court painter to Henry VIII and paints numerous portraits and drawings of the king and his wives | |
April, 1536 | Jane's brother, Edward Seymour and his wife are moved to rooms which are connected through a secret passage to the king's apartments which allows Henry private access to Jane Seymour | |
April 30, 1536 | Mark Smeaton arrested on suspicion of adultery with the Queen | A confession of guilt is thought to have been tortured out of him. |
May 1, 1536 | Anne Boleyn is arrested and taken to the Tower of London through Traitor's gate. Sir Henry Norris arrested | Note: Before the early 17th century, Traitor's Gate was simply called the Water Gate. |
May 2, 1536 | George Boleyn arrested for incest/adultery with the Queen | |
May 4, 1536 | Sir Francis Weston and Sir William Brereton arrested | |
May 5, 1536 | Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Richard Page arrested | |
May 15, 1536 | The Trial of Anne Boleyn | It is estimated that some 2000 people attended. Anne conducted herself in a calm and dignified manner, denying all the charges against her |
May 16, 1536 | Thomas Cranmer sees Anne Boleyn in the Tower and hears her confession. | The following day, he pronounces the marriage of King Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn null and void |
May 17, 1536 | Mark Smeaton, Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton and George Boleyn are executed by beheading | |
May 19, 1536 | Anne Boleyn is executed at Tower Green | Henry's last act of "kindness" was to pay for a swordsman from France to behead Anne instead of the usual Axe. |
May 20, 1536 | Henry VIII betrothed to Jane Seymour | |
May 30, 1536 | Henry & Jane Seymour are married | Henry is aged 45 and Jane is 28 (given that her accepted birth date is 1508) |
1536 - 1537 | Queen Consort | 16 months |
June 4, 1536 | Jane Seymour is declared Queen consort | |
June 22, 1536 | Mary Tudor writes to her father accepting her illegitimate status, the annulment of her parents marriage, and her father's position as Supreme Head of the English Church | An action she would regret for the rest of her life. |
July 6, 1536 | At Jane Seymour's insistence, Mary Tudor meets with her father for the first time since the divorce of her mother. | |
July 22, 1536 | Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII, dies of tuberculosis aged 17 years | There had always been the possibility that Fitzroy could have succeeded him, but now Henry VIII was left with only two daughters, both declared illegitimate. |
1536 - 1539 | Dissolution of the Monasteries - destruction and closure of 560 monasteries religious houses | |
October, 1536 | William Tyndale known as "the father" of the English Bible is burned at the stake in Belgium . | After a decade of alluding capture for his "crime" of publishing the New Testament translated in English. His last words was a prayer that God would "open the eyes" of the King of England |
October 1 - 10, 1536 | Linolnshire Uprising after the closure of Louth Abbey | |
October 13, 1536 | Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion. Robert Aske led a band of nine thousand followers and they entered and occupied York. Henry authorised Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk to promise a general pardon and a Parliament to be held at York within a year. Trusting in the king's promises, Aske dismissed his followers. | 40,000 men marched through England in protest of the Reformation |
January 1537 | Promises to Aske & his followers were not kept and a new rising took place in Cumberland and Westmoreland | Martial law was imposed upon the rebellious regions, ending the rebellion. |
April, 1537 | Robert Aske is arrested in London | Aske was convinced to visit the king under the false promise that he would be protected |
May 17, 1537 | Robert Aske is found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death | |
May 27, 1537 | Trinity Sunday, there was a Te Deum sung in St Paul's cathedral for joy at the queen's (Jane Seymour) quickening of her child, the lord chancellor, lord privy seal and various other lords and bishops being then present; the mayor and aldermen with the best guilds of the city being there in their liveries, all giving laud and praise to God for joy about it.' | Bonfires were lit and celebrations held throughout England; prayers were offered for a safe delivery |
May 29, 1537 | Pope Paul III enacted the papal bull <a class="external" href="http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pope0220a.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sublimus Dei</a> condemning the enslavement of the indigenous people of the Americas so that they may be converted to Catholicism | despite papal condemnation, enslavement of Native Americans continued under the Spanish and Portuguese settlers in the New World |
June 28, 1537 | Robert Aske is returned to Yorkshire | en route he is paraded through the towns and cities he passed in chains as an example to other rebels |
July 12, 1537 | Robert Aske is hung from Clifford Tower in York | |
1537 | The Institution of the Christian Man (also called The Bishops' Book), published. It was written by a committee of forty six divines and bishops headed by Thomas Cranmer. | The purpose of the work, along with the Ten Articles of the previous year, was to implement the reforms of Henry VIII in separating from the Roman Catholic Church |
October 12, 1537 | Birth of Prince Edward | |
October 15, 1537 | Baptism of Prince Edward at Hampton Court | |
October 23, 1537 | King Henry VIII is summoned to his wife's bedside as her last rites are given | |
October 24, 1537 | Jane Seymour dies from illness | Her likely cause of death was puerperal (child bed) fever, a fatal variety of septicemia caused by improper sanitary conditions during labor. She was 29 years old. |
1538 | Henry VIII authorizes the first publication of "the Great Bible" in English to be read in church services. | |
1538 | Katherine Howard begins relationship with Francis Dereham | Katherine and Dereham called one another "husband and wife" |
1539 | Treaty of Toledo Francis I & Charles V agree not to ally with Henry VIII unless by mutual agreement | |
February 6, 1539 | Death of John III "the Peaceful", father of Anne of Cleves | Anne's brother William becomes the Duke of Cleves at age 22 |
March 1539 | Negotiations begin for a marriage between Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves | |
October 4, 1539 | Marriage treaty between Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves signed. | |
December 27, 1539 | Anne of Cleves' ship lands at Deal | |
January 1, 1540 | Henry VIII pays a surprise visit to his wife-to-be at Rochester | the visit did not go well, afterwards the king told Cromwell he "liked her not" |
1540 | Queen Consort | 6 months |
January 6, 1540 | Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves marry | |
April 1540 | Henry VIII begins courting Katherine Howard | Katherine is currently serving Anne of Cleves. |
April 17, 1540 | Thomas Cromwell is created the Earl of Essex | |
April 24, 1540 | Henry grants lands, confiscated from a felon, to Katherine Howard | First recorded indication of Henry's affection for Katherine |
June 10, 1540 | Thomas Cromwell is arrested for high treason | |
June 24, 1540 | Anne of Cleves is commanded by Henry VIII to leave court and is sent to Richmond Palace | Henry's reason for sending Anne away was concern over a plague outbreak |
July 6, 1540 | Anne of Cleves is informed of her husband's decision to reconsider their marriage | |
July 8, 1540 | Henry VIII abolished all books containing heresy | |
July 9, 1540 | Marriage between Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves annulled | Surviving her marriage better than any wife before her, Anne is made an honorary "sister" to the King and receives Hever castle, the former home of Anne Boleyn. |
1540 - 1542 | Queen Consort | 19 months |
July 28, 1540 | Henry VIII and Katherine Howard are married Execution of Thomas Cromwell | Henry is aged 49 and Katherine 15. |
September 27, 1540 | Pope Paul III allows the creation of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits | |
August 27, 1541 | Katherine Howard appoints Francis Dereham as her private secretary | Dereham was an ex-lover of Katherine's. This appointment will later spell doom for both the Queen and Dereham. |
October 18, 1541 | Margaret Tudor dies in Scotland | |
November 1, 1541 | Henry VIII is informed of Katherine's adultery. | After which, he threatens to kill her himself. |
November 12, 1541 | Katherine Howard is arrested | |
November 22, 1541 | Katherine Howard is stripped of her title as Queen, she is taken to Syon House Middlesex for her imprisonment | |
December 10, 1541 | Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham are executed for high treason | Culpepper was aided in his affair with Katherine by Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, right under the King's nose. Years earlier, reports that Dereham and Katherine were secretly wed to each before she married the King condemned the Queen's secretary. |
1542 | Crown of Ireland Act - Irish Parliament declares Henry VIII and his descendants (the kings of England) King of Ireland | The position of King of Ireland was abolished after the passage of The Republic of Ireland Act in 1948, however the Crown of Ireland Act was not repealed until the Republic of Ireland passed the Pre-Union Statues Act in 1962. The English monarch is still recognized today in Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom. |
January 21, 1542 | Parliament passes the bill of attainder which declares the intent to commit treason punishable by death | This seals Katherine Howard's fate, Henry signed the bill into law on February 11th and scheduled her execution for the 13th |
February 10, 1542 | Katherine Howard arrives at the Tower of London | |
February 13, 1542 | Katherine Howard is executed for adultery and treason Jane Rochford is executed for treason | Katherine was aged approximately 18. |
July 21, 1542 | Pope Paul III establishes the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman Inquisition" whose mission was to combat the spread of Protestants in Italy | The Roman Inquisition, as it was later known, would last to the mid nineteenth century and was famous for trying Galileo Galilei for his scientific theories and writings. |
December 8, 1542 | Mary, Queen of Scots is born to James V of Scotland (King Henry VIII's nephew - son of Margaret Tudor) and Mary of Guise | The six or seven-day-old Mary became Queen of Scotland when her father died at the age of 30. |
March 2, 1543 | Lord Latimer, Catherine Parr's husband, dies | Latimer was Catherine's second husband |
July 1, 1543 | The Treaty of Greenwich between England & Scotland | 6 month old Mary Queen of Scots is promised in marriage to Prince Edward Tudor son of King Henry VIII |
1543 | Hans Holbein the Younger dies from the plague | |
1543 | The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for Any Christian Man, (also known as the King's Book) was published and attributed to King Henry VIII. | It was a revision of The Institution of the Christian Man, and defended transubstantiation and the Six Articles. It also encouraged preaching and attacked the use of images. |
1543 | Nicolas Copernicus' book On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres is first published in Nuremburg | Copernicus' theory that the Earth revolved around the sun and not vice versa put him in the bad opinion of the Catholic Church (who said it went against God's Holy Word to say such) and monarchs (who reasoned that Copernicus' findings meant that if Earth was not the center of the universe, then their kingdoms were not, then they were not the center, either). |
1543 - 1547 | Queen Consort | 3 and half years |
July 12, 1543 | Henry VIII and Catherine Parr marry | This is Catherine's third marriage. |
July 14, 1543 | The Third Succession Act passed by Parliament, restored Mary and Elizabeth to the succession after Edward and his potential offspring | |
September 9, 1543 | Nine month old Mary is crowned Queen of Scots | The Treaties of Greenwich fell apart soon after Mary's coronation. The betrothal did not sit well with the Scots, especially since Henry VIII suspiciously tried to change the agreement so that he could possess Mary years before the marriage was to take place. He also wanted them to break their traditional alliance with France. Fearing an uprising among the people, the Scottish Parliament broke off the treaty and the engagement at the end of the year. |
May 1544 | Thomas Wriothesley (Risley) becomes Lord Chancellor | succeeded the more moderate Lord Audley |
July 7, 1544 | Queen Catherine Parr is appointed Regent of England during the King's absence while he leads troops in France | |
September 14, 1544 | King Henry VIII's forces captures Boulogne | The Battle of Boulogne |
February 27, 1545 | Battle of Ancrum Moor English defeated by the Scots at Ancrum Moor | |
July 19, 1545 | sinking of the Mary Rose after engaging the French near Portsmouth | Henry VIII's favorite warship, named after his sister, Mary Tudor. |
December 13, 1545 | Pope Paul III convenes the Council of Trent | One of the most important councils of the Roman Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation. |
April 24, 1546 | Henry VIII charters the English Navy | |
January 28, 1547 | Death of Henry VIII, Edward the Prince of Wales succeeds him | |
January 30, 1547 | Edward Seymour declared Lord Protector of England | Elder brother of Jane Seymour. |
1547 - 1553 | King Edward VI Reigns | 6 and half years |
February 20, 1547 | Coronation of King Edward VI | |
May 4, 1547 | Catherine Parr and Sir Thomas Seymour are secretly wed | At this time, Princess Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey are also living with Catherine Parr. |
September 10, 1547 | "Black Saturday", the Scots suffered a bitter defeat by the English Led by Somerset at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh | |
August 30, 1548 | Birth of Mary Seymour, daughter of Catherine Parr | Both parents are thrilled by the birth of the child, even though she is a girl. |
September 5, 1548 | Death of Catherine Parr | She is 36 year old. |
January 15, 1549 | Act of Uniformity passes House of Lords which outlaws Catholic Mass and introduces the Book of Common Prayer | Edward's sister Mary will defy this law all through her brother's reign. |
January 16, 1549 | Thomas Seymour is arrested for treason and sent to the Tower of London | This is for his scheming to marry the Princess Elizabeth and to arrange the King to marry Lady Jane Grey, he also planned to usurp his brother as Lord Protector and kidnap King Edward |
March 20, 1549 | Thomas Seymour is executed for treason | Princess Elizabeth shows no emotion at his passing. She and her household will be severely interrogated over the Seymour scandal. As a result to the smear on her character, Elizabeth takes up modest Protestant garb and the persona of Edward's "Sweet Sister Temperance." |
May 20, 1549 | Act of Uniformity passes Parliament which forbids other prayer books | |
June - August 1549 | Western Rebellion Rising in the West of England against the Prayer Book and King Edward VI's religious policies. Ended at the Battle of Samford Courtenay | |
August 18,1549 | Battle of Samford Courtenay Defeat of the western rebels by Lord John Russell near Okehampton. | |
January 22, 1552 | Edward Seymour is executed based on trumped up charges of treason | Heading the effort to get rid of Seymour is John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Dudley later marries his son, Guildford, to Lady Jane Grey, in an attempt to rule England through her. |
April 1552 | King Edward is ill with a double infection of smallpox and measles | The king survives but the attack severely weakens his immune system |
February 1553 | King Edward calls off his procession of the southern counties due to his rapidly declining health | |
June 21, 1553 | King Edward VI signs a statement naming Lady Jane Grey as his successor | In doing this, Edward proclaims his sisters to be bastards, and establishes the granddaughter of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor (sister of Henry VIII) as the future queen. |
July 6, 1553 | Edward VI dies | The announcement of the King's passing is delayed. Both to the King's sister are invited to court, but both are most likely informed or sense moves against them, and do not come. |
July 10, 1553 | Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England | "The 9 days Queen" |
July 19, 1553 | Forces loyal to Princess Mary disperse Suffolk's troops and Lady Jane Grey is imprisoned in the Tower of London | |
August 3, 1553 | Princess Mary and her supporters enter London in triumph | Princess Elizabeth and Anne of Cleves came to London in support of Mary |
August 22, 1553 | John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, is executed for treason | Northumberland was instrumental in the plot to place Jane Grey on the throne instead of Mary Tudor |
August 23, 1553 | Bishop Stephen Gardiner is created Lord Chancellor of England after his release from the Tower of London | |
October 1, 1553 | Coronation of Queen Mary I | |
1553 - 1559 | Queen Mary I reigns | 6 years |
October 5, 1553 | Mary holds her first Parliament which rules the marriage of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon legitimate | |
November 14, 1553 | Queen Mary pardons Lady Jane Grey | Jane and her husband remains held in the Tower |
January 22, 1554 | Sir Thomas Wyatt's army occupies Rochester | Thomas Wyatt the Younger, son of Thomas Wyatt the Elder and Poet. |
February 7, 1554 | Sir Thomas Wyatt surrenders | |
February 12, 1554 | Execution of Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Guildford Dudley | |
March 18, 1554 | Princess Elizabeth is arrested and taken to the Tower of London | |
April 1554 | Parliment passes the renewed heresy laws which permits the sentence of death by burning | |
May 19, 1554 | Princess Elizabeth is released from the Tower and placed under house arrest at Woodstock | This release date is 18 years to the day that Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn, made her final walk from the Tower and was beheaded. |
July 12, 1554 | Prince Philip sets sail for England | |
July 23, 1554 | Prince Philip of Spain arrives in Winchester and meets his bride for the first time | |
July 25, 1554 | Queen Mary and Prince Philip of Spain are married | Mary is 38 years-old while Phillip is 27 |
September, 1554 | The royal physician announces that the queen is pregnant | The pregnancy is the first of two "phantom pregnancies" in which Mary experienced the symptoms of pregnancy yet no child was actually conceived |
November 1554 | Parliment passes the Second Act of Repeal which voided all religious laws past after 1529 | In other words, the Reformation of Henry VIII was reversed |
February 4, 1555 | John Rogers is burned at the stake, he was the first to be sentenced under the renewed heresy laws | |
February 9, 1555 | John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester is burned at the stake for heresy | |
March 8, 1555 | Queen Mary grants charter to establish Holy Trinity College at Oxford | |
October 16, 1555 | Bishops Ridley and Latimer are burned at the stake for heresy | |
November 12, 1555 | Bishop Stephen Gardiner, Lord Chancellor of England dies | |
January 16, 1556 | As a result of his father's abdication, Phillip becomes King Philip II of Spain | Phillip would not reside in Spain until 1558 |
February 5, 1556 | Treaty of Vaucelles signed between Philip II of Spain and Henry II of France | The treaty was soon broken and war between the two nations resumed with the threat of England joining against France under Phillip's influence as king consort |
February 14, 1556 | Archbishop Thomas Cranmer is degraded from office | |
March 21, 1556 | Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake for heresy | Cranmer helped Henry VIII to divorce Katherine of Aragon, Mary's mother. |
April, 1556 | Cardinal Reginald Pole is made Archbishop of Canterbury | |
February 27, 1557 | Queen Mary receives Osep Nepea the first Russian ambassador to England | |
June 7, 1557 | England declares war on France | |
July 16, 1557 | Anne of Cleves dies | |
January 7, 1558 | The French capture Calais from the English | Calais had been English territory for 200 years. With the loss of Calais, England also lost its only home port on the Continent. |
April 24, 1558 | Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots the Dauphin Francois at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris | |
summer 1558 | Protestant exile John Knox first published his pamphlet "<a class="external" href="http://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualNLs/firblast.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The first Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women</a>" a diatribe against women rulers as "unnatural" | The target of Knox's work were specifically Catholic female monarchs such as Mary Tudor of England and Mary Stuart of France and Scotland. Despite this, and the fact it was written before her reign, Queen Elizabeth I took his claims as a personal insult and denied Knox passage back to his native Scotland in 1559. |
November 17, 1558 | Death of Queen Mary, Princess Elizabeth succeeds her | The transition from Mary to Elizabeth is peaceful. |
November 23, 1558 | Elizabeth begins her royal progress into London | |
December 14, 1558 | Mary I buried at Westminster Abbey | |
January 13, 1559 | Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I | |
1559 - 1603 | Reigns | 44 years |
February 1559 | The Roman Inquisition publishes The Index of Forbidden Books | Several English Reformist authors were on the list including Thomas Cranmer, Miles Coverdale, William Tyndale, John Wycliff, Nicolas Ridley and Hugh Latimer. |
March 12, 1559 | Elizabeth makes peace with France | |
May 8, 1559 | Act of Uniformity signed by Queen Elizabeth | |
June 11, 1560 | Marie de Guise, Regent of Scotland dies James Stewart, illegitimate son of King James V takes over the administration of Scotland | Marie de Guise was the mother of Mary Queen of Scots and ruled in her daughter's absence |
September 8, 1560 | Amy Robsart, wife of Robert Dudley found dead | Rumors spread that the queen had a part in Lady Dudley's death |
December 5, 1560 | Death of King Francois II of France | Mary loses the French crown, her mother-in-law, Catherine de'Medici, became regent of France because her son Charles IX is too young to rule |
February 15, 1564 | Galileo Galilei is born in Tuscany | Astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and philosopher who would play a major role in the scientific revolution |
April 26, 1564 | William Shakespeare is baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon | |
July 29, 1565 | Mary, Queen of Scots marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley | |
September 8, 1565 | Spanish admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles founds St. Augustine, Florida | The oldest city in the United States 21 years before English settlers first founded the colony in Roanoke, Virginia |
June 19, 1566 | Mary, Queen of Scots gives birth to Prince James | |
February 10, 1567 | Lord Darnley is murdered | It is rumoured that Mary, Queen of Scots played a role in her husband's disposal |
July 24, 1567 | Mary, Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate her throne | Her son James succeeds her as King James VI of Scotland |
April 27, 1570 | Pope Pius V issues a papal bull against Elizabeth, thus excommunicating her. | The bull against Elizabeth forgave all of her subjects for rejecting her as queen or for seeking her removal from the throne. However, Elizabeth's popularity remained high. |
October 7, 1571 | Battle of Lepanto - the Ottoman fleet is defeated by the Holy League, bringing the Empire's Western expansion to a halt | First time the Ottomans were defeated in a major naval battle since the 15th century |
1572 | Treaty of Blois Treaty between England and France. | The English hoped thereby to isolate Spain and to prevent France invading Flanders. |
August 24, 1572 | A number of Protestant leaders are murdered during the St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre in Paris | French Protestants gain sympathy across Europe, especially in England, but Elizabeth refused to enter England into another war with France |
April 4, 1581 | Sir Francis Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth | After having completed the first complete circumnavigation of the world by an Englishman |
June 4, 1584 | Sir Walter Raleigh establishes a colony on Roanoke Island, named Virginia after the Queen | The first English child to be born in North America, Virginia Dare, at Roanoke is named after the colony and Queen, too. |
July 22, 1587 | 151 English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island, Virginia | Years later, they all disappear without a trace. The single word "croatoan" etched hastily is the only clue as to their whereabouts. The colony is a failure. |
February 8, 1587 | Execution of Mary Queen of Scots | Elizabeth was reluctant to put her cousin to death. |
July 26, 1588 | 4,000 men gather at West Tilbury to fight the Spanish | At some point Elizabeth addressed her forces delivering her famous speech at Tilbury, although some historians question this event. |
July 29, 1588 | The Spanish Armada is spotted off the English coast, the larger English fleet led by Lord Charles Howard intercepts and the fleets engage | |
August 8, 1588 | Defeat of the Spanish Armada | |
December 22, 1590 | King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark marry | |
April 6, 1590 | Sir Francis Walsingham dies | |
January 28, 1596 | The Water Closet is invented by Sir John Harington | first flushing toilet, although it had few initial buyers |
August 4, 1598 | Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley dies in London | |
February 8, 1600 | Essex's Rebellion | |
April 1600 | William Adams became the first Englishman to visit Japan and later welcomed to the court of Tokugawa Ieyasu | Tokugawa was so impressed with Adams' intellect and knowledge of shipbuilding that he appointed him his personal adviser in Western civilization and an honorary samurai, the first westerner ever to hold such an honor |
March 24, 1603 | Death of Queen Elizabeth I, King James VI of Scotland succeeds her | End of the Tudor dynasty |
late March 1603 | Union of the Crowns - Act that proclaimed the kingdoms of Scotland and England would have a shared monarch but remain separate states | In 1604 James would declare himself "King of Great Britain", it was later in the Stuart dynasty in 1707 that the union of Great Britain was created |
July 25 1603 | Coronation of King James I | James Stuart (who became James I of England) was the great-grandson of Margaret Tudor and the son of Mary Queen of Scots, Margaret's granddaughter. His father, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was also a grandson of Margaret Tudor. Therefore, James was descended from the House of Tudor from both parents. |
June 29, 1613 | Shakespeare's Henry VIII (alternative title, All is True) is performed at the Globe Theatre in London | During a scene in which a canon was fired for special effects, the thatched roof caught fire and the theatre burned down. |