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)