1600s in England explained
Events from the 1600s in England. This decade marks the end of the Elizabethan era with the beginning of the Jacobean era and the Stuart period.
Incumbents
Events
- 1603
- 24 March – Queen Elizabeth I dies at Richmond Palace aged 69, after 45 years on the throne, and is succeeded by her first cousin twice removed King James VI of Scotland (where he has ruled since 1567), hence the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England. Elizabeth was never married and had no children, neither did her only legitimate siblings, the late Mary and Edward VI.[9]
- 31 March – The Nine Years' War is ended by the submission of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, to the English Crown and the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont.[1]
- 5 April – James VI and I sets out from Edinburgh for London.
- April – Thomas Cartwright delivers his Millenary Petition, demanding an end to ritualistic practices, allegedly signed by 1,000 Puritan ministers, to the King, who is en route to London.
- c. April – 1603 London plague: Outbreak of bubonic plague epidemic in London in which between 29,000 and 40,000 die.[10] [11] [12] [13] The theatres are closed.
- 28 April – Funeral of Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey.
- 7 May – King James arrives in London, where he is enthusiastically received.[14]
- 19 May – The London acting company previously known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men comes under the patronage of the new monarch and is chartered as the King's Men. William Shakespeare is among them.[15]
- 24 June – Planned date for "Bye Plot", a conspiracy to kidnap King James in the interest of tolerance for Roman Catholic priests and Puritans.
- July – "Main Plot", an alleged conspiracy by English courtiers to remove James from the English throne and to replace him with his cousin Lady Arbella Stuart.
- 17 July – Sir Walter Raleigh is arrested for treason in connection with the "Main Plot".[9]
- 21 July – Thomas Howard is created the 1st Earl of Suffolk.
- 25 July – Coronation of James I as King of England in Westminster Abbey.[9]
- November–December – The court is in residence at Wilton House in Wiltshire due to plague in London.
- 17 November – Raleigh goes on trial for treason in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle.[9] He is found guilty but his life is spared by the King at this time and he is returned to imprisonment in the Tower of London.
- 2 December – The King's Men perform a play for the court at Wilton House,[16] perhaps As You Like It.[17]
- 1604
- 14–16 January – Hampton Court Conference with James I, the Anglican bishops and representatives of Puritans. Work begins on the Authorized King James Version of the Bible and revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
- 17 February – James I issues an order for all Jesuits and Roman Catholic priests to leave his kingdom by March 19.
- 19 March – The "Blessed Parliament" assembles at Westminster and debates Robert Cecil's proposal, brought forward according to the King's desire, for union with Scotland.[18]
- 2 April – Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Edward Phelips rules that members of the House may not bring forward an identical (or near-identical) motion to one that has already been decided in that same session.[19]
- 20 May – Gunpowder Plot: Five Catholic conspirators, led by Robert Catesby, who has invited Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Thomas Percy and Guy Fawkes, meet at the Duck and Drake Inn in London to make a plan for the assassination of King James.[20]
- 20 May–16 July – 18 sessions of discussion between England and Spain at Somerset House in London agree a peace treaty to end the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).
- 20 June – The Form of Apology and Satisfaction is read out in the House of Commons to justify the conduct of Parliament following a dispute between King and Parliament over a contested election in Buckinghamshire.[18]
- 18 August – The Treaty of London brings an end to the Anglo–Spanish War.[21]
- 4 July – The Jesuits etc. Act 1603 (An Act for the due execution of the Statutes against Jesuits, seminary Priests and recusants) is given royal assent, creating penalties against Jesuits and Catholics who send their children abroad to Catholic colleges.[22]
- 7 July – Parliament prorogued.[18]
- Before 1 October – Huntingdon Beaumont completes the Wollaton Wagonway, built to transport coal from the mines at Strelley to Wollaton just west of Nottingham, the world's oldest wagonway with provenance.[23]
- 20 October – King James assumes the style king of Great Britain.[24]
- 1 November (Hallowmas day) – First recorded performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, at Whitehall Palace in London.
- 10 December – Richard Bancroft (a leading participant in the King James Version Bible translation) is installed as Archbishop of Canterbury.
- Christopher Marlowe's play The Tragicall History of D. Faustus (probably written and first performed between 1588/89 and Marlowe's death in 1593) is published in London.
- King James publishes A Counterblaste to Tobacco.
- Table Alphabeticall, the first known English dictionary to be organised by alphabetical ordering, is published.
- Blundell's School is founded in Tiverton, Devon, under the will of merchant Peter Blundell.
- 1605
- 1606
- 27 January – Catholic priest Henry Garnet is arrested at Hindlip Hall in Worcestershire.
- 31 January – Fawkes and three of his co-plotters are executed by hanging, drawing and quartering in London,[1] four having been executed the previous day.
- 24 February – Commercial treaty between England and France signed in Paris.[27]
- 28 March – Catholic priest Henry Garnet is tried for misprision of treason at Guildhall, London, in connection with the Gunpowder Plot, and found guilty. Discussion of equivocation plays a significant part in his questioning and trial. On 3 May he is hanged at St Paul's Churchyard in London.[26]
- 10 April – Charter of 1606: The First Charter of Virginia is adopted, by which King James I of England grants rights to the Virginia Company (comprising the London Company and Plymouth Company) to settle parts of the east coast of North America.
- 12 April – First version of the Union Flag created,[9] designed by Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, to be worn at the maintopmast of English and Scots ships.
- Spring – Ben Jonson's satiric play Volpone first performed, in London.
- May – Severe penalties are imposed for Catholic recusancy, and for refusal to take an Oath of Allegiance to James to serve in public office, by An Act for the better discovering and repressing of popish recusants (proclaimed law 22 June).
- 27 May – Second session of Parliament under King James prorogued.[18]
- 10 July – 47 Roman Catholic priests, including Thomas Garnet, are deported to Flanders on pain of death if they return to England.
- 24 July – King Christian IV of Denmark, as the guest of his brother-in-law James I, is welcomed to London and the two monarchs are driven by coaches to a banquet at Theobalds House at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. They are entertained by Ben Jonson's play, The Entertainment of the Kings of Great Britain and Denmark. On 31 July they see a play by John Marston.
- 7 August – Possible first performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, in London.[28]
- 18 November – Third session of Parliament begins.[18]
- 19 December – The Susan Constant sets out from the River Thames leading the Virginia Company's fleet for the foundation of Jamestown, Virginia.
- 26 December (St. Stephen's night) – One of the first performance of Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear, before the King at Whitehall.[28]
- Paston School founded in Norfolk.
- 1607
- 30 January – Coastal flooding around Britain, probably a storm surge, including Bristol Channel floods in which a massive wave sweeps along the Bristol Channel, killing an estimated 2,000 people, with 200sqmi of farmland inundated.[29] [30] [31]
- late April – Start of Midland Revolt against land enclosures.[1] The rebels are referred to as "Levellers".
- 14 May – Jamestown, Virginia, is established as the first permanent English settlement in North America.
- 8 June – Midland Revolt suppressed at Newton, Northamptonshire, by local gentry.[32]
- 4 July – Third session of Parliament ends, having refused a proposed union with the Parliament of Scotland. It does not assemble again until 1610.[18]
- September – The Scrooby Congregation of Protestant Separatists from Nottinghamshire attempt to flee to the Dutch Republic from The Haven, Boston, but are betrayed, arrested and imprisoned for a time.
- 14 September – Flight of the Earls from Ireland: Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, flee to Spain to avoid capture by the English crown,[1] thus facilitating the Plantation of Ulster with English and Scots settlers.
- November – Case of Prohibitions: Sir Edward Coke determines that legal cases should not be tried by the monarch.
- 5 December - 14 February 1608 – severe frost. Many rivers, including the Thames, freeze.[33]
- First performance of the first wholly parodic play in English, Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle, unsuccessfully, probably by the Children of the Chapel at the Blackfriars Theatre in London.
- 1608
- 1609
- 20 May – London publisher Thomas Thorpe issues Shake-speares Sonnets, with a dedication to "Mr. W.H.", and the poem A Lover's Complaint appended; it is uncertain whether this publication has Shakespeare's authority.
- 25 July – The London Company's ship Sea Venture, en route to relieve the Jamestown settlement, is driven ashore in Bermuda, thus effectively first settling the colony.
- 26 July – English scientist Thomas Harriot becomes the first to draw an astronomical object after viewing it through a telescope: he draws a map of the Moon, preceding Galileo by several months.[35] [36]
- 28 August – English explorer Henry Hudson sailing the Halve Maen in the service of the Dutch East India Company finds Delaware Bay.[1] [37]
- 11–12 September – Hudson sails into Upper New York Bay[38] and begins a journey up the Hudson River.[1]
- 12 October – A version of the rhyme "Three Blind Mice" is published in Deuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie (London). The editor, and possible author of the verse, is the teenage Thomas Ravenscroft.[39] This collection follows his publication of the first rounds in English, Pammelia.
- Plantation of Ulster proceeds: Protestant English and Scots settlers take over forfeited estates of rebel leaders.[40]
- Trinity House establishes the first lighthouses at Lowestoft.
- Publication of Pericles, Prince of Tyre in London with attribution to Shakespeare.[1]
Births
- 1600
- 1601
- 1602
- 29 March – John Lightfoot, churchman and rabbinical scholar (died 1675)
- April – William Lawes, composer and musician (died 1645)
- 1 May – William Lilly, astrologer (died 1681)
- 12 July – John Bradshaw, judge and regicide (died 1659)
- 12 October – William Chillingworth, churchman (died 1644)
- 13 October – Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, military leader (died 1668)
- 18 December – Simonds d'Ewes, antiquarian and politician (died 1650)
- John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton (died 1678)
- John Greaves, mathematician and antiquary (died 1652)
- Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, Parliamentary commander (died 1671)
- Henry Marten, lawyer and politician, regicide (died 1680)
- Dudley North, 4th Baron North, politician (died 1677)
- Owen Feltham, religious writer (died 1668)
- 1602 or 1603
- 1603
- 1604
- 1605
- 1606
- 1607
- 1608
- 15 April – John Huddleston, Catholic clergyman (died 1698)
- 20 April – Edward Rainbowe, clergyman and preacher (died 1684)
- June – Richard Fanshawe, diplomat (died 1666)
- 19 June – Thomas Fuller, churchman and historian (died 1661)
- 14 July – George Goring, Lord Goring, Royalist soldier (died 1657)
- 4 August – John Tradescant the Younger, botanist and gardener (died 1662)
- 13 November – John Desborough, soldier and politician (died 1680)
- 6 December – George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, soldier (died 1670)
- 9 December – John Milton, poet (died 1674)
- Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln (died 1691)
- 1609
- 10 February – John Suckling, poet (died 1642)
- 18 February – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, historian and statesman (died 1674)
- 29 March – Sarah Boyle, noblewoman (died 1633)
- 8 October – John Clarke, physician (died 1676)
- 19 October – Gerrard Winstanley, Protestant religious reformer (died 1676)
- 26 October – William Sprague, co-founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts (died 1675)
- 1 November – Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice (died 1676)
- 24 December – Philip Warwick, writer and politician (died 1683)
- Samuel Cooper, miniature painter (died 1672)
Deaths
- 1600
- 1601
- 1602
- 1603
- 1604
- 1605
- 1606
- 1607
- 1608
- 1609
Notes and References
- Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. registration. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8. 238–243.
- Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder.
- Web site: Banbury History. Banbury Cross. 2005. 2018-11-03. 14 December 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071214033830/http://www.banbury-cross.co.uk/banhistory.htm. dead.
- Web site: First Voyage of the English East India Company, in 1601, under the Command of Captain James Lancaster. 2021-02-08.
- Book: Edwards, Phillip. 1985. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. New Cambridge Shakespeare. 0-521-29366-9. 8. Any dating of Hamlet must be tentative.. Scholars date its writing as between 1599 and 1601.
- Book: Shakespeare, William. Smith, Bruce R.. Twelfth Night: Texts and Contexts. 2. Boston, Mass. Bedford/St Martin's. 2001. 0-312-20219-9.
- Ibbetson. David. 1984. Sixteenth Century Contract Law: Slade's Case in Context. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. Oxford University Press. 4. 3. 295–317. 10.1093/ojls/4.3.295. 0143-6503.
- Web site: Goff . Moira . The Merry Wives of Windsor – Shakespeare in quarto . bl.uk . 19 January 2022.
- Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
- Book: Dekker, Thomas. Thomas Dekker (writer). The Wonderfull Yeare 1603, wherein is shewed the picture of London lying sicke of the plague.
- Book: Lee, Christopher. Christopher Lee (historian)
. Christopher Lee (historian). 1613: The Death of Queen Elizabeth I, the Return of the Black Plague, the Rise of Shakespeare, Piracy, Witchcraft, and the Birth of the Stuart Era. St Martin's Press. 2014. 9781466864504.
- Web site: Worst Diseases in Shakespeare's London. 2021-05-15.
- Book: Bell, Walter George. 1951. Hollyer, Belinda. The Great Plague in London. Folio Society. 3–5.
- Book: Croft, Pauline. King James. 2003. Basingstoke; New York. Palgrave Macmillan. 978-0-3336-1395-5. Pauline Croft. 49-50.
- Book: Halliday, F. E.. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Penguin. 1964. 168.
- Book: Cunningham, Peter. Peter Cunningham (British writer)
. Peter Cunningham (British writer). Extracts from the Revels at Court. London. 1842. xxxiv.
- According to a letter which historian William Cory in 1865 claimed to exist. Book: Lever, Tresham. Herberts of Wilton. London. 1967. 77.
- Web site: The government of James I. 2008-03-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20080514135210/http://history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123%20282%20James%20government.htm. 14 May 2008. dead.
- Web site: Speaker's Statement. Hansard. 2019-03-18. 2019-03-19.
- Book: Parkinson, C. Northcote. C. Northcote Parkinson
. C. Northcote Parkinson. Gunpowder Treason and Plot. London. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 1976. 48.
- Web site: Case 1: The Treaty of London. 2008-03-17.
- Toleration and Diplomacy: The Religious Issue in Anglo-Spanish Relations, 1603–1605. Albert J.. Loomie. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 1963. 31.
- The exact date is unknown, but a surviving account book for the year ended September 30 1604 proves it was built within the preceding 12 months.
- Web site: A proclamation concerning the Kings Majesties Stile, of King of Great Britaine, &c.. 2008-03-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20080317124222/http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/britstyles.htm. 17 March 2008 .
- Web site: Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night. 2008. 2011-02-25.
- Book: Fraser, Antonia. Antonia Fraser
. Antonia Fraser. The Gunpowder Plot. Phoenix. 2005. 1996. 0-7538-1401-3.
- Book: de Milititz, Alexander. Manuel des consuls: Établissement des consulats à l'étranger. 2. A. Asher. London. 1839. Google Books. 65.
- Scholars date completion as between 1603 and 1606. Book: Boyce, Charles. Encyclopaedia of Shakespeare. New York. Roundtable Press. 1990.
- News: The great flood of 1607: could it happen again?. BBC staff. 24 September 2014. BBC Somerset. 20 February 2008. en.
- Bryant. Edward. Haslett. Simon. 2002. Was the AD 1607 Coastal Flooding Event in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel (UK) Due to a Tsunami?. Archaeology in the Severn Estuary. 13. 163–7. 2010-09-06. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110616185829/http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/schools/science-and-the-environment/geography/Tsunami/archaeology-in-the-severn-estuary-2003-paper.pdf. 2011-06-16.
- Horsburgh. K. J.. Horritt. M.. 2006. The Bristol Channel floods of 1607 – reconstruction and analysis. Weather. UK. 61. 10. 272–277. 10.1256/wea.133.05. 2006Wthr...61..272H. 123099829.
- Web site: Newton Rebels 1607. 2011-10-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20110930180931/http://www.newtonrebels.org.uk/rebels/index.htm. 30 September 2011. dead.
- Book: Stratton, J. M.. Agricultural Records. John Baker. 1969. 0-212-97022-4.
- Web site: Heritage. Royal Blackheath Golf Club. Eltham. 2016-06-12.
- Web site: 'English Galileo' maps on display. Christine. McGourty. BBC News. 2009-01-14. 2012-07-04.
- Web site: Thomas Harriot's Moon Drawings. The Galileo Project. 1995. 2012-07-04.
- Book: Hunter, Douglas. 2009. Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the voyage that redrew the map of the New World. London. Bloomsbury Press. 978-1-59691-680-7. registration.
- Web site: New York's many 9/11 anniversaries: the Staten Island Peace Conference. Nevius. Michelle. James. Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City. 2008-09-08. 2011-10-25.
- Book: Opie, Iona. Iona and Peter Opie. Peter. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Oxford University Press. 2nd. 1997. 0-19-860088-7. 306.
- Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer . Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 166–168. 0-7126-5616-2.
- Web site: Elizabeth I Biography, Facts, Mother, & Death Britannica . Encyclopædia Britannica . 18 January 2022 . en.