Memoirs of Officers of the Royal Navy begin

The calendar changes from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar.

Scotland adopts New Year beginning 1st January (previously 25th March)

Bishop's transcripts of English and Welsh parish registers start - parish records were to be kept in 'great decent books of parchment' and copies or 'Bishop's Transcripts' of new entries were to be sent each month to the diocesan centre

Bishops transcript of English and Welsh parish registers start [some say 1597]

Poor Law Act for erection of parish workhouses for the Poor - Poor Rate collection allowed

Poor Law Act for erection of parish workhouses for the Poor -

Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, leads Irish rebellion against English rule (-1603)

British statute mile established by law

British statute mile established by law

Galileo invents a water thermometer

A Congregational (or Independent) Church formed in London

Scotland: Presbyterian Church formally established - all ministers equal - no bishops - secular commissaries appointed by the Crown

A congregational (or Independant) Church formed in London.

The Presbyterian Church is formally established.

Trinity College, Dublin, founded

Dutchmen, Zacharias Janssen invents the compound microscope

Englishmen, William Lee invents the knitting machine

Defeat of Spanish Armada off Gravelines

Spanish Armada sighted off the Lizard (had set sail from Lisbon in late May)

Invention of shorthand by Dr Timothy Bright

29th July Defeat of the Spanish Armada

Raleigh's second expedition to New World lands in North Carolina - first child born in the New World of English parents was Virginia Dare (Aug 18)

Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz harbour

Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay Castle, near Peterborough

Introduction of potatoes to England

Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, by English at Fotheringay Castle near Peterborough

Foundation of Oxford University Press

Foundation of Oxford University Press

Sir Walter Raleigh establishes first English colony in the New World, on Roanoke Island, Virginia (now in North Carolina) - the so-called 'Lost Colony'

Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempts to establish English authority at St John's, Newfoundland

University of Edinburgh founded

Foundation of Cambridge University Press by Thomas Thomas

Foundation of Cambridge University Press by Thomas Thomas

Gregorian calendar introduced in some couontires:

Francis Drake knighted by Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind after circumnavigating the world

English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism

English Levant Company founded

Dover Straits earthquake, largest in the recorded history of England, mentioned by Shakespeare - dozens of ships sunk and a tsunami hit Calais

Congregational movement founded by Robert Browne about this time

Colonisation of Ireland

Colonisation of Ireland

Act of Uniformity in matters of religion enforced

Act of Uniformity in matters of religion enforced

Earliest Quaker registers begin

James Burbage opens first theatre in London

Colonial State Papers published

Opening of the Royal Exchange in London, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham - this building destroyed in Great Fire of London 1666

Presbyterianism introduced into England by Thomas Cartwright

Repeal of Act prohibiting lending of money on interest - gradual change from 'subsistence economy' to 'cash economy' resulted

Beginning of penal legislation against Catholics in England

Beginning of penal legislation against Catholics in England

Presbyterianism introduced into England by Thomas Cartwright

Pope Pius V issued the papal bull 'Regnans in Excelsis' to excommunicate Elizabeth I and her followers in the Church of England

Elizabeth I approved Sunday sports

Gerard Mercator invents Mercator map projection

Battle of Langside - Mary's flight to England and her imprisonment by Queen Elizabeth I

Battle of Langside

Bottled beer invented in London

Mary Queen of Scots deposed and replaced by her 1 year old son James VI

Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell

Murder of Darnley outside Holyrood House in an explosion

Murder of Darnley outside Holyrood House in an explosion

Murder of David Riccio (or Rizzio) in Holyrood House

Murder of Riccio in Holyrood House

Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, her first cousin

Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Darley

Shakespeare baptised - he is said to have been born on Apr 23, St George's Day; he certainly died on Apr 23, 1616

The English surrender Le Havre to the French after a siege

Papal recusants heavily fined for non-attendance at Church

Earliest English slave-trading expedition, under John Hawkins - between Guinea and the West Indies

African slave trade starts

Spire of St Paul's, highest in England, destroyed by fire

The first coins produced by machinery (known as a 'mill') rather than by hand, but it was a slow process and did not replace hand struck coinage until new machinery was introduced in 1663

Treaty of Berwick between Duc du Chatelherault (as governor of Scotland) and the English, agreeing to act jointly to expel the French from Scotland

Establishment of Protestantism in Scotland - commissary courts thrown into confusion - some records lost

Establishment of Protestantism in Scotland

Protestantism is established. Pope's authority is abolished. Celebrating mass becomes illegal.

Elizabeth I

Acts of Supremacy passed in Parliament, ending papal jurisdiction over England & Wales; established Church of England

Elizabeth crowned in Westminster Abbey by Owen Oglethorpe, the Bishop of Carlisle

Tobacco introduced to Europe

John Knox returns from Continent - strengthens case for Presbyterianism in Scotland

John Knox returns from Continent

Queen Mary Tudor of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth - Protestantism restored in England

Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Fran?ois the Dauphin of France in Paris

French take Calais, last English possession in France

System of Counties adopted

Scottish parish registers start

Reign of Elizabeth I - Policy of Plantation begins

Scottish parish registers start

Queen Elizabeth I

The First Covenant signed in Scotland

Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer burned at the stake in Oxford

Michel Nostradamus publishes his prophecies

Mary I

Lady Jane Grey beheaded

Brief Catholic restoration under Queen Mary Tudor - married priests forced to separate at least 30 miles from their wives

Brief Catholic restoration under Queen Mary Tudor

Mary Tudor ('Bloody Mary') comes to the throne

Edward VI dies; Lady Jane Grey queen for a few days only

Jane

Queen Mary I

An 'Act of Uniformity' imposes the Protestant prayerbook of 1552 in England

Parishes are ordered to keep a register of baptisms and banns of marriage.

Scotland: General Provincial Council orders each parish to keep a register of baptisms and banns of marriage

Scotland: General Provincial Council orders

Walloon Protestants arrive as refugees from the Low Countries

Walloon Protestants arrive as refuges from the Low Countries

First Book of Common Prayer sanctioned by English Parliament

Edward VI

English Parliament declares enclosures legal

First Act of Uniformity in England made Catholic Mass illegal

Wedding ring finger changed from right to left hand

9th June First Book of Prayer sanctioned by English Parliament

Priests in England allowed to marry (about a third then did so) - but see 1554

Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, said to be the first 'modern' battle to be fought in the British Isles

Coronation of Edward VI in Westminster Abbey

Death of Henry VIII (succeeded by Edward VI, aged 9, to 1553)

Ivan the Terrible takes title 'Tsar of all the Russias'

Vagrants Act passed (able-bodied tramps can be detained as slaves)

English replaced Latin in church services in England and Wales

King Edward VI

English replaced Latin in chruch services in England and Wales

Trinity College, Cambridge founded by Henry VIII

Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII, sinks in the Solent - raised in 1982

Henry's VIII's Rough Wooing' of the Scottish Borders

Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland

Mary of Guise Regent of Scotland

Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is officially crowned Queen of Scots' in Stirling (spelling of the royal house changes from Stewart to Stuart)

Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, wife #6, who survives him

Death of King James V of Scots; his baby daughter Mary ?Queen of Scots' succeeds him just 6 days old

Catherine Howard executed

Ther Rout of Solway Moss and the death of King James V of Scots

Henry VIII proclaimed king (rather than feudal lord) of Ireland

Henry VIII proclaimed King (rather than feudal lord) of Ireland

First French settlement

Thomas Cromwell executed; Henry VIII marries Catherine Howard the same day, wife #5

Henry VIII divorces Anne of Cleves

First recorded horse racing event in Britain, at Chester

Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves, the 'Flanders Mare', wife #4

Statute of Wills allows freehold land to be bequeathed

Statute of Wills allows freehold land to be bequeathed

Henry VIII excommunicated by Pope Paul III

Henry VIII issues English Bible

English and Welsh parish registers start

English and Welsh parish registers start

Jane Seymour dies from complications in giving birth to a son, the future Edward VI

The authority of the Pope is declared void in England

Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour, wife #3 (she was crowned as Queen on 29th October)

Anne Boleyn executed

Wales and England legally united by the Laws in Wales Act of 1535

Dissolution of monasteries starts in England (to 1540)

Dissolution of monastries starts in England

Sir Thomas More executed

Reformation of the Catholic Church in England church (Henry VIII)

Reformation of the Catholic Church in England Church (Henry VIII)

Jacques Cartier explores Gulf of St. Lawrence

Anne Boleyn gives birth to a daughter Elizabeth, to become Queen Elizabeth I

Henry VIII excommunicated by Pope Clement VII

Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon officially declared annulled

Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury

Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn secretly, wife #2 (she was crowned as Queen on 1st June)

Foundation of the Court of Session in Scotland

Foundation of the Court of Session in Scotland

Henry VIII recognised as Supreme Head of the Church of England

Diet of Speyer: origin of the word Protestant

St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle completed

Bishop Vesey's Grammar School founded in Sutton Coldfield

New Testament translated into English by William Tyndale

Sweden leaves the union

The Victoria, one of the surviving ships of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, becomes the first ship known to circumnavigate the world

Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, executed for treason

Martin Luther speaks to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachings

Three ships under the command of Ferdinand Magellan negotiate the Strait of Magellan, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific

Martin Luther fixes his 95 theses on church door at Wittenburg PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Treaty of London, a non-aggression pact between the major European nations: France, England, Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy, Spain, Burgundy and the Netherlands - sponsored by Cardinal Wolsey

Martin Luther fixes his 95 theses on church door at Wittenburg - regarded as start of the Reformation

Thomas More writes Utopia'

Thomas Wolsley invested as Cardinal

Recording of Testaments (wills) begins in Scotland

Recording of Testaments (wills) begins in Scotland

The recording of testaments (wills) begins.

Battle of Flodden, defeat of Scottish Army - death of King James IV of Scots

Battle of the Spurs - English troops under Henry VIII defeat a French force at Guinegate

Battle of Flodden, defeat of the Scotish Army

Urs Graf invents etching

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, exhibited to the public for the first time

The Auld Alliance' treaty with France - all Scottish citizens became French and vice versa

Admiralty founded in London

Admiralty founded in London

Henry VIII

Leonardo da Vinci designs a horizontal water wheel

Pocket watch invented by Peter Henlein

Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon

Henry VIII becomes king of England (to 1547) at 17 years old

Naturalisation papers start in England

Naturalisation papers start in England

King Henry VIII

Thomas Aubert visits Newfoundland

Suggestion put forward that the New World be named America in honour of Amerigo Vespucci (on Martin Waldseem?ller's world map)

First printing press in Scotland set up in Edinburgh by Andrew Myllar

First printing press in Scotland set up in Edinburgh by Andrew Myllar

First contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican

Royal College of Surgeons founded in Edinburgh

Royal College of Surgeons founded in Edinburgh

Marriage of King James IV of Scots and Margaret Tudor

Leonardo da Vinci paints Mona Lisa (-1505)

Marriage of King James IV of Scots and Margaret Tudor

Gaspar de Corte-Real explorations

The first flush toilets appeared

Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne, executed

Parish registers instituted in Spain by Cardinal Ximenes

John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) explorations

Foundation of the University of Aberdeen (as King's College)

Whiskey invented in Scotland

Leonardo da Vinci first to seriously theorize about flying machines

Martin Behaim invented the first map globe

Bell chimes invented

Henry VII Gaunt

In Venice, the first known copyright granted

King Henry VII

Battle of Bosworth Field

Leonardo DaVinci designed the first parachute

Introduction of bail

Edward V PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

King Edward V

King Richard III

Caxton sets up press in Westminster

Muzzle-loaded rifles invented in Italy and Germany

St. Andrews made a bishopric

Orkney and Shetland Islands acquired from Norway by Scotland

Irish living near English settlements made to take English surnames

In Germany, drypoint engravings invented

Edward IV

King Edward IV

King Jmes II of Scots killed by an exploding cannon at Kelso

First recorded mention of golf in Scotland

Fall of the Black Douglases in Scotland

Johannes Gutenberg invents printing press with metal movable type

End of the Hundred Years War PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

University of Glasgow founded

Henry VI

King Henry VI

Regular series of wills starts in Prerogative Court of Canterbury