1590s in England

Events from the 1590s in England.

Incumbents

Monarch - Elizabeth I of England

Events

* 1590
** Publication of Edmund Spenser's poetry "The Faerie Queene".cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|233–238]
** First production of William Shakespeare's play "Henry VI, part 1".
* 1591
** 10 April - the merchant James Lancaster sets off on a voyage to the East Indies.
** August
*** Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex leads an English army in support of the Protestant Henry IV of France at the Siege of Rouen.
*** The HMS Revenge captured by the Spanish following battle near the Azores.
** John Harington translates Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando furioso" into English.
** Approximate date of the writing of the play "Richard III" by William Shakespeare.
** Posthumous publication of Sir Philip Sidney's poetry "Astrophel and Stella".
* 1592
** December - Outbreak of plague in London; 17,000 deaths over the next twelve months.
** First performance of Shakspeare's play "Richard III".
* 1593
** January - John Norden commissioned to make maps of all the counties of England.
** 23 February - Peter Wentworth imprisoned for raising the issue of succession to the throne in Parliament.
** 6 April - Witches of Warboys: Alice, John and Agnes Samuels found guilty of witchcraft and hanged. [cite web|url=http://www.warboysschool.co.uk/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22|title=Witches of Warboys, Warboys Community Primary School website|accessdate=2007-11-21]
** 12 May - Arrest of dramatist Thomas Kyd over bills posted in London threatening Protestant refugees from France and the Netherlands.
** 20 May - Dramatist Christopher Marlowe appears before the Privy Council in connection with the bills.
** 29 May - Execution of the Welsh Protestant John Penry suspected of involvement with the Marprelate Controversy.
** 30 May - Marlowe killed in a brawl in Deptford.
** Theatres in London closed for most of the year due to a Plague outbreak.
** Writing of Shakespeare's poem "Venus and Adonis".
* 1594
** May - Nine Years' War: In Ireland, Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O'Donnell form an alliance to try to overthrow English domination.
** 7 June - Roderigo Lopez executed for allegedly trying to poison Queen Elizabeth.
** First known performances of Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" in London.
** Posthumous publication of Marlowe's play "Edward II".
** Bevis Bulmer sets up a system at Blackfriars to pump water to London.
* 1595
** 21 February - Catholic martyr Robert Southwell hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
** 23 July - Spanish raid burns Penzance and Mousehole, Cornwall.
** 28 August - Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins depart on their final voyage to the Spanish Main which ends in both of their deaths.
** First performance of William Shakespeare's plays "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and Juliet".
** Sir Walter Raleigh travels up the Orinoco river in search of the fabled city of El Dorado.
* 1596
** 30 June–4 July - An English fleet, commanded by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and Lord Howard of Effingham, sacks Cádiz.
** Blackfriars Theatre opens in London.
** First production of Shakspeare's "Merchant of Venice".
* 1597
** Parliament passes the Vagabonds Act 1597 introducing penal transportation of convicted criminals to England's colonies.
** Approximate date of the first performance of the Shakespeare plays "Henry IV, Part 1", "Henry IV, Part 2" and "King John".
* 1598
** March - Poor Relief Act established early workhouses.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 163-165|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
** 14 August - Nine Years' War: Irish rebel victory over the English at the Battle of the Yellow Ford.
** 28 December - In London, The Theatre is dismantled and the materials used to begin building the Globe Theatre.
** Thomas Bodley refounds the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
** Publication of the poem "Hero and Leander" unfinished by Marlowe and completed by George Chapman.
** Chapman translates Homer's "Iliad" into English.
** First performance of Ben Jonson's play "Every Man in His Humour".
** Publication of John Stow's "A Survey of London".
* 1599
** 12 March - Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Queen Elizabeth I.
** 23 April - Essex in Ireland: Essex arrives in Dublin.
** 29 May - Nine Years' War: Essex captures Cahir Castle in Munster.
** 15 August - Nine Years' War: Irish rebel victory at the Battle of Curlew Pass.
** 8 September - Essex in Ireland: Essex signs a truce with Hugh O'Neill. He leaves Ireland against the instructions of Queen Elizabeth.
** 28 September - Essex returns to England and is arrested.
** Approximate date of the first performances of the Shakespeare plays "Julius Caesar", "As You Like It", "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Henry V".
** Globe Theatre built in Southwark.

Births

* 1590
** 30 January - Lady Anne Clifford, noblewoman (died 1676)
** May - William Cecil, 17th Baron de Ros (died 1618)
** 19 August - Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, soldier (died 1649)
** William Bradford, leader of Plymouth Colony (died 1657)
** William Browne, poet (died 1645)
** Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester (died 1646)
* 1591
** 11 January - Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, English Civil War general (died 1646)
** July - Anne Hutchinson, puritan preacher (died 1643)
** 24 August - Robert Herrick, poet (died 1674)
** Thomas Goffe, dramatist (died 1629)
** William Lenthall, politician of the Civil War period (died 1662)
** Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset (died 1632)
* 1592
** 20 February - Nicholas Ferrar, trader (died 1637)
** 11 April - Sir John Eliot, statesman (died 1632)
** May - Francis Quarles, poet (died 1644)
** 28 August - George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, statesman (died 1628)
** 5 November - Charles Chauncy, English-born president of Harvard College (died 1672)
** 6 December - William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle (died 1676)
** John Hacket, churchman (died 1670)
** John Jenkins, composer (died 1678)
** Henry King, poet (died 1669)
* 1593
** 3 April - George Herbert, poet and orator (died 1633)
** 4 April - Edward Nicholas, statesman (died 1669)
** 13 April - Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, statesman (died 1641)
** 9 August - Izaak Walton, writer (died 1683)
** Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford (died 1641)
** Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven (died 1631)
** George Radcliffe, politician (died 1657)
* 1594
** 30 November - John Cosin, churchman (died 1672)
** John Bramhall, Anglican clergyman and controversialist (died 1663)
** Peter Oliver, miniaturist (died 1648)
* 1595
** 5 December - Henry Lawes, musician (died 1662)
** Thomas Carew, poet (died 1640)
** Miles Corbet, Puritan politician (died 1662)
** Henry Herbert, official (died 1673)
** Thomas May, poet and historian (died 1650)
* 1596
** September - James Shirley, dramatist (died 1666)
** Bevil Grenville, royalist soldier (died 1643)
* 1597
** 21 August - Roger Twysden, antiquarian and royalist (died 1672)
* 1598
** Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton, Royalist commander in the English Civil War (died 1652)
** Marmaduke Langdale, Royalist in the English Civil War (died 1661)
** Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1677)
** William Strode, parliamentarian (died 1645)
* 1599
** 25 April - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland (died 1658)
** 14 August - Méric Casaubon, classicist (died 1671)
** 31 October - Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, statesman and writer (died 1680)
** John Alden, settler of Plymouth Colony (died 1687)
** Robert Blake, admiral (died 1657)
** Dud Dudley, metallurgist (died 1684)
** Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, socialite (died 1660)

Deaths

* 1590
** 1 February - Lawrence Humphrey, president of Magdalen College, Oxford (born 1527)
** 6 April - Francis Walsingham, principal secretary to Elizabeth I and spymaster (born 1530)
** 18 November - George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, statesman (born 1528)
** Roger Dudley, soldier (born 1535)
* 1591
** 1 May - Elizabeth Cecil, 16th Baroness de Ros, noblewoman (born c. 1574)
** 10 September - Richard Grenville, soldier and explorer (born 1542)
** 20 November - Christopher Hatton, politician (born 1540)
** John Stubbs, pamphleteer (born 1543)
* 1592
** February - Thomas Cavendish, sailor and explorer (born 1555)
** 3 September - Robert Greene, writer (born 1558)
* 1593
** 23 March - Henry Barrowe, Puritan and separatist (born 1550)
** 6 April - John Greenwood, Puritan and separatist (hanged) (year of birth unknown)
** 30 May - Christopher Marlowe, poet and playwright (born 1564)
** 25 September - Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby (born 1531)
** William Harrison, clergyman (born 1534)
* 1594
** February
*** Barnabe Googe, poet (born 1540)
*** William Painter, translator (born 1540)
** 29 April - Thomas Cooper, bishop, lexicographer, and writer (born c. 1517)
** 3 June - John Aylmer, divine (born 1521)
** 16 July - Thomas Kyd, author of "The Spanish Tragedy" (born 1558)
** 25 September - Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, Lord High Steward (born 1531)
** 16 October - William Allen, cardinal (born 1532)
** 22 November - Martin Frobisher, explorer (born 1535)
** John Johnson, lutenist and composer (born c. 1545)
* 1595
** 21 February - Robert Southwell, Jesuit priest and poet (born 1561)
** 24 August - Thomas Digges, astronomer (born 1546)
** 19 October - Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel, nobleman (born 1537)
** 12 November - John Hawkins, shipbuilder and trader (born 1532)
** 14 December - Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (born 1535)
* 1596
** 28 January - Sir Francis Drake, explorer and soldier (born 1540)
** 23 March - Henry Unton, diplomat (born 1557)
** 23 July - Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (born 1526)
** 10 November - Peter Wentworth, Puritan politician (born 1530)
** 29 November
*** William Gibson (martyr), Catholic martyr (year of birth unknown)
*** William Knight, Catholic martyr (born 1572)
** Blanche Parry, Personal attendant to Elizabeth I (born c. 1508)
** Henry Willobie, poet (born 1575)
* 1597
** 6 June - William Hunnis, poet (year of birth unknown)
** James Burbage, actor (born 1531)
** Edward Kelley, spirit medium (born 1555)
* 1598
** 9 January - Jasper Heywood, classicist and translator (born 1553)
** 4 August - William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, statesman (born 1520)
* 1599
** 13 January - Edmund Spenser, poet (born 1552)
** 14 April - Henry Wallop, statesman (born c. 1540)

References

ee also