Timeline Great Britain (B) 1551-1710
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1551 May 2, William Camden, English historian (Brittania, Annales), was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1551 Oct 16, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was re-arrested.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1552 Jan 22, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was beheaded for treason.
(MC, 1/22/02)(MT, Fall 02, p.23)
1552 Jan 23, The 2nd version of Book of Common Prayer became mandatory in England. The Second Prayer Book of Edward VI, more radical than the first, was authorized by a second Uniformity Act.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(MC, 1/23/02)
1552 Feb 1, Sir Edward Coke, English jurist, was born in Mileham, Norfolk. He helped the development of English law with his arguments for the supremacy of common law over royal prerogative.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Coke)
1552 The English again attacked the Irish town and monastery at Clonmacnoise and carried everything away.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
1552 Britain’s first licensing act on alcohol distinguisehd between rich and poor boozers with enforced strictures on “common alehouses" which not apply to wine taverns.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.44)
1552 A revision of canon law in Britain meant that adulterers could face life imprisonment of exiled.
(Econ, 2/11/12, p.82)
1553 Apr 29, A Flemish woman introduced to England the practice of starching linen.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1553 Jul 6, Mary Tudor was warned that Edward VI was already dead and that she was walking into a trap set by John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, Edward’s regent.
(ON, 5/00, p.3)
1553 Jun 12, King Edward VI accepted archbishop Cranmer's "42 Articles."
(MC, 6/12/02)
1553 Jul 6, Edward VI Tudor (15), King of England (1547-53), died. Mary Tudor was warned that Edward VI was already dead and that she was walking into a trap set by John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, Edward’s regent.
(ON, 5/00, p.3)(MC, 7/6/02)
1553 Jul 9, The Duke of Northumberland announced the death of Edward VI (15) and that supporters of Mary Tudor would be considered traitors.
(ON, 5/00, p.4)
1553 Jul 10, After King Edward VI of England died of tuberculosis, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, tried to get his daughter, Lady Jane Grey (the great-granddaughter of Henry VII), declared the queen and got archbishop Cranmer’s signature to that end. However the succession went to Mary, the Catholic half-sister of Edward. Cranmer and others were then found guilty of treason.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.24)
1553 Jul 18, The Council in London met secretly and declared Mary Tudor as Queen of England and the Duke of Northumberland in unlawful rebellion.
(ON, 5/00, p.5)
1553 Jul 19, 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey, daughter of John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, was deposed as Queen of England after claiming the crown for nine days. Mary, the daughter of King Henry VIII, was proclaimed Queen.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(AP, 7/19/97)
1553 Aug 3, Mary Tudor, the new Queen of England, entered London.
(HN, 8/3/98)(ON, 5/00, p.5)
1553 Aug 23, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, English Lord Admiral, premier (1551-53), was beheaded on Tower Hill in front of 10,000 onlookers.
(ON, 5/00, p.5)(Internet)
1553 Nov 13, English Lady Jane Grey and the bishop Cranmer were accused of high treason.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1553 The Forty-two Articles of the Church of England were written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer "for the avoiding of controversy in opinions." The Forty-two Articles had been partly derived from the Thirteen Articles of 1538. When Mary became queen in 1553 and restored Catholicism, the Forty-two Articles were eliminated.
(HNQ, 10/20/98)
1553 In London The Mysterie and Compagnie of the Merchant Adventurers for the Discoverie of Regions, Dominions, Islands and Places Unknown offered stock to finance a quest for a passage to the riches of the East. The Muscovy Company venture led to the death of explorer Sir Hugh Willoughby who died with the crews of 2 ships in the Arctic ice. A 3rd ship reached the court of Ivan the Terrible in Moscow and returned with a treaty giving England freedom to trade there.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1553 Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor voyaged to Russia via Archangel seeking a north-east passage to China. Willoughby discovered Novaya Zemlya and died on the Kola Peninsula.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)
1554 Feb 12, Lady Jane Grey (17), who had claimed the throne of England for nine days, the Queen of England for thirteen days, was beheaded on Tower Hill along with her husband, Guildford Dudley, after being condemned for high treason.
(HN, 2/12/99)(AP, 2/12/08)
1554 Feb 23, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk and Lady Jane Grey's father, was executed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1554 Mar 12, Richard Hooker, English theologian, was born. He authored "Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity."
(HN, 3/12/99)
1554 Jul 24, Queen Mary of England married Philip II, king of Spain and the Catholic son of Emp. Charles V.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(ON, 5/00, p.5)(MC, 7/24/02)
1554 Nov 30, Sir Philip Sidney (d.1586), English poet, statesman and soldier was born.
(HN, 11/30/98)(MC, 11/30/01)
1554 Nov 30, England reconciled with Pope Julius III.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(MC, 11/30/01)
1554 At London’s Guildhall Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was tried and found not guilty. The verdict was deemed unsatisfactory and the whole jury was carted off to prison and released after paying heavy fines. [see Nov, 1583]
(SFC, 8/11/96, p.T7)
1554 Flemish hop growers emigrated to England.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)
1555 Feb 9, John Hooper, the deprived Bishop of Gloucester, was burned for heresy.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1555 Sep 30, Oxford Bishop Nicholas Ridley was sentenced to death as a heretic.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1555 Oct 16, Hugh Latimer (80), Protestant royal chaplain of Anne Boleyn, was burned at stake at Oxford for heresy under the Catholic rule of Mary, half-sister of Edward VI.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3859836193/)
1555 Oct 16, Nicholas Ridley, Protestant English theologian and bishop of Rochester, was burned at Oxford for heresy under the Catholic rule of Mary, half-sister of Edward VI.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3859836193/)
1555 Oct 21, English parliament refused to recognize Philip of Spain as king.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1555 England’s Parliament established the Company of Watermen and Lightermen to regulate the Thames boating industry.
(AP, 1/9/07)
1555 Queen Mary began a campaign of burnings and hangings during which over 300 people were executed for refusing to abandon their Protestant faith.
(ON, 5/00, p.5)
1555-1558 England suffered outbreaks of dysentery, typhus and Influenza all over the country.
(http://www.mongenes.org.uk/epidemics_in_bri.html)
1555-1600 Richard Hooker, architect of Anglicanism. The Anglican Communion emerged from the conflicts between Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII over Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn.
(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A11)
1556 Feb 14, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was declared a heretic.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1556 Mar 21, Former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (66), scheduled to denounce his errors and be burned at the stake, denounced his own confessions and was hustled off to be burned. He then put forth his hand and declared: "Forasmuch as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished."
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(MC, 3/21/02)
1556 Mar 22, Cardinal Reginald Pole became archbishop of Canterbury.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1556 Nov 10, The Englishman Richard Chancellor was drowned off Aberdeenshire on his return from a second voyage to Russia.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1557 Feb 27, 1st Russian Embassy opened in London.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1557 Jul 16, Anne of Cleves (41), queen of England and 4th wife of Henry VIII, died.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1557 Aug 10, Spanish and English troops in alliance defeated the French at the Battle of St. Quentin. French troops were defeated by Emmanuel Philibert's Spanish army at St. Quentin, France.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(HN, 8/10/98)
1557 Richard Tottel edited “Songes and Sonnettes," later referred to as “Tottle’s Miscellany." This came to be regarded as the first important anthology of English verse.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.W10)
1558 Jan 6, The French seized the British held port of Calais.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1558 Jan 7, The French, under the Duke of Guise, finally took the port of Calais from the English.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1558 Jun 22, The French took the French town of Thioville from the English.
(HN, 6/22/98)
1558 Nov 6, Thomas Kyd, English dramatist (Spanish Tragedy), was born.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1558 Nov 17, Queen Mary (1553-58), Mary I Tudor (42), "Bloody Mary", died. Over 280 Protestants were burned under her rule. Elizabeth I ascended the English throne. With the reign of Elizabeth I a new statement of doctrine of the Church of England was needed. The Church of England was reestablished. In 1996 Carolly Erickson authored "Bloody Mary."
(AP, 11/17/97)(HNQ, 10/20/98)(HN, 11/17/98)(ON, 5/00, p.5)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.72)
1558 Nov 17, Reginald Pole (58), English cardinal, scholar, "heretic", died.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1558 John Knox authored "The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women." He was referring to the governments of Mary Tudor in England and Mary, Queen of the Scots.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(Econ, 8/6/11, p.14)
1558 Thomas Gresham (1519-1579, English financier, put forward proposals for reforming the English currency. He formulated Gresham’s Law, a hypothesis that bad money drives good money out of circulation.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(WUD, 1994, p.622)
1559 Jan 15, England's Queen Elizabeth I was crowned in Westminster Abbey and Lord Dudley soon became her favorite.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(AP, 1/15/98)
1559 Jan 29, Thomas Pope (~52), English politician, benefactor, died.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1559 May 8, An act of supremacy defined Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the church of England. Soon after Elizabeth I took power in 1558 some 200 Catholics were strangled and disemboweled.
(HN, 5/8/99)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.72)
1560 The Presbyterian branch of Protestant Christianity was started in Scotland and the British Isles by John Knox.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.20)(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A11)
1561 Jan 22, Sir Francis Bacon (e.1626), English philosopher, was born in London. He was a statesman and essayist. Educated at Cambridge, he served under Queen Elizabeth and King James I. "He wrote the "Essays" throughout his life and these are filled with pithy wisdom and homely charm. His "Advancement of Learning" and "Novum Organon" constitute his most important contribution to knowledge. He held for the inductive method of learning as opposed to the deductive method. The deductive method, according to Bacon, failed because the seeker after knowledge deduced from certain intuitive assumptions conclusions about the real world that might have been logically correct but were not true to nature. The inductive method succeeded because the student of nature ascended by what Bacon called a "ladder of intellect" from the most careful and indeed humble observations to general conclusions that had to be true because their foundation was experience. "If a man will begin in certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin in doubts he shall end in certainties." In 1998 Perez Zagorin published "Francis Bacon."
(V.D.-H.K.p.140)(AP, 5/1/98)(HN, 1/22/99)
1561 Sep 20, Queen Elizabeth of England signed a treaty at Hamptan Court with French Huguenot leader Louis de Bourbon, the Prince of Conde. The English would occupy Le Harve in return for aiding Bourbon against the Catholics of France.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1563 Jan 1, A great plague in London began about this time. From the 1st January to end of December, 17,404 people died of the plague.
(http://www.mongenes.org.uk/epidemics_in_bri.html)
1563 Feb 27, William Byrd, English composer, was appointed organist at Lincoln Cathedral.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.20)(MC, 2/27/02)
1563 Jun 1, Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, Chief Minister of England, was born.
(HN, 6/1/98)
1563 The 1563 Canterbury Convocation drastically revised the Forty-two Articles of the Church of England. The 39 Articles combined Protestant doctrine with Catholic church organization to establish the Church of England. Dissenting groups included the Puritans, Separatists, and Presbyterians. [see 1571]
(TL-MB, 1988, p.20)(HNQ, 10/20/98)
1564 Feb 26, Christopher Marlowe (d.1593), English, poet, dramatist, was baptized. His work included "Doctor Faustus," "Tamburlaine," "The Jew of Malta," and other plays. He was murdered at 29 in a Deptford tavern and was suspected of being a spy to the Continent on behalf of the Crown. In 1993 Anthony Burgess had a novel published posthumously about Marlowe titled "A Dead Man in Deptford."
(WSJ, 4/28/95, p.A-8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe)
1564 Apr 23, William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English poet and playwright of the Elizabethan and early Jacobin periods, was born and died on the same date 52 years later. He added more than 1,700 word to the English language. He was the son of an illiterate glove maker who left school at 12: "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." -- from Act II, Scene 5 of "Twelfth Night." From "Henry V," "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more."
(CFA, '96, p.44)(WSJ, 4/22/96, p.a-23)(AP, 4/23/97)(HN, 4/23/99)
1564 Apr 26, William Shakespeare was baptized.
(HN, 4/26/98)
1565 Jul 29, Mary Queen of Scots married her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)(MC, 7/29/02)
1565 Sark, one of the Channel Islands, was colonized. The hereditary ruler of Sark was granted the 5 square miles of land by Queen Elizabeth I.
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.B8)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.60)
1566 Jun 19, King James I (d.1625 at 59), son of Mary Queen of Scots, was born. James, aka King James VI of Scotland ruled Scotland from 1567-25 and England from 1603-25.
(WUD, 1994, p.763)(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A13)(HN, 6/19/99)
1566 Nov 10, Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, cousin and lover of Elizabeth I, was born.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1566 During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Knole manor house in west Kent came into the possession of her cousin Thomas Sackville (1536-1608) whose descendants the Earls and Dukes of Dorset and Barons Sackville have lived there since 1603 (the intervening years saw the house let to the Lennard family). Thomas Sackville was the first Earl of Dorset and Lord Treasurer to Elizabeth I and James I. In 2010 Robert Sackville-West authored “Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles."
(Econ, 8/21/10, p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knole_House)
1567 Apr 11, Dutch Prince William of Orange fled from Antwerp to Breda.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1568 May 13, Mary Queen of Scots was defeated by English at battle of Langside, south of Glasgow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Langside)
1568 May 16, Mary Queen of Scotland fled to England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Langside)
1568 May 19, Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1568 Jul 13, Alexander Nowell, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, perfected a way to bottle beer.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)(MC, 7/13/02)
1568 Oct 5, The Conference of York began in the trial against Mary Stuart.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1569 Jan 11, The 1st recorded lottery in England was drawn in St. Paul's Cathedral.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1569 In England a rebellion by 7,000 people in favor of the pope was brutally suppressed.
(Econ, 4/29/17, p.67)
1570 Feb 25, Pope Pius V issued the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicated Queen Elizabeth the First of England. This absolved her subjects from allegiance. Elizabeth responded by hanging and burning Jesuits.
(TL-MB, p.22)(AP, 2/25/98)(HN, 2/25/99)(MC, 2/25/02)
1570 Nicholas Hilliard painted his famous portrait of Elizabeth I.
(TL-MB, p.22)
1570 The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was founded in London, England. Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell was later cast there. Big Ben was cast there in 1858. In 2016 the company announced that it would close in May 2017.
(http://tinyurl.com/jxfxhd7)(SFC, 4/11/08, p.A16)
1571 Aug 8, John Ward, English composer, was born in Canterbury.
(MC, 8/8/02)(Internet)
1571 John Lyon founded Harrow School in England.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1571 Hugh Price founded Jesus College at Oxford.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1571 Along with the Common Book of Prayer, the Thirty-nine Articles constitute the doctrinal statements of the Church of England. Developed from the Forty-two Articles written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1553 "for the avoiding of controversy in opinions." When Mary became queen in 1553 and restored Catholicism, the Forty-two Articles were eliminated. Upon the reign of Elizabeth I in 1558 a new statement of doctrine was needed. The 1563 Canterbury Convocation drastically revised the Forty-two Articles and a final revision resulted in the Thirty-nine articles in 1571, approved by the Queen and imposed on the clergy. They deal briefly with the doctrines accepted by Catholics and Protestants alike and more fully with the points of controversy.
(HNQ, 10/20/98)
1571 A British law was so set that a man could be fined for not wearing a wool cap.
(NG, 5.1988, pp. 574)
1571 A permanent gallows in London drew gawkers and became a source of entertainment and profit.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1572 Jun 11, Ben Jonson (d.1637), English playwright and poet, was born. "Very few men are wise by their own counsel; or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool to his master."
(AP, 1/4/98)(HN, 6/11/01)
1572 Parliament passed the Act for Punishment as Vagabonds. It required entertainers to obtain a noble patron for support. It led to the emergence of permanent theaters.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1572 The Privy Council of Queen Elizabeth I, refused to grant patent protection to new knives with bone handles because the improvement was marginal.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.78)
1573 Jul 15, Inigo Jones (d.1652), father of English classical architecture, was born in London. He restored St. Paul's Cathedral.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(MC, 7/15/02)
1573 Aug 7, Francis Drake’s fleet returned to Plymouth.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1573 Oct 7, William Laud, English archbishop of Canterbury (1633-45), was born.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1573 Sir Francis Walsingham began serving as principal secretary for Queen Elizabeth I. He founded a vast espionage network to protect the queen and served her until 1590. In 2005 Stephen Budiansky authored “Her Majesty’s Spymaster," and account of Walsingham’s efforts.
(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.D14)
1575 Jan 22, English queen Elizabeth I granted Thomas Tallis and William Byrd a music press monopoly.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1576 The Theater in Shoreditch, London, was built by James Burbage (d.1597). It was the 1st permanent playhouse in England.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(ON, 11/03, p.1)
1577 Feb 8, Robert Burton (d.1640), writer, Anglican clergyman (Anatomy of Melancholy), was born. "A mere madness, to live like a wretch and die rich."
(AP, 8/19/98)(MC, 2/8/02)
1577 Sep 23, William of Orange made his triumphant entry into Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1577 Dec 13, Sir Francis Drake of England set out with five ships on a nearly three-year journey that would take him around the world. He raided Spanish ships in the Pacific and returned with a 4,500% profit on his investment.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(AP, 12/13/97)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1577 London’s 2nd playhouse, The Curtain, opened in Finsbury. The Curtain opened close to London's first playhouse "The Theatre" and was one of a number of early theatres built outside the city's walls. The venue took its name from nearby street Curtain Close. It was the main arena for Shakespeare's plays between 1597 and 1599 until the Globe was completed in Southwark. Archaeologists stumbled upon the Curtain Theatre's remains on Hewett Street after work began on a regeneration project led by local developers in October 2011.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(Reuters, 6/6/12)
1578 Apr 1, William Harvey England (d.1657), discoverer of blood circulation, was born.
(HN, 4/1/99)(WUD, 1994, p.648)
1578 Jul 2, In Puerto San Julian, Patagonia, Argentina, English privateer Capt. Francis Drake beheaded his friend John Doughty (b.1545) under accusations of treason and witchcraft.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Doughty_%28explorer%29)(SFC, 8/10/13, p.C3)
1578 Jul 11, England granted Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent to explore and colonize US.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1578 John Lely, English dramatist and novelist, began "Eupheus, the Anatomy of Wit," an early novel of manners.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1578 Sir Francis Drake renamed his flagship, the Pelican, to the Golden Hind. He ravaged the coasts of Chile and Peru on his way around the world.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1579 Jun 17, Sir Francis Drake sailed into a bay in Northern California and proclaimed English sovereignty over New Albion (California). Some claim that Sir Francis Drake sailed into the SF Bay. Sir Francis Drake claimed the area for England. The location may have been Drake’s Bay or Bolinas Lagoon. In 1999 there were 17 proposed locations for his landing with the latest set in Oregon and described by Bob Ward in the book "Lost Harbor Found." A brass plate, allegedly left by Drake, was found in 1993, but determined to be a fake in 1977. In 2012 Drake’s Cove in Point Reyes was designated as the site where Drake landed and named a national historic site.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(HN, 6/17/98)(SFEC, 8/22/98, p.T6) (SFC, 10/29/99, p.A3)(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A1)(SFC, 10/20/12, p.A1)
1579 Jun 17, There was an anti-English uprising in Ireland.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1579 Nov 21, Thomas Gresham (b.1519), English merchant and financier, died. He worked for King Edward VI of England and for Edward's half-sister Queen Elizabeth I of England. Gresham’s Law: "Bad money drives out good." Gresham's law is commonly stated as: "When there is a legal tender currency, bad money drives good money out of circulation." Or, more accurately, "Money overvalued by the State will drive money undervalued by the State out of circulation."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gresham)
1579 "Plutarch’s Lives," biographies of noble Greeks and Romans of the first and second centuries CE, were translated into English from the French.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1579 Edmund Spenser, English poet, wrote "The Shepheardes Calender," an eclogue (pastoral or idyllic poem) for each month of the year.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1579 Christopher Saxton published a map of England. His maps were the first to show England in any detail.
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.85)
1580 Sep 26, Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, at the end of his voyage to circumvent the globe. Drake was knighted and awarded a prize of 10 thousand pounds. His crew of 63 split a purse of 8 thousand pounds.
(TL-MB, p.23)(HN, 9/26/99)(ON, 7/03, p.8)
1580 Apr 18, Thomas Middleton, English playwright (Game of Chess), was born.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1580 Longleat Estate, Wiltshire, England, originally an Augustinian priory, was completed as an Italianate mansion. Longleat was built by Robert Smythson.
(N.G., Nov. 1985, M. Girouard, p.685)(TL-MB, p.23)
1580 John Dee, mathematician and warden of Manchester College in England, invented the crystal ball.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, z1 p.8)
1580 Edmund Campion and Robert Parsons began a Jesuit mission in England.
(TL-MB, p.23)
1580 In Wales the Plas Mawr house was the first Welsh to be built within the English enclave of Conwy. The town of Conwy was built in the 1280s to give Edward I a toehold in Wales.
(SSFC, 1/8/17, p.F3)
1581 Jan 4, James Ussher (d.1656), Irish prelate and scholar, Archbishop of Armagh, was born. According to Ussher and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on Oct 23, 4004BCE, a Sunday, at 9 a.m.
(WUD, 1994, p.1574)(NG, Nov. 1985, edit. p.559)(HN, 10/23/98)(MC, 1/4/02)
1581 Jan 16, English parliament passed laws against Catholicism.
(MC, 1/16/02)
1581 Apr 4, Frances Drake completed the circumnavigation of the world and was made a knight.
(HN, 4/4/98)(MC, 4/4/02)
1581 Jun 18, Sir Thomas Overbury, English poet and courtier who became involved in numerous scandals in London, was born.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1581 Jul 14, English Jesuit Edmund Campion was arrested.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1581 Dec 1, Edmund Campion (41), English Jesuit was hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn, England, for sedition, after being tortured. Other Jesuits were also executed.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(HN, 12/1/99)(PCh, 1992, p.200)
1582 Nov 27, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1583 Nov, Francis Throckmorton (b.1554) was arrested. He made a full confession of the Throckmorton Plot for the overthrow of Queen Elizabeth I and the restoration of papal authority in England after being tortured on the rack. [see Jul 20, 1584]
(HNQ, 10/8/98)
1584 Mar 25, Sir Walter Raleigh, English explorer, courtier, and writer, renewed Humphrey Gilbert's patent to explore North America. He went on to settle the Virginia colony on Roanoke Island (North Carolina), naming it after the virgin queen.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(MC, 3/25/02)
1584 Jul 20, Francis Throckmorton was executed. He was the central figure in the conspiracy involving France and Spain, which called for a French invasion of England and the release from prison of Mary, Queen of Scots. [see Nov, 1583]
(HNQ, 10/8/98)
1584 Nov 23, The English parliament expelled the Jesuits.
(MC, 11/23/01)
c1584 Miles Standish, head of the Mayflower colonists, was born in England. His precise place of birth was still under dispute in 2004.
(WSJ, 11/24/04, p.A1)
1584 Sir Philip Sidney began a radical revision of his pastoral romance "Arcadia."
(TL-MB, p.23)
1584 England’s Cambridge University Press began operations.
(Econ, 10/26/13, p.73)
1585 Jun 7, English sea captain John Davis set sail from Dartmouth with 2 ships to search for a Northwest passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
(ON, 11/05, p.8)
1585 Jul 17, English secret service discovered Anthony Babington's murder plot against queen Elizabeth I.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1585 Elizabeth extended her protection to The Netherlands against Spain to avenge the murder of William of Orange.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1585 Bartholomew Newsam built the earliest surviving English spring-driven clocks.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1585 John Davis, English explorer, discovered the strait named after him between Greenland and Canada.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1586 Apr 17, John Ford (d.1640), English dramatist ('Tis Pity She's a Whore), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.554)(MC, 4/17/02)
1586 May 7, English sea captain John Davis set sail from Dartmouth with 3 ships in a 2nd attempt to find a Northwest passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. When Davis returned in October he learned that one ship, the North Star, had been lost with all hands in a gale near the coast of Ireland.
(ON, 11/05, p.9)
1586 Jun 23, Sir Francis Drake encountered the Roanoke Island Hurricane off the Atlantic coast. Harsh weather caused Drake to evacuate the settlers back to England.
(SFC, 6/23/09, p.D8)
1586 Jul 27, Sir Walter Raleigh returned to England from Virginia with the 1st samples of tobacco.
(HN, 7/27/01)(MC, 7/27/02)
1586 Jul 28, Sir Thomas Harriot introduced potatoes to Europe.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1586 Sep 20, Anthony Babington, page and conspirator to Mary Stuart, was executed at 24.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1586 Oct 14, Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Queen Elizabeth the First. Mary was beheaded in February 1587.
(AP, 10/14/06)
1586 Oct 17, Philip Sidney (b.1554), English poet and diplomat, died in battle at 32. His work included "Astrophel and Stella" and "Defense of Poesy." In 2002 Alan Stewart authored "Philip Sidney: A Double Life."
(MC, 10/17/01)(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.M4)
1586 Sir Francis Walsingham, principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I, uncovered a conspiracy by Mary, Queen of Scots, that called for a rebellion of Catholics, the landing of a foreign army and the assassination of the queen.
(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.D14)
1586 Queen Elizabeth I lost faith in William Cecil, Lord Burghley, when he plotted to accuse Mary Queen of Scots of treason.
(Econ, 4/30/15, p.77)
1586 In America relations with the local Indians soured after the English soldiers attacked a village, and soon the English returned home.
(NG, Geographica, Jan, 94)
1587 Feb 1, Elizabeth I, Queen of England, signed the Warrant of Execution for Mary Queen of Scots.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1587 Feb 8, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1560-67), was beheaded at age 44 in Fotheringhay Castle for her alleged part in the conspiracy to usurp Elizabeth I. In 2004 Jane Dunn authored "Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens." In 2006 studies identified an oil painting of Mary as the only one made of Mary as queen.
(HN, 2/8/99)(PCh, 1992, p.203)(USAT, 2/5/04, p.5D)(SFC, 8/18/06, p.E2)
1587 Mar 1, Peter Wentworth, English parliament leader, was confined in London Tower. [see Mar 12]
(SC, 3/1/02)
1587 Mar 12, Peter Wentworth, English parliament leader, was confined in London Tower. [see Mar 1]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1587 Apr 19, Sir Frances Drake sailed into Cadiz, Spain, and sank the Spanish fleet.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1587 May 19, English sea captain John Davis set sail from Dartmouth with 3 ships in a 3rd unsuccessful attempt to find a Northwest passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 2 ships spent the journey fishing and managed to cover expenses.
(ON, 11/05, p.9)
1587 In London the open-air Rose Theater was built. It was demolished after 1606 when the Globe Theater surpassed it in popularity. An office building, later constructed over the site, was suspended by girders to preserve the site. Its exact location was lost until 1989.
(SFC, 4/15/99, p.E5)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.89)
1587 Queen Elizabeth appointed Sir Walter Raleigh as captain of the guard.
(MC, 7/17/02)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1587 Sir Edward Stafford, English ambassador in Paris, contacted the Spanish ambassador and offered to provide news of Queen Elizabeth’s plans and to offer the English disinformation concerning Spanish plans. Stafford’s brother-in-law was Lord Howard Effingham, commander in chief of the English fleet.
(WSJ, 11/24/98, p.A20)
1588 Feb 12, John Winthrop, English attorney, puritan, 1st gov of Massachusetts Bay Colony, was born.
(HN, 1/12/99)(MC, 2/12/02)
1588 Feb, King Philip II (61) appointed Don Alonzo Perez de Guzman el Bueno (37), the Duke of Medina Sedonia, as Captain General of the High Seas and ordered him to take charge of the Spanish Armada. Philip intended to restore England to Catholicism
(ON, 3/02, p.1)
1588 Apr 5, Thomas Hobbes (d.1679), English philosopher (Leviathan), was born. "The reputation of power IS power."
(HN, 5/5/97)(AP, 5/31/99)
1588 May 19, The Spanish Armada set sail for England; it was soundly defeated by the English fleet the following August.
(AP, 5/19/97)
1588 May 30, Spanish Armada under Medina-Sidonia departed Lisbon to invade England.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1588 Jul 23, English army assembled at Tilbury to repel invasion of England by Spanish Armada.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1588 Jul 26, Captain John Hawkins was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1588 Jul 27, The Spanish anchored off Calais in a crescent-shaped, tightly-packed defensive formation, not far from Parma's army of 16,000, which was waiting at Dunkirk.
(http://wapedia.mobi/en/Spanish_Armada#1.1.)
1588 Jul 29, At midnight of July 28th the English set eight fireships (filled with pitch, gunpowder, and tar) alight and sent them downwind among the closely-anchored Spanish vessels. The English attacked the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines, resulting in an English victory.
(ON, 3/02, p.3)(http://wapedia.mobi/en/Spanish_Armada#1.1.)(AP, 7/29/08)
1588 Jul 30, The English exchanged fire with the Spanish Armada.
(ON, 3/02, p.3)
1588 Aug 1, Sir Francis Drake captured the Nuestra Senora del Rosario, one of the largest Spanish Armada galleons.
(ON, 3/02, p.4)
1588 Aug 2, The English and Spanish fleets exchanged fire all day. The English used up all their ammunition and sailed into nearby ports.
(ON, 3/02, p.4)
1588 Aug 4, The English and Spanish fleets exchanged fire all day off the Isle of Wight.
(ON, 3/02, p.4)
1588 Aug 8, The English Navy destroyed the Spanish Armada. 600 Spaniards were killed in the day’s fighting and 800 badly injured. The Duke of Medina Sidonia led the "invincible" Spanish Armada from Lisbon against England. It was shattered around the coasts of the English Isles by an English fleet under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham with the help of Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, and a violent storm (see Aug 18). The victory opened the world for English trade and colonization. In 1959 Garrett Mattingly authored “The Armada." In 1998 Geoffrey Parker published "The Grand Strategy of Phillip II." In 2005 Neil Janson authored “The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True Story of the Spanish Armada," and James McDermott authored “England & the Spanish Armada: The necessary Quarrel."
(ON, 3/02, p.5)(SSFC, 2/20/05, p.B2)(Econ, 5/28/05, p.85)
1588 Aug 10, The remnants of the Spanish Armada sailed north to avoid the English fleet.
(ON, 3/02, p.6)
1588 Sep 10, Thomas Cavendish returned to England, becoming the third man to circumnavigate the globe.
(HN, 9/10/98)
1588 Aug 18, A storm struck the remaining 60 ships of the Spanish Armada under the Duke of Medina Sidonia after which only 11 were left. Many of the ships went to Ireland where most of the Spaniards were killed by the English. 600 Spaniards wrecked in Scotland were later returned to Spain.
(ON, 3/02, p.6)
1588 An eye-witness account of the New World was provided by "A Briefe and True Account of the New Found Land of Virginia," written by Thomas Harriot. It recounted English attempts from 1584-1588 to colonize what later became known as eastern North Carolina and encouraged further settlement and investment there. In 1590 Flemish engraver Theodor de Bry published an illustrated edition featuring paintings by English colonist John White.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.24)(Arch, 5/05, p.26)
1588 Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues (b.~1533), French artist, died in England. He had painted watercolors of the flora and fauna of Florida, which were lost during a Spanish attack in 1565. Back in France he created new paintings, which were also lost, but engravings made by a Flemish publisher survived. In 2008 Miles Harvey authored “Painter in a Savage Land."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Le_Moyne_de_Morgues)(WSJ, 7/18/08, p.W8)
1588-1593 Shakespeare authored his play Titus Andronicus during this period. It tells the fictional story of Titus, a general in the Roman army, who is engaged in a cycle of revenge with Tamora, Queen of the Goths.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Andronicus)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.64)
1589 Sep 21, The Duke of Mayenne of France, head of the Catholic League, was defeated by Henry IV of England at the Battle of Arques.
(HN, 9/21/98)(MC, 9/21/01)
1589 Thomas Nashe, English satirical pamphleteer and dramatist, wrote "Anatomie of Absurdities," a criticism of contemporary literature.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1589 Francis Drake with 150 ships and 18,000 men failed in his attempt to capture Lisbon.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1589 William Lee, English clergyman, invented the stocking frame, the first knitting machine.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1589 Sir John Harington, Elizabethan poet, designed the first water closet and installed it at his country house near Bath. In 1596 he installed one at the palace of his godmother Queen Elizabeth I.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.24)(SFC, 7/14/99, p.3)
1590 Apr 6, Francis Walsingham (b.~1532), English secretary of state, died. He had ensnared Mary, Queen of the Scots and forced her execution. He is remembered as the "spymaster" of Queen Elizabeth I of England. In 2007 Robert Hutchinson authored “Elizabeth’s Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Walsingham)(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.W8)
1590 Jul 6, English admiral Francis Drake took the Portuguese Forts at Taag, Angola.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1590 Sir Philip Sidney, brother to the second Countess of Pembroke, composed his prose romance “Arcadia." In 2008 the idea of Arcadia was examined by Adam Nicolson in his book “Earls of Paradise: England and the Dream of Perfection."
(www.luminarium.org/renlit/sidbib.htm)
1591 Aug 24, Robert Herrick, English poet (Gather ye rosebuds) was baptized.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1591 R. Durtnell & Sons began building houses.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
1591 British sailor Anthony Knivet found himself stranded on Ilhabella island near Santos, Brazil. He was shipwrecked there after sailing as a crew member of a 5-ship flotilla under Sir Thomas Cavendish. The story of his adventures was published in 1625 by Richard Hakluyt, a director of the Virginia Company,
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.54)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Knivet)
1592 Apr 28, George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, English admiral, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1592 Aug 3, The Earl of Cumberland, et al, took the Madre de Dios, A Spanish carrack carrying the largest treasure ever captured for Queen Elizabeth. The earl’s sailors got out of hand and looted items intended for the queen, including a large diamond which eventually found its way to Goldsmith’s Row, London.
(AOL, Eileen McKinnon, tlc@shore.net)
1592 Nov 29, An admiral’s report said an English warship was lost off the coast of Alderney. A block of mineral was later found on the wreck. In 2013 scientists reported that the rock was likely a sunstone (Iceland spar), used to reveal the sun’s direction and thus assist in navigation.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.80)
1592 Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), English dramatist and poet. He wrote "The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus."
(WUD, 1994, p.878)
1592 Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, was founded after small group of Dublin citizens obtained a charter from Queen Elizabeth incorporating Trinity College juxta Dublin.
(www.tcd.ie/info/trinity/history/)
1593 Mar 23, English Congressionalist Henry Barrow was accused of slander.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1593 Apr 3, George Herbert (d.1633), English metaphysical poet (5 Mystical Songs), was born. "The best mirror is an old friend."
(AP, 4/16/98)(MC, 4/3/02)
1593 Apr 6, Henry Barrow, English puritan, was hanged.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1593 Apr 6, John Greenwood, English Congressionalist, was hanged.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1593 May 29, John Penry English congressionalist, was executed.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1593 May 30, Christopher Marlowe (b.Feb 26, 1564), British dramatist (Tamburlaine the Great), poet, was murdered. Marlowe reportedly died in a barfight. It was later speculated that his death was faked and that he fled to Italy and continued writing plays that were produced by Shakespeare. In 2004 Rodney Bolt authored “History Play: The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe."
(SFC, 1/2/03, p.E11)(www.canterbury.co.uk)(Econ, 9/4/04, p.78)
1593 Aug 9, Izaak Walton (d.1683), biographer, fisherman, writer (Compleat Angler), was born in England. "That which is everybody's business is nobody's business."
(AP, 8/29/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1594 Jun 7, Roderigo Lopez was executed at Tyburn, England, on charges of spying for the king of Spain.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.W7)
1594 Oct 16, William Allen (62), English cardinal and founder of the seminary of Douai, died.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1594 James Burbage won the patronage of Lord Chamberlain and established the 25 member Lord Chamberlain's Men. The group included William Shakespeare.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
c1594 Sir Walter Raleigh married Elizabeth Throckmorton (1565-1647), a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth. Her secret marriage and pregnancy led to her being banished from the court.
(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1595 Feb 21, Robert Southwell, English-Jesuit poet, was hanged for "treason" being a Catholic.
(HN, 2/21/99)(MC, 2/21/02)
1595 May 28, It was a shaken and demoralized English column that returned to its northern Irish base at Newry.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1595 Jul 23, Spanish soldiers landed at Cornwall, England, and burned Mousehold and Penzance before returning to their ships.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1595 Aug 24, Thomas Digges, English astronomer (Universe Infinite), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1595 Nov 12, John Hawkins (63), English navigator and treasurer of the Navy, died.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1595 Queen Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Drake to capture treasure from a wrecked Spanish galleon stored at La Forteleza. Drake failed and returned to Panama.
(HT, 4/97, p.30)
1595 Sir Walter Raleigh explored the South American coast from the Orinoco River to the mouth of the Amazon, an area that he called "Guiana."
(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1595 John Smith on a whaling expedition mapped the eastern seaboard and named the area new England. The area had earlier been called Norumbega. On his return he gave the map to heir apparent Charles Stuart (16) and instructed him to rename the "barbarous" place names. Thus Cape Elizabeth, Cape Anne, the Charles River and Plymouth.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.23)
1596 Jan 28, English navigator Sir Francis Drake died off the coast of Panama of a fever; he was buried at sea.
(HT, 4/97, p.30)(AP, 1/28/98)
1596 Jul 1, An English fleet under the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Vere captured and sacked Cadiz, Spain.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1596 Aug 19, Elisabeth Stuart, English daughter of James I, was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
c1596-1597 Shakespeare wrote his tragedy "King John."
(WUD, 1994, p.788)
1597 Aug 11, Germany threw out English salesmen in "a noble experiment."
(MC, 8/11/02)
1597 Britain’s Tudor establishment, deeply concerned by the possibility of social upheaval brought on by an agricultural crisis and increasing urban migration, introduced the Charitable Uses Act, first in 1597, then a revised act in 1601 to promote philanthropy amongst the country's aristocracy and burgeoning merchant classes.
(www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=2398&mode=thread&order=0)
1598 Aug 15, Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, led an Irish force to victory over the British at Battle of Yellow Ford.
(HN, 8/15/98)
1598 Dec 28, Richard and Cuthbert Burbage led a crew to begin the demolition of the Theater in London. They and partners that included William Shakespeare used the timbers to build a new theater. The Globe opened in 1599.
(ON, 11/03, p.2)
1598 Sir George Clifford, the third Earl of Cumberland, led an attack on Puerto Rico. He landed east of San Juan at Boqueron Inlet and attacked. The English prevailed and plundered San Juan but their food spoiled and 400 died of dysentery. The survivors burned San Juan and sailed away.
(HT, 4/97, p.30)
1599 Apr 25, Oliver Cromwell (d.1658) was born. He was an English military, political and religious leader, and dictator as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth from 1653-1658.
(CFA, '96, p.44)(AHD, p.315)(HN, 4/25/98)
1599 Sep 7, Earl of Essex and Irish rebel Tyrone signed a treaty.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1599 Sep 21, The Globe Theater had its first recorded performance. The 20-sided timber building for Shakespeare’s plays was constructed on the South Bank of the Thames, England. The troupe Lord Chamberlain's Men built the Globe Theater. Timbers came from a dismantled old theater and the new structure held some 3,000 spectators in 3 galleries. In 2005 James Shapiro authored “A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599."
(Hem, Mar. 95, p.138)(WSJ, 6/17/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(Econ, 11/5/05, p.92)
1599-1600 “As You Like It," a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare, is believed to have been written about this time and first published in the folio of 1623. It included a monologue that begins with the phrase "All the world's a stage" and catalogues the seven stages of a man's life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon, and second childhood, "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_world%27s_a_stage)
1600 Nov 19, Charles I of England was born. Charles I, ruled Great Britain from 1625-1649. He was executed by Parliament in 1649.
(WUD, 1994, p.249)(HN, 11/19/98)
1600 Dec 31, The British East India Company (d.1874) was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I in London to carry on trade in the East Indies in competition with the Dutch, who controlled nutmeg from the Banda Islands. A company of 218 merchants were granted a monopoly to trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. For its first 20 years the company operated out of the home of its governor, Sir Thomas Smythe.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)(www.theeastindiacompany.com/history.html)(Econ, 12/17/11, p.109)
1600-1603 Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) governed Jersey, a British Channel Island.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.59)
1600-1700 Britain waged wars against the Dutch. The English fleet sailed in three segments, the 3rd of which was commanded by a Rear Admiral.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.3)
1600-1700 In England the Roundheads were members or adherents of the Parliamentarians or Puritan party during the civil wars of the 17th century. They were called roundheads by the Cavaliers in derision because they wore their hair cut short.
(WUD, 1994, p.1248)
1600-1700 The Windsor chair originated in Windsor, England.
(WSJ, 8/15/97, p.A1)
1601 Jan 7, Robert, Earl of Essex led a revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1601 Feb 8, The armies of Earl Robert Devereux of Essex drew into London.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1601 Feb 13, John Lancaster led the 1st East India Company voyage from London.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1601 Feb 25, Robert Devereux (b.1566), 2nd earl of Essex, was beheaded following a conviction of treason. His plan to capture London and the Tower had failed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Devereux,_2nd_Earl_of_Essex)(HN, 2/25/99)
1601 A British measure, funded by taxes, provided jobs for the able-bodied poor and apprentice programs for children.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1602 Jan 2, Battle at Kinsale, Ireland: English army beat the Spanish.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1602 Feb 2, The first recorded performance of Shakespeare’s comedy “Twelfth Night" took place. It was not published until 1623.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night)
1602 Apr 30, William Lilly, astrologer, author, almanac compiler, was born in England.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1603 Mar 24, Tudor Queen Elizabeth I (69), the "Virgin Queen," died. She had reigned from 1558-1603. Scottish King James VI, son of Mary, became King James I of England in the union of the crowns. Each country retained its own parliament until 1707. In 2006 Leanda de Lisle authored “After Elizabeth." In 2016 John Guy authored “Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years."
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A13)(WSJ, 2/4/06, p.P9)(Reuters, 2/16/12)(Econ, 4/30/15, p.77)
1603 Mar 30, Battle at Mellifont: English army under Lord Mountjoy beat the Irish.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1603 Apr 5, New English king James I departed Edinburgh for London.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1603 Jul 17, Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) was arrested. He was prosecuted by Sir Edward Coke. James I suspended his death sentence and had him incarcerated in the Tower of London for 13 years during which time he wrote his "History of the World."
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDrayleigh.htm)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1603 Dec 27, Thomas Cartwright (~68), English Presbyterian publicist, died.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1603 Roger Williams (d.1683) was born in London. After a brief period as a Baptist, the founder of the Rhode Island Colony and colonial religious leader, became a Seeker—one who adhered to the basic tenets of Christianity but refused to recognize any creed. Williams was the first champion of complete religious toleration in America.
(HNQ, 5/1/99)(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.D10)
1603 King James I of England allowed the public limited access to Hyde Park.
(SFEM, 3/21/99, p.8)
1603 Following the London plague in this year weekly Bills of Mortality began to be published.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.97)
1604 Apr 4, Thomas Churchyard, poet, pamphleteer, died.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1604 May 18, (OS)England and Spain agreed signed the Treaty of London ending the 19 year Anglo-Spanish war.
(AH, 6/07, p.31)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_London_%281604%29)
1604 Nov 1, William Shakespeare's tragedy "Othello" was first presented at Whitehall Palace in London.
(AP, 11/1/99)
1604 Nov, Richard Bancroft (1544-1610) became the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the "chief overseer" of the production of the King James Bible (1604-1611).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bancroft)(SFC, 4/17/17, p.A2)
1604 The “Moor of Venis" (Othello) by Shaxberd (Shakespeare) was performed in London.
(WSJ, 10/22/05, p.P13)(http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLTnoframes/plays/othsubj.html)
1605 Jun 15, Thomas Randolph, English poet and playwright, was born.
(HT, 6/15/00)
1605 Oct 19, Thomas Browne (d.1682), British writer (Garden of Cyrus), was born.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne)
1605 Nov 5, The Gunpowder Plot was planned in response to strict enforcement of anti-Catholic laws by King James I. Several prominent English Catholics plotted to blow up Parliament when the King was to address the House of Lords. Robert Catesby gathered a dozen young men to smuggle barrels of gunpowder into the basement of the House of Parliament. 36 barrels of gunpowder were placed in the cellar. The plot was discovered and one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was arrested as he entered the cellar before the planned explosion. Fawkes was supposed to light the fuse but was caught and horribly tortured. Fawkes, after persuasion on the rack in the White Tower of London, confessed to trying to blow up Parliament. Fawkes and other conspirators were tried, convicted and executed. November 5 is known as Guy Fawkes Day in England and is celebrated by shooting firecrackers and burning effigies of Fawkes. The story is told in the 1996 book "Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot" by Antonia Fraser. In 2005 Alice Hogge authored “God’s Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth’s Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder Plot."
(NG, V184, No. 4, 10/1993, p. 54)(AP, 11/5/97)(HNQ, 3/15/00)(Econ, 11/5/05, p.92)
1605 Dec 27, English sea captain John Davis was killed by Japanese pirates whose ship he had captured off the coast of Sumatra. In 1889 Clements Markham authored “A Life of John Davis, the Navigator, 1550-1605, Discoverer of Davis Straits."
(ON, 11/05, p.9)
1605 The American Indian Tisquantum, aka Squanto, was picked up by seafarer George Weymouth and taken to England. He spent 9 years there and returned to the New World as the interpreter for John Smith.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.28)
1606 Jan 31, Guy Fawkes, convicted for his part in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I, was hanged, drawn and quartered.
(AP, 1/31/98)(HN, 1/31/99)
1606 Apr 12, England's King James I decreed the design of the original Union Flag (also referred to as the Union Jack), which combined the flags of England and Scotland.
(HN, 4/12/98)(AP, 4/12/06)
1606 Dec 20, Virginia Company settlers left London to establish Jamestown.
(HFA, '96, p.44)(MC, 12/20/01)
1606 Shakespeare wrote the tragedy "King Lear."
(WUD, 1994, p.788)
1607 Jan 30, A sudden flood around the Bristol Channel in southwest Britain killed at least 2,000 people. It was the worst natural disaster ever recorded in Britain.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.101)
1607 Apr, The Midland Revolt was a popular uprising which took place in the Midlands of England. From late April to throughout May riots took place as a protest against the enclosure of common land. In the Midland Revolt the term “Leveller" was used to refer to those who 'levelled' hedges in the enclosure riots.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland_Revolt)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levellers)
1607 May 13, English colonists landed near the James River in Virginia. They went shore the next day and founded a colony named Jamestown. In 1996 archeologist discovered the original Jamestown Fort and the remains of one settler, a young white male who died a violent death. In 2003 David A. Price authored "Love and Hate in Jamestown."
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.A2)(AP, 5/13/97)(HN, 5/24/98)(WSJ, 11/25/03, p.D8)(AP, 5/13/07)
1607 Jul 7, "God Save the King" was 1st sung.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1607 Nov 26, This day is believed to be the birth date of London-born clergyman John Harvard, the principal benefactor of the original Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass.
(AP, 11/26/07)
1607 “The Knight of the Burning Pestle," a play by Francis Beaumont (1584-1616), was first performed. It was first published in a quarto in 1613.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knight_of_the_Burning_Pestle)
1607 Henry Chettle (b.c1564), English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era, died about this time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Chettle)
1608 Aug 13, John Smith's story of Jamestown's 1st days was submitted for publication.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1608 Dec 6, George Monck (Monk), English general and gov. of Scotland, was born.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1608 Dec 9, English blind poet and polemical pamphleteer John Milton (1608-1674) was born in London. His work included "Paradise Lost," Paradise Regained," and "Samson Agonistes."
(WUD, '94, p.911)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(AP, 12/9/97)
1608 Shakespeare wrote his play "Pericles." It was about a prince who journeys through evil kingdoms until he meets his bride and then loses her at sea.
(WSJ, 11/11/98, p.A21)
1608 In England Bess of Hardwick died at age 80. Know as the Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury, she built the Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. Bess had married and disposed of four husbands, each leaving her richer than the last. She had been a moneylender, property dealer, exploiter of iron works, coal mines, and glass works, and ended up the richest woman in England after the Queen. She only had children by her second husband, Sir William Cavendish. Her fortune was divided between two sons, William and Charles.
(N.G., Nov. 1985, M. Girouard, p.662,671)(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.20)
1609 Feb 10, John Suckling, English Cavalier poet, dramatist, courtier, was born.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1609 Mar, John Dee (b.1527), English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I, died about this time. Dec 1608 is also given as his time of death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee)(Econ, 6/30/12, p.86)
1609 Jul 25, Admiral William Somers, head of a 7-ship fleet enroute to Virginia, spied land after being blown off course and soon drove his ship, the Sea Venture, onto the reefs of Bermuda. William Strachey (1572-1621), was also aboard the Sea Venture and later sent a letter to England that described the event. The letter is thought by many to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare’s "Tempest." Strachey became secretary of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, after his arrival there on May 23, 1610. In 2009 Hobson Woodward authored: A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare’s “The Tempest."
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.29)(SFC, 8/18/09, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Venture)
1609 Sep 12, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed his ship, the Half Moon, into the river that later took his name. Hudson sailed for the Dutch East India Company in search of the Northwest Passage, a water route linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
(AP, 9/12/97)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.28)
1609 Ben Johnson wrote his play "The Silent Woman."
(WSJ, 2/7/03, p.W2)
1609 Shakespeare wrote his play "Cymbeline." It was based on the story of Cymbeline, king of Britain during the reign of Augustus Caesar in Rome.
(WSJ, 6/10/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 8/19/98, p.A16)
1609 The original text of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets was published. In 1997 a poem-by-poem commentary was published by Helen Vendler: "The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets." A new Arden edition: "Shakespeare’s Sonnets" to elucidate the context of the poems was also published in 1997.
(WSJ, 11/12/97, p.A20)
1609 The song "Three Blind Mice" was published in London.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.C3)
1609 The British attempted to settle Grenada.
(http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/caribb/gd.htm)
1610 Mar 21, King James I addressed the English House of Commons.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1610 Apr 18, Robert Parsons (63), English Jesuit leader, plotter, died.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1610 Aug 3, Henry Hudson of England discovered a great bay on the east coast of Canada and named it for himself.
(HN, 8/3/98)(HNQ, 7/23/00)
1610 Shakespeare wrote his play ""A Winter’s Tale."
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T6)
1610 A map of Asia viewed from the sea was drawn about this by a Chinese cartographer in Java. John Seldon, English lawyer, later acquired this map through an English sea captain and bequeathed it to Oxford’s Bodleian library in 1654.
(Econ, 1/18/14, p.80)
1610 In Ireland the settlement at Derry was colonized by the English, who built a fortress surrounded by stone walls and renamed it Londonderry.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A14)
1611 Mar 4, George Abbot was appointed archbishop of Canterbury.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1611 Jun 22, English explorer Henry Hudson, his son and several other people were set adrift in present-day Hudson Bay by mutineers.
(AP, 6/22/97)
1611 Nov 1, Shakespeare's romantic comedy "The Tempest" was first presented at Whitehall.
(AP, 11/1/99)
1611 Nov 3, Henry Ireton, English general and MP (Edgehill), was born.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1611 The authorized version of the King James Bible was published and it incorporated the translation of William Tyndale. In 2001 Alister McGrath authored "In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language and a Culture." In 2003 Adam Nicolson authored "God's Secretaries," which covered the tumult behind the creation of the King James Bible.
(WSJ, 12/22/94, A-20)(SSFC, 6/3/01, DB p.71)(WSJ, 5/9/03, p.W10)
1612 Feb 7, Thomas Killigrew, English humorist, playwright, leader (King's Men), was born.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1612 Feb 8, Samuel Butler (d.1680), England, poet, satirist (Hudibras) was baptized.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1612 Shakespeare was commissioned to write a serious play about Henry VIII. The commission was probably made to celebrate the marriage of one of King James’ daughters.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A13)
1612 Shakespeare handed over the role of scriptwriter for the King’s Men to John Fletcher and retired to his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.
(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)
1613 Jan 28, Thomas Bodley (b.1545), English diplomatist and scholar, died in London. He founded the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
(www.nndb.com/people/859/000094577/)
1613 Jun, Susanna Hall, Shakespeare’s daughter, married Stratford doctor and herbalist John Hall.
(WSJ, 12/5/00, p.A24)
1613 Jun 29, Shakespeare's Globe Theater burned down in London. It was soon rebuilt on the same foundations.
(USAT, 8/16/96, p.8D)(MC, 6/29/02)
1613 The American Indian Tisquantum, aka Squanto, returned to the New World from England as the interpreter for John Smith. He was freed by Smith but then kidnapped with 19 fellow Indians by an Englishman and carried off to Milaga, Spain. He managed to escape to England.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.28)
1613 A fleet of 3 English ships arrived in Japan in response to letters from Will Adams to the English East India Company.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1614 Apr 5, 2nd parliament of King James I began session (no enactments).
(MC, 4/5/02)
1614 Jun 7, The 2nd parliament of King James I dissolved passing no legislation.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1616 Mar 6, Francis Beaumont (b.1584), Elizabethan playwright, died.
(WUD, 1994 p.131)(MC, 3/6/02)
1616 Mar 20, Walter Raleigh was released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guiana. He took along his son Wat (22), who was killed during an attack on a Spanish outpost.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1616 Apr 23, William Shakespeare (b.1564), poet and playwright, died in Stratford-on-Avon, England. In 2004 Stephen Greenblatt authored “Will In the World." In 2006 Colin McGinn authored “Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays."
(AP, 4/23/97)(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.W7)(SSFC, 12/24/06, p.M1)
1616 Dec 25, Nathaniel Courthope, a British merchant-adventurer under direct orders from James I, landed his ship Swan at the Banda Island of Run. He persuaded the islanders to enter an alliance with the British for nutmeg. He fortified the 1 by 2 mile island and with 30 men proceeded to hold off a Dutch siege for 1,540 days.
(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1616 London’s Phoenix Theater in Drury Lane was converted from a cockpit.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.88)
1616 In a letter to Queen Anne, Capt. John Smith recalled that Pocahontas had saved the colony at Jamestown from "death, famine, and utter confusion."
(WSJ, 6/13/95, p.A-18)
1616 American Indian princess Pocahontas and her husband, Jamestown colonist John Rolfe, sailed to England with their infant son.
(ON, 2/07, p.9)
1617 Jan 6, Pocahontas, American Indian princess, attended a court masque with King James I and Queen Anne.
(ON, 2/07, p.9)
1617 Mar 21, Pocahontas (Rebecca Rolfe) was buried at the parish church of St. George in Gravesend, England. As Pocahontas and John Rolfe prepared to sail back to Virginia, she died reportedly of either small pox or pneumonia. In 2003 Paula Gunn Allen authored "Pocahontas "Medicine Woman, Spy, entrepreneur, Diplomat."
(AP, 4/5/97)(HN, 5/5/97)(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.T12)(HN, 3/21/01)(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.M5)
1617 Aug 23, The 1st one-way streets opened in London.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1617 James VI of Scotland, aka James I of England, made a homecoming to Edinburgh Castle.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T3)
1618 Jan 7, Francis Bacon became English lord chancellor.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1618 Oct 29, Sir Walter Raleigh, English scholar, poet and historian, was executed for treason. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh's enemies had spread rumors that he opposed the accession of King James. In 2003 Raleigh Trevelyan authored "Sir Walter Raleigh," and Anna Beer authored "My Just Desire," a biography of Raleigh's wife, Elizabeth Throckmorton.
(HN, 10/29/98)(MC, 10/29/01)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1618 In London the play "Swetnam the Woman-Hater" introduced the term "misogynist" into the English language.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.A2)
1618-1680 Sir Peter Lely, English court painter.
(Ind, 12/26/98, p.5A)
1619 Mar 1, Thomas Campion (53), English physician, composer, poet (Poemata), died.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1619 John Seldon, English lawyer, authored a treatise called “Mare Clausum" (The Closed Sea), in which he argued that countries have jurisdiction over the sea close to their shore.
(Econ, 1/18/14, p.80)
1619 In England Tisquantum joined a new exploratory mission to the New England coast and returned to find that his tribe had been wiped out by the plague. It was he who later communicated with the first Pilgrims at Plymouth.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.29)
1619 Richard Burbage, actor and co-owner of London's Globe theater, died.
(ON, 11/03, p.2)
1620 Jul 22, The Pilgrims set out from Holland destined for the New World. The Speedwell sailed to England from the Netherlands with members of the English Separatist congregation that had been living in Leiden, Holland. Joining the larger Mayflower at Southampton, the two ships set sail together in August, but the Speedwell soon proved unseaworthy and was abandoned at Plymouth, England. The entire company then crowded aboard the Mayflower, setting sail for North America on September 16, 1620.
(HNQ, 3/4/00)(MC, 7/22/02)
1620 Sep 16, The Pilgrims sailed from England on the Mayflower, finally settling at Plymouth, Mass. The Pilgrims were actually Separatists because they had left the Church of England. The 4 children of William Brewster, who arrived on the Mayflower, were named: Love, Wrestling, Patience, and Fear.
(HN, 9/16/98)(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.23)(SFC, 3/20/99, p.B4)
1620 Oct 31, John Evelyn (d.1706), British diarist (Life of Mrs. Godolphin), was born. He was a meditative and sententious English diarist.
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A24)(MC, 10/31/01)
1620 Dec 2, An English newspaper headline read: “The new tidings out of Italie are not yet come." In 2006 this was reported to be the world’s oldest headline.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.103)
1620 Bacon published his "Novum Organon." Francis Bacon was said to have noted the striking fit of the opposing coastlines of South America and western Africa.
(V.D.-H.K.p.139)(DD-EVTT, p.192)
1620 Thomas Tompkins (1572-1656), English royal composer, wrote his madrigal “When David Heard."
(SFC, 6/4/10, p.F4)
1620 In England Dutch-born Cornelius Drebbel tested a submarine which cruised 15 feet under the Thames. Cornelius Drebbel also attempted to air-condition Westminster Abbey.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W12)
1621 Mar 31, Andrew Marvell, English poet and politician, was born.
(HN, 3/31/01)
1621 May 3, Francis Bacon was accused of bribery.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1621 May 31, Sir Francis Bacon was thrown into Tower of London for overnight.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1621 Sep 21, King James of England gave Canada to Sir Alexander Sterling.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1621 Dec 18, English parliament unanimously accepted Protestation.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1621 Dec 5, A letter from the English office of the Virginia Company reported that European honeybees (Apis mellifera) were shipped to America. They arrived in Virginia in March 1622.
(www.orsba.org/htdocs/download/Honey%20Bees%20Across%20America.html)
1622 Jan 23, William Baffin (~38), British explorer, died.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1622 Feb 8, King James I disbanded the English parliament.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1622 Apr 17, Henry Vaughan (d.1695), English poet and mystic, was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.1582)(HN, 4/17/98)
1623 Jul 4, William Byrd (80), English composer (Ave verum corpus), died.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1623 Aug 6, Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, died.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1623 Nov 9, William Camden (72), English historian: Brittania Annales, died.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1623 Ben Jonson, playwright, wrote his poem Shakespeare "Sweet Swan of Avon."
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.E3)
1623 In London the Coopers Arm pub, now known as The Lamb and Flag at 33 Rose St., went into business.
(SFC, 8/11/96, p.T7)
1624 Sep 12, The 1st submarine was tested in London.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1624 George Fox (d.1691), founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), was born in England.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.C10)
1625 Mar 27, James I (VI), Stuart king of Scotland (1567), England (1603-25), died. He was described as the “wisest fool in Christendom."
(www.jesus-is-lord.com/kingbio.htm)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.130)
1625 Mar 27, Charles I (d.1649) became the English king. He was King of England, Ireland and Scotland until he was beheaded.
(AP, 3/27/97)(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A12)
1625 Jun 5, Orlando Gibbons (41), English organist, composer (Silver Swan), died.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1626 Feb 2, Charles I was crowned King of England. His wife was Queen Henrietta Maria.
(HN, 2/2/99)(WSJ, 10/31/02, p.D6)
1626 Feb 28, Cyril Tourneur (c51), English poet, dramatist, died.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1626 Apr 9, Francis Bacon (b.1561), English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author, died. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon)
1626 Oct 4, Richard Cromwell (d.1659), lord protector of England (1658-59), was born.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1626 Nov 15, The Pilgrim Fathers, who settled in New Plymouth, bought out their London investors.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1626 In London Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, was presented Jeffrey Hudson (7), whom she made her royal dwarf. In 2002 Nick Page authored "Lord Minimus," a biography of Hudson.
(HN, 2/2/99)(WSJ, 10/31/02, p.D6)
1627 Jul 10, English fleet under George Villiers reached La Rochelle, France, a Huguenot stronghold.
(MC, 7/10/02)(WUD, 1994, p.808)
1627 Jul 20, English fleet under George Villiers reached La Rochelle. [see Jul 10]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1628 Mar 19, Massachusetts colony was founded by Englishmen.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1628 Oct 28, After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle surrendered to Cardinal Richelieu's Catholic forces. John Tradescant, an English gardener who accompanied Duke George Villiers to rescue the Huguenots, had designed siege trenches prior to the surrender.
(HN, 10/28/98)(MC, 10/28/01)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.B19)
1628 Nov 24, John Ford's "Lover's Melancholy," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1628 Nov 28, John Bunyan, English preacher and writer who wrote "Pilgrim’s Progress," was born.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1628 Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter, was called upon to broker a peace between Catholic Spain and Protestant England.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)
1629 Mar 2, English King Charles I fleeced the house of commons.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1629 Mar 10, England's King Charles I dissolved Parliament and did not call it back for 11 years.
(AP, 3/10/98)
1629 Oct 30, King Charles I gave the Bahamas to Sir Robert Heath.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1629 The weekly Bills of Mortality in London, begun in 1603, began to include causes of death.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.97)
1630 May 29, Charles Stuart (d.1685), later Charles II, king of England (1660 to 1685), was born. He was the son of Charles I. Charles II was restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth. Charles made a deal with George Monck, a general of the New Model Army, and with the old parliamentary foes of his father. The British experiment with republicanism came to an end with the restoration of Charles II.
(V.D.-H.K.p.218)(WUD, 1994, p.249)(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(HN, 5/29/98)(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)
1630s Inigo Jones built the portico of London’s Old St. Paul’s Cathedral.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)
1631 Mar 31, John Donne (b.1572), British metaphysical poet, died in London. In 2006 John Stubbs authored “Donne: The Reformed Soul."
(www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebio.htm)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.79)
1631 May 4, Mary I Henriette Stuart, daughter of Charles I (later queen of England), was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1631 Jun 21, John Smith (b.1580), English sailor, soldier and author, died in England. He had helped found the English colony at Jamestown, Va.
(ON, 2/07, p.9)(www.virtualjamestown.org/jsmith.html)
1631 Aug 9, John Dryden, the 1st official poet laureate of Great Britain (1668-1700), was born.
(HN, 8/9/02)
1632 Feb 20, Thomas Osborne, Duke of Leeds, English PM (1690-94), founder (Tories), was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1632 Jun 20, Britain granted 2nd Lord Baltimore rights to Chesapeake Bay area.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1632 Aug 29, English philosopher John Locke (d.1704) was born in Somerset, England. The philosopher of liberalism influenced the American founding fathers and was famous for his treatise "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." It was he who stated that the child is born with a tabula rasa, a blank state. On it, he said, experience wrote words, and thus knowledge and understanding came about, through the interplay of the senses and all that they perceived. "New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common."
(V.D.-H.K.p.64,219)(AP, 8/4/97)(AP, 8/29/97)(HN, 8/29/98)
1632 Oct 20, Sir Christopher Wren (d.1723), astronomer and architect, was born. He designed the current St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(HN, 10/20/98)
1632 The British colonized Montserrat.
(NH, Jul, p.20)
1633 Feb 23, Samuel Pepys (d.1703), English diarist, was born. Pepys was an informal and spontaneous English diarist. In 1999 Ferdinand Mount wrote the novel "Jem (and Sam)," about Pepys and his drinking partner Jeremiah Mount. In 1999 Sara George authored "The Journal of Mrs. Pepys," a novel based on Pepys' young wife Elizabeth.
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A24)(HN, 2/23/01)
1633 Mar 1, George Herbert (b.1593), Welsh-born priest and poet, died. In 2013 John Drury authored “Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert)(Econ, 8/31/13, p.72)
1633 Oct 14, James II Stuart, king of England and Scotland (James VII) (1685-88), was born.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1634 Feb 17, William Prynne (1600-1669), English Puritan leader and pamphleteer, was tried in Star Chamber for publishing "Histrio-masti."
(WUD, 1994 p.1159)(MC, 2/17/02)
1634 Mar 25, English colonists sent by Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, arrived in present-day Maryland.
(HN, 3/24/98)(AP, 3/25/08)
1635 Britain established binding numerical limits on horse-drawn coaches.
(Econ, 2/11/12, p.76)
1637 Jul 23, King Charles of England handed over the American colony of Massachusetts to Sir Fernando Gorges, one of the founders of the Council of New England.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1637 Aug 6, Ben Johnson (65), English dramatist and poet, died. In 1960 Jonas Barish wrote "Ben Jonson and the Language of Prose Comedy."
(AP, 1/4/98)(WUD, 1994, p.771)(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A24)(MC, 8/6/02)
1637 John Tradescant the younger, a widower with a son and daughter, undertook the first of three voyages from England to Virginia “to gather up all raritye of flowers, plants, shells." The King’s request to search for useful trees and herbs, no doubt played a role in Tradescant’s decision to take this trip during what must have been a very difficult time.
(www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=2942)
1638 John Tradescant (b.1570), English gardener and father of John Tradescant (1608-1662), died. In 2008 Jennifer Potter authored “Strange Blooms: The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants.
(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.B19)
1640 May 5, English Short Parliament united.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1640 Nov 3, English Long Parliament assembled.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1640 Nov 11, John Pym, earl of Strafford, was locked in Tower of London.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1640 Chemical lighters came out in London that used phosphorus and sulfur.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.E3)
1640 John Ford (b.c1586) English playwright, died. In 1944 Prof. Sensabaugh (d.2002 at 95) authored "The Tragic Muse of John Ford."
(WUD, 1994 p.554)(SFC, 2/28/02, p.A20)
1640s The parliamentary battles that led up to the English Civil War were recorded in 7 tomes known as Rushworth's Collections.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A22)
1640s In England an agrarian commune was created by Gerard Winstanley, a merchant turned pamphleteer whose elegant prose derided the class system. The 1975 film "Winstanley" was co-directed by Andrew Mollow and Kevin Brownlow was based on Winstanley.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, DB p.42)
1641 Jan 3, Jeremiah Horrocks (22), English astronomical prodigy, died.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1641 Feb 16, English king Charles I accepted the Triennial Act.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1641 May 12, Thomas Wentworth (48), chief advisor to Charles I and English viceroy of Ireland, was beheaded in the Tower of London.
(HN, 5/12/01)(MC, 5/12/02)
1641 Oct 21, A Catholic uprising took place in Ulster. Thousands of English and Scots were killed. [see Oct 23]
(MC, 10/21/01)
1641 Oct 23, Catholics in Ireland, under Phelim O'Neil, rose against the Protestants and cruelly massacred men, women and children to the number of 40,000 (some say 100,000). [see Oct 21]
(HN, 10/23/98)
1641 The English Court of Star Chamber was abolished. It had been used by unpopular kings to enforce unpopular policies.
(ON, 11/04, p.10)
1641 A Catholic uprising in Ulster was suppressed. English Gen’l. Oliver Cromwell took away the land rights of 44,000 Catholics in Ulster and adjacent counties.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)
1642 Jan 4, King Charles I attacked the English parliament with 400 soldiers.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1642 Jan 10, King Charles I and his family fled London for Oxford.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1642 Aug 22, Civil war in England began as Charles I declared war on the Puritan Parliament at Nottingham. Charles I went to the House of Commons to arrest some of its members and was refused entry. From this point on no monarch was allowed entry.
(HN, 8/22/98)(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D3)(ON, 12/00, p.1)
1642 Oct 23, The Battle of Edgehill was the first major clash between Royalist and Parliamentary forces in the English Civil Wars. King Charles I and 11-15,000 Cavaliers held the high ground against 13-15,000 Roundheads led by the Earl of Essex and Oliver Cromwell. The conflict began with a smattering of cannon exchanges. The Royalist artillery was hampered by its uphill position, rendering its cannons largely ineffective against the enemy below. As a result, Royalist cavalry, led by the King’s nephew, Prince Rupert, swept down the hill toward the Parliamentarians, decimating a large section of their ranks. The Royalists did not capitalize on this initial success, however, as the troops became more interested in plundering the town than in finishing the fight. This allowed Parliamentarian troops to regroup and break up enemy formations. After several hours of hard fighting, both sides withdrew to their original positions, leaving a field scattered with debris and casualties.
(HNQ, 6/16/01)
1642 Oct 23, Sir Edmund Verneys rode into the battle of Edgehill as the standard bearer of Charles I and died there. In 2007 Adrian Tinniswood authored “The Verneys: A True Story of Love, War and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England."
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.87)
1642 Nov 13, Battle at Turnham Green, London: King Charles I vs. English parliament.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1642 Dec 25, (OS) Isaac Newton (d.1727), English physicist, mathematician and scientist, was born in Woolsthorpe (Grantham), Lincolnshire, England. He enunciated the laws of motion and the law of gravity [see Jan 4, 1643].
(V.D.-H.K.p.205)(HN, 12/25/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton)
1642 London's Globe theater closed as the Puritan-controlled British Parliament suppressed theaters and other forms of popular entertainment.
(ON, 11/03, p.2)
1642 In England Speaker William Lenthall refused Charles I’s request that he identify 5 uppity MPs, whom the king had come to the House of Commons to arrest.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.75)
1642-1648 The English civil war severely damaged St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)
1643 Jan 4, (NS) Sir Isaac Newton, scientist, was born. He developed the laws of gravity and planetary relations [See Dec 25, 1642].
(HN, 1/4/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton)
1643 May 13, Battle at Grantham: English parliamentary armies beat royalists.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1643 May 14, Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1643 Jun 18, In England the bloody battle of Chalgrove Field occurred. Royalist strategy meetings were held at the Horsenden Manor at Buckinghamshsire.
(WSJ, 7/19/96, p.B6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chalgrove_Field)
1643 Jun 30, Battle at Atherton Moor: Royalists beat parliamentary armies.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1643 Jul 13, In England, the Roundheads, led by Sir William Waller, were defeated by royalist troops under Lord Wilmot in the Battle of Roundway Down.
(HN, 7/13/98)
1643 Jul 27, Cromwell defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Gainsborough.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1643 Dec 8, John Pym (59), English House of Commons member, died.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1643 The English parliament first introduced levies on beer and meat to finance its fight against the Crown.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.39)
1644 Mar 14, England granted a patent for Providence Plantations (Rhode Island). [see Mar 24]
(MC, 3/14/02)
1644 Mar 24, Roger Williams was granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island. [see Mar 14]
(MC, 3/24/02)
1644 Jul 2, Lord Cromwell crushed the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York, England. Cromwell came from minor gentry in Huntingdon and had served in Parliament before the wars, during which he commanded the Ironsides, a cavalry regiment famous for its discipline and tenacity. Although he had had no previous military experience, he showed amazing courage and tactical brilliance, particularly at the Battle of Marston Moor.
(HN, 7/2/98)(HNQ, 8/8/00)
1644 Oct 27, The 2nd Battle at Newbury: King Charles I beat parliamentary armies.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1644 Nov 6, Sir Thomas Roe (b.~1581), English scholar and a patron of learning, died. He was an English diplomat of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods and He sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1644. “It is no good state of a body to have a fat head, thin guts and lean members."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Roe)(Econ, 6/30/12, SR p.15)
1644 Poet John Milton published "Areopagitica," an essay in defense of a free press.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.D2)
1644 The Globe Theater in London was dismembered.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.E4)
1645 Jan 10, William Laud (71), the Archbishop of Canterbury, was beheaded on Tower Hill, accused of acting as an enemy of the Parliament.
(HN, 1/10/99)
1645 Apr 2, Robert Devereux resigned as parliament supreme commander.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1645 Jun 14, Oliver Cromwell’s army routed the King’s army at Naseby.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1645 Sep 24, The Battle of Rowton Heath took place during the English Civil War between the Parliamentarians, commanded by Sydnam Poyntz, and the Royalists under the personal command of King Charles I. The result was a significant defeat for the Royalists, with heavy losses and Charles prevented from relieving the Siege of Chester. William Lawes (b.1602), Cavalier composer, died at the Battle of Rowton Heath.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rowton_Heath)(Econ, 4/16/11, p.90)
1645-1651 During the English civil war of this period almost every silver and gold object in the country was melted down or smashed.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.86)
1646 Apr 27, King Charles I fled Oxford.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1646 May 5, King Charles I surrendered at Scotland.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1646 Jul 30, English parliament set the Newcastle Propositions of King Charles I.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1646 Sep 14, Robert Devereux (b.1591), 3rd earl of Essex, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Devereux,_3rd_Earl_of_Essex)
1646 George Fox (b.1624) abandoned the church and began following the "inner light." He told listeners that the truth could be found by listening to an inner voice of God speaking directly to the soul. His teachings formed the basis to the Religious Society of Friends, aka Quakers. Believers reportedly sat and quivered waiting for the Holy Spirit to move them to speak.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.C10)
1646 Charles I (1600-1649), king of England, Scotland and Ireland, licensed the Silver Cross to serve as both a brothel and drinking establishment.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England)(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.T7)
1647 Jan 23, Scottish Presbyterians sold captured Charles I to English Parliament.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1647 Jan 30, King Charles I was handed over to the English parliament.
(MC, 1/30/02)
1647 Jun 4, The English army seized King Charles I as a hostage.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)
1647 Nov 10, The all Dutch-held area of New York was returned to English control by the treaty of Westminster.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1647 Apr 1, John Wilmot (d.1680) Second Earl of Rochester, poet (A Satyr Upon Mankinde), scandalous pornographer and bawdy playwright, was born. He married Elizabeth Malet, and carried on an affair with the actress Elizabeth Barry. His friend, playwright George Etherege modeled the character Dorimont after him in "Man of Mode." A 1994 play by Stephen Jeffrey titled "The Libertine," is based on Wilmot’s life.
(WSJ, 3/28/96,p.A-12)(WSJ, 1/14/98, p.A17)
1647 The British Parliament under Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas celebrations. The ban was lifted after Cromwell's downfall in 1660.
(http://gouk.about.com/od/festivalsandevents/qt/hogmaney.htm)
1647 Elizabeth Throckmorton (b.1565), wife of Sir Walter Raleigh, died. In 2003 Anna Beer authored her biography "My Just Desire."
(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1647-1649 “An Agreement of the People" was a series of manifestos, published during this period, for constitutional changes to the English state. They have been most associated as the manifestos of the Levellers but were also published by the Agitators and the General Council of the New Model Army.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_of_the_People)
1648 Apr 22, English army claimed king Charles I was responsible for bloodshed.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1648 Nov 30, English army captured King Charles I.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1648 Dec 6, Pride's Purge: Thomas Pride prevented 96 Presbyterians from sitting in English Parliament.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1649 Jan 30, King Charles I of England, who ruled from 1625-1649, was beheaded for treason at Banqueting House, Whitehall, by the hangman Richard Brandon. He lost his capital trial by one vote, 68-67. "For the people, and I truly desire their liberty and freedom as much as anybody whomsoever, but I must tell you that their liberty and their freedom consists in having of government those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having a share in government, sirs; that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things." Charles I was canonized by the church of England 13 years later. Parliament became the supreme power under the rule of Oliver Cromwell, who ruled over Parliament as Lord Protector of the New Commonwealth from 1649-1658. He argued against his soldiers having a voice in government because they owned no property. He stated in so many words that government "has always been, and should always continue to be, of property, by property, and for property."
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.T7)(V.D.-H.K.p.218)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(HN, 1/30/99)(SFEC, 7/2/00, Z1 p.2)(WSJ, 2/7/03, p.W13)
1649 Jan 30, Jester Muckle John lost his job when King Charles 1 was beheaded.
(Reuters, 8/7/04)
1649 Jan, The prosecution of England’s King Charles I was led by John Cooke (1608-1660), who suffered a horrible death with the Restoration in 1660.
(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.M3)
1649 Feb 5, The Prince of Wales became king Charles II. Charles II (18), while living in exile at the Hague, was recently informed that his father was beheaded at Whitehall on Jan 30.
(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)(MC, 2/5/02)
1649 Feb 23, John Blow, composer of 1st English opera (Venus and Adonis), was baptized.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1649 Apr 9, James Scott Duke of Monmouth (d.1685), was born. He was the illegitimate son of Charles II of England and pretender to the throne of James II
(HN, 4/9/98)(WUD, 1994, p.925)
1649 May 12, Isaac Doreslaer, English lawyer, diplomat, was murdered.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1649 Aug 15, Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland)
1649 Sep 6, Robert Dudley, English navigator and writer (Arcano del Mare), died.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1649 Sep 11, Oliver Cromwell seized Drogheda, Ireland in a siege that began September 3. The week after the storming of Drogheda, the Royalist press in England claimed that 2,000 of the 3,000 dead were civilian.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Drogheda)
1649 Oct, English Parliamentarian troops broke into the town of Wexford while the commander of the garrison, David Sinnot, was trying to negotiate a surrender – massacring soldiers and civilians alike. Much of the town was burned and its harbor was destroyed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Wexford)
1649-1653 This period marks the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland or Cromwellian war in Ireland. The Parliamentarians deported about 50,000 people as indentured laborers. They were sent to the English colonies of America and West Indies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland)
1649-1815 In 2004 N.A.M. Rodger authored “The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815."
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.88)
1650 Feb 2, Nell [Eleanor] Gwyn, English actress, mistress to King Charles II, was born.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1650 May 24, John Churchill, 1st duke of Marlborough, English general strategist, was born.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1650 May, Oliver Cromwell left Ireland to fight the Third English Civil War against the new Scottish-Royalist alliance. He passed his command onto Henry Ireton.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland)
1650 Jun 28, Lord Cromwell set off for Scotland at the head of an army of 16,354 men.
(HNQ, 8/8/00)
1650 Jun, The Ulster army met a Parliamentarian army composed mainly of British settlers and commanded by Charles Coote at the Battle of Scarrifholis in Donegal. The Ulster army was routed and as many as 2000 of its men were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland)
1650 Sep 3, The English under Cromwell defeated a superior Scottish army under David Leslie at the Battle of Dunbar.
(HN, 9/3/98)
1650 Oct 3, The English parliament declared its rule over the fledgling American colonies.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1650 Nov 4, William III, Prince of Orange and King of England, was born. [see Nov 14]
(HN, 11/4/98)
1650 Nov 14, William III, King of England (1689-1702), was born. [see Nov 4]
(HN, 11/14/98)
1650 Charles II (20) arrived in Scotland.
(ON, 12/00, p.1)
1651 Sep 3, In the Battle at Worcester Oliver Cromwell destroyed English royalists. Charles II led the Scots Covenanters to a disastrous defeat at the battle of Worcester. Some 3,000 of his soldiers were killed and 10,000 taken prisoner.
(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)(ON, 12/00, p.1)
1651 Oct 15, Charles II boarded the ship Surprise to cross the Channel to France.
(ON, 12/00, p.5)
1651 Oct 17, Future King Charles II fled from England. [see Oct 15]
(MC, 10/17/01)
1651 Oct 27, English troops occupied Limerick, Ireland.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1651 Nov 26, Henry Ireton (40), English gen. and parliament leader (Marston Moor), died.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1651 Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), English philosopher, authored “Leviathan." In it he tried to deduce from 1st principles the shape that society should take.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.M3)
1652 May 29, English Admiral Robert Blake drove out the Dutch fleet under Lieutenant-Admiral Tromp.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1652 The English Parliament passed the Act for the Settlement of Ireland which classified the Irish population into one of several categories according to their degree of involvement in the uprising and subsequent war. Dr. William Petty, Physician-General to Cromwell's Army, estimated that as many as 100,000 Irish men, women and children were transported to the colonies in the West Indies and in North America as slaves.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_British_Isles)
1652 Inigo Jones (b.1573), father of English classical architecture, died. His work included a book titled "Stonehenge Restored," which considered Stonehenge to have been Roman temple.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(ON, 4/02, p.11)
1652 War broke out between the Netherlands and England.
(ON, 4/00, p.2)
1653 Apr 20, Oliver Cromwell dissolved the English parliament. “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately…"
(www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/rump-parliament.htm)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.60)
1653 Jul 4, British Barebones Parliament went into session.
(Maggio)
1653 Dec 1, An athlete from Croydon was reported to have run 20 miles from St. Albans to London in less than 90 minutes.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1653 Dec 16, Oliver Cromwell took on dictatorial powers with the title of lord protector" of England, Scotland and Ireland. He served as dictator of England to 1658.
(CFA, '96, p.44)(AHD, p.315)(AP, 12/16/97)(HN, 12/16/98)
1653 Izaak Walton (b.1593-1683) wrote "The Compleat Angler."
(SFEC, 11/3/96, Par p.19)
1653 The English palace of Oatlands was pulled down by the Commonwealth. John Tradescant and his son John had worked there under Charles 1 as gardeners. In 1790 Duke of York purchased Oatlands House, built in the grounds of Henry VIII's 1537 Oatlands Palace.
(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.B19)(www.weybridgesociety.org.uk/History.aspx)
1654 Apr 12, England, Ireland and Scotland united.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1654 Dec 25, Dorothy Osborne (1627-1695) married William Temple (1628-1699). Their story was later the focus of the historical romance “Forever Amber" (1944), which was also made into a film (1947). In 2008 Jane Dunn authored “Read My Heart: Dorothy Osborne and Sir William Temple, a Love Story in the Age of Revolution."
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.W10)
1654 John Seldon, English lawyer, bequeathed a map of Asia, drawn about 1610, to Oxford’s Bodleian library. In 2014 Timothy Brook authored “Mr Seldon’s Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer." Robert Batchelor authored “London: The Seldon Map and the making of a Global City, 1549-1689."
(Econ, 1/18/14, p.80)
1655 Apr 4, Battle at Postage Farina, Tunis: English fleet licked Barbarian pirates.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1655 Apr 28, English admiral Blake beat a Tunisian pirate fleet.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1655 May 10, Jamaica was captured by English.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1655 Nov 24, English Lord Protector Cromwell banned Anglicans.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1655 The three Cayman Islands came under British control when Oliver Cromwell's army captured nearby Jamaica from the Spanish.
(AP, 5/10/03)
1656 Oct 29, Edmund Halley (d.1742), astronomer, was born about this time in Hagerston, Middlesex, England. The birth date is somewhat uncertain because it is not known if at that time in his village the Gregorian or the Julian calendar was in use. There's also some dispute over the year. [see Nov 8]
(www.seds.org/messier/xtra/Bios/halley.html)
1656 Nov 8, Edmond Halley, mathematician and astronomer who predicted the return of the comet which is named for him, was born. [see Oct 29]
(HN, 11/6/98)
1656 The first performance of an English opera was given in a room at the Smithfield home of Sir William Davenant.
(Econ, 11/27/10, p.41)
1656 Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews to return to England. They soon established their first synagogue on Creechurch Lane.
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P16)
1657 Mar 23, France and England formed an alliance against Spain.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1657 Mar 31, English Humble Petition offered Lord Protector Cromwell the crown.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1657 Apr 3, English Lord Protector Cromwell refused the crown.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1657 Apr 20, English Admiral Robert Blake fought his last battle when he destroyed the Spanish fleet in Santa Cruz Bay.
(HN, 4/20/99)
1657 Jul 13, Oliver Cromwell constrained English army leader John Lambert.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1657 By this time the White Tower of London was no longer inhabited by royalty and was almost completely given over to the storage of gunpowder.
(Hem, 9/04, p.28)
1658 Sep 3, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the New Commonwealth, i.e. ruler over England’s Puritan parliament (1653-58), died at age 59. Richard Cromwell had succeeded his father as English Lord Protector. Cromwell was responsible for shipping Romanichal Gypsies (i.e., Gypsies from Britain) as slaves to the southern plantations; there is documentation of Gypsies being owned by freed black slaves in Jamaica.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell)(AP, 9/3/97)(http://tinyurl.com/q7kfjwn) (ON, 12/00, p.5)
1659 Mar 7, Henry Purcell, English organist, composer (Dido & Aeneas), was born.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1659 Mar 26, William Wollaston, English philosopher, was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1659 Apr 22, Lord protector Cromwell disbanded the English parliament.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1659 May 25, Richard Cromwell resigned as English Lord Protector.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1659 Oct 12, English Rump government fired John Lambert and other generals. [see Oct 13]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1659 Oct 13, Gen. John Lambert drove out the English Rump government. The "Rump Parliament" was restored in Dec. [see Oct 12]
(PCh, 1992, p.247)(MC, 10/13/01)
c1659 Parliament invoked law that made it a crime, punishable by burning at the stake, to forecast the weather.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)
1659 A London discussion group called the Amateur Parliament met at Miles' coffee house.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.90)
1659 In Britain a check was written and made out for 400 pounds (equivalent to around 42,000 pounds in 2009). It was signed by Nicholas Vanacker, made payable to a Mr Delboe and drawn on Messrs Morris and Clayton, scriveners and bankers of the City of London. As of 2009 it was the oldest surviving British check.
(AP, 12/16/09)
1660 Apr 16, Hans Sloane, founder of British Museum, was born.
(HN, 4/16/98)
1660 May 3, Prince Charles, Son of King Charles I, returned to England from France.
(ON, 7/06, p.8)
1660 May 8, The son of the late Charles I is proclaimed King ending 11 years of civil war.
(PCh, 1992, p.248)
1660 May 26, Charles II (29), returning from exile, landed at Dover.
(PCh, 1992, p.248)
1660 May 28, George I, king of England, was born.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1660 May 29, Charles II (30), who had fled to France, was restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth. Charles made a deal with George Monck, a general of the New Model Army, and with the old parliamentary foes of his father. The British experiment with republicanism came to an end with the restoration of Charles II.
(V.D.-H.K.p.218)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)(ON, 8/12, p.5)
1660 Oct 16, John Cooke (b.1608), England’s solicitor-general during the 1649 trial of Charles 1, was hanged as Charles II looked on in approval. Cooke was hanged slowly until he passed out and then was revived to watch as his genitals were sliced off. A length of his bowel was yanked from his body, pulled before his face and set alight as he bled to death. In 2006 Geoffrey Robertson authored “The Tyrannicide Brief," an account of Cooke during this period.
(WSJ, 9/6/06, p.D10)(www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/10/13/)
1660 Oct, England’s King Charles II enacted his first Declaration of Indulgence.
(www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1660 Nov 28, The London Royal Society formed. Founding members included astronomer Christopher Wren, William Petty, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins and Lawrence Rooke.
(www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=2176)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.98)
1660 Dec 8, The first Shakespearian actress to appear on an English stage (she is believed to be a Ms. Norris) made her debut as 'Desdemona.'
(HN, 12/8/99)
1660 Dec 24, Mary I Henriette Stuart (29), queen of England, died.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1660-1685 King Charles II was ruler of Great Britain. He was the son of Charles I. Under his reign the Italian artist Antonio Verrio painted 2 huge frescoes that covered the entire walls and ceiling of what is now St. George’s Hall. One painting depicted Christ healing the sick in the Temple of Jerusalem and the other was of King Charles II. The frescoes were destroyed in the 1820s under King George IV to reflect a new national style. One fresco was rediscovered in 1996 during reconstruction after a fire in 1992. Charles is known as "the Merry Monarch" because of his many mistresses, enthusiasm for parties and mockery of Puritan values.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)(WUD, 1994, p.249)(ON, 12/00, p.4)
1660-1731 Daniel Defoe, English novelist and political journalist. He was born as Daniel Foe and became a successful merchant in woolen goods. For a time he was jailed due to his debts. He became a supporter of William of Orange and wrote over 500 publications on his behalf. Some regard him as the father of modern journalism. Among other works he wrote "Robinson Crusoe," "Moll Flanders," "General Histories of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates," "A Tour of the Whole Island of Great Britain," and "Journal of the Plague Year." In 1999 Richard West published "Daniel Defoe: The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures."
(WUD, 1994, p.379)(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)
1661 Mar 19, English occupied St. Andrew Island and other Courlander possessions in Gambia. They renamed the island James Island with administration by the Royal Adventurers in Africa Company.
(http://www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1661 Mar 24, William Leddra became the last Quaker to be hanged in Boston. Quakers were last hanged on Boston Common. Charles II ordered the executions stopped.
(WSJ, 4/4/01, p.A18)(MC, 3/24/02)
1661 Apr 23, English king Charles II was crowned in London.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1661 May 25, King Charles II married Portuguese princess Catherina the Bragança. India’s city of Mumbai, formed from seven islands, was given by Portugal to Charels II of England as dowry for his marriage to Catherine of Braganza.
(SC, 5/25/02)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.119)
1661 Jun 5, Isaac Newton was admitted as a student to Trinity College, Cambridge.
(http://tinyurl.com/4extmym)
1661 Oct 1, A yacht race from Greenwich to Gravesend between King Charles and James, Duke of York, made the sport fashionable.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1661_in_England)
1661 Oct 13, "I went to see Major General Harrison being drawn and quartered. He was looking as cheerful as any man could in that condition." Harrison (b.1606) had sided with Parliament in the English Civil War. During the Interregnum he was a leader of the Fifth Monarchists. In 1649 he signed the death warrant of Charles I and in 1660, shortly after the Restoration, he was found guilty of regicide.
(Samuel Pepys Diary)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harrison_%28soldier%29)
1661 Robert Boyle (1627-1691), English chemist, authored “The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sceptical_Chymist)
1661 Charles II appointed Christopher Wren (29) assistant to the surveyor general of the king’s works (assistant to the royal architect).
(NYTBR, 2/2/03, p.12)
1661 Henry Slingsby, master of the London Mint, proposed the "standard solution" a mix of fiat rules and free markets, to resolve the ongoing problem of money supply and coin value. Britain adopted the idea in 1816 and the US followed in 1853.
(WSJ, 4/2/02, p.A20)
1661 Cecil Calvert sent his son Charles Calvert (1637-1715), the 3rd Lord Baltimore, to Maryland. Charles replaced Philip Calvert as governor and remained the colonial governor until his father’s death in 1675.
(http://mdroots.thinkport.org/library/charlescalvert.asp)
1662 Aug 24, An Act of Uniformity, a part of the Clarendon Code (1661-1665), was passed by the English Parliament and required that England's college fellows and clergymen accept the newly published Book of Common Prayer. Charles II attempted to suspend the operation of the Clarendon Code by issuing a 2nd Declaration of Indulgence, but opposition from Parliament forced him to retract it in 1663.
(PC, 1992, p.249)(www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=the%20Clarendon%20Code)
1662 Oct 26, Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to France.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1662 Englishman Christopher Merret presented a paper to the Royal Society on making sparkling wine. This was noted in the 1998 "World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine" by Tom Stevenson.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)
1662 The British Parliament approved the Licensing of the Press Act, which censored “seditious, treasonable and unlicensed Bookes and Pamphlets." It failed renewal in 1695 and was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licensing_of_the_Press_Act_1662)
1662 British law established that mourning clothes had to be made of English wool. [see 1667]
(NG, 5.1988, pp. 574)
1662 London haberdasher John Graunt published the first quantitative account of death.
(Econ, 4/29/17, p.9)
1662 John Tradescant the younger (b.1608), English traveler, horticulturalist, collector and gardener to Queen Henrietta Maria, died. His home in South Lambeth, called The Ark, was filled with his Museum Tradescantianum, a collection of rarities which included birds, fish, shells, insects, minerals, coins, medals and unusual plants. After his death the collection went to Elias Ashmole, who subsequently presented it to Oxford University, where it formed the basis of the Ashmolean Museum. In 2008 Jennifer Potter authored “Strange Blooms: The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants.
(www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp04533)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.B19)
1663 Jan 10, King Charles II affirmed the charter of Royal African Company.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1663 Jan 29, Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln (1660-63), died.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1663 Feb 28, Thomas Newcomen, English co-inventor of the steam engine, was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1663 Mar 24, Charles II of England awarded lands known as Carolina in America to eight members of the nobility who assisted in his restoration. [see Apr 6]
(HN, 3/24/99)
1663 Apr 6, King Charles II signed the Carolina Charter. [see Mar 24]
(MC, 4/6/02)
1663 Apr 10, Samuel Pepys, London-based diarist, noted that he had enjoyed a French wine called Ho Bryan at the Royal Oak Tavern. This same year the Pontacs, a top wine-making family in Bordeaux, founded a fashionable London restaurant called Pontack’s Head. Ho Bryan later came to be called Chateau Haut Brion.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.131)
1663 May 7, Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London, opened.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1663 Jul 15, King Charles II of England granted John Clarke a charter for the colony of Rhode Island guaranteeing freedom of worship. He granted the charter giving the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations an elected governor and legislature. Roger Williams (1603-1683) authored the Rhode Island and Providence Plantation Charter, which stated that religion and conscience should never be restrained by civil supremacy.
(http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ri04.asp)(AH, 4/07, p.21)
1663 Jul 27, British Parliament passed a second Navigation Act, requiring all goods bound for the colonies be sent in British ships from British ports.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1663 Robert Boyle (1627-1691), English chemist and author of “The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes" (1661), wrote an essay apologizing for his interest in chrysopoeia, the chemical pursuit of transmutation of base metals into gold.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sceptical_Chymist)(Econ, 2/26/11, p.85)
1663 London featured 82 coffee houses.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.89)
1664 Mar 12, England’s King Charles II granted land in the New World, known as New Netherland (later New Jersey), to his brother James, the Duke of York.
(HN, 3/12/98)(AP, 3/12/08)
1664 Mar 22, Charles II gave large tracks of land from west of the Connecticut River to the east of Delaware Bay in North America to his brother James, the Duke of York.
(AP, 3/22/99)
1664 Jul 21, Matthew Prior, English poet, was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1664 Jul 23, 4 British ships arrived in Boston to drive the Dutch out of NY.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1664 Sep 5, After days of negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrendered to the British, who would rename it New York. The citizens of New Amsterdam petitioned Peter Stuyvesant to surrender to the English. The "Articles of Capitulation" guaranteed free trade, religious liberty and a form of local representation. In 2004 Russell Shorto authored "The Island At the Center of the World," a history of New York's Dutch period.
(HN, 9/5/98)(ON, 4/00, p.3)(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.D6)
1664 Sep 8, The Dutch formally surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York.
(AP, 9/8/97)(ON, 4/00, p.3)
1664 There was no litigation in London, England due to the Black plague.
(SFC, 7/14/96, zone 1 p.2)
1664-1667 The Second Anglo-Dutch War.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1665 Feb 6, Anne Stuart, queen of England (1702-14), was born.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1665 Mar 4, English King Charles II declared war on Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1665 Mar 6, Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society started publishing.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1665 Aug 15-22, The London weekly "Bill of Mortality" recorded 5,568 fatalities with teeth holding the no. 5 spot. 4,237 were killed by the plague.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.7)
1665 Nov 7, The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, was first published.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1665 The British briefly recaptured the Banda Island of Run from the Dutch.
(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1665 The villagers of Eyam in Derbyshire voluntarily isolated themselves so as not to spread the plague. 250 of 350 people died and the town became known as the Plague Village.
(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.22)
1665 In London at least 68,000 people died of the plague this year. In 1722 Daniel Defoe published his novel “A Journal of the Plague Year." The novel posed as a historical document covering the London plague. The Lord Mayor of London exterminated all the city’s cats and dogs, which allowed the rats, the real transmitters of the disease, to increase exponentially.
(NG, 5/88, p.684)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)(WSJ, 10/21/06, p.P8)
1665 William Petty, British pioneer of political arithmetic, estimated the income of England and Wales at £40 million.
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.80)
1665-1666 Over a span of 18 months Isaac Newton invented calculus, explained how gravity works, and discovered his laws of motion. This period came to be called his annus mirabilis.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.59)
1666 Sep 2, The Great Fire of London, having started at Pudding Lane, began to demolish about four-fifths of London. It started at the house of King Charles II's baker, Thomas Farrinor, after he forgot to extinguish his oven. The flames raged uncontrollably for the next few days, helped along by the wind, as well as by warehouses full of oil and other flammable substances. Approximately 13,200 houses, 90 churches and 50 livery company halls burned down or exploded. But the fire claimed only 16 lives, and it actually helped impede the spread of the deadly Black Plague, as most of the disease-carrying rats were killed in the fire.
(CFA, '96, p.54)(AP, 9/2/97)(HNPD, 9/2/98)(HNQ, 12/2/00)
1666 Sep 5, The great fire of London, begun on Sep 2, was extinguished. Old St. Paul’s was among the 87 churches burned down.
(HN, 9/5/98)(www.stpauls.co.uk)
1666 Nov 14, Samuel Pepys reported the on 1st blood transfusion, which was between dogs.
(HFA, '96, p.42)(MC, 11/14/01)
c1666 Sir Peter Lely painted Barbara Villiers 1640-1709, mistress to King Charles II, as a Shepherdess. Charles had raised her stature to Countess of Castlemaine and later Duchess of Cleveland.
(WSJ, 3/7/02, p.A22)
1667 Jun 18, The Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames and threatened London. They burned 3 ships and captured the English flagship in what came to be called the Glorious Revolution, in which William of Orange replaced James Stuart.
(HN, 6/18/98)(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1667 Jul 21, The Peace of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and ceded Dutch New Amsterdam to the English. The South American country of Surinam, formerly Dutch Guiana, including the nutmeg island of Run was ceded by England to the Dutch in exchange for New York in 1667 after the second Anglo-Dutch War.
(WUD, 1994, p.961)(HN, 7/21/98)(HNQ, 8/21/98)(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1667 Aug 20, John Milton published Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1667 Nov 30, Jonathan Swift (d.1745), English satirist who wrote "Gulliver's Travels," was born in Ireland.
(WUD, 1994, p.1437)(HN, 11/30/98)
1667 The first insurance company was formed in London.
(Econ, 2/25/12, SRp.4)
1668 Feb 7, English King William III danced in the premiere of "Ballet of Peace."
(MC, 2/7/02)
1668 Feb 7, The Netherlands, England and Sweden concluded an alliance directed against Louis XIV of France.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1668 Mar 26, England took control of Bombay, India.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1668 Mar 27, English king Charles II gave Bombay to the East India Company.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1668 Apr 13, John Dryden (36) became 1st English poet laureate.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1668 Dec 22, Stephen Day, 1st British colonial printer, died.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1668 The British trading ship Nonsuch 1st sailed into Hudson Bay.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.C6)
1669 Jul 21, John Locke's Constitution of English colony Carolina was approved.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1669 The semicircular Sheldonian Theater at Oxford, designed by Christopher Wren, was completed.
(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.T8)
1669-1717 Christopher Wren served as surveyor general under Charles II.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.D5)
1670 Jan 3, George Monck (61), English general (to the-sea), died.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1670 Feb 10, William Congreve, English writer (Old Bachelor, Way of the World), was born.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1670 May 2, The Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson Bay (the Hudson Bay Co.) was chartered by England's King Charles II to exploit the resources of the Hudson Bay area. By 2006 it had mutated into Canada’s largest non-food retailer.
(AP, 5/2/97)(HN, 5/2/98)(AH, 4/01, p.36)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.36)
1670 May 26, A treaty was signed in secret in Dover, England, between Charles II and Louis XIV ending hostilities between them.
(HN, 5/26/99)
1671 Apr 22, King Charles II sat in on English parliament after which he gave his Royal Assent to the several Bills that were presented to him, fourteen private Acts, and eighteen public, including an act for exporting “Beer, Ale, and Mum."
(http://british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=37626)
1671 May 9, Colonel Thomas Blood (1618-1680), Irish adventurer, attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
(MC, 5/9/02)(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1671 Nov 6, Colley Cibber, England, dramatist, poet laureate (Love's Last Shift), was born.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1671 Charles II banned anyone without property worth £100 a year from owning guns, bows or ferrets. Game stocks were the motive.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.63)
1671 English Protestants became alarmed when they learned that James, Duke of York, had converted to Catholicism.
(ON, 7/06, p.8)
1672 Feb 8, Isaac Newton read his 1st optics paper before Royal Society in London.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1672 Mar 15, England’s King Charles II enacted a 3rd Declaration of Indulgence.
(http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1672 May 1, Joseph Addison (d.1719), English essayist (Spectator) and poet, was born. "We are always doing, says he, something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us." "A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side."
(AHD, 1971, p.14)(AP, 11/21/97)(AP, 7/14/98)(MC, 5/1/02)
1672 The Royal African Co. was granted a charter to expand the slave trade and its stockholders included philosopher John Locke.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.D3)
1673 Feb 20, The 1st recorded wine auction was held in London.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1673 Mar 29, The English Parliament passed the Test Act. It in effect excluded Roman Catholics from public functions. King Charles II was unable to stop the action.
(www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/guide17/timeline40.html)
1673 Jul 24, Edmund Halley entered Queen's College, Oxford, as an undergraduate.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1673 Aug 9, Dutch recapture NY from English. It was regained by English in 1674.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1673 In London the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries started the Chelsea Physic Garden as an educational tool for apprentices learning to grow medicinal plants.
(SFC, 3/26/08, p.G1)
1674 Feb 9, English reconquered NY from Netherlands.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1674 Feb 19, Netherlands and England signed the Peace of Westminster. NYC became English.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1674 Jun 20, Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate of England, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1674 Jul 17, Isaac Watts, English minister and hymn writer, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1674 Nov 8, John Milton (65), English poet (Paradise Lost), died. His work included "Paradise Lost," Paradise Regained," and "Samson Agonistes." Milton lost one eye at 36 and the other when he was 44. In 1952 Prof. Sensabaugh (d.2002 at 95) authored "In That Grand Whig, Milton," an examination of Milton’s political tracts. In 1996 Paul West wrote a novel: "Sporting with Amaryllis," that begins in 1626 and gives a fictional account of his life. In 1997 Peter Levy wrote a biography of Milton titled: "Eden Renewed."
(WUD, '94, p.911)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(AP, 12/9/97)(MC, 11/8/01)(SFC, 2/28/02, p.A20)
1675 Mar 4, John Flamsteed was appointed 1st Astronomer Royal of England.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1675 Jun 21, Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) began to rebuild St Paul’s Cathedral in London, replacing the old building which had been destroyed by the Great fire.
(HN, 6/21/01)
1675 Jun 22, Royal Greenwich Observatory was established in England by Charles II.
(YarraNet, 6/22/00)
1675 Jun 24, King Philip’s War began when Indians--retaliating for the execution of three of their people who had been charged with murder by the English--massacred colonists at Swansee, Plymouth colony.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1675 Aug 10, King Charles II laid the foundation stone of Royal Observatory, Greenwich. [see Jun 22]
(MC, 8/10/02)
1675 Nov 22, English king Charles II adjourned parliament.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1675 Lely painted a portrait of Nell Gwynn, the favorite mistress of Charles II. It is now in the London National Gallery. Charles II acknowledged 14 illegitimate children and historians identified 13 mistresses.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T8)(SFC, 7/22/00, p.E4)
1675 English king Charles II issued a proclamation deploring the "evil and dangerous effects" of coffee houses.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.90)
1675-1710 Old St. Paul’s Cathedral was replaced with a new design by Sir Christopher Wren. Spires first appeared atop Anglican churches in London at the end of the 1600s.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(WSJ, 12/23/97, p.A1)
1676 Jul 21, Anthony Collins, English philosopher (A discourse on free-thinking), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1676 Aug 26, Sir Robert Walpole (d.1745), the first and longest serving prime minister of England, was born. He was not then called the prime minister as the king held all honors. He collected a large number of paintings by old masters at his Houghton Hall home in Norfolk.
(WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole)
1676 Aug 28, Indian chief King Philip, also known as Metacom, was killed by English soldiers, ending the war between Indians and colonists.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1676 Isaac Newton wrote: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."
(Econ, 8/7/04, p.64)
1677 Feb 15, King Charles II reported an anti-French covenant with Netherlands.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1677 Feb 16, Earl of Shaftesbury was arrested and confined to the London Tower. [see Oct 24, 1681]
(MC, 2/16/02)
1677 May 29, King Charles II and 12 Virginia Indian chiefs signed a treaty that established a 3-mile non-encroachment zone around Indian land. The Mattaponi Indians in 1997 invoked this treaty to protect against encroachment.
(SFC, 6/2/97, p.A3)
1677 Nov 4, William and Mary were married in England on William's birthday. William of Orange married his cousin Mary (daughter to James, Duke of York and the same James II who fled in 1688).
(HNQ, 12/28/00)(HN, 11/4/02)
1677 Christopher Wren redesigned the burned Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Aldermanbury, England.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T5)
1678 Feb 18, John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" was published. [see Sep 28]
(MC, 2/18/02)
1678 May 31, The Godiva procession, commemorating Lady Godiva's legendary ride while naked, became part of the Coventry Fair.
(HN, 5/31/01)
1678 Aug 16, Andrew Marvell (b.1621), English poet (Definition of Love), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1678 Sep 28, "Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan (b.1628) was published. [see Feb 18]
(MC, 9/28/01)
1678 Nov 28, England's King Charles II accused his wife, Catherine of Braganza, of treason. Her crime? She had yet to bear him children.
(DTnet 11/28/97)
1678 Nov 30, Roman Catholics were banned from English parliament.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1678 Dec 3, Edmund Halley received an MA from Queen's College, Oxford.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1678 Titus Oates (b.1649), failed Catholic seminarian, and Israel Tonge concocted the Popish Plot. They alleged that plotters planned to raise a Catholic army, massacre Protestants, and poison Charles II in order to get James on the throne. 9 Jesuit priests were executed. In 1681 it was revealed to be a fabrication.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/11173c.htm)(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1678 Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury and Protestant Parliamentary leader formed the County Party, later known as the Whigs, to prevent James from becoming king of England.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1679 Jan 24, King Charles II disbanded the English parliament.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1679 Mar, King Charles II sent his brother James to the Netherlands for safety.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1679 May 15, The Earl of Shaftesbury introduced his Exclusion Bill into Parliament proposing that James, the Catholic brother of King Charles II, be permanently barred from the line of succession to the English throne.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1679 May 27, England’s House of Lords passed the Habeas Corpus Act (have the body) to prevent false arrest and imprisonment. King Charles adjourned Parliament before the final reading of Shaftesbury’s Exclusion Bill.
(WUD, 1994 p.634)(www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=11707)(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1679 Jun 1, Battle at Bothwell Bridge on Clyde: Duke of Monmouth beat the Scottish. (MC, 6/1/02)
1679 Jul 10, The British crown claimed New Hampshire as a royal colony.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1679 Jul 12, Britain's King Charles II ratified Habeas Corpus Act.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1679 Oct 23, The Meal Tub Plot took place against James II of England.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1679 Dec 4, Thomas Hobbes (b.1588), English philosopher, died. "The reputation of power IS power." Hobbes sought to separate politics from religion. In his book “Leviathan" he argues that the only way to secure civil society is through universal submission to the absolute authority of a sovereign.
(WSJ, 7/30/03, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/15/07, p.W10)(www.thefreedictionary.com/Hobbesian)
1679 Elections in England produced a new House of Commons, but King Charles II declined to let it assemble.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1680 Jul 26, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, poet, courtier, died.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1680 Aug 24, Colonel Thomas Blood, Irish adventurer who stole the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in 1671, died. Captured after the theft, he insisted on seeing King Charles II, who pardoned him.
(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1680 Sep 25, Samuel Butler (b.1612), poet and satirist, died.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1680 Oct, King Charles II of England was forced to recall Parliament in order to ask for money to fortify the port of Tangier, Morocco, which was under assault by Moorish forces.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
c1680-1685 Simon Pietesz, Verelst, painted a portrait of "Nell Gwyn," Protestant mistress to Charles II.
(WSJ, 3/7/02, p.A22)
1681 Jan 18, England's King Charles II suspended Parliament and set its next meeting for March in Oxford.
(ON, 7/06, p.10)
1681 Mar 4, England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn (37) for 48,000 square miles that later became Pennsylvania. Penn’s father had bequeathed him a claim of £15,000 against the king.
(PCh, 1992, p.259)(AP, 3/4/98)
1681 Mar 4, England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn (37) for 48,000 square miles that later became Pennsylvania. Penn’s father had bequeathed him a claim of £15,000 against the king. Penn later laid out the city of Philadelphia as a gridiron about 2 miles long, east to west, and a mile wide.
(PCh, 1992, p.259)(AP, 3/4/98)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T1)
1681 May 17, Louis XIV sent an expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declared war on France.
(HN, 5/17/99)
1681 Oct 24, Earl of Shaftesbury (d.1683) was accused of high treason in London. The Earl of Shaftesbury had challenged the king on the question of succession. The king dissolved Parliament and threw Shaftesbury into the Tower of London and charged him with treason. Shaftesbury was acquitted and went to Holland with John Locke.
(V.D.-H.K.p.220)(MC, 10/24/01)(PCh, 1992, p.260)
1681-1730 French Protestants, known as Huguenots, migrated in large numbers to England due to persecutions known as dragonnades wherein rowdy soldiers were billeted in their homes. They also lost a semblance of security in the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.85)
1682 Jul 14, Henry Purcell was appointed organist of Chapel Royal, London.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1682 Aug 24, Duke James of York gave Delaware to William Penn.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1682 Sep 4, English astronomer Edmund Halley saw his namesake comet.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1682 Oct 19, Thomas Browne (b.1605), British writer, died. The Norwich doctor wrote mysterious-sounding books such as “Religio Medici" and “Pseudodoxia Epidemica." In 2015 Hugh Aldersey Williams authored “The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the Twentieth Century: The Life and Afterlife of the Seventeenth Century’s Most Inquiring Mind."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne)(Econ, 7/4/15, p.71)
1682 St. Clement Dane Church in London was built.
(SFEC, 9/12/99, p.T2)
1682 Wren’s Royal Hospital Chelsea was founded by Charles II as a hostel for old soldiers.
(WSJ, 3/11/02, p.A16)
1683 Jul 3, Edward Young, English poet, dramatist and literary critic, was born. He wrote "Night Thoughts."
(HN, 7/3/99)
1683 Jul 21, Lord William Russell, English plotter against Charles II, was beheaded.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1683 Sep 9, Algernon Sidney, English Whig politician and plotter, was beheaded.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1683 Oct 30, George II, King of Great Britain (1727-60), was born. [see Oct 30]
(MC, 10/30/01)
1683 Nov 10, George II, king of England (1727-60), was born. [see Nov 10]
(MC, 11/10/01)
1683 Nov 22, Purcell's "Welcome to All the Pleasures," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1683 The Ashmolean Museum was built in Oxford to house natural-history artifacts. It was the first such public museum. It gained its name and its first collections from Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), whose own collections were derived in part from those of John Tradescant (1608-1662).
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel//otherart/ashmole.htm)
1684 Jun 21, King Charles II revoked the 1629 Massachusetts Bay Colony charter. [see 1691]
(HNQ, 11/23/00)(MC, 6/21/02)
1684 The British settled Sumatra.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1685 Feb 6, Charles II (54), King of England, Scotland, Ireland (1660-85), died and was succeeded by his Catholic brother James II. He made a deathbed conversion to the Roman Catholic faith. He had earlier ordered Christopher Wren to build an observatory and maritime college at Greenwich. In 2000 Stephen Coote authored the biography: "Royal Survivor."
(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)(http://tinyurl.com/hkkln)
1685 Jun 11, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, rebelled against Catholic king James II.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1685 Jul 6, James II defeated James, the Duke of Monmouth, at the Battle of Sedgemoor, the last major battle to be fought on English soil.
(HN, 7/6/98)
1685 Jul 15, James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth and illegitimate son of Charles II, was executed on Tower Hill in England, after his army was defeated at Sedgemoor.
(HN, 7/15/98)(MC, 7/15/02)
1685-1712 Celia Fiennes’ journal about her travels throughout England have provided historians with valuable insight into the social conditions of the country in the late 1600s. Celia Fiennes, an enterprising young, single woman, rode side-saddle through every county in England. She traveled alone except for two servants, and the journal she kept, later published as "The Journeys of Celia Fiennes 1685-c.1712," is the only evidence we have of her travels.
(HNQ, 4/22/01)
1685-1720 This period was covered by Tim Harris in his 2006 book “Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British Monarchy, 11685-1720."
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.77)
1686 Apr 4, English king James II published a Declaration of Indulgence.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1687 Apr 4, King James II ordered his Declaration of Indulgence read in church.
(http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1687 Apr 16, George Villiers (b.1628), the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, died. The English statesman was a poet, an amateur chemist and one of England’s richest men.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.88)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Villiers,_2nd_Duke_of_Buckingham)
1687 Jul 5, The first volume of Isaac Newton's "Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica" ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy") was published in Latin by Edmund Halley. His invention of differential and integral calculus is here presented. Here also are stated Newton’s laws of motion, that obliterated the Aristotelian concept of inertia. 1) Every physical body continues in its state of rest, unless it is compelled to change that state by a force or forces impressed upon it. 2) A change of motion is proportional to the force impressed upon the body and is made in the direction of the straight line in which the force is impressed. 3) To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction. Book Three of the Principia opens with two pages headed "Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy." There are four rules as follows: 1) We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain the appearances. [A restatement of Ockham’s Razor: "What can be done with fewer is done in vain with more."] 2) Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes. 3) The qualities of bodies which are found to belong to all bodies within the reach of our experiments, are to be esteemed the universal qualities of bodies whatsoever. 4) In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propositions inferred by general induction from phenomena as accurately or very nearly true notwithstanding any contrary hypothesis that may be imagined, till such time as other phenomena occur, by which they may either be made more accurate, or liable to exceptions.
(V.D.-H.K.p.207-10)(http://tinyurl.com/6772jj)(Econ, 4/21/12, p.95)
1687 Nov 13, Nell [Eleanor] Gwyn (37), mistress of Charles II of England, died.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1687 Dec 16, William Petty (b.1623), English designer, inventor and pioneering economist, died in London. He came up with the “quantity theory of money" and was the first to measure gross domestic product (GDP).
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.116)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Petty)
1687 James II, a Roman Catholic, supported unpopular policies that, by 1687, led to many English subjects urging William to intervene. With the birth of a son to James in 1688, fears of a Roman Catholic succession led to opponents sending an invitation to William in July.
(HNQ, 12/28 /00)
1688 Apr 27, King James II issued another Declaration of Indulgence: “conscience ought not to be constrained nor people forced in matters of mere religion."
(http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1688 May 21, Alexander Pope (d.1744), England, poet (Rape of the Lock), was born. His "Essay on Criticism" contains the line: "A little learning is a dangerous thing..."
(NH, 9/97, p.24)(MC, 5/21/02)
1688 Jun 10, Mary of Modena, the wife of Britain’s King James II, gave birth to a male heir, James Francis Edward Stuart (d.1766). This placed England, much to the dismay of Parliament, in line for a succession of Catholic monarchs. On 10 December, within six months of his birth, Mary of Modena took baby James to France, worried about his safety, while his father, James II, continued to fight (unsuccessfully) to retain his crown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edward_Stuart)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.77)(ON, 7/06, p.10)
1688 Jun 30, A jury proclaimed 7 English bishops not guilty of seditious libel against James II. They had refused to comply with his April 27 Declaration of Indulgence because it had not been approved by Parliament.
(www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Seven%20Bishops)
1688 Oct 1, Seven British noblemen sent a letter to Prince William of Orange inviting him to invade England and rescue the country from James’ “popery." William accepted.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.77)(ON, 7/06, p.10)
1688 Oct 27, King James II fired premier Robert Spencer.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1688 Nov 1, William of Orange set sail for England at the head of a fleet of 500 ships and 30,000 men. He intended too oust his father-in-law King James II. The Dutch parliament, the States General, funded William with 4 million guilders. Amsterdam financiers provided another 2 million. Some of this was used to print 60,000 copies of his “Declaration" (of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms in the Kingdom of England), which were distributed in England. In 2008 Lisa Jardine authored “Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory."
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.A13)
1688 Nov 5, William of Orange landed in southern England and marched with his army nearly unopposed to London.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.A13)
1688 Nov 24, General strategist John Churchill met William III.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1688 Nov 25, Princess Anne fled from London to Nottingham.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1688 Nov 26, King James II escaped back to London.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1688 Dec 4, General strategist John Churchill (later Duke of Marlborough) joined with William III.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1688 Dec 9, King James II's wife and son fled England for France.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1688 Dec 11, King James II attempted to flee London as the "Glorious Revolution" replaced him with King William (of Orange) and Queen Mary. James attempted to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames. He was, however, caught in Kent. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on December 23, 1688. James was received by Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a generous pension. In 2007 Michael Barone authored “Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America’s Founding Fathers."
(HN, 12/11/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England)
1688 Dec 18, William of Orange entered London.
(ON, 12/10, p.12)
1688 Dec 23, English King James II fled to France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England)
1688 Dec 25, English king James II landed in Ambleteuse, France.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1688 Dec 28, William of Orange made a triumphant march into London as James II fled in the "Glorious Revolution." William of Orange, son of William II (Prince of Orange) and Mary (daughter of Charles I of England), was fourth in line to the English throne. In 2006 Edward Valance authored “The Glorious Revolution: 1688 – Britain’s Fight for Liberty."
(HN, 12/28/98)(HNQ, 12/28/00)(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A16)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.77)
1688 In England Edward Lloyd opened a London coffee shop where shipping insurance was bought and sold.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1688-1744 Alexander Pope, English poet. His "Essay on Criticism" contains the line: "A little learning is a dangerous thing..."
(NH, 9/97, p.24)
1689 Jan 22, England's "Bloodless Revolution" reached its climax when parliament invited William and Mary to become joint sovereigns. A specially-called parliament declared that James had abdicated and offered the throne to William and Mary. In 1938 G.M. Trevelyan authored “The English Revolution." In 2009 Steve Pincus authored “The First Modern Revolution."
(HN, 1/22/99)(HNQ, 12/28/00)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.97)
1689 Feb 13, The British Parliament adopted the Bill of Rights. It limited the right of a king to govern without the consent of Parliament.
(MT, Dec. '95, p.16)(ON, 12/10, p.12)
1689 Feb 14, English parliament placed Mary Stuart and Prince William III on the throne.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1689 Feb 23, Dutch prince William III was proclaimed King of England.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1689 Mar 12, Former English King James II landed in Ireland.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1689 Apr 11, (OS) William III and Mary II were crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain. As part of their oaths, the new King William III and Queen Mary were required to swear that they would obey the laws of Parliament. At this time, the Bill of Rights was read to both William and Mary. "We thankfully accept what you have offered us," William replied, agreeing to be subject to law and to be guided in his actions by the decisions of Parliament.
(AP, 4/11/97)(www.bessel.org/billrts.htm)
1689 Apr 18, George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem, infamous judge, died.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1689 Apr 21, (NS) William III and Mary II were crowned joint king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.
(HN, 4/21/98)(HNQ, 12/28/00)
1689 May 11, The French and English naval battle took place at Bantry Bay.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1689 May 12, England’s King William III joined the League of Augsburg and the Netherlands. The "Grand Alliance" was formed to counter the war of aggression launched by Louis XIV against the Palatinate states in Germany. This is known as The War of the League of Augsburg (1689-97) also The Nine Years' War, and the War of the Grand Alliance.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/king_william.htm)
1689 May 24, English Parliament passed the Act of Toleration, protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics were specifically excluded from exemption.
(HN, 5/24/99)
1689 May 26, Mary Wortley Montagu, English essayist, feminist, eccentric, was born.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1689 Jul 27, Government forces defeated the Scottish Jacobites at the Battle of Killiecrankie.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1689 Aug 1, A siege of Londonderry, Ireland, by the Catholic Army of King James II ended in failure. The Protestants were victorious and the event led to the annual Apprentice Boy’s March. The group is named in honor of 13 teenage apprentices, all Protestants, who bolted the city gates in front of the advancing Catholic forces at the start of the 105-day siege.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)(HN, 8/1/98)(AP, 8/13/06)
1689 Aug 4-5, War between England and France led them to use their native American allies as proxies. In retaliation for the French attack on the Seneca in 1687, one thousand, five hundred Iroquois, with English support, attacked Lachine down river from the mission of the Mountain of Ville-Marie (Montreal), killing some 400. They put everything to fire and axe. Some suggest that this is a gross exaggeration and that only 24-25 were killed and likely 90 were captured by the Iroquois, but never returned.
(www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/french23.htm)
1689 Aug 19, Samuel Richardson (d.1761), English novelist (Pamela, Clarissa), was born in Derbyshire.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1689 Aug 25, Battle at Charleroi: Spanish and English armies chased the French.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1689 Dec 16, English Parliament adopted a Bill of Rights after Glorious Revolution. The Bill of Rights included a right to bear arms. William and Mary gave it Royal Assent which represented the end of the concept of divine right of kings.
(WSJ, 8/6/02, p.D6)(www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon49.html)
1689 Dec 30, Henry Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas," premiered in Chelsea.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1689 The Catholic Army of King James II besieged Londonderry where 13 Protestant apprentices stood in defense. The Protestants were victorious and the event led to the annual Apprentice Boy’s March.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)
1689 The White Hart Inn at Ware, England, put up 26 butchers and their wives in one bed, the "Great Bed of Ware," in a marketing ploy to attract customers.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A19)
1690 May 11, In the first major engagement of King William’s War, British troops from Massachusetts seized Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the French, their objective was to take Quebec.
(HN, 5/11/99)
1690 May 20, England passed the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1690 Jun 11, English king William III departed to Ireland.
(PC, 1992, p.265)
1690 Jun 24, King William III's army landed at Carrickfergus, Ireland.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1690 Jul 1, England's Protestant King William III of Orange was victorious over his father-in-law, the Catholic King James II (from Scot) in Battle of Boyne (in Ireland). This touched off three centuries of religious bloodshed. Protestants took over the Irish Parliament. This marked the beginning of the annual Drumcree parade, held by the Loyal Orange Lodge on the first Sunday of July. Due to calendar changes in 1752 this later became commemorated on Jul 12.
(PC, 1992, p.265)(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A1)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.A18)
1690 Jul 12, Due to British calendar changes in 1752, the July 1, 1690, Battle of Boyne (in Ireland) was adjusted for celebration on Jul 12.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.5)(AP, 7/11/05)
1690 Sep 6, King William III escaped back to England.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1690 Oct 7, The English attacked Quebec under Louis de Buade.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1690 The 2nd Treatise on Government by John Locke (1632-1704) was published in order to justify the British Whig Revolution of 1688. In it he wrote that men had the natural rights of life, liberty and estate.
(www.radicalacademy.com/lockebio.htm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke)
1690-1699 In the 1690s Kit Cat Club met in London at the invitation of Jacob Tonson (1655/56-1736), a publisher and bookseller, at the inn of Christopher Cat (Christopher Catling). In 2008 Ophelia Field authored “The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation."
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Tonson)
1691 Feb 17, Thomas Neale was granted a British patent for American postal service.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1691 May 26, Jacob Leiser, leader of the popular uprising in support of William and Mary’s accession to the throne, was executed for treason.
(HN, 5/26/99)
1691 Jul 12, William III defeated the allied Irish and French armies at the Battle of Aughrim, Ireland.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1691 Oct 3, English and Dutch armies occupied Limerick, Ireland.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1691 King William III sent a royal governor to Maryland.
(Arch, 1/05, p.50)
1691 The British periodical Athenian Gazette published the first regular problem page. It was created by John Dunton who felt guilty for cheating on his wife.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.118)
1692 Feb, William and Mary granted a royal license for postal service in the American colonies. It empowered Thomas Neale "to erect, settle and establish within the chief parts of their majesties' colonies and plantations in America, an office or offices for the receiving and dispatching letters and pacquets, and to receive, send and deliver the same under such rates and sums of money as the planters shall agree to give, and to hold and enjoy the same for the term of twenty-one years."
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.32)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service)
1692 May 29, Royal Hospital Founders Day was 1st celebrated.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1692 May 29, Battle at La Hogue: An English & Dutch fleet beat France.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1692 Aug 3, French forces under Marshal Luxembourg defeated the English at the Battle of Steenkerke in the Netherlands.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1692 The salary for the Poet Laureate of Britain was fixed at $162 a year plus a case of wine. In 1999 it was raised to $8,100.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.E3)
1693 Mar 24, John Harrison (d.1776), Englishman who invented the chronometer, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison)
1693 Jun 27, The 1st woman's magazine "The Ladies' Mercury" was published in London.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1693 Jul 4, Battle at Boussu-lez-Walcourt: French-English vs. Dutch army.
(Maggio)
1694 Dec 28, Queen Mary II (32) of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III. [see Jan 7, 1695]
(AP, 12/28/97)
1694 Jul 27, The Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution. It had been set up by William III, the ruler of Britain and the Netherlands, in the midst of a war against France. The mission of the bank was to provide war finance. Financiers agreed to lend the crown £1.2 million in return for a partial monopoly on the issue of currency.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C2)(AP, 7/27/97)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.49)(Econ, 11/5/11, p.92)(Econ, 4/29/17, p.56)
1694 Sep 22, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield, statesman of letters whose writings provide a classic portrayal of an ideal 18th-century gentleman, was born. He introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
(HN, 9/22/98)(MC, 9/22/01)
1694 Dec 28, George I of England got divorced. [He was crowned in 1714]
(HN, 12/28/98)
1694 Dec 28, Queen Mary II (32) of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III. The new style calendar puts her death on Jan 7, 1695.
(AP, 12/28/97)
1694 The Whigs of England persuaded King William that if he wanted to win what became the nine years’ war against France, he would have to embrace their political and economic agenda.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.98)
1694 The history of English death duties began with the Stamp Act of this year which placed 5s on probates over 20 pounds.
(www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Bastable/bastbPF29.html)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.90)
1694 John Law, Scotsman, fled England after killing rival Edward Wilson in a duel. He traveled in Europe, played the casinos and studied finance. He set up a bank in France and issued paper money and established the Mississippi Company to exploit the French-controlled territories in America. [see 1720] In 2000 Janet Gleeson authored "Millionaire," a pseudo-biography of Law.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(WSJ, 6/30/00, p.W9)
1694-1773 Lord Chesterfield, English author and statesman: "In scandal, as in robbery, the receiver is always as bad as the thief."
(AP, 2/21/98)
1695 Jan 7, Mary II Stuart 32), queen of England, died [OS=Dec 28 1694].
(MC, 1/7/02)
1695 Mar 7, In Britain John Trevor (1637-1717), the speaker of the House of Commons office, was found guilty of accepting a bribe of 1000 guineas (equivalent to around £1.6 million in 2009) from the City of London to aid the passage of a bill through the house. He was expelled from the House of Commons, a move which he initially resisted on the ground of ill-health, but retained his judicial position until his death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Trevor_(speaker))
1695 Apr 30, William Congreve's "Love for Love," premiered in London.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1695 Nov 21, Henry Purcell (36), English composer (Indian Queen), died.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1695 The British Parliament voted not to renew the 1662 Licensing of the Press Act, which had censored “seditious, treasonable and unlicensed Bookes and Pamphlets." It was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licensing_of_the_Press_Act_1662)
1695 A London rag called “A Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade" included what later was believed to be the first lonely-hearts advertisement: “A Gentleman About 30 Years of Age, that says he had a Very Good Estate, would willingly Match himself to some Good Young Gentlewoman that has a Fortune of £3,000."
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.92)
1696 Mar 7, English King William III departed Netherlands.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1696 Dec 22, James Oglethorpe, General, author, colonizer of Georgia, was born in England.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1696 William Hogarth, British artist, was born. He believed that visual art could have a morally improving effect on viewers, and that individual betterment led to social improvement.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, DB p.7)(SFC, 1/28/98, p.E1)
1696 In England a Jacobite plot to assassinate King William III and restore James II failed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_III_of_England)
1696 In England Isaac Newton (1642-1727) became Warden of the Mint and started combing his hair.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.68)
1696 New York sea captain William Kidd reluctantly became a privateer for England and was expected to fight pirates on the open sea, seize their cargoes, and provide a hefty share of the spoils to the Crown. According to his British accusers, Kidd turned to piracy himself as the deadline for reporting to his employers in New York approached and he had not taken enough booty to fulfill his commission. Kidd himself did not know he was a wanted man until he dropped anchor in the West Indies in April 1699. He chose to surrender to the authorities and submit to a London trial, believing to the end that he could clear his name.
(HNPD, 8/27/00)
1697 Jun 7, John Aubrey (b.1626), author of "Monumenta Britanica," died. In 1948 Anthony Powell authored the biography "John Aubrey." In 2015 Ruth Scurr authored “John Aubrey: My Own Life," an autobiography in the form of a diary that he never wrote.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Aubrey)(ON, 4/02, p.12)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.76)
1697 Sep 20, The Treaty of Ryswick was signed in Holland. It ended the War of the Grand Alliance (aka War of the League of Augsburg,1688-1697) between France and the Grand Alliance. Under the Treaty France’s King Louis XIV (1638-1715) recognized William III (1650-1702) as King of England. The Dutch received trade concessions, and France and the Grand Alliance members (Holland and the Austrian Hapsburgs) gave up most of the land they had conquered since 1679. The signees included France, England, Spain and Holland. By the Treaty of Ryswick, a portion of Hispaniola was formally ceded to France and became known as Saint-Domingue. The remaining Spanish section was called Santo Domingo.
(www.caribbeanguides.net/hispaniola.htm)(www.jacobite.ca/documents/1697ryswick.htm)
1697 Dec 2, St. Paul's Cathedral opened in London.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1697 William Dampier (1651-1715), English explorer, naturalist and privateer, authored “A New Voyage Around the World." A sequel appeared 2 years later. In 2004 Diana and Michael Preston authored "A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist and Buccaneer," a biography of Dampier.
(WSJ, 4/16/04, p.W8)(NH, 6/4/04, p.59)
1698 Nov, English astronomer Edmond Halley (d.1742) set off in the Paramore to map the Atlantic’s magnetic declinations and hopefully solve the problem of calculating longitude. He made a 2nd journey in 1699. In 2005 Julie Wakefield authored “Halley’s Quest."
(AP, 1/14/98)(WSJ, 12/20/05, p.D8)
1698 The British pint, a 568 milliliter pour, was introduced. Bars were allowed to serve beer only as a pint, or a third or half of that measure. This became the standard size for beer and cider.
(SFC, 1/5/11, p.A2)
1698 English engineer Thomas Savery devised a way to pump water out of mines by the use of condensed steam.
(HNQ, 1/18/01)
1698 Peter the Great spent several months at the Shipwright’s Palace in England learning how to build the Russian navy.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)
1699 The Jews in London commissioned Joseph Avis, a Quaker, to build a synagogue on a street called Bevis Marks.
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P16)
1700 Apr, A siege by Spanish forces shut down a Company of Scotland colony called "New Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama. As the Darien company was backed by nearly half the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the country, which had suffered a run of bad harvests, completely ruined and was an important factor in weakening resistance to the Act of Union (finally consummated in 1707) among the political elite.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_scheme)
1700 May 1, John Dryden (b.1631), English poet, playwright (Rival Ladies), died. He had written that repentance was virtue of weak minds and the want of power to sin.
(MC, 5/1/02)(Econ, 7/24/04, p.70)
1700 William Congreve, an Anglo-Irishman playwright, published his last play, "The Way of the World."
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
c1700 Richard Gough, an aged lawyer, authored "History of Myddle."
(SFC, 4/3/01, p.C3)
1700 The English slave ship Henrietta Marie sank 35 miles off Key West, Florida, on its way back to Europe. It had delivered 188 captured Africans to a slave broker in Jamaica in exchange for sugar and other goods bound for England. The wreck was found in 1972.
(SFC, 8/12/96, p.C5)(WSJ, 6/2/98, p.A20)
1700 British settlers began arriving to the Cayman Islands.
(AP, 5/10/03)
1700s Thomas Sheraton invented twin beds in the late 1700s.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, Z1 p.8)
1701 May 23, Scottish-born sea captain William Kidd was hanged on the banks of the Thames after being found guilty of piracy and murder. Kidd had reluctantly became a privateer for England in 1696 and was expected to fight pirates on the open sea, seize their cargoes, and provide a hefty share of the spoils to the Crown. According to his British accusers, Kidd turned to piracy himself as the deadline for reporting to his employers in New York approached and he had not taken enough booty to fulfill his commission. Kidd himself did not know he was a wanted man until he dropped anchor in the West Indies in April 1699. He chose to surrender to the authorities and submit to a London trial, believing to the end that he could clear his name. Important evidence in his favor was suppressed and he was hanged.
(AP, 5/23/97)(HNPD, 8/27/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kidd)
1701 Sep 6, James II [Stuart], king of England (1685-88), died at 68.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1701 Sep 7, England, Austria, and the Netherlands formed an Alliance against France.
(HN, 9/7/98)
1701 The Act of Settlement established the order of succession to the English throne.
(www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon53.html)
1701 In England presiding Chief Justice Lord Hold (1642-1710) ruled that “As soon as a Negro comes into England, he becomes Free."
(ON, 12/08, 8)(http://tinyurl.com/9jhg29)
1701 Jethro Tull (1674-1741), a farmer in Berkshire, England, created a horse-drawn mechanical drill to plant seeds in a row.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/jtull.html)
1702 Jan 17, Thomas Franklin, English smith and uncle of B. Franklin, died.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1702 Mar 8, William III of Orange (51), Dutch King of England (1689-1702), died after falling from his horse and catching a chill. Anne Stuart (37), his sister-in-law, succeeded to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland and reigned until 1714.
(PCh, 1992, p.272)(MC, 3/8/02)(AP, 3/8/98)
1702 Mar 11, The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper was published.
(HN, 3/11/99)
1702 Mar 21, Queen Anne Stuart addressed the English parliament.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1702 Oct 12, [British] Admiral Sir George Rooke defeated the French fleet off Vigo.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1702 Oct 27, English troops plundered St. Augustine, Florida.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1702 Nov 4, John Benbow, English vice-admiral (Santa Marta), died.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1702 After Prince George’s visit to the ancient spa town, a trip to Bath--previously frequented by the poor and infirm--became the fashionable thing to do. The healing powers of Bath’s hot mineral water owes much of its fame to the part it played in a notably unsuccessful treatment of a severe case of asthma. Following his six-week visit to the spa town, Prince George, Queen Anne’s husband, grew so ill she feared he would die. Doctors, turning to other methods, bled him repeatedly, which cannot have been any more effective than `taking the waters` of Bath, but at least the unfortunate Prince survived. Despite George’s unresponsiveness to the curative water of England’s ancient spa town, the precedent of a royal visitor to Bath caught the attention of seemingly everyone, and soon a trip to Bath became the astute thing to do, not only for those seeking a remedy for any of a wide variety of ailments, but also for anyone attuned to the customs of genteel society.
(HNQ, 4/14/01)
1703 May 18, Dutch and English troops occupied Cologne.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1703 May 26, Samuel Pepys (b.1633), English diarist, died. In the 1930s Sir Arthur Bryant authored a 3-volume biography. In the 1970s Richard Ollard authored a single volume biography. In 2001 Stephen Coote authored "Samuel Pepys: A Life" and another was expected by Claire Tomalin. In 2002 Claire Tomalin authored "Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self."
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A24)(HN, 2/23/01)(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M3)(MC, 5/26/02)
1703 Jun 17, John Wesley (d.1791), English evangelist and theologian, was born. He founded the Methodist movement. He spent a brief period in Georgia (1738) as a missionary.
(HN, 6/17/99)(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W19)
1703 Jul 31, English novelist Daniel Defoe was made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire "The Shortest Way With Dissenters."
(HN, 7/31/01)
1703 Oct 23, In Malmesbury, England Hannah, Twynnoy (33) teased a tiger at a circus. The tiger broke loose and killed her.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, Z1 p.2)
1703 Nov 24-1703 Dec 2, Heavy storms hit England and 1000s were killed. Bristol, England, was damaged by the hurricane. The Royal Navy lost 15 warships.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1703)
1703 Nov 27, Henry Winstanley (1644) and his men were killed by a freak storm at his lighthouse at Eddystone Rock. It had been constructed from 1696-1698, 14 miles from the English port of Plymouth.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Winstanley)
1703 Sir Isaac Newton, English scientist, became president of the Royal Society.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton)
1704 Aug 4, In the War of Spanish Succession, an Anglo-Dutch fleet captured Gibraltar.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gibraltar)(AP, 9/19/06)
1704 Aug 13, the Battle of Blenheim was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeated the French Army at the Battle of Blenheim. In 1705 Joseph Addison wrote the poem "The Campaign" for the Duke of Marlborough to commemorate the military victory over France and Spain at the Battle of Blenheim: "Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A6)
1704 Oct 28, John Locke (b.1632), English philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher, died. He authored 2 treatises on government.
(www.utm.edu/research/iep/l/locke.htm#Life)
1704 Oct, Scottish buccaneer Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721) isolated himself on the desert island of Mas a Tierra off the coast of Chile to protest the irrational actions of the Captain Thomas Stradling of the English privateer Cinque Ports. He remained on the island until Feb 1, 1709, and his story inspired Daniel Defoe’s "Robinson Crusoe."
(ON, 6/12, p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk)
1704 In England Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) began publishing "The Review." Defoe in this year also authored “The Storm" in which he organized the winds into categories of scale.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)(NH, 11/1/04, p.51)
1705 Jan 17, John Ray (b.1627), British naturalist and theologian, died. He had spent three years traveling in Europe collecting material for his book “Historia Plantarum." The classification in his 1682 book “Methodus Plantarum Nova" is based on overall morphology. Ray's plant classification system was the first to divide flowering plants into monocots and dicots.
(www.1911encyclopedia.org/John_Ray)(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.W8)
1705 Apr 16, Queen Anne of England knighted Isaac Newton at Trinity College.
(HN, 4/16/98)(MC, 4/16/02)
1705 Apr 23, Richard Steele's "Tender Husband," premiered in London.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1705 Oct 14, The English Navy captured Barcelona in Spain.
(HN, 10/14/98)
1705 Nov 23, Thomas Birch, English historian (d.1766), was born.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1705 Nov 23, Nicholas Rowe's "Ulysses," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1706 Jan 28, John Baskerville, typographer and inventor of the "hot-pressing" method of printing. He also manufactured lacquered ware.
(HN, 1/28/00)(WUD, 1994 p.124)
1706 May 23, Battle of Ramillies: Marlborough defeated the French and 17,000 were killed.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1706 Bishop White Kennet printed his "Complete History of England with the Lives of All the Kings and Queens Thereof, Vol. 3" in London.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1706 The Treaty of Union between Scotland and England was set up. Daniel Defoe worked as a British agent in Scotland and sent back reports on agitation against the yielding of autonomy.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)
1706 Thomas Twinings opened his tea shop in London.
(SFEC, 9/12/99, p.T2)
1707 Jan 16, Scotland ratified the Treaty of Union by a majority of 110 votes to 69. The Acts created a new state, the Kingdom of Great Britain, by merging the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland together.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Union_1707)
1707 Apr 22, Henry Fielding (d.1754), English novelist and essayist, was born in Sharpham Park, Somerset, England. His work included "Tom Jones."
(WUD, 1994 p.528)(AP, 4/22/07)
1707 Apr 25, At the Battle of Almansa, Franco-Spanish forces defeated Anglo-Portuguese.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1707 Apr 29, English-Scottish parliament accepted Act of Union and formed Great Britain. [see May 1]
(MC, 4/29/02)
1707 May 1, Effective on this day Scotland and England, which already included Wales, were united by an act of Parliament to form Great Britain.
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A13)(AP, 5/1/07)
1707 Oct 23, The first Parliament of Great Britain, created by the Acts of Union between England and Scotland, held its first meeting.
(AP, 10/23/07)
1707 Dec 5, The Society of Antiquaries of London was founded at the Bear Tavern in the Strand by John Talman, the son of an architect, Humfrey Wanley, a student of ancient inscriptions and Anglo-Saxon, and John Bagford, an eccentric shoemaker and dealer in books. They met for the purposes of forming a Society for the study of British antiquities, whose agreed aim was to further the study of British history prior to the reign of James I.
(www.sal.org.uk/newsandevents/makinghistoryantiquaries/)(http://tinyurl.com/32uzwc)
1707 England granted Scotland 400,000 pounds to clear debts from the Darien disaster.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)
1708 Mar 23, English pretender to the throne James III landed at Firth of Forth.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1708 Jun 8, The Spanish galleon San Jose was trying to outrun a fleet of British warships off Colombia's coast, when a mysterious explosion sent it to the bottom of the sea with gold, silver, emeralds and 600 men. 14 men survived. In 1979 Sea Search signed a deal with Colombia giving Sea Search exclusive rights to search for the San Jose and 50 percent of whatever they find. In 1982 Sea Search announced to the world it had found the San Jose's resting place 700 feet below the water's surface, a few miles from the historic Caribbean port of Cartagena. In 1984 Colombian President Belisario Betancur signed a decree reducing Sea Search's share from 50% to a 5% "finder's fee." By 2007 the treasure was valued at more than $2 billion. In July, 2007, Colombia’s highest court ruled that the ship must first be recovered before an international dispute over the fortune can be settled. In 2007 Carla Rahn Phillips authored “The Treasure of San Jose: Death at Sea in the War of the Spanish Succession." In 2015 Experts confirmed that they found the San Jose on November 27 in a place never before referenced by previous research.
(AP, 6/3/07)(AP, 7/6/07)(WSJ, 1/31/07, p.D6)(AP, 12/6/15)
1708 Nov 15, William Pitt the Elder, Secretary of State of England whose strategies helped win the Seven Years War, was born. He served as Whig PM from 1756-61 and 66-68.
(HN, 11/15/98)(MC, 11/15/01)
1708 Oct, London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was completed. The "topping out" of the cathedral (when the final stone was placed on the lantern) took place. The cathedral was declared officially complete by Parliament on 25 December 1711 (Christmas Day). In 2008 Leo Hollis authored “The Phoenix: St Paul’s Cathedral and the Men Who Made Modern London."
(Econ, 6/7/08, p.97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_Cathedral)
1709 Jan 10, Abraham Darby (1678-1717) in Coalbrookdale, England, began using coke to provide carbon for making iron. This led to the end of the use of charcoal for making iron.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.69)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Darby_I)
1709 Feb 1, British sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued after being marooned on the desert island of Mas a Tierra for 5 years. His story inspired "Robinson Crusoe." The island off the coast of Chile was later renamed Robinson Crusoe Island.
(ON, 6/12, p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk)
1709 Mar 8, William Cowper/Cooper (~62), English anatomist, died.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1709 Apr 12, The Tatler magazine in England published its 1st edition. It used the names of coffee houses as subject headings for articles.
(MC, 4/12/02)(Econ, 12/20/03, p.89)
1709 Sep 11, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, won the bloodiest battle of the 18th century at great cost, against the French at Malplaquet.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1709 Sep 17, Samuel Johnson, lexicographer and writer (Boswell's Tour Guide), was born. [see Sep 18]
(MC, 9/17/01)
1709 Sep 18, Samuel Johnson (d.1784), English lexicographer, essayist, poet and moralist best known for "The Dictionary of the English Language," was born. "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." -- (To which Ambrose Bierce replied, "I beg to submit that it is the first.") Boswell wrote the celebrated "Life of Johnson." In 1955 Walter Jackson Bate (d.1999 at 81) published "The Achievement of Samuel Johnson" and in 1977 the biography "Samuel Johnson." "The lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of a cause. The justice or injustice is to be decided by the judge." [see Sep 17]
(AP, 10/8/97)(BS, 5/3/98, p.13E)(HN, 9/18/98)(SFEC, 1/10/99, Par p.10)(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A17)
1709 Oct 20, Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy took Mons in the Netherlands.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1709 Britain passed its first copyright act [see April 10, 1710].
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1710 Feb 7, William Boyce, English organist, composer of Cathedral music, was born.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1710 Apr 10, Britain’s Queen Anne gave her assent to an act “for the encouragement of learning." It upheld Parliament’s 1709 copyright act, which set a limit of 21 years for books already in print and 14 years for new ones with an additional 14 years if the author was still alive when the first term ran out.
(Econ, 4/10/10, p.16)
1710 Oct 13, English troops occupied Acadia, Nova Scotia.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1710 Oct 16, British troops occupied Port Royal, Nova Scotia.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1710 Mohawk and Mohican chiefs from Canada visited Queen Anne in London on a diplomatic mission.
(Econ 7/1/17, p.29)
1710 Umbrellas became popular in London.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
Go to GB 1711
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1551 May 2, William Camden, English historian (Brittania, Annales), was born.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1551 Oct 16, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was re-arrested.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1552 Jan 22, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was beheaded for treason.
(MC, 1/22/02)(MT, Fall 02, p.23)
1552 Jan 23, The 2nd version of Book of Common Prayer became mandatory in England. The Second Prayer Book of Edward VI, more radical than the first, was authorized by a second Uniformity Act.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(MC, 1/23/02)
1552 Feb 1, Sir Edward Coke, English jurist, was born in Mileham, Norfolk. He helped the development of English law with his arguments for the supremacy of common law over royal prerogative.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Coke)
1552 The English again attacked the Irish town and monastery at Clonmacnoise and carried everything away.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
1552 Britain’s first licensing act on alcohol distinguisehd between rich and poor boozers with enforced strictures on “common alehouses" which not apply to wine taverns.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.44)
1552 A revision of canon law in Britain meant that adulterers could face life imprisonment of exiled.
(Econ, 2/11/12, p.82)
1553 Apr 29, A Flemish woman introduced to England the practice of starching linen.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1553 Jul 6, Mary Tudor was warned that Edward VI was already dead and that she was walking into a trap set by John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, Edward’s regent.
(ON, 5/00, p.3)
1553 Jun 12, King Edward VI accepted archbishop Cranmer's "42 Articles."
(MC, 6/12/02)
1553 Jul 6, Edward VI Tudor (15), King of England (1547-53), died. Mary Tudor was warned that Edward VI was already dead and that she was walking into a trap set by John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, Edward’s regent.
(ON, 5/00, p.3)(MC, 7/6/02)
1553 Jul 9, The Duke of Northumberland announced the death of Edward VI (15) and that supporters of Mary Tudor would be considered traitors.
(ON, 5/00, p.4)
1553 Jul 10, After King Edward VI of England died of tuberculosis, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, tried to get his daughter, Lady Jane Grey (the great-granddaughter of Henry VII), declared the queen and got archbishop Cranmer’s signature to that end. However the succession went to Mary, the Catholic half-sister of Edward. Cranmer and others were then found guilty of treason.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.24)
1553 Jul 18, The Council in London met secretly and declared Mary Tudor as Queen of England and the Duke of Northumberland in unlawful rebellion.
(ON, 5/00, p.5)
1553 Jul 19, 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey, daughter of John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, was deposed as Queen of England after claiming the crown for nine days. Mary, the daughter of King Henry VIII, was proclaimed Queen.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(AP, 7/19/97)
1553 Aug 3, Mary Tudor, the new Queen of England, entered London.
(HN, 8/3/98)(ON, 5/00, p.5)
1553 Aug 23, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, English Lord Admiral, premier (1551-53), was beheaded on Tower Hill in front of 10,000 onlookers.
(ON, 5/00, p.5)(Internet)
1553 Nov 13, English Lady Jane Grey and the bishop Cranmer were accused of high treason.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1553 The Forty-two Articles of the Church of England were written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer "for the avoiding of controversy in opinions." The Forty-two Articles had been partly derived from the Thirteen Articles of 1538. When Mary became queen in 1553 and restored Catholicism, the Forty-two Articles were eliminated.
(HNQ, 10/20/98)
1553 In London The Mysterie and Compagnie of the Merchant Adventurers for the Discoverie of Regions, Dominions, Islands and Places Unknown offered stock to finance a quest for a passage to the riches of the East. The Muscovy Company venture led to the death of explorer Sir Hugh Willoughby who died with the crews of 2 ships in the Arctic ice. A 3rd ship reached the court of Ivan the Terrible in Moscow and returned with a treaty giving England freedom to trade there.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1553 Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor voyaged to Russia via Archangel seeking a north-east passage to China. Willoughby discovered Novaya Zemlya and died on the Kola Peninsula.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)
1554 Feb 12, Lady Jane Grey (17), who had claimed the throne of England for nine days, the Queen of England for thirteen days, was beheaded on Tower Hill along with her husband, Guildford Dudley, after being condemned for high treason.
(HN, 2/12/99)(AP, 2/12/08)
1554 Feb 23, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk and Lady Jane Grey's father, was executed.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1554 Mar 12, Richard Hooker, English theologian, was born. He authored "Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity."
(HN, 3/12/99)
1554 Jul 24, Queen Mary of England married Philip II, king of Spain and the Catholic son of Emp. Charles V.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(ON, 5/00, p.5)(MC, 7/24/02)
1554 Nov 30, Sir Philip Sidney (d.1586), English poet, statesman and soldier was born.
(HN, 11/30/98)(MC, 11/30/01)
1554 Nov 30, England reconciled with Pope Julius III.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(MC, 11/30/01)
1554 At London’s Guildhall Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was tried and found not guilty. The verdict was deemed unsatisfactory and the whole jury was carted off to prison and released after paying heavy fines. [see Nov, 1583]
(SFC, 8/11/96, p.T7)
1554 Flemish hop growers emigrated to England.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)
1555 Feb 9, John Hooper, the deprived Bishop of Gloucester, was burned for heresy.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1555 Sep 30, Oxford Bishop Nicholas Ridley was sentenced to death as a heretic.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1555 Oct 16, Hugh Latimer (80), Protestant royal chaplain of Anne Boleyn, was burned at stake at Oxford for heresy under the Catholic rule of Mary, half-sister of Edward VI.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3859836193/)
1555 Oct 16, Nicholas Ridley, Protestant English theologian and bishop of Rochester, was burned at Oxford for heresy under the Catholic rule of Mary, half-sister of Edward VI.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3859836193/)
1555 Oct 21, English parliament refused to recognize Philip of Spain as king.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1555 England’s Parliament established the Company of Watermen and Lightermen to regulate the Thames boating industry.
(AP, 1/9/07)
1555 Queen Mary began a campaign of burnings and hangings during which over 300 people were executed for refusing to abandon their Protestant faith.
(ON, 5/00, p.5)
1555-1558 England suffered outbreaks of dysentery, typhus and Influenza all over the country.
(http://www.mongenes.org.uk/epidemics_in_bri.html)
1555-1600 Richard Hooker, architect of Anglicanism. The Anglican Communion emerged from the conflicts between Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII over Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn.
(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A11)
1556 Feb 14, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was declared a heretic.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1556 Mar 21, Former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (66), scheduled to denounce his errors and be burned at the stake, denounced his own confessions and was hustled off to be burned. He then put forth his hand and declared: "Forasmuch as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished."
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A14)(MC, 3/21/02)
1556 Mar 22, Cardinal Reginald Pole became archbishop of Canterbury.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1556 Nov 10, The Englishman Richard Chancellor was drowned off Aberdeenshire on his return from a second voyage to Russia.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1557 Feb 27, 1st Russian Embassy opened in London.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1557 Jul 16, Anne of Cleves (41), queen of England and 4th wife of Henry VIII, died.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1557 Aug 10, Spanish and English troops in alliance defeated the French at the Battle of St. Quentin. French troops were defeated by Emmanuel Philibert's Spanish army at St. Quentin, France.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(HN, 8/10/98)
1557 Richard Tottel edited “Songes and Sonnettes," later referred to as “Tottle’s Miscellany." This came to be regarded as the first important anthology of English verse.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.W10)
1558 Jan 6, The French seized the British held port of Calais.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1558 Jan 7, The French, under the Duke of Guise, finally took the port of Calais from the English.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1558 Jun 22, The French took the French town of Thioville from the English.
(HN, 6/22/98)
1558 Nov 6, Thomas Kyd, English dramatist (Spanish Tragedy), was born.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1558 Nov 17, Queen Mary (1553-58), Mary I Tudor (42), "Bloody Mary", died. Over 280 Protestants were burned under her rule. Elizabeth I ascended the English throne. With the reign of Elizabeth I a new statement of doctrine of the Church of England was needed. The Church of England was reestablished. In 1996 Carolly Erickson authored "Bloody Mary."
(AP, 11/17/97)(HNQ, 10/20/98)(HN, 11/17/98)(ON, 5/00, p.5)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.72)
1558 Nov 17, Reginald Pole (58), English cardinal, scholar, "heretic", died.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1558 John Knox authored "The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women." He was referring to the governments of Mary Tudor in England and Mary, Queen of the Scots.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(Econ, 8/6/11, p.14)
1558 Thomas Gresham (1519-1579, English financier, put forward proposals for reforming the English currency. He formulated Gresham’s Law, a hypothesis that bad money drives good money out of circulation.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(WUD, 1994, p.622)
1559 Jan 15, England's Queen Elizabeth I was crowned in Westminster Abbey and Lord Dudley soon became her favorite.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(AP, 1/15/98)
1559 Jan 29, Thomas Pope (~52), English politician, benefactor, died.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1559 May 8, An act of supremacy defined Queen Elizabeth I as the supreme governor of the church of England. Soon after Elizabeth I took power in 1558 some 200 Catholics were strangled and disemboweled.
(HN, 5/8/99)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.72)
1560 The Presbyterian branch of Protestant Christianity was started in Scotland and the British Isles by John Knox.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.20)(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A11)
1561 Jan 22, Sir Francis Bacon (e.1626), English philosopher, was born in London. He was a statesman and essayist. Educated at Cambridge, he served under Queen Elizabeth and King James I. "He wrote the "Essays" throughout his life and these are filled with pithy wisdom and homely charm. His "Advancement of Learning" and "Novum Organon" constitute his most important contribution to knowledge. He held for the inductive method of learning as opposed to the deductive method. The deductive method, according to Bacon, failed because the seeker after knowledge deduced from certain intuitive assumptions conclusions about the real world that might have been logically correct but were not true to nature. The inductive method succeeded because the student of nature ascended by what Bacon called a "ladder of intellect" from the most careful and indeed humble observations to general conclusions that had to be true because their foundation was experience. "If a man will begin in certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin in doubts he shall end in certainties." In 1998 Perez Zagorin published "Francis Bacon."
(V.D.-H.K.p.140)(AP, 5/1/98)(HN, 1/22/99)
1561 Sep 20, Queen Elizabeth of England signed a treaty at Hamptan Court with French Huguenot leader Louis de Bourbon, the Prince of Conde. The English would occupy Le Harve in return for aiding Bourbon against the Catholics of France.
(HN, 9/20/98)
1563 Jan 1, A great plague in London began about this time. From the 1st January to end of December, 17,404 people died of the plague.
(http://www.mongenes.org.uk/epidemics_in_bri.html)
1563 Feb 27, William Byrd, English composer, was appointed organist at Lincoln Cathedral.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.20)(MC, 2/27/02)
1563 Jun 1, Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, Chief Minister of England, was born.
(HN, 6/1/98)
1563 The 1563 Canterbury Convocation drastically revised the Forty-two Articles of the Church of England. The 39 Articles combined Protestant doctrine with Catholic church organization to establish the Church of England. Dissenting groups included the Puritans, Separatists, and Presbyterians. [see 1571]
(TL-MB, 1988, p.20)(HNQ, 10/20/98)
1564 Feb 26, Christopher Marlowe (d.1593), English, poet, dramatist, was baptized. His work included "Doctor Faustus," "Tamburlaine," "The Jew of Malta," and other plays. He was murdered at 29 in a Deptford tavern and was suspected of being a spy to the Continent on behalf of the Crown. In 1993 Anthony Burgess had a novel published posthumously about Marlowe titled "A Dead Man in Deptford."
(WSJ, 4/28/95, p.A-8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe)
1564 Apr 23, William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English poet and playwright of the Elizabethan and early Jacobin periods, was born and died on the same date 52 years later. He added more than 1,700 word to the English language. He was the son of an illiterate glove maker who left school at 12: "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." -- from Act II, Scene 5 of "Twelfth Night." From "Henry V," "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more."
(CFA, '96, p.44)(WSJ, 4/22/96, p.a-23)(AP, 4/23/97)(HN, 4/23/99)
1564 Apr 26, William Shakespeare was baptized.
(HN, 4/26/98)
1565 Jul 29, Mary Queen of Scots married her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)(MC, 7/29/02)
1565 Sark, one of the Channel Islands, was colonized. The hereditary ruler of Sark was granted the 5 square miles of land by Queen Elizabeth I.
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.B8)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.60)
1566 Jun 19, King James I (d.1625 at 59), son of Mary Queen of Scots, was born. James, aka King James VI of Scotland ruled Scotland from 1567-25 and England from 1603-25.
(WUD, 1994, p.763)(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A13)(HN, 6/19/99)
1566 Nov 10, Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, cousin and lover of Elizabeth I, was born.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1566 During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Knole manor house in west Kent came into the possession of her cousin Thomas Sackville (1536-1608) whose descendants the Earls and Dukes of Dorset and Barons Sackville have lived there since 1603 (the intervening years saw the house let to the Lennard family). Thomas Sackville was the first Earl of Dorset and Lord Treasurer to Elizabeth I and James I. In 2010 Robert Sackville-West authored “Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles."
(Econ, 8/21/10, p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knole_House)
1567 Apr 11, Dutch Prince William of Orange fled from Antwerp to Breda.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1568 May 13, Mary Queen of Scots was defeated by English at battle of Langside, south of Glasgow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Langside)
1568 May 16, Mary Queen of Scotland fled to England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Langside)
1568 May 19, Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1568 Jul 13, Alexander Nowell, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, perfected a way to bottle beer.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)(MC, 7/13/02)
1568 Oct 5, The Conference of York began in the trial against Mary Stuart.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1569 Jan 11, The 1st recorded lottery in England was drawn in St. Paul's Cathedral.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1569 In England a rebellion by 7,000 people in favor of the pope was brutally suppressed.
(Econ, 4/29/17, p.67)
1570 Feb 25, Pope Pius V issued the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicated Queen Elizabeth the First of England. This absolved her subjects from allegiance. Elizabeth responded by hanging and burning Jesuits.
(TL-MB, p.22)(AP, 2/25/98)(HN, 2/25/99)(MC, 2/25/02)
1570 Nicholas Hilliard painted his famous portrait of Elizabeth I.
(TL-MB, p.22)
1570 The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was founded in London, England. Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell was later cast there. Big Ben was cast there in 1858. In 2016 the company announced that it would close in May 2017.
(http://tinyurl.com/jxfxhd7)(SFC, 4/11/08, p.A16)
1571 Aug 8, John Ward, English composer, was born in Canterbury.
(MC, 8/8/02)(Internet)
1571 John Lyon founded Harrow School in England.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1571 Hugh Price founded Jesus College at Oxford.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1571 Along with the Common Book of Prayer, the Thirty-nine Articles constitute the doctrinal statements of the Church of England. Developed from the Forty-two Articles written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1553 "for the avoiding of controversy in opinions." When Mary became queen in 1553 and restored Catholicism, the Forty-two Articles were eliminated. Upon the reign of Elizabeth I in 1558 a new statement of doctrine was needed. The 1563 Canterbury Convocation drastically revised the Forty-two Articles and a final revision resulted in the Thirty-nine articles in 1571, approved by the Queen and imposed on the clergy. They deal briefly with the doctrines accepted by Catholics and Protestants alike and more fully with the points of controversy.
(HNQ, 10/20/98)
1571 A British law was so set that a man could be fined for not wearing a wool cap.
(NG, 5.1988, pp. 574)
1571 A permanent gallows in London drew gawkers and became a source of entertainment and profit.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1572 Jun 11, Ben Jonson (d.1637), English playwright and poet, was born. "Very few men are wise by their own counsel; or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool to his master."
(AP, 1/4/98)(HN, 6/11/01)
1572 Parliament passed the Act for Punishment as Vagabonds. It required entertainers to obtain a noble patron for support. It led to the emergence of permanent theaters.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1572 The Privy Council of Queen Elizabeth I, refused to grant patent protection to new knives with bone handles because the improvement was marginal.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.78)
1573 Jul 15, Inigo Jones (d.1652), father of English classical architecture, was born in London. He restored St. Paul's Cathedral.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(MC, 7/15/02)
1573 Aug 7, Francis Drake’s fleet returned to Plymouth.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1573 Oct 7, William Laud, English archbishop of Canterbury (1633-45), was born.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1573 Sir Francis Walsingham began serving as principal secretary for Queen Elizabeth I. He founded a vast espionage network to protect the queen and served her until 1590. In 2005 Stephen Budiansky authored “Her Majesty’s Spymaster," and account of Walsingham’s efforts.
(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.D14)
1575 Jan 22, English queen Elizabeth I granted Thomas Tallis and William Byrd a music press monopoly.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1576 The Theater in Shoreditch, London, was built by James Burbage (d.1597). It was the 1st permanent playhouse in England.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(ON, 11/03, p.1)
1577 Feb 8, Robert Burton (d.1640), writer, Anglican clergyman (Anatomy of Melancholy), was born. "A mere madness, to live like a wretch and die rich."
(AP, 8/19/98)(MC, 2/8/02)
1577 Sep 23, William of Orange made his triumphant entry into Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1577 Dec 13, Sir Francis Drake of England set out with five ships on a nearly three-year journey that would take him around the world. He raided Spanish ships in the Pacific and returned with a 4,500% profit on his investment.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(AP, 12/13/97)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1577 London’s 2nd playhouse, The Curtain, opened in Finsbury. The Curtain opened close to London's first playhouse "The Theatre" and was one of a number of early theatres built outside the city's walls. The venue took its name from nearby street Curtain Close. It was the main arena for Shakespeare's plays between 1597 and 1599 until the Globe was completed in Southwark. Archaeologists stumbled upon the Curtain Theatre's remains on Hewett Street after work began on a regeneration project led by local developers in October 2011.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(Reuters, 6/6/12)
1578 Apr 1, William Harvey England (d.1657), discoverer of blood circulation, was born.
(HN, 4/1/99)(WUD, 1994, p.648)
1578 Jul 2, In Puerto San Julian, Patagonia, Argentina, English privateer Capt. Francis Drake beheaded his friend John Doughty (b.1545) under accusations of treason and witchcraft.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Doughty_%28explorer%29)(SFC, 8/10/13, p.C3)
1578 Jul 11, England granted Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent to explore and colonize US.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1578 John Lely, English dramatist and novelist, began "Eupheus, the Anatomy of Wit," an early novel of manners.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1578 Sir Francis Drake renamed his flagship, the Pelican, to the Golden Hind. He ravaged the coasts of Chile and Peru on his way around the world.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1579 Jun 17, Sir Francis Drake sailed into a bay in Northern California and proclaimed English sovereignty over New Albion (California). Some claim that Sir Francis Drake sailed into the SF Bay. Sir Francis Drake claimed the area for England. The location may have been Drake’s Bay or Bolinas Lagoon. In 1999 there were 17 proposed locations for his landing with the latest set in Oregon and described by Bob Ward in the book "Lost Harbor Found." A brass plate, allegedly left by Drake, was found in 1993, but determined to be a fake in 1977. In 2012 Drake’s Cove in Point Reyes was designated as the site where Drake landed and named a national historic site.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(HN, 6/17/98)(SFEC, 8/22/98, p.T6) (SFC, 10/29/99, p.A3)(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A1)(SFC, 10/20/12, p.A1)
1579 Jun 17, There was an anti-English uprising in Ireland.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1579 Nov 21, Thomas Gresham (b.1519), English merchant and financier, died. He worked for King Edward VI of England and for Edward's half-sister Queen Elizabeth I of England. Gresham’s Law: "Bad money drives out good." Gresham's law is commonly stated as: "When there is a legal tender currency, bad money drives good money out of circulation." Or, more accurately, "Money overvalued by the State will drive money undervalued by the State out of circulation."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gresham)
1579 "Plutarch’s Lives," biographies of noble Greeks and Romans of the first and second centuries CE, were translated into English from the French.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1579 Edmund Spenser, English poet, wrote "The Shepheardes Calender," an eclogue (pastoral or idyllic poem) for each month of the year.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)
1579 Christopher Saxton published a map of England. His maps were the first to show England in any detail.
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.85)
1580 Sep 26, Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, at the end of his voyage to circumvent the globe. Drake was knighted and awarded a prize of 10 thousand pounds. His crew of 63 split a purse of 8 thousand pounds.
(TL-MB, p.23)(HN, 9/26/99)(ON, 7/03, p.8)
1580 Apr 18, Thomas Middleton, English playwright (Game of Chess), was born.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1580 Longleat Estate, Wiltshire, England, originally an Augustinian priory, was completed as an Italianate mansion. Longleat was built by Robert Smythson.
(N.G., Nov. 1985, M. Girouard, p.685)(TL-MB, p.23)
1580 John Dee, mathematician and warden of Manchester College in England, invented the crystal ball.
(SFEC, 1/3/99, z1 p.8)
1580 Edmund Campion and Robert Parsons began a Jesuit mission in England.
(TL-MB, p.23)
1580 In Wales the Plas Mawr house was the first Welsh to be built within the English enclave of Conwy. The town of Conwy was built in the 1280s to give Edward I a toehold in Wales.
(SSFC, 1/8/17, p.F3)
1581 Jan 4, James Ussher (d.1656), Irish prelate and scholar, Archbishop of Armagh, was born. According to Ussher and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on Oct 23, 4004BCE, a Sunday, at 9 a.m.
(WUD, 1994, p.1574)(NG, Nov. 1985, edit. p.559)(HN, 10/23/98)(MC, 1/4/02)
1581 Jan 16, English parliament passed laws against Catholicism.
(MC, 1/16/02)
1581 Apr 4, Frances Drake completed the circumnavigation of the world and was made a knight.
(HN, 4/4/98)(MC, 4/4/02)
1581 Jun 18, Sir Thomas Overbury, English poet and courtier who became involved in numerous scandals in London, was born.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1581 Jul 14, English Jesuit Edmund Campion was arrested.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1581 Dec 1, Edmund Campion (41), English Jesuit was hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn, England, for sedition, after being tortured. Other Jesuits were also executed.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(HN, 12/1/99)(PCh, 1992, p.200)
1582 Nov 27, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1583 Nov, Francis Throckmorton (b.1554) was arrested. He made a full confession of the Throckmorton Plot for the overthrow of Queen Elizabeth I and the restoration of papal authority in England after being tortured on the rack. [see Jul 20, 1584]
(HNQ, 10/8/98)
1584 Mar 25, Sir Walter Raleigh, English explorer, courtier, and writer, renewed Humphrey Gilbert's patent to explore North America. He went on to settle the Virginia colony on Roanoke Island (North Carolina), naming it after the virgin queen.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.23)(MC, 3/25/02)
1584 Jul 20, Francis Throckmorton was executed. He was the central figure in the conspiracy involving France and Spain, which called for a French invasion of England and the release from prison of Mary, Queen of Scots. [see Nov, 1583]
(HNQ, 10/8/98)
1584 Nov 23, The English parliament expelled the Jesuits.
(MC, 11/23/01)
c1584 Miles Standish, head of the Mayflower colonists, was born in England. His precise place of birth was still under dispute in 2004.
(WSJ, 11/24/04, p.A1)
1584 Sir Philip Sidney began a radical revision of his pastoral romance "Arcadia."
(TL-MB, p.23)
1584 England’s Cambridge University Press began operations.
(Econ, 10/26/13, p.73)
1585 Jun 7, English sea captain John Davis set sail from Dartmouth with 2 ships to search for a Northwest passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
(ON, 11/05, p.8)
1585 Jul 17, English secret service discovered Anthony Babington's murder plot against queen Elizabeth I.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1585 Elizabeth extended her protection to The Netherlands against Spain to avenge the murder of William of Orange.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1585 Bartholomew Newsam built the earliest surviving English spring-driven clocks.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1585 John Davis, English explorer, discovered the strait named after him between Greenland and Canada.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1586 Apr 17, John Ford (d.1640), English dramatist ('Tis Pity She's a Whore), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.554)(MC, 4/17/02)
1586 May 7, English sea captain John Davis set sail from Dartmouth with 3 ships in a 2nd attempt to find a Northwest passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. When Davis returned in October he learned that one ship, the North Star, had been lost with all hands in a gale near the coast of Ireland.
(ON, 11/05, p.9)
1586 Jun 23, Sir Francis Drake encountered the Roanoke Island Hurricane off the Atlantic coast. Harsh weather caused Drake to evacuate the settlers back to England.
(SFC, 6/23/09, p.D8)
1586 Jul 27, Sir Walter Raleigh returned to England from Virginia with the 1st samples of tobacco.
(HN, 7/27/01)(MC, 7/27/02)
1586 Jul 28, Sir Thomas Harriot introduced potatoes to Europe.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1586 Sep 20, Anthony Babington, page and conspirator to Mary Stuart, was executed at 24.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1586 Oct 14, Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Queen Elizabeth the First. Mary was beheaded in February 1587.
(AP, 10/14/06)
1586 Oct 17, Philip Sidney (b.1554), English poet and diplomat, died in battle at 32. His work included "Astrophel and Stella" and "Defense of Poesy." In 2002 Alan Stewart authored "Philip Sidney: A Double Life."
(MC, 10/17/01)(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.M4)
1586 Sir Francis Walsingham, principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I, uncovered a conspiracy by Mary, Queen of Scots, that called for a rebellion of Catholics, the landing of a foreign army and the assassination of the queen.
(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.D14)
1586 Queen Elizabeth I lost faith in William Cecil, Lord Burghley, when he plotted to accuse Mary Queen of Scots of treason.
(Econ, 4/30/15, p.77)
1586 In America relations with the local Indians soured after the English soldiers attacked a village, and soon the English returned home.
(NG, Geographica, Jan, 94)
1587 Feb 1, Elizabeth I, Queen of England, signed the Warrant of Execution for Mary Queen of Scots.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1587 Feb 8, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1560-67), was beheaded at age 44 in Fotheringhay Castle for her alleged part in the conspiracy to usurp Elizabeth I. In 2004 Jane Dunn authored "Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens." In 2006 studies identified an oil painting of Mary as the only one made of Mary as queen.
(HN, 2/8/99)(PCh, 1992, p.203)(USAT, 2/5/04, p.5D)(SFC, 8/18/06, p.E2)
1587 Mar 1, Peter Wentworth, English parliament leader, was confined in London Tower. [see Mar 12]
(SC, 3/1/02)
1587 Mar 12, Peter Wentworth, English parliament leader, was confined in London Tower. [see Mar 1]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1587 Apr 19, Sir Frances Drake sailed into Cadiz, Spain, and sank the Spanish fleet.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1587 May 19, English sea captain John Davis set sail from Dartmouth with 3 ships in a 3rd unsuccessful attempt to find a Northwest passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 2 ships spent the journey fishing and managed to cover expenses.
(ON, 11/05, p.9)
1587 In London the open-air Rose Theater was built. It was demolished after 1606 when the Globe Theater surpassed it in popularity. An office building, later constructed over the site, was suspended by girders to preserve the site. Its exact location was lost until 1989.
(SFC, 4/15/99, p.E5)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.89)
1587 Queen Elizabeth appointed Sir Walter Raleigh as captain of the guard.
(MC, 7/17/02)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1587 Sir Edward Stafford, English ambassador in Paris, contacted the Spanish ambassador and offered to provide news of Queen Elizabeth’s plans and to offer the English disinformation concerning Spanish plans. Stafford’s brother-in-law was Lord Howard Effingham, commander in chief of the English fleet.
(WSJ, 11/24/98, p.A20)
1588 Feb 12, John Winthrop, English attorney, puritan, 1st gov of Massachusetts Bay Colony, was born.
(HN, 1/12/99)(MC, 2/12/02)
1588 Feb, King Philip II (61) appointed Don Alonzo Perez de Guzman el Bueno (37), the Duke of Medina Sedonia, as Captain General of the High Seas and ordered him to take charge of the Spanish Armada. Philip intended to restore England to Catholicism
(ON, 3/02, p.1)
1588 Apr 5, Thomas Hobbes (d.1679), English philosopher (Leviathan), was born. "The reputation of power IS power."
(HN, 5/5/97)(AP, 5/31/99)
1588 May 19, The Spanish Armada set sail for England; it was soundly defeated by the English fleet the following August.
(AP, 5/19/97)
1588 May 30, Spanish Armada under Medina-Sidonia departed Lisbon to invade England.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1588 Jul 23, English army assembled at Tilbury to repel invasion of England by Spanish Armada.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1588 Jul 26, Captain John Hawkins was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1588 Jul 27, The Spanish anchored off Calais in a crescent-shaped, tightly-packed defensive formation, not far from Parma's army of 16,000, which was waiting at Dunkirk.
(http://wapedia.mobi/en/Spanish_Armada#1.1.)
1588 Jul 29, At midnight of July 28th the English set eight fireships (filled with pitch, gunpowder, and tar) alight and sent them downwind among the closely-anchored Spanish vessels. The English attacked the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines, resulting in an English victory.
(ON, 3/02, p.3)(http://wapedia.mobi/en/Spanish_Armada#1.1.)(AP, 7/29/08)
1588 Jul 30, The English exchanged fire with the Spanish Armada.
(ON, 3/02, p.3)
1588 Aug 1, Sir Francis Drake captured the Nuestra Senora del Rosario, one of the largest Spanish Armada galleons.
(ON, 3/02, p.4)
1588 Aug 2, The English and Spanish fleets exchanged fire all day. The English used up all their ammunition and sailed into nearby ports.
(ON, 3/02, p.4)
1588 Aug 4, The English and Spanish fleets exchanged fire all day off the Isle of Wight.
(ON, 3/02, p.4)
1588 Aug 8, The English Navy destroyed the Spanish Armada. 600 Spaniards were killed in the day’s fighting and 800 badly injured. The Duke of Medina Sidonia led the "invincible" Spanish Armada from Lisbon against England. It was shattered around the coasts of the English Isles by an English fleet under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham with the help of Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, and a violent storm (see Aug 18). The victory opened the world for English trade and colonization. In 1959 Garrett Mattingly authored “The Armada." In 1998 Geoffrey Parker published "The Grand Strategy of Phillip II." In 2005 Neil Janson authored “The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True Story of the Spanish Armada," and James McDermott authored “England & the Spanish Armada: The necessary Quarrel."
(ON, 3/02, p.5)(SSFC, 2/20/05, p.B2)(Econ, 5/28/05, p.85)
1588 Aug 10, The remnants of the Spanish Armada sailed north to avoid the English fleet.
(ON, 3/02, p.6)
1588 Sep 10, Thomas Cavendish returned to England, becoming the third man to circumnavigate the globe.
(HN, 9/10/98)
1588 Aug 18, A storm struck the remaining 60 ships of the Spanish Armada under the Duke of Medina Sidonia after which only 11 were left. Many of the ships went to Ireland where most of the Spaniards were killed by the English. 600 Spaniards wrecked in Scotland were later returned to Spain.
(ON, 3/02, p.6)
1588 An eye-witness account of the New World was provided by "A Briefe and True Account of the New Found Land of Virginia," written by Thomas Harriot. It recounted English attempts from 1584-1588 to colonize what later became known as eastern North Carolina and encouraged further settlement and investment there. In 1590 Flemish engraver Theodor de Bry published an illustrated edition featuring paintings by English colonist John White.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.24)(Arch, 5/05, p.26)
1588 Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues (b.~1533), French artist, died in England. He had painted watercolors of the flora and fauna of Florida, which were lost during a Spanish attack in 1565. Back in France he created new paintings, which were also lost, but engravings made by a Flemish publisher survived. In 2008 Miles Harvey authored “Painter in a Savage Land."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Le_Moyne_de_Morgues)(WSJ, 7/18/08, p.W8)
1588-1593 Shakespeare authored his play Titus Andronicus during this period. It tells the fictional story of Titus, a general in the Roman army, who is engaged in a cycle of revenge with Tamora, Queen of the Goths.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Andronicus)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.64)
1589 Sep 21, The Duke of Mayenne of France, head of the Catholic League, was defeated by Henry IV of England at the Battle of Arques.
(HN, 9/21/98)(MC, 9/21/01)
1589 Thomas Nashe, English satirical pamphleteer and dramatist, wrote "Anatomie of Absurdities," a criticism of contemporary literature.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1589 Francis Drake with 150 ships and 18,000 men failed in his attempt to capture Lisbon.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1589 William Lee, English clergyman, invented the stocking frame, the first knitting machine.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1589 Sir John Harington, Elizabethan poet, designed the first water closet and installed it at his country house near Bath. In 1596 he installed one at the palace of his godmother Queen Elizabeth I.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.24)(SFC, 7/14/99, p.3)
1590 Apr 6, Francis Walsingham (b.~1532), English secretary of state, died. He had ensnared Mary, Queen of the Scots and forced her execution. He is remembered as the "spymaster" of Queen Elizabeth I of England. In 2007 Robert Hutchinson authored “Elizabeth’s Spymaster: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War That Saved England."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Walsingham)(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.W8)
1590 Jul 6, English admiral Francis Drake took the Portuguese Forts at Taag, Angola.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1590 Sir Philip Sidney, brother to the second Countess of Pembroke, composed his prose romance “Arcadia." In 2008 the idea of Arcadia was examined by Adam Nicolson in his book “Earls of Paradise: England and the Dream of Perfection."
(www.luminarium.org/renlit/sidbib.htm)
1591 Aug 24, Robert Herrick, English poet (Gather ye rosebuds) was baptized.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1591 R. Durtnell & Sons began building houses.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
1591 British sailor Anthony Knivet found himself stranded on Ilhabella island near Santos, Brazil. He was shipwrecked there after sailing as a crew member of a 5-ship flotilla under Sir Thomas Cavendish. The story of his adventures was published in 1625 by Richard Hakluyt, a director of the Virginia Company,
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.54)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Knivet)
1592 Apr 28, George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, English admiral, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1592 Aug 3, The Earl of Cumberland, et al, took the Madre de Dios, A Spanish carrack carrying the largest treasure ever captured for Queen Elizabeth. The earl’s sailors got out of hand and looted items intended for the queen, including a large diamond which eventually found its way to Goldsmith’s Row, London.
(AOL, Eileen McKinnon, tlc@shore.net)
1592 Nov 29, An admiral’s report said an English warship was lost off the coast of Alderney. A block of mineral was later found on the wreck. In 2013 scientists reported that the rock was likely a sunstone (Iceland spar), used to reveal the sun’s direction and thus assist in navigation.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.80)
1592 Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), English dramatist and poet. He wrote "The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus."
(WUD, 1994, p.878)
1592 Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, was founded after small group of Dublin citizens obtained a charter from Queen Elizabeth incorporating Trinity College juxta Dublin.
(www.tcd.ie/info/trinity/history/)
1593 Mar 23, English Congressionalist Henry Barrow was accused of slander.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1593 Apr 3, George Herbert (d.1633), English metaphysical poet (5 Mystical Songs), was born. "The best mirror is an old friend."
(AP, 4/16/98)(MC, 4/3/02)
1593 Apr 6, Henry Barrow, English puritan, was hanged.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1593 Apr 6, John Greenwood, English Congressionalist, was hanged.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1593 May 29, John Penry English congressionalist, was executed.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1593 May 30, Christopher Marlowe (b.Feb 26, 1564), British dramatist (Tamburlaine the Great), poet, was murdered. Marlowe reportedly died in a barfight. It was later speculated that his death was faked and that he fled to Italy and continued writing plays that were produced by Shakespeare. In 2004 Rodney Bolt authored “History Play: The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe."
(SFC, 1/2/03, p.E11)(www.canterbury.co.uk)(Econ, 9/4/04, p.78)
1593 Aug 9, Izaak Walton (d.1683), biographer, fisherman, writer (Compleat Angler), was born in England. "That which is everybody's business is nobody's business."
(AP, 8/29/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1594 Jun 7, Roderigo Lopez was executed at Tyburn, England, on charges of spying for the king of Spain.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.W7)
1594 Oct 16, William Allen (62), English cardinal and founder of the seminary of Douai, died.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1594 James Burbage won the patronage of Lord Chamberlain and established the 25 member Lord Chamberlain's Men. The group included William Shakespeare.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
c1594 Sir Walter Raleigh married Elizabeth Throckmorton (1565-1647), a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth. Her secret marriage and pregnancy led to her being banished from the court.
(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1595 Feb 21, Robert Southwell, English-Jesuit poet, was hanged for "treason" being a Catholic.
(HN, 2/21/99)(MC, 2/21/02)
1595 May 28, It was a shaken and demoralized English column that returned to its northern Irish base at Newry.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1595 Jul 23, Spanish soldiers landed at Cornwall, England, and burned Mousehold and Penzance before returning to their ships.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1595 Aug 24, Thomas Digges, English astronomer (Universe Infinite), died.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1595 Nov 12, John Hawkins (63), English navigator and treasurer of the Navy, died.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1595 Queen Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Drake to capture treasure from a wrecked Spanish galleon stored at La Forteleza. Drake failed and returned to Panama.
(HT, 4/97, p.30)
1595 Sir Walter Raleigh explored the South American coast from the Orinoco River to the mouth of the Amazon, an area that he called "Guiana."
(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1595 John Smith on a whaling expedition mapped the eastern seaboard and named the area new England. The area had earlier been called Norumbega. On his return he gave the map to heir apparent Charles Stuart (16) and instructed him to rename the "barbarous" place names. Thus Cape Elizabeth, Cape Anne, the Charles River and Plymouth.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.23)
1596 Jan 28, English navigator Sir Francis Drake died off the coast of Panama of a fever; he was buried at sea.
(HT, 4/97, p.30)(AP, 1/28/98)
1596 Jul 1, An English fleet under the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Vere captured and sacked Cadiz, Spain.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1596 Aug 19, Elisabeth Stuart, English daughter of James I, was born.
(MC, 8/19/02)
c1596-1597 Shakespeare wrote his tragedy "King John."
(WUD, 1994, p.788)
1597 Aug 11, Germany threw out English salesmen in "a noble experiment."
(MC, 8/11/02)
1597 Britain’s Tudor establishment, deeply concerned by the possibility of social upheaval brought on by an agricultural crisis and increasing urban migration, introduced the Charitable Uses Act, first in 1597, then a revised act in 1601 to promote philanthropy amongst the country's aristocracy and burgeoning merchant classes.
(www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=2398&mode=thread&order=0)
1598 Aug 15, Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, led an Irish force to victory over the British at Battle of Yellow Ford.
(HN, 8/15/98)
1598 Dec 28, Richard and Cuthbert Burbage led a crew to begin the demolition of the Theater in London. They and partners that included William Shakespeare used the timbers to build a new theater. The Globe opened in 1599.
(ON, 11/03, p.2)
1598 Sir George Clifford, the third Earl of Cumberland, led an attack on Puerto Rico. He landed east of San Juan at Boqueron Inlet and attacked. The English prevailed and plundered San Juan but their food spoiled and 400 died of dysentery. The survivors burned San Juan and sailed away.
(HT, 4/97, p.30)
1599 Apr 25, Oliver Cromwell (d.1658) was born. He was an English military, political and religious leader, and dictator as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth from 1653-1658.
(CFA, '96, p.44)(AHD, p.315)(HN, 4/25/98)
1599 Sep 7, Earl of Essex and Irish rebel Tyrone signed a treaty.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1599 Sep 21, The Globe Theater had its first recorded performance. The 20-sided timber building for Shakespeare’s plays was constructed on the South Bank of the Thames, England. The troupe Lord Chamberlain's Men built the Globe Theater. Timbers came from a dismantled old theater and the new structure held some 3,000 spectators in 3 galleries. In 2005 James Shapiro authored “A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599."
(Hem, Mar. 95, p.138)(WSJ, 6/17/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(Econ, 11/5/05, p.92)
1599-1600 “As You Like It," a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare, is believed to have been written about this time and first published in the folio of 1623. It included a monologue that begins with the phrase "All the world's a stage" and catalogues the seven stages of a man's life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon, and second childhood, "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_world%27s_a_stage)
1600 Nov 19, Charles I of England was born. Charles I, ruled Great Britain from 1625-1649. He was executed by Parliament in 1649.
(WUD, 1994, p.249)(HN, 11/19/98)
1600 Dec 31, The British East India Company (d.1874) was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I in London to carry on trade in the East Indies in competition with the Dutch, who controlled nutmeg from the Banda Islands. A company of 218 merchants were granted a monopoly to trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. For its first 20 years the company operated out of the home of its governor, Sir Thomas Smythe.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)(www.theeastindiacompany.com/history.html)(Econ, 12/17/11, p.109)
1600-1603 Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) governed Jersey, a British Channel Island.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.59)
1600-1700 Britain waged wars against the Dutch. The English fleet sailed in three segments, the 3rd of which was commanded by a Rear Admiral.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.3)
1600-1700 In England the Roundheads were members or adherents of the Parliamentarians or Puritan party during the civil wars of the 17th century. They were called roundheads by the Cavaliers in derision because they wore their hair cut short.
(WUD, 1994, p.1248)
1600-1700 The Windsor chair originated in Windsor, England.
(WSJ, 8/15/97, p.A1)
1601 Jan 7, Robert, Earl of Essex led a revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1601 Feb 8, The armies of Earl Robert Devereux of Essex drew into London.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1601 Feb 13, John Lancaster led the 1st East India Company voyage from London.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1601 Feb 25, Robert Devereux (b.1566), 2nd earl of Essex, was beheaded following a conviction of treason. His plan to capture London and the Tower had failed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Devereux,_2nd_Earl_of_Essex)(HN, 2/25/99)
1601 A British measure, funded by taxes, provided jobs for the able-bodied poor and apprentice programs for children.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1602 Jan 2, Battle at Kinsale, Ireland: English army beat the Spanish.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1602 Feb 2, The first recorded performance of Shakespeare’s comedy “Twelfth Night" took place. It was not published until 1623.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night)
1602 Apr 30, William Lilly, astrologer, author, almanac compiler, was born in England.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1603 Mar 24, Tudor Queen Elizabeth I (69), the "Virgin Queen," died. She had reigned from 1558-1603. Scottish King James VI, son of Mary, became King James I of England in the union of the crowns. Each country retained its own parliament until 1707. In 2006 Leanda de Lisle authored “After Elizabeth." In 2016 John Guy authored “Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years."
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A13)(WSJ, 2/4/06, p.P9)(Reuters, 2/16/12)(Econ, 4/30/15, p.77)
1603 Mar 30, Battle at Mellifont: English army under Lord Mountjoy beat the Irish.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1603 Apr 5, New English king James I departed Edinburgh for London.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1603 Jul 17, Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) was arrested. He was prosecuted by Sir Edward Coke. James I suspended his death sentence and had him incarcerated in the Tower of London for 13 years during which time he wrote his "History of the World."
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDrayleigh.htm)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1603 Dec 27, Thomas Cartwright (~68), English Presbyterian publicist, died.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1603 Roger Williams (d.1683) was born in London. After a brief period as a Baptist, the founder of the Rhode Island Colony and colonial religious leader, became a Seeker—one who adhered to the basic tenets of Christianity but refused to recognize any creed. Williams was the first champion of complete religious toleration in America.
(HNQ, 5/1/99)(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.D10)
1603 King James I of England allowed the public limited access to Hyde Park.
(SFEM, 3/21/99, p.8)
1603 Following the London plague in this year weekly Bills of Mortality began to be published.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.97)
1604 Apr 4, Thomas Churchyard, poet, pamphleteer, died.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1604 May 18, (OS)England and Spain agreed signed the Treaty of London ending the 19 year Anglo-Spanish war.
(AH, 6/07, p.31)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_London_%281604%29)
1604 Nov 1, William Shakespeare's tragedy "Othello" was first presented at Whitehall Palace in London.
(AP, 11/1/99)
1604 Nov, Richard Bancroft (1544-1610) became the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the "chief overseer" of the production of the King James Bible (1604-1611).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bancroft)(SFC, 4/17/17, p.A2)
1604 The “Moor of Venis" (Othello) by Shaxberd (Shakespeare) was performed in London.
(WSJ, 10/22/05, p.P13)(http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLTnoframes/plays/othsubj.html)
1605 Jun 15, Thomas Randolph, English poet and playwright, was born.
(HT, 6/15/00)
1605 Oct 19, Thomas Browne (d.1682), British writer (Garden of Cyrus), was born.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne)
1605 Nov 5, The Gunpowder Plot was planned in response to strict enforcement of anti-Catholic laws by King James I. Several prominent English Catholics plotted to blow up Parliament when the King was to address the House of Lords. Robert Catesby gathered a dozen young men to smuggle barrels of gunpowder into the basement of the House of Parliament. 36 barrels of gunpowder were placed in the cellar. The plot was discovered and one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was arrested as he entered the cellar before the planned explosion. Fawkes was supposed to light the fuse but was caught and horribly tortured. Fawkes, after persuasion on the rack in the White Tower of London, confessed to trying to blow up Parliament. Fawkes and other conspirators were tried, convicted and executed. November 5 is known as Guy Fawkes Day in England and is celebrated by shooting firecrackers and burning effigies of Fawkes. The story is told in the 1996 book "Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot" by Antonia Fraser. In 2005 Alice Hogge authored “God’s Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth’s Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder Plot."
(NG, V184, No. 4, 10/1993, p. 54)(AP, 11/5/97)(HNQ, 3/15/00)(Econ, 11/5/05, p.92)
1605 Dec 27, English sea captain John Davis was killed by Japanese pirates whose ship he had captured off the coast of Sumatra. In 1889 Clements Markham authored “A Life of John Davis, the Navigator, 1550-1605, Discoverer of Davis Straits."
(ON, 11/05, p.9)
1605 The American Indian Tisquantum, aka Squanto, was picked up by seafarer George Weymouth and taken to England. He spent 9 years there and returned to the New World as the interpreter for John Smith.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.28)
1606 Jan 31, Guy Fawkes, convicted for his part in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I, was hanged, drawn and quartered.
(AP, 1/31/98)(HN, 1/31/99)
1606 Apr 12, England's King James I decreed the design of the original Union Flag (also referred to as the Union Jack), which combined the flags of England and Scotland.
(HN, 4/12/98)(AP, 4/12/06)
1606 Dec 20, Virginia Company settlers left London to establish Jamestown.
(HFA, '96, p.44)(MC, 12/20/01)
1606 Shakespeare wrote the tragedy "King Lear."
(WUD, 1994, p.788)
1607 Jan 30, A sudden flood around the Bristol Channel in southwest Britain killed at least 2,000 people. It was the worst natural disaster ever recorded in Britain.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.101)
1607 Apr, The Midland Revolt was a popular uprising which took place in the Midlands of England. From late April to throughout May riots took place as a protest against the enclosure of common land. In the Midland Revolt the term “Leveller" was used to refer to those who 'levelled' hedges in the enclosure riots.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland_Revolt)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levellers)
1607 May 13, English colonists landed near the James River in Virginia. They went shore the next day and founded a colony named Jamestown. In 1996 archeologist discovered the original Jamestown Fort and the remains of one settler, a young white male who died a violent death. In 2003 David A. Price authored "Love and Hate in Jamestown."
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.A2)(AP, 5/13/97)(HN, 5/24/98)(WSJ, 11/25/03, p.D8)(AP, 5/13/07)
1607 Jul 7, "God Save the King" was 1st sung.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1607 Nov 26, This day is believed to be the birth date of London-born clergyman John Harvard, the principal benefactor of the original Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass.
(AP, 11/26/07)
1607 “The Knight of the Burning Pestle," a play by Francis Beaumont (1584-1616), was first performed. It was first published in a quarto in 1613.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knight_of_the_Burning_Pestle)
1607 Henry Chettle (b.c1564), English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era, died about this time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Chettle)
1608 Aug 13, John Smith's story of Jamestown's 1st days was submitted for publication.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1608 Dec 6, George Monck (Monk), English general and gov. of Scotland, was born.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1608 Dec 9, English blind poet and polemical pamphleteer John Milton (1608-1674) was born in London. His work included "Paradise Lost," Paradise Regained," and "Samson Agonistes."
(WUD, '94, p.911)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(AP, 12/9/97)
1608 Shakespeare wrote his play "Pericles." It was about a prince who journeys through evil kingdoms until he meets his bride and then loses her at sea.
(WSJ, 11/11/98, p.A21)
1608 In England Bess of Hardwick died at age 80. Know as the Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury, she built the Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. Bess had married and disposed of four husbands, each leaving her richer than the last. She had been a moneylender, property dealer, exploiter of iron works, coal mines, and glass works, and ended up the richest woman in England after the Queen. She only had children by her second husband, Sir William Cavendish. Her fortune was divided between two sons, William and Charles.
(N.G., Nov. 1985, M. Girouard, p.662,671)(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.20)
1609 Feb 10, John Suckling, English Cavalier poet, dramatist, courtier, was born.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1609 Mar, John Dee (b.1527), English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I, died about this time. Dec 1608 is also given as his time of death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee)(Econ, 6/30/12, p.86)
1609 Jul 25, Admiral William Somers, head of a 7-ship fleet enroute to Virginia, spied land after being blown off course and soon drove his ship, the Sea Venture, onto the reefs of Bermuda. William Strachey (1572-1621), was also aboard the Sea Venture and later sent a letter to England that described the event. The letter is thought by many to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare’s "Tempest." Strachey became secretary of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, after his arrival there on May 23, 1610. In 2009 Hobson Woodward authored: A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare’s “The Tempest."
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.29)(SFC, 8/18/09, p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Venture)
1609 Sep 12, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed his ship, the Half Moon, into the river that later took his name. Hudson sailed for the Dutch East India Company in search of the Northwest Passage, a water route linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
(AP, 9/12/97)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.28)
1609 Ben Johnson wrote his play "The Silent Woman."
(WSJ, 2/7/03, p.W2)
1609 Shakespeare wrote his play "Cymbeline." It was based on the story of Cymbeline, king of Britain during the reign of Augustus Caesar in Rome.
(WSJ, 6/10/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 8/19/98, p.A16)
1609 The original text of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets was published. In 1997 a poem-by-poem commentary was published by Helen Vendler: "The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets." A new Arden edition: "Shakespeare’s Sonnets" to elucidate the context of the poems was also published in 1997.
(WSJ, 11/12/97, p.A20)
1609 The song "Three Blind Mice" was published in London.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.C3)
1609 The British attempted to settle Grenada.
(http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/caribb/gd.htm)
1610 Mar 21, King James I addressed the English House of Commons.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1610 Apr 18, Robert Parsons (63), English Jesuit leader, plotter, died.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1610 Aug 3, Henry Hudson of England discovered a great bay on the east coast of Canada and named it for himself.
(HN, 8/3/98)(HNQ, 7/23/00)
1610 Shakespeare wrote his play ""A Winter’s Tale."
(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T6)
1610 A map of Asia viewed from the sea was drawn about this by a Chinese cartographer in Java. John Seldon, English lawyer, later acquired this map through an English sea captain and bequeathed it to Oxford’s Bodleian library in 1654.
(Econ, 1/18/14, p.80)
1610 In Ireland the settlement at Derry was colonized by the English, who built a fortress surrounded by stone walls and renamed it Londonderry.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A14)
1611 Mar 4, George Abbot was appointed archbishop of Canterbury.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1611 Jun 22, English explorer Henry Hudson, his son and several other people were set adrift in present-day Hudson Bay by mutineers.
(AP, 6/22/97)
1611 Nov 1, Shakespeare's romantic comedy "The Tempest" was first presented at Whitehall.
(AP, 11/1/99)
1611 Nov 3, Henry Ireton, English general and MP (Edgehill), was born.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1611 The authorized version of the King James Bible was published and it incorporated the translation of William Tyndale. In 2001 Alister McGrath authored "In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language and a Culture." In 2003 Adam Nicolson authored "God's Secretaries," which covered the tumult behind the creation of the King James Bible.
(WSJ, 12/22/94, A-20)(SSFC, 6/3/01, DB p.71)(WSJ, 5/9/03, p.W10)
1612 Feb 7, Thomas Killigrew, English humorist, playwright, leader (King's Men), was born.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1612 Feb 8, Samuel Butler (d.1680), England, poet, satirist (Hudibras) was baptized.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1612 Shakespeare was commissioned to write a serious play about Henry VIII. The commission was probably made to celebrate the marriage of one of King James’ daughters.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A13)
1612 Shakespeare handed over the role of scriptwriter for the King’s Men to John Fletcher and retired to his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.
(WSJ, 5/1/97, p.A16)
1613 Jan 28, Thomas Bodley (b.1545), English diplomatist and scholar, died in London. He founded the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
(www.nndb.com/people/859/000094577/)
1613 Jun, Susanna Hall, Shakespeare’s daughter, married Stratford doctor and herbalist John Hall.
(WSJ, 12/5/00, p.A24)
1613 Jun 29, Shakespeare's Globe Theater burned down in London. It was soon rebuilt on the same foundations.
(USAT, 8/16/96, p.8D)(MC, 6/29/02)
1613 The American Indian Tisquantum, aka Squanto, returned to the New World from England as the interpreter for John Smith. He was freed by Smith but then kidnapped with 19 fellow Indians by an Englishman and carried off to Milaga, Spain. He managed to escape to England.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.28)
1613 A fleet of 3 English ships arrived in Japan in response to letters from Will Adams to the English East India Company.
(ON, 11/02, p.10)
1614 Apr 5, 2nd parliament of King James I began session (no enactments).
(MC, 4/5/02)
1614 Jun 7, The 2nd parliament of King James I dissolved passing no legislation.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1616 Mar 6, Francis Beaumont (b.1584), Elizabethan playwright, died.
(WUD, 1994 p.131)(MC, 3/6/02)
1616 Mar 20, Walter Raleigh was released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guiana. He took along his son Wat (22), who was killed during an attack on a Spanish outpost.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1616 Apr 23, William Shakespeare (b.1564), poet and playwright, died in Stratford-on-Avon, England. In 2004 Stephen Greenblatt authored “Will In the World." In 2006 Colin McGinn authored “Discovering the Meaning Behind the Plays."
(AP, 4/23/97)(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.W7)(SSFC, 12/24/06, p.M1)
1616 Dec 25, Nathaniel Courthope, a British merchant-adventurer under direct orders from James I, landed his ship Swan at the Banda Island of Run. He persuaded the islanders to enter an alliance with the British for nutmeg. He fortified the 1 by 2 mile island and with 30 men proceeded to hold off a Dutch siege for 1,540 days.
(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1616 London’s Phoenix Theater in Drury Lane was converted from a cockpit.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.88)
1616 In a letter to Queen Anne, Capt. John Smith recalled that Pocahontas had saved the colony at Jamestown from "death, famine, and utter confusion."
(WSJ, 6/13/95, p.A-18)
1616 American Indian princess Pocahontas and her husband, Jamestown colonist John Rolfe, sailed to England with their infant son.
(ON, 2/07, p.9)
1617 Jan 6, Pocahontas, American Indian princess, attended a court masque with King James I and Queen Anne.
(ON, 2/07, p.9)
1617 Mar 21, Pocahontas (Rebecca Rolfe) was buried at the parish church of St. George in Gravesend, England. As Pocahontas and John Rolfe prepared to sail back to Virginia, she died reportedly of either small pox or pneumonia. In 2003 Paula Gunn Allen authored "Pocahontas "Medicine Woman, Spy, entrepreneur, Diplomat."
(AP, 4/5/97)(HN, 5/5/97)(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.T12)(HN, 3/21/01)(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.M5)
1617 Aug 23, The 1st one-way streets opened in London.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1617 James VI of Scotland, aka James I of England, made a homecoming to Edinburgh Castle.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T3)
1618 Jan 7, Francis Bacon became English lord chancellor.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1618 Oct 29, Sir Walter Raleigh, English scholar, poet and historian, was executed for treason. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh's enemies had spread rumors that he opposed the accession of King James. In 2003 Raleigh Trevelyan authored "Sir Walter Raleigh," and Anna Beer authored "My Just Desire," a biography of Raleigh's wife, Elizabeth Throckmorton.
(HN, 10/29/98)(MC, 10/29/01)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1618 In London the play "Swetnam the Woman-Hater" introduced the term "misogynist" into the English language.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.A2)
1618-1680 Sir Peter Lely, English court painter.
(Ind, 12/26/98, p.5A)
1619 Mar 1, Thomas Campion (53), English physician, composer, poet (Poemata), died.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1619 John Seldon, English lawyer, authored a treatise called “Mare Clausum" (The Closed Sea), in which he argued that countries have jurisdiction over the sea close to their shore.
(Econ, 1/18/14, p.80)
1619 In England Tisquantum joined a new exploratory mission to the New England coast and returned to find that his tribe had been wiped out by the plague. It was he who later communicated with the first Pilgrims at Plymouth.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.29)
1619 Richard Burbage, actor and co-owner of London's Globe theater, died.
(ON, 11/03, p.2)
1620 Jul 22, The Pilgrims set out from Holland destined for the New World. The Speedwell sailed to England from the Netherlands with members of the English Separatist congregation that had been living in Leiden, Holland. Joining the larger Mayflower at Southampton, the two ships set sail together in August, but the Speedwell soon proved unseaworthy and was abandoned at Plymouth, England. The entire company then crowded aboard the Mayflower, setting sail for North America on September 16, 1620.
(HNQ, 3/4/00)(MC, 7/22/02)
1620 Sep 16, The Pilgrims sailed from England on the Mayflower, finally settling at Plymouth, Mass. The Pilgrims were actually Separatists because they had left the Church of England. The 4 children of William Brewster, who arrived on the Mayflower, were named: Love, Wrestling, Patience, and Fear.
(HN, 9/16/98)(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.23)(SFC, 3/20/99, p.B4)
1620 Oct 31, John Evelyn (d.1706), British diarist (Life of Mrs. Godolphin), was born. He was a meditative and sententious English diarist.
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A24)(MC, 10/31/01)
1620 Dec 2, An English newspaper headline read: “The new tidings out of Italie are not yet come." In 2006 this was reported to be the world’s oldest headline.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.103)
1620 Bacon published his "Novum Organon." Francis Bacon was said to have noted the striking fit of the opposing coastlines of South America and western Africa.
(V.D.-H.K.p.139)(DD-EVTT, p.192)
1620 Thomas Tompkins (1572-1656), English royal composer, wrote his madrigal “When David Heard."
(SFC, 6/4/10, p.F4)
1620 In England Dutch-born Cornelius Drebbel tested a submarine which cruised 15 feet under the Thames. Cornelius Drebbel also attempted to air-condition Westminster Abbey.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W12)
1621 Mar 31, Andrew Marvell, English poet and politician, was born.
(HN, 3/31/01)
1621 May 3, Francis Bacon was accused of bribery.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1621 May 31, Sir Francis Bacon was thrown into Tower of London for overnight.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1621 Sep 21, King James of England gave Canada to Sir Alexander Sterling.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1621 Dec 18, English parliament unanimously accepted Protestation.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1621 Dec 5, A letter from the English office of the Virginia Company reported that European honeybees (Apis mellifera) were shipped to America. They arrived in Virginia in March 1622.
(www.orsba.org/htdocs/download/Honey%20Bees%20Across%20America.html)
1622 Jan 23, William Baffin (~38), British explorer, died.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1622 Feb 8, King James I disbanded the English parliament.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1622 Apr 17, Henry Vaughan (d.1695), English poet and mystic, was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.1582)(HN, 4/17/98)
1623 Jul 4, William Byrd (80), English composer (Ave verum corpus), died.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1623 Aug 6, Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, died.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1623 Nov 9, William Camden (72), English historian: Brittania Annales, died.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1623 Ben Jonson, playwright, wrote his poem Shakespeare "Sweet Swan of Avon."
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.E3)
1623 In London the Coopers Arm pub, now known as The Lamb and Flag at 33 Rose St., went into business.
(SFC, 8/11/96, p.T7)
1624 Sep 12, The 1st submarine was tested in London.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1624 George Fox (d.1691), founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), was born in England.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.C10)
1625 Mar 27, James I (VI), Stuart king of Scotland (1567), England (1603-25), died. He was described as the “wisest fool in Christendom."
(www.jesus-is-lord.com/kingbio.htm)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.130)
1625 Mar 27, Charles I (d.1649) became the English king. He was King of England, Ireland and Scotland until he was beheaded.
(AP, 3/27/97)(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A12)
1625 Jun 5, Orlando Gibbons (41), English organist, composer (Silver Swan), died.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1626 Feb 2, Charles I was crowned King of England. His wife was Queen Henrietta Maria.
(HN, 2/2/99)(WSJ, 10/31/02, p.D6)
1626 Feb 28, Cyril Tourneur (c51), English poet, dramatist, died.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1626 Apr 9, Francis Bacon (b.1561), English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author, died. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon)
1626 Oct 4, Richard Cromwell (d.1659), lord protector of England (1658-59), was born.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1626 Nov 15, The Pilgrim Fathers, who settled in New Plymouth, bought out their London investors.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1626 In London Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, was presented Jeffrey Hudson (7), whom she made her royal dwarf. In 2002 Nick Page authored "Lord Minimus," a biography of Hudson.
(HN, 2/2/99)(WSJ, 10/31/02, p.D6)
1627 Jul 10, English fleet under George Villiers reached La Rochelle, France, a Huguenot stronghold.
(MC, 7/10/02)(WUD, 1994, p.808)
1627 Jul 20, English fleet under George Villiers reached La Rochelle. [see Jul 10]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1628 Mar 19, Massachusetts colony was founded by Englishmen.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1628 Oct 28, After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle surrendered to Cardinal Richelieu's Catholic forces. John Tradescant, an English gardener who accompanied Duke George Villiers to rescue the Huguenots, had designed siege trenches prior to the surrender.
(HN, 10/28/98)(MC, 10/28/01)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.B19)
1628 Nov 24, John Ford's "Lover's Melancholy," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1628 Nov 28, John Bunyan, English preacher and writer who wrote "Pilgrim’s Progress," was born.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1628 Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter, was called upon to broker a peace between Catholic Spain and Protestant England.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)
1629 Mar 2, English King Charles I fleeced the house of commons.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1629 Mar 10, England's King Charles I dissolved Parliament and did not call it back for 11 years.
(AP, 3/10/98)
1629 Oct 30, King Charles I gave the Bahamas to Sir Robert Heath.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1629 The weekly Bills of Mortality in London, begun in 1603, began to include causes of death.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.97)
1630 May 29, Charles Stuart (d.1685), later Charles II, king of England (1660 to 1685), was born. He was the son of Charles I. Charles II was restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth. Charles made a deal with George Monck, a general of the New Model Army, and with the old parliamentary foes of his father. The British experiment with republicanism came to an end with the restoration of Charles II.
(V.D.-H.K.p.218)(WUD, 1994, p.249)(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(HN, 5/29/98)(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)
1630s Inigo Jones built the portico of London’s Old St. Paul’s Cathedral.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)
1631 Mar 31, John Donne (b.1572), British metaphysical poet, died in London. In 2006 John Stubbs authored “Donne: The Reformed Soul."
(www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebio.htm)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.79)
1631 May 4, Mary I Henriette Stuart, daughter of Charles I (later queen of England), was born.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1631 Jun 21, John Smith (b.1580), English sailor, soldier and author, died in England. He had helped found the English colony at Jamestown, Va.
(ON, 2/07, p.9)(www.virtualjamestown.org/jsmith.html)
1631 Aug 9, John Dryden, the 1st official poet laureate of Great Britain (1668-1700), was born.
(HN, 8/9/02)
1632 Feb 20, Thomas Osborne, Duke of Leeds, English PM (1690-94), founder (Tories), was born.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1632 Jun 20, Britain granted 2nd Lord Baltimore rights to Chesapeake Bay area.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1632 Aug 29, English philosopher John Locke (d.1704) was born in Somerset, England. The philosopher of liberalism influenced the American founding fathers and was famous for his treatise "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." It was he who stated that the child is born with a tabula rasa, a blank state. On it, he said, experience wrote words, and thus knowledge and understanding came about, through the interplay of the senses and all that they perceived. "New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common."
(V.D.-H.K.p.64,219)(AP, 8/4/97)(AP, 8/29/97)(HN, 8/29/98)
1632 Oct 20, Sir Christopher Wren (d.1723), astronomer and architect, was born. He designed the current St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(HN, 10/20/98)
1632 The British colonized Montserrat.
(NH, Jul, p.20)
1633 Feb 23, Samuel Pepys (d.1703), English diarist, was born. Pepys was an informal and spontaneous English diarist. In 1999 Ferdinand Mount wrote the novel "Jem (and Sam)," about Pepys and his drinking partner Jeremiah Mount. In 1999 Sara George authored "The Journal of Mrs. Pepys," a novel based on Pepys' young wife Elizabeth.
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A24)(HN, 2/23/01)
1633 Mar 1, George Herbert (b.1593), Welsh-born priest and poet, died. In 2013 John Drury authored “Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert)(Econ, 8/31/13, p.72)
1633 Oct 14, James II Stuart, king of England and Scotland (James VII) (1685-88), was born.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1634 Feb 17, William Prynne (1600-1669), English Puritan leader and pamphleteer, was tried in Star Chamber for publishing "Histrio-masti."
(WUD, 1994 p.1159)(MC, 2/17/02)
1634 Mar 25, English colonists sent by Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, arrived in present-day Maryland.
(HN, 3/24/98)(AP, 3/25/08)
1635 Britain established binding numerical limits on horse-drawn coaches.
(Econ, 2/11/12, p.76)
1637 Jul 23, King Charles of England handed over the American colony of Massachusetts to Sir Fernando Gorges, one of the founders of the Council of New England.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1637 Aug 6, Ben Johnson (65), English dramatist and poet, died. In 1960 Jonas Barish wrote "Ben Jonson and the Language of Prose Comedy."
(AP, 1/4/98)(WUD, 1994, p.771)(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A24)(MC, 8/6/02)
1637 John Tradescant the younger, a widower with a son and daughter, undertook the first of three voyages from England to Virginia “to gather up all raritye of flowers, plants, shells." The King’s request to search for useful trees and herbs, no doubt played a role in Tradescant’s decision to take this trip during what must have been a very difficult time.
(www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=2942)
1638 John Tradescant (b.1570), English gardener and father of John Tradescant (1608-1662), died. In 2008 Jennifer Potter authored “Strange Blooms: The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants.
(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.B19)
1640 May 5, English Short Parliament united.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1640 Nov 3, English Long Parliament assembled.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1640 Nov 11, John Pym, earl of Strafford, was locked in Tower of London.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1640 Chemical lighters came out in London that used phosphorus and sulfur.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.E3)
1640 John Ford (b.c1586) English playwright, died. In 1944 Prof. Sensabaugh (d.2002 at 95) authored "The Tragic Muse of John Ford."
(WUD, 1994 p.554)(SFC, 2/28/02, p.A20)
1640s The parliamentary battles that led up to the English Civil War were recorded in 7 tomes known as Rushworth's Collections.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A22)
1640s In England an agrarian commune was created by Gerard Winstanley, a merchant turned pamphleteer whose elegant prose derided the class system. The 1975 film "Winstanley" was co-directed by Andrew Mollow and Kevin Brownlow was based on Winstanley.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, DB p.42)
1641 Jan 3, Jeremiah Horrocks (22), English astronomical prodigy, died.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1641 Feb 16, English king Charles I accepted the Triennial Act.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1641 May 12, Thomas Wentworth (48), chief advisor to Charles I and English viceroy of Ireland, was beheaded in the Tower of London.
(HN, 5/12/01)(MC, 5/12/02)
1641 Oct 21, A Catholic uprising took place in Ulster. Thousands of English and Scots were killed. [see Oct 23]
(MC, 10/21/01)
1641 Oct 23, Catholics in Ireland, under Phelim O'Neil, rose against the Protestants and cruelly massacred men, women and children to the number of 40,000 (some say 100,000). [see Oct 21]
(HN, 10/23/98)
1641 The English Court of Star Chamber was abolished. It had been used by unpopular kings to enforce unpopular policies.
(ON, 11/04, p.10)
1641 A Catholic uprising in Ulster was suppressed. English Gen’l. Oliver Cromwell took away the land rights of 44,000 Catholics in Ulster and adjacent counties.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)
1642 Jan 4, King Charles I attacked the English parliament with 400 soldiers.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1642 Jan 10, King Charles I and his family fled London for Oxford.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1642 Aug 22, Civil war in England began as Charles I declared war on the Puritan Parliament at Nottingham. Charles I went to the House of Commons to arrest some of its members and was refused entry. From this point on no monarch was allowed entry.
(HN, 8/22/98)(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D3)(ON, 12/00, p.1)
1642 Oct 23, The Battle of Edgehill was the first major clash between Royalist and Parliamentary forces in the English Civil Wars. King Charles I and 11-15,000 Cavaliers held the high ground against 13-15,000 Roundheads led by the Earl of Essex and Oliver Cromwell. The conflict began with a smattering of cannon exchanges. The Royalist artillery was hampered by its uphill position, rendering its cannons largely ineffective against the enemy below. As a result, Royalist cavalry, led by the King’s nephew, Prince Rupert, swept down the hill toward the Parliamentarians, decimating a large section of their ranks. The Royalists did not capitalize on this initial success, however, as the troops became more interested in plundering the town than in finishing the fight. This allowed Parliamentarian troops to regroup and break up enemy formations. After several hours of hard fighting, both sides withdrew to their original positions, leaving a field scattered with debris and casualties.
(HNQ, 6/16/01)
1642 Oct 23, Sir Edmund Verneys rode into the battle of Edgehill as the standard bearer of Charles I and died there. In 2007 Adrian Tinniswood authored “The Verneys: A True Story of Love, War and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England."
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.87)
1642 Nov 13, Battle at Turnham Green, London: King Charles I vs. English parliament.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1642 Dec 25, (OS) Isaac Newton (d.1727), English physicist, mathematician and scientist, was born in Woolsthorpe (Grantham), Lincolnshire, England. He enunciated the laws of motion and the law of gravity [see Jan 4, 1643].
(V.D.-H.K.p.205)(HN, 12/25/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton)
1642 London's Globe theater closed as the Puritan-controlled British Parliament suppressed theaters and other forms of popular entertainment.
(ON, 11/03, p.2)
1642 In England Speaker William Lenthall refused Charles I’s request that he identify 5 uppity MPs, whom the king had come to the House of Commons to arrest.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.75)
1642-1648 The English civil war severely damaged St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)
1643 Jan 4, (NS) Sir Isaac Newton, scientist, was born. He developed the laws of gravity and planetary relations [See Dec 25, 1642].
(HN, 1/4/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton)
1643 May 13, Battle at Grantham: English parliamentary armies beat royalists.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1643 May 14, Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1643 Jun 18, In England the bloody battle of Chalgrove Field occurred. Royalist strategy meetings were held at the Horsenden Manor at Buckinghamshsire.
(WSJ, 7/19/96, p.B6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chalgrove_Field)
1643 Jun 30, Battle at Atherton Moor: Royalists beat parliamentary armies.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1643 Jul 13, In England, the Roundheads, led by Sir William Waller, were defeated by royalist troops under Lord Wilmot in the Battle of Roundway Down.
(HN, 7/13/98)
1643 Jul 27, Cromwell defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Gainsborough.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1643 Dec 8, John Pym (59), English House of Commons member, died.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1643 The English parliament first introduced levies on beer and meat to finance its fight against the Crown.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.39)
1644 Mar 14, England granted a patent for Providence Plantations (Rhode Island). [see Mar 24]
(MC, 3/14/02)
1644 Mar 24, Roger Williams was granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island. [see Mar 14]
(MC, 3/24/02)
1644 Jul 2, Lord Cromwell crushed the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York, England. Cromwell came from minor gentry in Huntingdon and had served in Parliament before the wars, during which he commanded the Ironsides, a cavalry regiment famous for its discipline and tenacity. Although he had had no previous military experience, he showed amazing courage and tactical brilliance, particularly at the Battle of Marston Moor.
(HN, 7/2/98)(HNQ, 8/8/00)
1644 Oct 27, The 2nd Battle at Newbury: King Charles I beat parliamentary armies.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1644 Nov 6, Sir Thomas Roe (b.~1581), English scholar and a patron of learning, died. He was an English diplomat of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods and He sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1644. “It is no good state of a body to have a fat head, thin guts and lean members."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Roe)(Econ, 6/30/12, SR p.15)
1644 Poet John Milton published "Areopagitica," an essay in defense of a free press.
(SFC, 1/21/04, p.D2)
1644 The Globe Theater in London was dismembered.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.E4)
1645 Jan 10, William Laud (71), the Archbishop of Canterbury, was beheaded on Tower Hill, accused of acting as an enemy of the Parliament.
(HN, 1/10/99)
1645 Apr 2, Robert Devereux resigned as parliament supreme commander.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1645 Jun 14, Oliver Cromwell’s army routed the King’s army at Naseby.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1645 Sep 24, The Battle of Rowton Heath took place during the English Civil War between the Parliamentarians, commanded by Sydnam Poyntz, and the Royalists under the personal command of King Charles I. The result was a significant defeat for the Royalists, with heavy losses and Charles prevented from relieving the Siege of Chester. William Lawes (b.1602), Cavalier composer, died at the Battle of Rowton Heath.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rowton_Heath)(Econ, 4/16/11, p.90)
1645-1651 During the English civil war of this period almost every silver and gold object in the country was melted down or smashed.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.86)
1646 Apr 27, King Charles I fled Oxford.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1646 May 5, King Charles I surrendered at Scotland.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1646 Jul 30, English parliament set the Newcastle Propositions of King Charles I.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1646 Sep 14, Robert Devereux (b.1591), 3rd earl of Essex, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Devereux,_3rd_Earl_of_Essex)
1646 George Fox (b.1624) abandoned the church and began following the "inner light." He told listeners that the truth could be found by listening to an inner voice of God speaking directly to the soul. His teachings formed the basis to the Religious Society of Friends, aka Quakers. Believers reportedly sat and quivered waiting for the Holy Spirit to move them to speak.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.C10)
1646 Charles I (1600-1649), king of England, Scotland and Ireland, licensed the Silver Cross to serve as both a brothel and drinking establishment.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England)(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.T7)
1647 Jan 23, Scottish Presbyterians sold captured Charles I to English Parliament.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1647 Jan 30, King Charles I was handed over to the English parliament.
(MC, 1/30/02)
1647 Jun 4, The English army seized King Charles I as a hostage.
(AP, 6/4/97)(HN, 6/4/98)
1647 Nov 10, The all Dutch-held area of New York was returned to English control by the treaty of Westminster.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1647 Apr 1, John Wilmot (d.1680) Second Earl of Rochester, poet (A Satyr Upon Mankinde), scandalous pornographer and bawdy playwright, was born. He married Elizabeth Malet, and carried on an affair with the actress Elizabeth Barry. His friend, playwright George Etherege modeled the character Dorimont after him in "Man of Mode." A 1994 play by Stephen Jeffrey titled "The Libertine," is based on Wilmot’s life.
(WSJ, 3/28/96,p.A-12)(WSJ, 1/14/98, p.A17)
1647 The British Parliament under Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas celebrations. The ban was lifted after Cromwell's downfall in 1660.
(http://gouk.about.com/od/festivalsandevents/qt/hogmaney.htm)
1647 Elizabeth Throckmorton (b.1565), wife of Sir Walter Raleigh, died. In 2003 Anna Beer authored her biography "My Just Desire."
(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)
1647-1649 “An Agreement of the People" was a series of manifestos, published during this period, for constitutional changes to the English state. They have been most associated as the manifestos of the Levellers but were also published by the Agitators and the General Council of the New Model Army.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_of_the_People)
1648 Apr 22, English army claimed king Charles I was responsible for bloodshed.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1648 Nov 30, English army captured King Charles I.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1648 Dec 6, Pride's Purge: Thomas Pride prevented 96 Presbyterians from sitting in English Parliament.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1649 Jan 30, King Charles I of England, who ruled from 1625-1649, was beheaded for treason at Banqueting House, Whitehall, by the hangman Richard Brandon. He lost his capital trial by one vote, 68-67. "For the people, and I truly desire their liberty and freedom as much as anybody whomsoever, but I must tell you that their liberty and their freedom consists in having of government those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having a share in government, sirs; that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things." Charles I was canonized by the church of England 13 years later. Parliament became the supreme power under the rule of Oliver Cromwell, who ruled over Parliament as Lord Protector of the New Commonwealth from 1649-1658. He argued against his soldiers having a voice in government because they owned no property. He stated in so many words that government "has always been, and should always continue to be, of property, by property, and for property."
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.T7)(V.D.-H.K.p.218)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(HN, 1/30/99)(SFEC, 7/2/00, Z1 p.2)(WSJ, 2/7/03, p.W13)
1649 Jan 30, Jester Muckle John lost his job when King Charles 1 was beheaded.
(Reuters, 8/7/04)
1649 Jan, The prosecution of England’s King Charles I was led by John Cooke (1608-1660), who suffered a horrible death with the Restoration in 1660.
(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.M3)
1649 Feb 5, The Prince of Wales became king Charles II. Charles II (18), while living in exile at the Hague, was recently informed that his father was beheaded at Whitehall on Jan 30.
(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)(MC, 2/5/02)
1649 Feb 23, John Blow, composer of 1st English opera (Venus and Adonis), was baptized.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1649 Apr 9, James Scott Duke of Monmouth (d.1685), was born. He was the illegitimate son of Charles II of England and pretender to the throne of James II
(HN, 4/9/98)(WUD, 1994, p.925)
1649 May 12, Isaac Doreslaer, English lawyer, diplomat, was murdered.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1649 Aug 15, Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland)
1649 Sep 6, Robert Dudley, English navigator and writer (Arcano del Mare), died.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1649 Sep 11, Oliver Cromwell seized Drogheda, Ireland in a siege that began September 3. The week after the storming of Drogheda, the Royalist press in England claimed that 2,000 of the 3,000 dead were civilian.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Drogheda)
1649 Oct, English Parliamentarian troops broke into the town of Wexford while the commander of the garrison, David Sinnot, was trying to negotiate a surrender – massacring soldiers and civilians alike. Much of the town was burned and its harbor was destroyed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Wexford)
1649-1653 This period marks the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland or Cromwellian war in Ireland. The Parliamentarians deported about 50,000 people as indentured laborers. They were sent to the English colonies of America and West Indies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland)
1649-1815 In 2004 N.A.M. Rodger authored “The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815."
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.88)
1650 Feb 2, Nell [Eleanor] Gwyn, English actress, mistress to King Charles II, was born.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1650 May 24, John Churchill, 1st duke of Marlborough, English general strategist, was born.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1650 May, Oliver Cromwell left Ireland to fight the Third English Civil War against the new Scottish-Royalist alliance. He passed his command onto Henry Ireton.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland)
1650 Jun 28, Lord Cromwell set off for Scotland at the head of an army of 16,354 men.
(HNQ, 8/8/00)
1650 Jun, The Ulster army met a Parliamentarian army composed mainly of British settlers and commanded by Charles Coote at the Battle of Scarrifholis in Donegal. The Ulster army was routed and as many as 2000 of its men were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland)
1650 Sep 3, The English under Cromwell defeated a superior Scottish army under David Leslie at the Battle of Dunbar.
(HN, 9/3/98)
1650 Oct 3, The English parliament declared its rule over the fledgling American colonies.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1650 Nov 4, William III, Prince of Orange and King of England, was born. [see Nov 14]
(HN, 11/4/98)
1650 Nov 14, William III, King of England (1689-1702), was born. [see Nov 4]
(HN, 11/14/98)
1650 Charles II (20) arrived in Scotland.
(ON, 12/00, p.1)
1651 Sep 3, In the Battle at Worcester Oliver Cromwell destroyed English royalists. Charles II led the Scots Covenanters to a disastrous defeat at the battle of Worcester. Some 3,000 of his soldiers were killed and 10,000 taken prisoner.
(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)(ON, 12/00, p.1)
1651 Oct 15, Charles II boarded the ship Surprise to cross the Channel to France.
(ON, 12/00, p.5)
1651 Oct 17, Future King Charles II fled from England. [see Oct 15]
(MC, 10/17/01)
1651 Oct 27, English troops occupied Limerick, Ireland.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1651 Nov 26, Henry Ireton (40), English gen. and parliament leader (Marston Moor), died.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1651 Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), English philosopher, authored “Leviathan." In it he tried to deduce from 1st principles the shape that society should take.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.M3)
1652 May 29, English Admiral Robert Blake drove out the Dutch fleet under Lieutenant-Admiral Tromp.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1652 The English Parliament passed the Act for the Settlement of Ireland which classified the Irish population into one of several categories according to their degree of involvement in the uprising and subsequent war. Dr. William Petty, Physician-General to Cromwell's Army, estimated that as many as 100,000 Irish men, women and children were transported to the colonies in the West Indies and in North America as slaves.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_British_Isles)
1652 Inigo Jones (b.1573), father of English classical architecture, died. His work included a book titled "Stonehenge Restored," which considered Stonehenge to have been Roman temple.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(ON, 4/02, p.11)
1652 War broke out between the Netherlands and England.
(ON, 4/00, p.2)
1653 Apr 20, Oliver Cromwell dissolved the English parliament. “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately…"
(www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/rump-parliament.htm)(Econ, 5/8/10, p.60)
1653 Jul 4, British Barebones Parliament went into session.
(Maggio)
1653 Dec 1, An athlete from Croydon was reported to have run 20 miles from St. Albans to London in less than 90 minutes.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1653 Dec 16, Oliver Cromwell took on dictatorial powers with the title of lord protector" of England, Scotland and Ireland. He served as dictator of England to 1658.
(CFA, '96, p.44)(AHD, p.315)(AP, 12/16/97)(HN, 12/16/98)
1653 Izaak Walton (b.1593-1683) wrote "The Compleat Angler."
(SFEC, 11/3/96, Par p.19)
1653 The English palace of Oatlands was pulled down by the Commonwealth. John Tradescant and his son John had worked there under Charles 1 as gardeners. In 1790 Duke of York purchased Oatlands House, built in the grounds of Henry VIII's 1537 Oatlands Palace.
(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.B19)(www.weybridgesociety.org.uk/History.aspx)
1654 Apr 12, England, Ireland and Scotland united.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1654 Dec 25, Dorothy Osborne (1627-1695) married William Temple (1628-1699). Their story was later the focus of the historical romance “Forever Amber" (1944), which was also made into a film (1947). In 2008 Jane Dunn authored “Read My Heart: Dorothy Osborne and Sir William Temple, a Love Story in the Age of Revolution."
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.W10)
1654 John Seldon, English lawyer, bequeathed a map of Asia, drawn about 1610, to Oxford’s Bodleian library. In 2014 Timothy Brook authored “Mr Seldon’s Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer." Robert Batchelor authored “London: The Seldon Map and the making of a Global City, 1549-1689."
(Econ, 1/18/14, p.80)
1655 Apr 4, Battle at Postage Farina, Tunis: English fleet licked Barbarian pirates.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1655 Apr 28, English admiral Blake beat a Tunisian pirate fleet.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1655 May 10, Jamaica was captured by English.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1655 Nov 24, English Lord Protector Cromwell banned Anglicans.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1655 The three Cayman Islands came under British control when Oliver Cromwell's army captured nearby Jamaica from the Spanish.
(AP, 5/10/03)
1656 Oct 29, Edmund Halley (d.1742), astronomer, was born about this time in Hagerston, Middlesex, England. The birth date is somewhat uncertain because it is not known if at that time in his village the Gregorian or the Julian calendar was in use. There's also some dispute over the year. [see Nov 8]
(www.seds.org/messier/xtra/Bios/halley.html)
1656 Nov 8, Edmond Halley, mathematician and astronomer who predicted the return of the comet which is named for him, was born. [see Oct 29]
(HN, 11/6/98)
1656 The first performance of an English opera was given in a room at the Smithfield home of Sir William Davenant.
(Econ, 11/27/10, p.41)
1656 Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews to return to England. They soon established their first synagogue on Creechurch Lane.
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P16)
1657 Mar 23, France and England formed an alliance against Spain.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1657 Mar 31, English Humble Petition offered Lord Protector Cromwell the crown.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1657 Apr 3, English Lord Protector Cromwell refused the crown.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1657 Apr 20, English Admiral Robert Blake fought his last battle when he destroyed the Spanish fleet in Santa Cruz Bay.
(HN, 4/20/99)
1657 Jul 13, Oliver Cromwell constrained English army leader John Lambert.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1657 By this time the White Tower of London was no longer inhabited by royalty and was almost completely given over to the storage of gunpowder.
(Hem, 9/04, p.28)
1658 Sep 3, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the New Commonwealth, i.e. ruler over England’s Puritan parliament (1653-58), died at age 59. Richard Cromwell had succeeded his father as English Lord Protector. Cromwell was responsible for shipping Romanichal Gypsies (i.e., Gypsies from Britain) as slaves to the southern plantations; there is documentation of Gypsies being owned by freed black slaves in Jamaica.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell)(AP, 9/3/97)(http://tinyurl.com/q7kfjwn) (ON, 12/00, p.5)
1659 Mar 7, Henry Purcell, English organist, composer (Dido & Aeneas), was born.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1659 Mar 26, William Wollaston, English philosopher, was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1659 Apr 22, Lord protector Cromwell disbanded the English parliament.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1659 May 25, Richard Cromwell resigned as English Lord Protector.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1659 Oct 12, English Rump government fired John Lambert and other generals. [see Oct 13]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1659 Oct 13, Gen. John Lambert drove out the English Rump government. The "Rump Parliament" was restored in Dec. [see Oct 12]
(PCh, 1992, p.247)(MC, 10/13/01)
c1659 Parliament invoked law that made it a crime, punishable by burning at the stake, to forecast the weather.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)
1659 A London discussion group called the Amateur Parliament met at Miles' coffee house.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.90)
1659 In Britain a check was written and made out for 400 pounds (equivalent to around 42,000 pounds in 2009). It was signed by Nicholas Vanacker, made payable to a Mr Delboe and drawn on Messrs Morris and Clayton, scriveners and bankers of the City of London. As of 2009 it was the oldest surviving British check.
(AP, 12/16/09)
1660 Apr 16, Hans Sloane, founder of British Museum, was born.
(HN, 4/16/98)
1660 May 3, Prince Charles, Son of King Charles I, returned to England from France.
(ON, 7/06, p.8)
1660 May 8, The son of the late Charles I is proclaimed King ending 11 years of civil war.
(PCh, 1992, p.248)
1660 May 26, Charles II (29), returning from exile, landed at Dover.
(PCh, 1992, p.248)
1660 May 28, George I, king of England, was born.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1660 May 29, Charles II (30), who had fled to France, was restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth. Charles made a deal with George Monck, a general of the New Model Army, and with the old parliamentary foes of his father. The British experiment with republicanism came to an end with the restoration of Charles II.
(V.D.-H.K.p.218)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)(ON, 8/12, p.5)
1660 Oct 16, John Cooke (b.1608), England’s solicitor-general during the 1649 trial of Charles 1, was hanged as Charles II looked on in approval. Cooke was hanged slowly until he passed out and then was revived to watch as his genitals were sliced off. A length of his bowel was yanked from his body, pulled before his face and set alight as he bled to death. In 2006 Geoffrey Robertson authored “The Tyrannicide Brief," an account of Cooke during this period.
(WSJ, 9/6/06, p.D10)(www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/10/13/)
1660 Oct, England’s King Charles II enacted his first Declaration of Indulgence.
(www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1660 Nov 28, The London Royal Society formed. Founding members included astronomer Christopher Wren, William Petty, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins and Lawrence Rooke.
(www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=2176)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.98)
1660 Dec 8, The first Shakespearian actress to appear on an English stage (she is believed to be a Ms. Norris) made her debut as 'Desdemona.'
(HN, 12/8/99)
1660 Dec 24, Mary I Henriette Stuart (29), queen of England, died.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1660-1685 King Charles II was ruler of Great Britain. He was the son of Charles I. Under his reign the Italian artist Antonio Verrio painted 2 huge frescoes that covered the entire walls and ceiling of what is now St. George’s Hall. One painting depicted Christ healing the sick in the Temple of Jerusalem and the other was of King Charles II. The frescoes were destroyed in the 1820s under King George IV to reflect a new national style. One fresco was rediscovered in 1996 during reconstruction after a fire in 1992. Charles is known as "the Merry Monarch" because of his many mistresses, enthusiasm for parties and mockery of Puritan values.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)(WUD, 1994, p.249)(ON, 12/00, p.4)
1660-1731 Daniel Defoe, English novelist and political journalist. He was born as Daniel Foe and became a successful merchant in woolen goods. For a time he was jailed due to his debts. He became a supporter of William of Orange and wrote over 500 publications on his behalf. Some regard him as the father of modern journalism. Among other works he wrote "Robinson Crusoe," "Moll Flanders," "General Histories of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates," "A Tour of the Whole Island of Great Britain," and "Journal of the Plague Year." In 1999 Richard West published "Daniel Defoe: The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures."
(WUD, 1994, p.379)(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)
1661 Mar 19, English occupied St. Andrew Island and other Courlander possessions in Gambia. They renamed the island James Island with administration by the Royal Adventurers in Africa Company.
(http://www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1661 Mar 24, William Leddra became the last Quaker to be hanged in Boston. Quakers were last hanged on Boston Common. Charles II ordered the executions stopped.
(WSJ, 4/4/01, p.A18)(MC, 3/24/02)
1661 Apr 23, English king Charles II was crowned in London.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1661 May 25, King Charles II married Portuguese princess Catherina the Bragança. India’s city of Mumbai, formed from seven islands, was given by Portugal to Charels II of England as dowry for his marriage to Catherine of Braganza.
(SC, 5/25/02)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.119)
1661 Jun 5, Isaac Newton was admitted as a student to Trinity College, Cambridge.
(http://tinyurl.com/4extmym)
1661 Oct 1, A yacht race from Greenwich to Gravesend between King Charles and James, Duke of York, made the sport fashionable.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1661_in_England)
1661 Oct 13, "I went to see Major General Harrison being drawn and quartered. He was looking as cheerful as any man could in that condition." Harrison (b.1606) had sided with Parliament in the English Civil War. During the Interregnum he was a leader of the Fifth Monarchists. In 1649 he signed the death warrant of Charles I and in 1660, shortly after the Restoration, he was found guilty of regicide.
(Samuel Pepys Diary)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harrison_%28soldier%29)
1661 Robert Boyle (1627-1691), English chemist, authored “The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sceptical_Chymist)
1661 Charles II appointed Christopher Wren (29) assistant to the surveyor general of the king’s works (assistant to the royal architect).
(NYTBR, 2/2/03, p.12)
1661 Henry Slingsby, master of the London Mint, proposed the "standard solution" a mix of fiat rules and free markets, to resolve the ongoing problem of money supply and coin value. Britain adopted the idea in 1816 and the US followed in 1853.
(WSJ, 4/2/02, p.A20)
1661 Cecil Calvert sent his son Charles Calvert (1637-1715), the 3rd Lord Baltimore, to Maryland. Charles replaced Philip Calvert as governor and remained the colonial governor until his father’s death in 1675.
(http://mdroots.thinkport.org/library/charlescalvert.asp)
1662 Aug 24, An Act of Uniformity, a part of the Clarendon Code (1661-1665), was passed by the English Parliament and required that England's college fellows and clergymen accept the newly published Book of Common Prayer. Charles II attempted to suspend the operation of the Clarendon Code by issuing a 2nd Declaration of Indulgence, but opposition from Parliament forced him to retract it in 1663.
(PC, 1992, p.249)(www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=the%20Clarendon%20Code)
1662 Oct 26, Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to France.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1662 Englishman Christopher Merret presented a paper to the Royal Society on making sparkling wine. This was noted in the 1998 "World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine" by Tom Stevenson.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)
1662 The British Parliament approved the Licensing of the Press Act, which censored “seditious, treasonable and unlicensed Bookes and Pamphlets." It failed renewal in 1695 and was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licensing_of_the_Press_Act_1662)
1662 British law established that mourning clothes had to be made of English wool. [see 1667]
(NG, 5.1988, pp. 574)
1662 London haberdasher John Graunt published the first quantitative account of death.
(Econ, 4/29/17, p.9)
1662 John Tradescant the younger (b.1608), English traveler, horticulturalist, collector and gardener to Queen Henrietta Maria, died. His home in South Lambeth, called The Ark, was filled with his Museum Tradescantianum, a collection of rarities which included birds, fish, shells, insects, minerals, coins, medals and unusual plants. After his death the collection went to Elias Ashmole, who subsequently presented it to Oxford University, where it formed the basis of the Ashmolean Museum. In 2008 Jennifer Potter authored “Strange Blooms: The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants.
(www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp04533)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.B19)
1663 Jan 10, King Charles II affirmed the charter of Royal African Company.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1663 Jan 29, Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln (1660-63), died.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1663 Feb 28, Thomas Newcomen, English co-inventor of the steam engine, was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1663 Mar 24, Charles II of England awarded lands known as Carolina in America to eight members of the nobility who assisted in his restoration. [see Apr 6]
(HN, 3/24/99)
1663 Apr 6, King Charles II signed the Carolina Charter. [see Mar 24]
(MC, 4/6/02)
1663 Apr 10, Samuel Pepys, London-based diarist, noted that he had enjoyed a French wine called Ho Bryan at the Royal Oak Tavern. This same year the Pontacs, a top wine-making family in Bordeaux, founded a fashionable London restaurant called Pontack’s Head. Ho Bryan later came to be called Chateau Haut Brion.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.131)
1663 May 7, Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London, opened.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1663 Jul 15, King Charles II of England granted John Clarke a charter for the colony of Rhode Island guaranteeing freedom of worship. He granted the charter giving the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations an elected governor and legislature. Roger Williams (1603-1683) authored the Rhode Island and Providence Plantation Charter, which stated that religion and conscience should never be restrained by civil supremacy.
(http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ri04.asp)(AH, 4/07, p.21)
1663 Jul 27, British Parliament passed a second Navigation Act, requiring all goods bound for the colonies be sent in British ships from British ports.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1663 Robert Boyle (1627-1691), English chemist and author of “The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes" (1661), wrote an essay apologizing for his interest in chrysopoeia, the chemical pursuit of transmutation of base metals into gold.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sceptical_Chymist)(Econ, 2/26/11, p.85)
1663 London featured 82 coffee houses.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.89)
1664 Mar 12, England’s King Charles II granted land in the New World, known as New Netherland (later New Jersey), to his brother James, the Duke of York.
(HN, 3/12/98)(AP, 3/12/08)
1664 Mar 22, Charles II gave large tracks of land from west of the Connecticut River to the east of Delaware Bay in North America to his brother James, the Duke of York.
(AP, 3/22/99)
1664 Jul 21, Matthew Prior, English poet, was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1664 Jul 23, 4 British ships arrived in Boston to drive the Dutch out of NY.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1664 Sep 5, After days of negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrendered to the British, who would rename it New York. The citizens of New Amsterdam petitioned Peter Stuyvesant to surrender to the English. The "Articles of Capitulation" guaranteed free trade, religious liberty and a form of local representation. In 2004 Russell Shorto authored "The Island At the Center of the World," a history of New York's Dutch period.
(HN, 9/5/98)(ON, 4/00, p.3)(WSJ, 3/16/04, p.D6)
1664 Sep 8, The Dutch formally surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York.
(AP, 9/8/97)(ON, 4/00, p.3)
1664 There was no litigation in London, England due to the Black plague.
(SFC, 7/14/96, zone 1 p.2)
1664-1667 The Second Anglo-Dutch War.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1665 Feb 6, Anne Stuart, queen of England (1702-14), was born.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1665 Mar 4, English King Charles II declared war on Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1665 Mar 6, Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society started publishing.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1665 Aug 15-22, The London weekly "Bill of Mortality" recorded 5,568 fatalities with teeth holding the no. 5 spot. 4,237 were killed by the plague.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.7)
1665 Nov 7, The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, was first published.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1665 The British briefly recaptured the Banda Island of Run from the Dutch.
(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1665 The villagers of Eyam in Derbyshire voluntarily isolated themselves so as not to spread the plague. 250 of 350 people died and the town became known as the Plague Village.
(SFEM, 10/11/98, p.22)
1665 In London at least 68,000 people died of the plague this year. In 1722 Daniel Defoe published his novel “A Journal of the Plague Year." The novel posed as a historical document covering the London plague. The Lord Mayor of London exterminated all the city’s cats and dogs, which allowed the rats, the real transmitters of the disease, to increase exponentially.
(NG, 5/88, p.684)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)(WSJ, 10/21/06, p.P8)
1665 William Petty, British pioneer of political arithmetic, estimated the income of England and Wales at £40 million.
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.80)
1665-1666 Over a span of 18 months Isaac Newton invented calculus, explained how gravity works, and discovered his laws of motion. This period came to be called his annus mirabilis.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.59)
1666 Sep 2, The Great Fire of London, having started at Pudding Lane, began to demolish about four-fifths of London. It started at the house of King Charles II's baker, Thomas Farrinor, after he forgot to extinguish his oven. The flames raged uncontrollably for the next few days, helped along by the wind, as well as by warehouses full of oil and other flammable substances. Approximately 13,200 houses, 90 churches and 50 livery company halls burned down or exploded. But the fire claimed only 16 lives, and it actually helped impede the spread of the deadly Black Plague, as most of the disease-carrying rats were killed in the fire.
(CFA, '96, p.54)(AP, 9/2/97)(HNPD, 9/2/98)(HNQ, 12/2/00)
1666 Sep 5, The great fire of London, begun on Sep 2, was extinguished. Old St. Paul’s was among the 87 churches burned down.
(HN, 9/5/98)(www.stpauls.co.uk)
1666 Nov 14, Samuel Pepys reported the on 1st blood transfusion, which was between dogs.
(HFA, '96, p.42)(MC, 11/14/01)
c1666 Sir Peter Lely painted Barbara Villiers 1640-1709, mistress to King Charles II, as a Shepherdess. Charles had raised her stature to Countess of Castlemaine and later Duchess of Cleveland.
(WSJ, 3/7/02, p.A22)
1667 Jun 18, The Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames and threatened London. They burned 3 ships and captured the English flagship in what came to be called the Glorious Revolution, in which William of Orange replaced James Stuart.
(HN, 6/18/98)(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1667 Jul 21, The Peace of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and ceded Dutch New Amsterdam to the English. The South American country of Surinam, formerly Dutch Guiana, including the nutmeg island of Run was ceded by England to the Dutch in exchange for New York in 1667 after the second Anglo-Dutch War.
(WUD, 1994, p.961)(HN, 7/21/98)(HNQ, 8/21/98)(WSJ, 5/21/99, p.W7)
1667 Aug 20, John Milton published Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1667 Nov 30, Jonathan Swift (d.1745), English satirist who wrote "Gulliver's Travels," was born in Ireland.
(WUD, 1994, p.1437)(HN, 11/30/98)
1667 The first insurance company was formed in London.
(Econ, 2/25/12, SRp.4)
1668 Feb 7, English King William III danced in the premiere of "Ballet of Peace."
(MC, 2/7/02)
1668 Feb 7, The Netherlands, England and Sweden concluded an alliance directed against Louis XIV of France.
(HN, 2/7/99)
1668 Mar 26, England took control of Bombay, India.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1668 Mar 27, English king Charles II gave Bombay to the East India Company.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1668 Apr 13, John Dryden (36) became 1st English poet laureate.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1668 Dec 22, Stephen Day, 1st British colonial printer, died.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1668 The British trading ship Nonsuch 1st sailed into Hudson Bay.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.C6)
1669 Jul 21, John Locke's Constitution of English colony Carolina was approved.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1669 The semicircular Sheldonian Theater at Oxford, designed by Christopher Wren, was completed.
(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.T8)
1669-1717 Christopher Wren served as surveyor general under Charles II.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.D5)
1670 Jan 3, George Monck (61), English general (to the-sea), died.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1670 Feb 10, William Congreve, English writer (Old Bachelor, Way of the World), was born.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1670 May 2, The Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson Bay (the Hudson Bay Co.) was chartered by England's King Charles II to exploit the resources of the Hudson Bay area. By 2006 it had mutated into Canada’s largest non-food retailer.
(AP, 5/2/97)(HN, 5/2/98)(AH, 4/01, p.36)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.36)
1670 May 26, A treaty was signed in secret in Dover, England, between Charles II and Louis XIV ending hostilities between them.
(HN, 5/26/99)
1671 Apr 22, King Charles II sat in on English parliament after which he gave his Royal Assent to the several Bills that were presented to him, fourteen private Acts, and eighteen public, including an act for exporting “Beer, Ale, and Mum."
(http://british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=37626)
1671 May 9, Colonel Thomas Blood (1618-1680), Irish adventurer, attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
(MC, 5/9/02)(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1671 Nov 6, Colley Cibber, England, dramatist, poet laureate (Love's Last Shift), was born.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1671 Charles II banned anyone without property worth £100 a year from owning guns, bows or ferrets. Game stocks were the motive.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.63)
1671 English Protestants became alarmed when they learned that James, Duke of York, had converted to Catholicism.
(ON, 7/06, p.8)
1672 Feb 8, Isaac Newton read his 1st optics paper before Royal Society in London.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1672 Mar 15, England’s King Charles II enacted a 3rd Declaration of Indulgence.
(http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1672 May 1, Joseph Addison (d.1719), English essayist (Spectator) and poet, was born. "We are always doing, says he, something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us." "A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side."
(AHD, 1971, p.14)(AP, 11/21/97)(AP, 7/14/98)(MC, 5/1/02)
1672 The Royal African Co. was granted a charter to expand the slave trade and its stockholders included philosopher John Locke.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.D3)
1673 Feb 20, The 1st recorded wine auction was held in London.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1673 Mar 29, The English Parliament passed the Test Act. It in effect excluded Roman Catholics from public functions. King Charles II was unable to stop the action.
(www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/guide17/timeline40.html)
1673 Jul 24, Edmund Halley entered Queen's College, Oxford, as an undergraduate.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1673 Aug 9, Dutch recapture NY from English. It was regained by English in 1674.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1673 In London the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries started the Chelsea Physic Garden as an educational tool for apprentices learning to grow medicinal plants.
(SFC, 3/26/08, p.G1)
1674 Feb 9, English reconquered NY from Netherlands.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1674 Feb 19, Netherlands and England signed the Peace of Westminster. NYC became English.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1674 Jun 20, Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate of England, was born.
(HN, 6/20/98)
1674 Jul 17, Isaac Watts, English minister and hymn writer, was born.
(HN, 7/17/01)
1674 Nov 8, John Milton (65), English poet (Paradise Lost), died. His work included "Paradise Lost," Paradise Regained," and "Samson Agonistes." Milton lost one eye at 36 and the other when he was 44. In 1952 Prof. Sensabaugh (d.2002 at 95) authored "In That Grand Whig, Milton," an examination of Milton’s political tracts. In 1996 Paul West wrote a novel: "Sporting with Amaryllis," that begins in 1626 and gives a fictional account of his life. In 1997 Peter Levy wrote a biography of Milton titled: "Eden Renewed."
(WUD, '94, p.911)(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A20)(AP, 12/9/97)(MC, 11/8/01)(SFC, 2/28/02, p.A20)
1675 Mar 4, John Flamsteed was appointed 1st Astronomer Royal of England.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1675 Jun 21, Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) began to rebuild St Paul’s Cathedral in London, replacing the old building which had been destroyed by the Great fire.
(HN, 6/21/01)
1675 Jun 22, Royal Greenwich Observatory was established in England by Charles II.
(YarraNet, 6/22/00)
1675 Jun 24, King Philip’s War began when Indians--retaliating for the execution of three of their people who had been charged with murder by the English--massacred colonists at Swansee, Plymouth colony.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1675 Aug 10, King Charles II laid the foundation stone of Royal Observatory, Greenwich. [see Jun 22]
(MC, 8/10/02)
1675 Nov 22, English king Charles II adjourned parliament.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1675 Lely painted a portrait of Nell Gwynn, the favorite mistress of Charles II. It is now in the London National Gallery. Charles II acknowledged 14 illegitimate children and historians identified 13 mistresses.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T8)(SFC, 7/22/00, p.E4)
1675 English king Charles II issued a proclamation deploring the "evil and dangerous effects" of coffee houses.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.90)
1675-1710 Old St. Paul’s Cathedral was replaced with a new design by Sir Christopher Wren. Spires first appeared atop Anglican churches in London at the end of the 1600s.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.14)(WSJ, 12/23/97, p.A1)
1676 Jul 21, Anthony Collins, English philosopher (A discourse on free-thinking), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1676 Aug 26, Sir Robert Walpole (d.1745), the first and longest serving prime minister of England, was born. He was not then called the prime minister as the king held all honors. He collected a large number of paintings by old masters at his Houghton Hall home in Norfolk.
(WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole)
1676 Aug 28, Indian chief King Philip, also known as Metacom, was killed by English soldiers, ending the war between Indians and colonists.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1676 Isaac Newton wrote: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."
(Econ, 8/7/04, p.64)
1677 Feb 15, King Charles II reported an anti-French covenant with Netherlands.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1677 Feb 16, Earl of Shaftesbury was arrested and confined to the London Tower. [see Oct 24, 1681]
(MC, 2/16/02)
1677 May 29, King Charles II and 12 Virginia Indian chiefs signed a treaty that established a 3-mile non-encroachment zone around Indian land. The Mattaponi Indians in 1997 invoked this treaty to protect against encroachment.
(SFC, 6/2/97, p.A3)
1677 Nov 4, William and Mary were married in England on William's birthday. William of Orange married his cousin Mary (daughter to James, Duke of York and the same James II who fled in 1688).
(HNQ, 12/28/00)(HN, 11/4/02)
1677 Christopher Wren redesigned the burned Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Aldermanbury, England.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T5)
1678 Feb 18, John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" was published. [see Sep 28]
(MC, 2/18/02)
1678 May 31, The Godiva procession, commemorating Lady Godiva's legendary ride while naked, became part of the Coventry Fair.
(HN, 5/31/01)
1678 Aug 16, Andrew Marvell (b.1621), English poet (Definition of Love), died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1678 Sep 28, "Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan (b.1628) was published. [see Feb 18]
(MC, 9/28/01)
1678 Nov 28, England's King Charles II accused his wife, Catherine of Braganza, of treason. Her crime? She had yet to bear him children.
(DTnet 11/28/97)
1678 Nov 30, Roman Catholics were banned from English parliament.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1678 Dec 3, Edmund Halley received an MA from Queen's College, Oxford.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1678 Titus Oates (b.1649), failed Catholic seminarian, and Israel Tonge concocted the Popish Plot. They alleged that plotters planned to raise a Catholic army, massacre Protestants, and poison Charles II in order to get James on the throne. 9 Jesuit priests were executed. In 1681 it was revealed to be a fabrication.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/11173c.htm)(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1678 Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury and Protestant Parliamentary leader formed the County Party, later known as the Whigs, to prevent James from becoming king of England.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1679 Jan 24, King Charles II disbanded the English parliament.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1679 Mar, King Charles II sent his brother James to the Netherlands for safety.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1679 May 15, The Earl of Shaftesbury introduced his Exclusion Bill into Parliament proposing that James, the Catholic brother of King Charles II, be permanently barred from the line of succession to the English throne.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1679 May 27, England’s House of Lords passed the Habeas Corpus Act (have the body) to prevent false arrest and imprisonment. King Charles adjourned Parliament before the final reading of Shaftesbury’s Exclusion Bill.
(WUD, 1994 p.634)(www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=11707)(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1679 Jun 1, Battle at Bothwell Bridge on Clyde: Duke of Monmouth beat the Scottish. (MC, 6/1/02)
1679 Jul 10, The British crown claimed New Hampshire as a royal colony.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1679 Jul 12, Britain's King Charles II ratified Habeas Corpus Act.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1679 Oct 23, The Meal Tub Plot took place against James II of England.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1679 Dec 4, Thomas Hobbes (b.1588), English philosopher, died. "The reputation of power IS power." Hobbes sought to separate politics from religion. In his book “Leviathan" he argues that the only way to secure civil society is through universal submission to the absolute authority of a sovereign.
(WSJ, 7/30/03, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/15/07, p.W10)(www.thefreedictionary.com/Hobbesian)
1679 Elections in England produced a new House of Commons, but King Charles II declined to let it assemble.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1680 Jul 26, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, poet, courtier, died.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1680 Aug 24, Colonel Thomas Blood, Irish adventurer who stole the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in 1671, died. Captured after the theft, he insisted on seeing King Charles II, who pardoned him.
(Reuters, 8/24/01)
1680 Sep 25, Samuel Butler (b.1612), poet and satirist, died.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1680 Oct, King Charles II of England was forced to recall Parliament in order to ask for money to fortify the port of Tangier, Morocco, which was under assault by Moorish forces.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
c1680-1685 Simon Pietesz, Verelst, painted a portrait of "Nell Gwyn," Protestant mistress to Charles II.
(WSJ, 3/7/02, p.A22)
1681 Jan 18, England's King Charles II suspended Parliament and set its next meeting for March in Oxford.
(ON, 7/06, p.10)
1681 Mar 4, England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn (37) for 48,000 square miles that later became Pennsylvania. Penn’s father had bequeathed him a claim of £15,000 against the king.
(PCh, 1992, p.259)(AP, 3/4/98)
1681 Mar 4, England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn (37) for 48,000 square miles that later became Pennsylvania. Penn’s father had bequeathed him a claim of £15,000 against the king. Penn later laid out the city of Philadelphia as a gridiron about 2 miles long, east to west, and a mile wide.
(PCh, 1992, p.259)(AP, 3/4/98)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.T1)
1681 May 17, Louis XIV sent an expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declared war on France.
(HN, 5/17/99)
1681 Oct 24, Earl of Shaftesbury (d.1683) was accused of high treason in London. The Earl of Shaftesbury had challenged the king on the question of succession. The king dissolved Parliament and threw Shaftesbury into the Tower of London and charged him with treason. Shaftesbury was acquitted and went to Holland with John Locke.
(V.D.-H.K.p.220)(MC, 10/24/01)(PCh, 1992, p.260)
1681-1730 French Protestants, known as Huguenots, migrated in large numbers to England due to persecutions known as dragonnades wherein rowdy soldiers were billeted in their homes. They also lost a semblance of security in the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.85)
1682 Jul 14, Henry Purcell was appointed organist of Chapel Royal, London.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1682 Aug 24, Duke James of York gave Delaware to William Penn.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1682 Sep 4, English astronomer Edmund Halley saw his namesake comet.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1682 Oct 19, Thomas Browne (b.1605), British writer, died. The Norwich doctor wrote mysterious-sounding books such as “Religio Medici" and “Pseudodoxia Epidemica." In 2015 Hugh Aldersey Williams authored “The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the Twentieth Century: The Life and Afterlife of the Seventeenth Century’s Most Inquiring Mind."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne)(Econ, 7/4/15, p.71)
1682 St. Clement Dane Church in London was built.
(SFEC, 9/12/99, p.T2)
1682 Wren’s Royal Hospital Chelsea was founded by Charles II as a hostel for old soldiers.
(WSJ, 3/11/02, p.A16)
1683 Jul 3, Edward Young, English poet, dramatist and literary critic, was born. He wrote "Night Thoughts."
(HN, 7/3/99)
1683 Jul 21, Lord William Russell, English plotter against Charles II, was beheaded.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1683 Sep 9, Algernon Sidney, English Whig politician and plotter, was beheaded.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1683 Oct 30, George II, King of Great Britain (1727-60), was born. [see Oct 30]
(MC, 10/30/01)
1683 Nov 10, George II, king of England (1727-60), was born. [see Nov 10]
(MC, 11/10/01)
1683 Nov 22, Purcell's "Welcome to All the Pleasures," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1683 The Ashmolean Museum was built in Oxford to house natural-history artifacts. It was the first such public museum. It gained its name and its first collections from Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), whose own collections were derived in part from those of John Tradescant (1608-1662).
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel//otherart/ashmole.htm)
1684 Jun 21, King Charles II revoked the 1629 Massachusetts Bay Colony charter. [see 1691]
(HNQ, 11/23/00)(MC, 6/21/02)
1684 The British settled Sumatra.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1685 Feb 6, Charles II (54), King of England, Scotland, Ireland (1660-85), died and was succeeded by his Catholic brother James II. He made a deathbed conversion to the Roman Catholic faith. He had earlier ordered Christopher Wren to build an observatory and maritime college at Greenwich. In 2000 Stephen Coote authored the biography: "Royal Survivor."
(WSJ, 2/28/00, p.A36)(http://tinyurl.com/hkkln)
1685 Jun 11, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, rebelled against Catholic king James II.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1685 Jul 6, James II defeated James, the Duke of Monmouth, at the Battle of Sedgemoor, the last major battle to be fought on English soil.
(HN, 7/6/98)
1685 Jul 15, James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth and illegitimate son of Charles II, was executed on Tower Hill in England, after his army was defeated at Sedgemoor.
(HN, 7/15/98)(MC, 7/15/02)
1685-1712 Celia Fiennes’ journal about her travels throughout England have provided historians with valuable insight into the social conditions of the country in the late 1600s. Celia Fiennes, an enterprising young, single woman, rode side-saddle through every county in England. She traveled alone except for two servants, and the journal she kept, later published as "The Journeys of Celia Fiennes 1685-c.1712," is the only evidence we have of her travels.
(HNQ, 4/22/01)
1685-1720 This period was covered by Tim Harris in his 2006 book “Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British Monarchy, 11685-1720."
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.77)
1686 Apr 4, English king James II published a Declaration of Indulgence.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1687 Apr 4, King James II ordered his Declaration of Indulgence read in church.
(http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1687 Apr 16, George Villiers (b.1628), the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, died. The English statesman was a poet, an amateur chemist and one of England’s richest men.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.88)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Villiers,_2nd_Duke_of_Buckingham)
1687 Jul 5, The first volume of Isaac Newton's "Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica" ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy") was published in Latin by Edmund Halley. His invention of differential and integral calculus is here presented. Here also are stated Newton’s laws of motion, that obliterated the Aristotelian concept of inertia. 1) Every physical body continues in its state of rest, unless it is compelled to change that state by a force or forces impressed upon it. 2) A change of motion is proportional to the force impressed upon the body and is made in the direction of the straight line in which the force is impressed. 3) To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction. Book Three of the Principia opens with two pages headed "Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy." There are four rules as follows: 1) We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain the appearances. [A restatement of Ockham’s Razor: "What can be done with fewer is done in vain with more."] 2) Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes. 3) The qualities of bodies which are found to belong to all bodies within the reach of our experiments, are to be esteemed the universal qualities of bodies whatsoever. 4) In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propositions inferred by general induction from phenomena as accurately or very nearly true notwithstanding any contrary hypothesis that may be imagined, till such time as other phenomena occur, by which they may either be made more accurate, or liable to exceptions.
(V.D.-H.K.p.207-10)(http://tinyurl.com/6772jj)(Econ, 4/21/12, p.95)
1687 Nov 13, Nell [Eleanor] Gwyn (37), mistress of Charles II of England, died.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1687 Dec 16, William Petty (b.1623), English designer, inventor and pioneering economist, died in London. He came up with the “quantity theory of money" and was the first to measure gross domestic product (GDP).
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.116)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Petty)
1687 James II, a Roman Catholic, supported unpopular policies that, by 1687, led to many English subjects urging William to intervene. With the birth of a son to James in 1688, fears of a Roman Catholic succession led to opponents sending an invitation to William in July.
(HNQ, 12/28 /00)
1688 Apr 27, King James II issued another Declaration of Indulgence: “conscience ought not to be constrained nor people forced in matters of mere religion."
(http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1327117)
1688 May 21, Alexander Pope (d.1744), England, poet (Rape of the Lock), was born. His "Essay on Criticism" contains the line: "A little learning is a dangerous thing..."
(NH, 9/97, p.24)(MC, 5/21/02)
1688 Jun 10, Mary of Modena, the wife of Britain’s King James II, gave birth to a male heir, James Francis Edward Stuart (d.1766). This placed England, much to the dismay of Parliament, in line for a succession of Catholic monarchs. On 10 December, within six months of his birth, Mary of Modena took baby James to France, worried about his safety, while his father, James II, continued to fight (unsuccessfully) to retain his crown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edward_Stuart)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.77)(ON, 7/06, p.10)
1688 Jun 30, A jury proclaimed 7 English bishops not guilty of seditious libel against James II. They had refused to comply with his April 27 Declaration of Indulgence because it had not been approved by Parliament.
(www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Seven%20Bishops)
1688 Oct 1, Seven British noblemen sent a letter to Prince William of Orange inviting him to invade England and rescue the country from James’ “popery." William accepted.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.77)(ON, 7/06, p.10)
1688 Oct 27, King James II fired premier Robert Spencer.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1688 Nov 1, William of Orange set sail for England at the head of a fleet of 500 ships and 30,000 men. He intended too oust his father-in-law King James II. The Dutch parliament, the States General, funded William with 4 million guilders. Amsterdam financiers provided another 2 million. Some of this was used to print 60,000 copies of his “Declaration" (of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms in the Kingdom of England), which were distributed in England. In 2008 Lisa Jardine authored “Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory."
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.A13)
1688 Nov 5, William of Orange landed in southern England and marched with his army nearly unopposed to London.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.A13)
1688 Nov 24, General strategist John Churchill met William III.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1688 Nov 25, Princess Anne fled from London to Nottingham.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1688 Nov 26, King James II escaped back to London.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1688 Dec 4, General strategist John Churchill (later Duke of Marlborough) joined with William III.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1688 Dec 9, King James II's wife and son fled England for France.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1688 Dec 11, King James II attempted to flee London as the "Glorious Revolution" replaced him with King William (of Orange) and Queen Mary. James attempted to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames. He was, however, caught in Kent. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on December 23, 1688. James was received by Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a generous pension. In 2007 Michael Barone authored “Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America’s Founding Fathers."
(HN, 12/11/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England)
1688 Dec 18, William of Orange entered London.
(ON, 12/10, p.12)
1688 Dec 23, English King James II fled to France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England)
1688 Dec 25, English king James II landed in Ambleteuse, France.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1688 Dec 28, William of Orange made a triumphant march into London as James II fled in the "Glorious Revolution." William of Orange, son of William II (Prince of Orange) and Mary (daughter of Charles I of England), was fourth in line to the English throne. In 2006 Edward Valance authored “The Glorious Revolution: 1688 – Britain’s Fight for Liberty."
(HN, 12/28/98)(HNQ, 12/28/00)(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A16)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.77)
1688 In England Edward Lloyd opened a London coffee shop where shipping insurance was bought and sold.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1688-1744 Alexander Pope, English poet. His "Essay on Criticism" contains the line: "A little learning is a dangerous thing..."
(NH, 9/97, p.24)
1689 Jan 22, England's "Bloodless Revolution" reached its climax when parliament invited William and Mary to become joint sovereigns. A specially-called parliament declared that James had abdicated and offered the throne to William and Mary. In 1938 G.M. Trevelyan authored “The English Revolution." In 2009 Steve Pincus authored “The First Modern Revolution."
(HN, 1/22/99)(HNQ, 12/28/00)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.97)
1689 Feb 13, The British Parliament adopted the Bill of Rights. It limited the right of a king to govern without the consent of Parliament.
(MT, Dec. '95, p.16)(ON, 12/10, p.12)
1689 Feb 14, English parliament placed Mary Stuart and Prince William III on the throne.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1689 Feb 23, Dutch prince William III was proclaimed King of England.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1689 Mar 12, Former English King James II landed in Ireland.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1689 Apr 11, (OS) William III and Mary II were crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain. As part of their oaths, the new King William III and Queen Mary were required to swear that they would obey the laws of Parliament. At this time, the Bill of Rights was read to both William and Mary. "We thankfully accept what you have offered us," William replied, agreeing to be subject to law and to be guided in his actions by the decisions of Parliament.
(AP, 4/11/97)(www.bessel.org/billrts.htm)
1689 Apr 18, George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem, infamous judge, died.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1689 Apr 21, (NS) William III and Mary II were crowned joint king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.
(HN, 4/21/98)(HNQ, 12/28/00)
1689 May 11, The French and English naval battle took place at Bantry Bay.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1689 May 12, England’s King William III joined the League of Augsburg and the Netherlands. The "Grand Alliance" was formed to counter the war of aggression launched by Louis XIV against the Palatinate states in Germany. This is known as The War of the League of Augsburg (1689-97) also The Nine Years' War, and the War of the Grand Alliance.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/king_william.htm)
1689 May 24, English Parliament passed the Act of Toleration, protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics were specifically excluded from exemption.
(HN, 5/24/99)
1689 May 26, Mary Wortley Montagu, English essayist, feminist, eccentric, was born.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1689 Jul 27, Government forces defeated the Scottish Jacobites at the Battle of Killiecrankie.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1689 Aug 1, A siege of Londonderry, Ireland, by the Catholic Army of King James II ended in failure. The Protestants were victorious and the event led to the annual Apprentice Boy’s March. The group is named in honor of 13 teenage apprentices, all Protestants, who bolted the city gates in front of the advancing Catholic forces at the start of the 105-day siege.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)(HN, 8/1/98)(AP, 8/13/06)
1689 Aug 4-5, War between England and France led them to use their native American allies as proxies. In retaliation for the French attack on the Seneca in 1687, one thousand, five hundred Iroquois, with English support, attacked Lachine down river from the mission of the Mountain of Ville-Marie (Montreal), killing some 400. They put everything to fire and axe. Some suggest that this is a gross exaggeration and that only 24-25 were killed and likely 90 were captured by the Iroquois, but never returned.
(www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/french23.htm)
1689 Aug 19, Samuel Richardson (d.1761), English novelist (Pamela, Clarissa), was born in Derbyshire.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1689 Aug 25, Battle at Charleroi: Spanish and English armies chased the French.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1689 Dec 16, English Parliament adopted a Bill of Rights after Glorious Revolution. The Bill of Rights included a right to bear arms. William and Mary gave it Royal Assent which represented the end of the concept of divine right of kings.
(WSJ, 8/6/02, p.D6)(www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon49.html)
1689 Dec 30, Henry Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas," premiered in Chelsea.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1689 The Catholic Army of King James II besieged Londonderry where 13 Protestant apprentices stood in defense. The Protestants were victorious and the event led to the annual Apprentice Boy’s March.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A13)
1689 The White Hart Inn at Ware, England, put up 26 butchers and their wives in one bed, the "Great Bed of Ware," in a marketing ploy to attract customers.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A19)
1690 May 11, In the first major engagement of King William’s War, British troops from Massachusetts seized Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the French, their objective was to take Quebec.
(HN, 5/11/99)
1690 May 20, England passed the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1690 Jun 11, English king William III departed to Ireland.
(PC, 1992, p.265)
1690 Jun 24, King William III's army landed at Carrickfergus, Ireland.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1690 Jul 1, England's Protestant King William III of Orange was victorious over his father-in-law, the Catholic King James II (from Scot) in Battle of Boyne (in Ireland). This touched off three centuries of religious bloodshed. Protestants took over the Irish Parliament. This marked the beginning of the annual Drumcree parade, held by the Loyal Orange Lodge on the first Sunday of July. Due to calendar changes in 1752 this later became commemorated on Jul 12.
(PC, 1992, p.265)(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A1)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.A18)
1690 Jul 12, Due to British calendar changes in 1752, the July 1, 1690, Battle of Boyne (in Ireland) was adjusted for celebration on Jul 12.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.5)(AP, 7/11/05)
1690 Sep 6, King William III escaped back to England.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1690 Oct 7, The English attacked Quebec under Louis de Buade.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1690 The 2nd Treatise on Government by John Locke (1632-1704) was published in order to justify the British Whig Revolution of 1688. In it he wrote that men had the natural rights of life, liberty and estate.
(www.radicalacademy.com/lockebio.htm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke)
1690-1699 In the 1690s Kit Cat Club met in London at the invitation of Jacob Tonson (1655/56-1736), a publisher and bookseller, at the inn of Christopher Cat (Christopher Catling). In 2008 Ophelia Field authored “The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation."
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Tonson)
1691 Feb 17, Thomas Neale was granted a British patent for American postal service.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1691 May 26, Jacob Leiser, leader of the popular uprising in support of William and Mary’s accession to the throne, was executed for treason.
(HN, 5/26/99)
1691 Jul 12, William III defeated the allied Irish and French armies at the Battle of Aughrim, Ireland.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1691 Oct 3, English and Dutch armies occupied Limerick, Ireland.
(MC, 10/3/01)
1691 King William III sent a royal governor to Maryland.
(Arch, 1/05, p.50)
1691 The British periodical Athenian Gazette published the first regular problem page. It was created by John Dunton who felt guilty for cheating on his wife.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.118)
1692 Feb, William and Mary granted a royal license for postal service in the American colonies. It empowered Thomas Neale "to erect, settle and establish within the chief parts of their majesties' colonies and plantations in America, an office or offices for the receiving and dispatching letters and pacquets, and to receive, send and deliver the same under such rates and sums of money as the planters shall agree to give, and to hold and enjoy the same for the term of twenty-one years."
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.32)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service)
1692 May 29, Royal Hospital Founders Day was 1st celebrated.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1692 May 29, Battle at La Hogue: An English & Dutch fleet beat France.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1692 Aug 3, French forces under Marshal Luxembourg defeated the English at the Battle of Steenkerke in the Netherlands.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1692 The salary for the Poet Laureate of Britain was fixed at $162 a year plus a case of wine. In 1999 it was raised to $8,100.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.E3)
1693 Mar 24, John Harrison (d.1776), Englishman who invented the chronometer, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison)
1693 Jun 27, The 1st woman's magazine "The Ladies' Mercury" was published in London.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1693 Jul 4, Battle at Boussu-lez-Walcourt: French-English vs. Dutch army.
(Maggio)
1694 Dec 28, Queen Mary II (32) of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III. [see Jan 7, 1695]
(AP, 12/28/97)
1694 Jul 27, The Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution. It had been set up by William III, the ruler of Britain and the Netherlands, in the midst of a war against France. The mission of the bank was to provide war finance. Financiers agreed to lend the crown £1.2 million in return for a partial monopoly on the issue of currency.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C2)(AP, 7/27/97)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.49)(Econ, 11/5/11, p.92)(Econ, 4/29/17, p.56)
1694 Sep 22, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield, statesman of letters whose writings provide a classic portrayal of an ideal 18th-century gentleman, was born. He introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
(HN, 9/22/98)(MC, 9/22/01)
1694 Dec 28, George I of England got divorced. [He was crowned in 1714]
(HN, 12/28/98)
1694 Dec 28, Queen Mary II (32) of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III. The new style calendar puts her death on Jan 7, 1695.
(AP, 12/28/97)
1694 The Whigs of England persuaded King William that if he wanted to win what became the nine years’ war against France, he would have to embrace their political and economic agenda.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.98)
1694 The history of English death duties began with the Stamp Act of this year which placed 5s on probates over 20 pounds.
(www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Bastable/bastbPF29.html)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.90)
1694 John Law, Scotsman, fled England after killing rival Edward Wilson in a duel. He traveled in Europe, played the casinos and studied finance. He set up a bank in France and issued paper money and established the Mississippi Company to exploit the French-controlled territories in America. [see 1720] In 2000 Janet Gleeson authored "Millionaire," a pseudo-biography of Law.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)(WSJ, 6/30/00, p.W9)
1694-1773 Lord Chesterfield, English author and statesman: "In scandal, as in robbery, the receiver is always as bad as the thief."
(AP, 2/21/98)
1695 Jan 7, Mary II Stuart 32), queen of England, died [OS=Dec 28 1694].
(MC, 1/7/02)
1695 Mar 7, In Britain John Trevor (1637-1717), the speaker of the House of Commons office, was found guilty of accepting a bribe of 1000 guineas (equivalent to around £1.6 million in 2009) from the City of London to aid the passage of a bill through the house. He was expelled from the House of Commons, a move which he initially resisted on the ground of ill-health, but retained his judicial position until his death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Trevor_(speaker))
1695 Apr 30, William Congreve's "Love for Love," premiered in London.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1695 Nov 21, Henry Purcell (36), English composer (Indian Queen), died.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1695 The British Parliament voted not to renew the 1662 Licensing of the Press Act, which had censored “seditious, treasonable and unlicensed Bookes and Pamphlets." It was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licensing_of_the_Press_Act_1662)
1695 A London rag called “A Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade" included what later was believed to be the first lonely-hearts advertisement: “A Gentleman About 30 Years of Age, that says he had a Very Good Estate, would willingly Match himself to some Good Young Gentlewoman that has a Fortune of £3,000."
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.92)
1696 Mar 7, English King William III departed Netherlands.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1696 Dec 22, James Oglethorpe, General, author, colonizer of Georgia, was born in England.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1696 William Hogarth, British artist, was born. He believed that visual art could have a morally improving effect on viewers, and that individual betterment led to social improvement.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, DB p.7)(SFC, 1/28/98, p.E1)
1696 In England a Jacobite plot to assassinate King William III and restore James II failed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_III_of_England)
1696 In England Isaac Newton (1642-1727) became Warden of the Mint and started combing his hair.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.68)
1696 New York sea captain William Kidd reluctantly became a privateer for England and was expected to fight pirates on the open sea, seize their cargoes, and provide a hefty share of the spoils to the Crown. According to his British accusers, Kidd turned to piracy himself as the deadline for reporting to his employers in New York approached and he had not taken enough booty to fulfill his commission. Kidd himself did not know he was a wanted man until he dropped anchor in the West Indies in April 1699. He chose to surrender to the authorities and submit to a London trial, believing to the end that he could clear his name.
(HNPD, 8/27/00)
1697 Jun 7, John Aubrey (b.1626), author of "Monumenta Britanica," died. In 1948 Anthony Powell authored the biography "John Aubrey." In 2015 Ruth Scurr authored “John Aubrey: My Own Life," an autobiography in the form of a diary that he never wrote.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Aubrey)(ON, 4/02, p.12)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.76)
1697 Sep 20, The Treaty of Ryswick was signed in Holland. It ended the War of the Grand Alliance (aka War of the League of Augsburg,1688-1697) between France and the Grand Alliance. Under the Treaty France’s King Louis XIV (1638-1715) recognized William III (1650-1702) as King of England. The Dutch received trade concessions, and France and the Grand Alliance members (Holland and the Austrian Hapsburgs) gave up most of the land they had conquered since 1679. The signees included France, England, Spain and Holland. By the Treaty of Ryswick, a portion of Hispaniola was formally ceded to France and became known as Saint-Domingue. The remaining Spanish section was called Santo Domingo.
(www.caribbeanguides.net/hispaniola.htm)(www.jacobite.ca/documents/1697ryswick.htm)
1697 Dec 2, St. Paul's Cathedral opened in London.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1697 William Dampier (1651-1715), English explorer, naturalist and privateer, authored “A New Voyage Around the World." A sequel appeared 2 years later. In 2004 Diana and Michael Preston authored "A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist and Buccaneer," a biography of Dampier.
(WSJ, 4/16/04, p.W8)(NH, 6/4/04, p.59)
1698 Nov, English astronomer Edmond Halley (d.1742) set off in the Paramore to map the Atlantic’s magnetic declinations and hopefully solve the problem of calculating longitude. He made a 2nd journey in 1699. In 2005 Julie Wakefield authored “Halley’s Quest."
(AP, 1/14/98)(WSJ, 12/20/05, p.D8)
1698 The British pint, a 568 milliliter pour, was introduced. Bars were allowed to serve beer only as a pint, or a third or half of that measure. This became the standard size for beer and cider.
(SFC, 1/5/11, p.A2)
1698 English engineer Thomas Savery devised a way to pump water out of mines by the use of condensed steam.
(HNQ, 1/18/01)
1698 Peter the Great spent several months at the Shipwright’s Palace in England learning how to build the Russian navy.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)
1699 The Jews in London commissioned Joseph Avis, a Quaker, to build a synagogue on a street called Bevis Marks.
(WSJ, 10/28/06, p.P16)
1700 Apr, A siege by Spanish forces shut down a Company of Scotland colony called "New Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama. As the Darien company was backed by nearly half the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the country, which had suffered a run of bad harvests, completely ruined and was an important factor in weakening resistance to the Act of Union (finally consummated in 1707) among the political elite.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_scheme)
1700 May 1, John Dryden (b.1631), English poet, playwright (Rival Ladies), died. He had written that repentance was virtue of weak minds and the want of power to sin.
(MC, 5/1/02)(Econ, 7/24/04, p.70)
1700 William Congreve, an Anglo-Irishman playwright, published his last play, "The Way of the World."
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
c1700 Richard Gough, an aged lawyer, authored "History of Myddle."
(SFC, 4/3/01, p.C3)
1700 The English slave ship Henrietta Marie sank 35 miles off Key West, Florida, on its way back to Europe. It had delivered 188 captured Africans to a slave broker in Jamaica in exchange for sugar and other goods bound for England. The wreck was found in 1972.
(SFC, 8/12/96, p.C5)(WSJ, 6/2/98, p.A20)
1700 British settlers began arriving to the Cayman Islands.
(AP, 5/10/03)
1700s Thomas Sheraton invented twin beds in the late 1700s.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, Z1 p.8)
1701 May 23, Scottish-born sea captain William Kidd was hanged on the banks of the Thames after being found guilty of piracy and murder. Kidd had reluctantly became a privateer for England in 1696 and was expected to fight pirates on the open sea, seize their cargoes, and provide a hefty share of the spoils to the Crown. According to his British accusers, Kidd turned to piracy himself as the deadline for reporting to his employers in New York approached and he had not taken enough booty to fulfill his commission. Kidd himself did not know he was a wanted man until he dropped anchor in the West Indies in April 1699. He chose to surrender to the authorities and submit to a London trial, believing to the end that he could clear his name. Important evidence in his favor was suppressed and he was hanged.
(AP, 5/23/97)(HNPD, 8/27/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kidd)
1701 Sep 6, James II [Stuart], king of England (1685-88), died at 68.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1701 Sep 7, England, Austria, and the Netherlands formed an Alliance against France.
(HN, 9/7/98)
1701 The Act of Settlement established the order of succession to the English throne.
(www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon53.html)
1701 In England presiding Chief Justice Lord Hold (1642-1710) ruled that “As soon as a Negro comes into England, he becomes Free."
(ON, 12/08, 8)(http://tinyurl.com/9jhg29)
1701 Jethro Tull (1674-1741), a farmer in Berkshire, England, created a horse-drawn mechanical drill to plant seeds in a row.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/jtull.html)
1702 Jan 17, Thomas Franklin, English smith and uncle of B. Franklin, died.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1702 Mar 8, William III of Orange (51), Dutch King of England (1689-1702), died after falling from his horse and catching a chill. Anne Stuart (37), his sister-in-law, succeeded to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland and reigned until 1714.
(PCh, 1992, p.272)(MC, 3/8/02)(AP, 3/8/98)
1702 Mar 11, The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper was published.
(HN, 3/11/99)
1702 Mar 21, Queen Anne Stuart addressed the English parliament.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1702 Oct 12, [British] Admiral Sir George Rooke defeated the French fleet off Vigo.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1702 Oct 27, English troops plundered St. Augustine, Florida.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1702 Nov 4, John Benbow, English vice-admiral (Santa Marta), died.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1702 After Prince George’s visit to the ancient spa town, a trip to Bath--previously frequented by the poor and infirm--became the fashionable thing to do. The healing powers of Bath’s hot mineral water owes much of its fame to the part it played in a notably unsuccessful treatment of a severe case of asthma. Following his six-week visit to the spa town, Prince George, Queen Anne’s husband, grew so ill she feared he would die. Doctors, turning to other methods, bled him repeatedly, which cannot have been any more effective than `taking the waters` of Bath, but at least the unfortunate Prince survived. Despite George’s unresponsiveness to the curative water of England’s ancient spa town, the precedent of a royal visitor to Bath caught the attention of seemingly everyone, and soon a trip to Bath became the astute thing to do, not only for those seeking a remedy for any of a wide variety of ailments, but also for anyone attuned to the customs of genteel society.
(HNQ, 4/14/01)
1703 May 18, Dutch and English troops occupied Cologne.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1703 May 26, Samuel Pepys (b.1633), English diarist, died. In the 1930s Sir Arthur Bryant authored a 3-volume biography. In the 1970s Richard Ollard authored a single volume biography. In 2001 Stephen Coote authored "Samuel Pepys: A Life" and another was expected by Claire Tomalin. In 2002 Claire Tomalin authored "Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self."
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A24)(HN, 2/23/01)(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M3)(MC, 5/26/02)
1703 Jun 17, John Wesley (d.1791), English evangelist and theologian, was born. He founded the Methodist movement. He spent a brief period in Georgia (1738) as a missionary.
(HN, 6/17/99)(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W19)
1703 Jul 31, English novelist Daniel Defoe was made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire "The Shortest Way With Dissenters."
(HN, 7/31/01)
1703 Oct 23, In Malmesbury, England Hannah, Twynnoy (33) teased a tiger at a circus. The tiger broke loose and killed her.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, Z1 p.2)
1703 Nov 24-1703 Dec 2, Heavy storms hit England and 1000s were killed. Bristol, England, was damaged by the hurricane. The Royal Navy lost 15 warships.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1703)
1703 Nov 27, Henry Winstanley (1644) and his men were killed by a freak storm at his lighthouse at Eddystone Rock. It had been constructed from 1696-1698, 14 miles from the English port of Plymouth.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Winstanley)
1703 Sir Isaac Newton, English scientist, became president of the Royal Society.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton)
1704 Aug 4, In the War of Spanish Succession, an Anglo-Dutch fleet captured Gibraltar.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gibraltar)(AP, 9/19/06)
1704 Aug 13, the Battle of Blenheim was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeated the French Army at the Battle of Blenheim. In 1705 Joseph Addison wrote the poem "The Campaign" for the Duke of Marlborough to commemorate the military victory over France and Spain at the Battle of Blenheim: "Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.A6)
1704 Oct 28, John Locke (b.1632), English philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher, died. He authored 2 treatises on government.
(www.utm.edu/research/iep/l/locke.htm#Life)
1704 Oct, Scottish buccaneer Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721) isolated himself on the desert island of Mas a Tierra off the coast of Chile to protest the irrational actions of the Captain Thomas Stradling of the English privateer Cinque Ports. He remained on the island until Feb 1, 1709, and his story inspired Daniel Defoe’s "Robinson Crusoe."
(ON, 6/12, p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk)
1704 In England Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) began publishing "The Review." Defoe in this year also authored “The Storm" in which he organized the winds into categories of scale.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)(NH, 11/1/04, p.51)
1705 Jan 17, John Ray (b.1627), British naturalist and theologian, died. He had spent three years traveling in Europe collecting material for his book “Historia Plantarum." The classification in his 1682 book “Methodus Plantarum Nova" is based on overall morphology. Ray's plant classification system was the first to divide flowering plants into monocots and dicots.
(www.1911encyclopedia.org/John_Ray)(WSJ, 5/10/08, p.W8)
1705 Apr 16, Queen Anne of England knighted Isaac Newton at Trinity College.
(HN, 4/16/98)(MC, 4/16/02)
1705 Apr 23, Richard Steele's "Tender Husband," premiered in London.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1705 Oct 14, The English Navy captured Barcelona in Spain.
(HN, 10/14/98)
1705 Nov 23, Thomas Birch, English historian (d.1766), was born.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1705 Nov 23, Nicholas Rowe's "Ulysses," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1706 Jan 28, John Baskerville, typographer and inventor of the "hot-pressing" method of printing. He also manufactured lacquered ware.
(HN, 1/28/00)(WUD, 1994 p.124)
1706 May 23, Battle of Ramillies: Marlborough defeated the French and 17,000 were killed.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1706 Bishop White Kennet printed his "Complete History of England with the Lives of All the Kings and Queens Thereof, Vol. 3" in London.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1706 The Treaty of Union between Scotland and England was set up. Daniel Defoe worked as a British agent in Scotland and sent back reports on agitation against the yielding of autonomy.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)
1706 Thomas Twinings opened his tea shop in London.
(SFEC, 9/12/99, p.T2)
1707 Jan 16, Scotland ratified the Treaty of Union by a majority of 110 votes to 69. The Acts created a new state, the Kingdom of Great Britain, by merging the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland together.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Union_1707)
1707 Apr 22, Henry Fielding (d.1754), English novelist and essayist, was born in Sharpham Park, Somerset, England. His work included "Tom Jones."
(WUD, 1994 p.528)(AP, 4/22/07)
1707 Apr 25, At the Battle of Almansa, Franco-Spanish forces defeated Anglo-Portuguese.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1707 Apr 29, English-Scottish parliament accepted Act of Union and formed Great Britain. [see May 1]
(MC, 4/29/02)
1707 May 1, Effective on this day Scotland and England, which already included Wales, were united by an act of Parliament to form Great Britain.
(WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A13)(AP, 5/1/07)
1707 Oct 23, The first Parliament of Great Britain, created by the Acts of Union between England and Scotland, held its first meeting.
(AP, 10/23/07)
1707 Dec 5, The Society of Antiquaries of London was founded at the Bear Tavern in the Strand by John Talman, the son of an architect, Humfrey Wanley, a student of ancient inscriptions and Anglo-Saxon, and John Bagford, an eccentric shoemaker and dealer in books. They met for the purposes of forming a Society for the study of British antiquities, whose agreed aim was to further the study of British history prior to the reign of James I.
(www.sal.org.uk/newsandevents/makinghistoryantiquaries/)(http://tinyurl.com/32uzwc)
1707 England granted Scotland 400,000 pounds to clear debts from the Darien disaster.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)
1708 Mar 23, English pretender to the throne James III landed at Firth of Forth.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1708 Jun 8, The Spanish galleon San Jose was trying to outrun a fleet of British warships off Colombia's coast, when a mysterious explosion sent it to the bottom of the sea with gold, silver, emeralds and 600 men. 14 men survived. In 1979 Sea Search signed a deal with Colombia giving Sea Search exclusive rights to search for the San Jose and 50 percent of whatever they find. In 1982 Sea Search announced to the world it had found the San Jose's resting place 700 feet below the water's surface, a few miles from the historic Caribbean port of Cartagena. In 1984 Colombian President Belisario Betancur signed a decree reducing Sea Search's share from 50% to a 5% "finder's fee." By 2007 the treasure was valued at more than $2 billion. In July, 2007, Colombia’s highest court ruled that the ship must first be recovered before an international dispute over the fortune can be settled. In 2007 Carla Rahn Phillips authored “The Treasure of San Jose: Death at Sea in the War of the Spanish Succession." In 2015 Experts confirmed that they found the San Jose on November 27 in a place never before referenced by previous research.
(AP, 6/3/07)(AP, 7/6/07)(WSJ, 1/31/07, p.D6)(AP, 12/6/15)
1708 Nov 15, William Pitt the Elder, Secretary of State of England whose strategies helped win the Seven Years War, was born. He served as Whig PM from 1756-61 and 66-68.
(HN, 11/15/98)(MC, 11/15/01)
1708 Oct, London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was completed. The "topping out" of the cathedral (when the final stone was placed on the lantern) took place. The cathedral was declared officially complete by Parliament on 25 December 1711 (Christmas Day). In 2008 Leo Hollis authored “The Phoenix: St Paul’s Cathedral and the Men Who Made Modern London."
(Econ, 6/7/08, p.97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_Cathedral)
1709 Jan 10, Abraham Darby (1678-1717) in Coalbrookdale, England, began using coke to provide carbon for making iron. This led to the end of the use of charcoal for making iron.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.69)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Darby_I)
1709 Feb 1, British sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued after being marooned on the desert island of Mas a Tierra for 5 years. His story inspired "Robinson Crusoe." The island off the coast of Chile was later renamed Robinson Crusoe Island.
(ON, 6/12, p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk)
1709 Mar 8, William Cowper/Cooper (~62), English anatomist, died.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1709 Apr 12, The Tatler magazine in England published its 1st edition. It used the names of coffee houses as subject headings for articles.
(MC, 4/12/02)(Econ, 12/20/03, p.89)
1709 Sep 11, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, won the bloodiest battle of the 18th century at great cost, against the French at Malplaquet.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1709 Sep 17, Samuel Johnson, lexicographer and writer (Boswell's Tour Guide), was born. [see Sep 18]
(MC, 9/17/01)
1709 Sep 18, Samuel Johnson (d.1784), English lexicographer, essayist, poet and moralist best known for "The Dictionary of the English Language," was born. "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." -- (To which Ambrose Bierce replied, "I beg to submit that it is the first.") Boswell wrote the celebrated "Life of Johnson." In 1955 Walter Jackson Bate (d.1999 at 81) published "The Achievement of Samuel Johnson" and in 1977 the biography "Samuel Johnson." "The lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of a cause. The justice or injustice is to be decided by the judge." [see Sep 17]
(AP, 10/8/97)(BS, 5/3/98, p.13E)(HN, 9/18/98)(SFEC, 1/10/99, Par p.10)(SFC, 7/27/99, p.A17)
1709 Oct 20, Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy took Mons in the Netherlands.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1709 Britain passed its first copyright act [see April 10, 1710].
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1710 Feb 7, William Boyce, English organist, composer of Cathedral music, was born.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1710 Apr 10, Britain’s Queen Anne gave her assent to an act “for the encouragement of learning." It upheld Parliament’s 1709 copyright act, which set a limit of 21 years for books already in print and 14 years for new ones with an additional 14 years if the author was still alive when the first term ran out.
(Econ, 4/10/10, p.16)
1710 Oct 13, English troops occupied Acadia, Nova Scotia.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1710 Oct 16, British troops occupied Port Royal, Nova Scotia.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1710 Mohawk and Mohican chiefs from Canada visited Queen Anne in London on a diplomatic mission.
(Econ 7/1/17, p.29)
1710 Umbrellas became popular in London.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
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