| Political, Social, Religious Events | Dates | Literary, Philosophical Events |
|---|---|---|
| Battle of Bosworth Field | 1485 | Caxton publishes Malory's Morte d'Arthur |
| Reign of Henry VII | 1485-1509 | |
| c. 1490 | Henry Medwall's Fulgens and Lucrece | |
| 1491 | Greek taught at Oxford | |
| First Voyage of Columbus | 1492 | |
| 1493-1537 | Earliest editions of Everyman | |
| 1499-1500 | First visit of Erasmus to England | |
| c. 1505 | Skelton's Bowge of Court written | |
| 1505-1506 | Second visit of Erasmus to England Death of Henryson |
|
| 1509 | Alexander Barclay's Ship of Fools Erasmus's Praise of Folly Stephen Hawe's Pastime of Pleasure |
|
| 1509-1514 | Third visit of Erasmus to England | |
| Reign of Henry VIII | 1509-1547 | |
| Calvin | 1509-1564 | |
| Wolsey chief minister of State | 1515-1529 | |
| 1516 | More's Utopia (in Latin) | |
| 1516-1532 | Aristo's Orlando Furioso (d. 1533) | |
| Luther (1483-1546) posts his theses in Wittnberg |
1517 | |
| Circumnavigation of the earth by Magellan's fleet |
1519-1522 | |
| 1519 | Deaths of Grocyn and Colet | |
| 1523 | Skelton's Garland of Laurel published |
|
| 1523-1525 | Lord Berner's English translation of Froissart's Chronicles |
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| Political, Social, Religious Events | Dates | Literary, Philosophical Events |
|---|---|---|
| 1525-1526 | Tyndale's (1490-1536) New Testament (published in Germany) |
|
| 1527 | Death of Machiavelli | |
| 1528 | Castiglione's Book of the Courtier | |
| 1529 | Death of Skelton | |
| 1530 | Tyndale's Pentateuch Death of Wolsey |
|
| 1531 | Sir Thomas Elyot's Governour | |
| 1532 | Chaucer's Works, ed. William Thynne Machiavelli's Prince published |
|
| 1532-1548 | Rabelais's (1495-1553) Pantagruel and Gargantua |
|
| Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn | 1533 | |
| Separation of the English Church from Rome Thomas Cromwell in power |
1533-1540 | |
| Act of Supremacy (Henry VIII head of the Church of England) |
1535 | Miles Coverdale's first complete English Bible Death of More |
| 1536 | Calvin's Institute of the Christian Religion |
|
| 1539 | The Great Bible (prepared under Cranmer) |
|
| 1540 | Sir David Lindsay's Satyr of Three Estates |
|
| 1542-1550 | Edward Hall's Chronicle | |
| 1545 | Ascham's Toxophilus | |
| Council of Trent | 1546-1563 | |
| Reign of Edward VI | 1547-1553 | |
| 1547-1562 | English version of the Psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins |
|
| First Book of Common Prayer and Act of Uniformity | 1549 | |
| 1551 | Translation of More's Utopia into English by Ralph Robinson |
|
| 1553 | Thomas Wilson's Arte of Rhetorique |
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| Political, Social, Religious Events | Dates | Literary, Philosophical Events |
|---|---|---|
| Reaign of Mary I (Mary Tudor) | 1553-1558 | |
| Marriage of Mary and philip of Spain |
1554 | |
| Execution of Lady Jane Grey | 1556 | Death of Cranmer, etc. |
| 1557 | St. Thomas More's English Works (ed. William Rastell) Songs and Sonnets (Tottel's Miscellany) Surrey's blank verse translation of the Aeneid, Books II and IV, published |
|
| Loss of Calais | 1558 | |
| 1558-1562 | Thomas Phaer's English translation of the Aeneid |
|
| Reign of Elizabeth | 1558-1603 | |
| Elizabethan Prayer Book | 1559 | |
| Elizabethan Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity |
1559-1610 | Mirror for Magistrates |
| c. 1560 | Geneva Bible | |
| 1561 | Sir Thomas Hoby's English Translation of Castiglione's Cortegiano (The Courtier) Thomas Norton's English translation of Calvin's Institutes Joseph Scaliger's Poetics |
|
| Wars of Religion in France | 1562-1598 | |
| 1563 | John Foxe's Actes and Monuments (The Book of Martyrs) Sackville's Induction to the Mirror for Magistrates |
|
| 1565 | John Stow's Sumarie of English Chronicles |
|
| 1565-1567 | Arthur Golding's English translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses |
|
| 1566-1567 | William Painter's Palace of Pleasure | |
| Battle of Langside (Mary of Scotland surrenders to Elizabeth) |
1568 | |
| Northern Rising | 1569 | |
| Pius V excommunicates Elizabeth | 1570 | Ascham's Scholemaster |
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| Political, Social, Religious Events | Dates | Literary, Philosophical Events |
|---|---|---|
| Thirty-nine Articles issued | 1571 | |
| Massacre of St. Bartholomew | 1572 | Gasciogne's Hundred Sundry Flowers |
| First executions of Catholic missionaries |
1575 | |
| 1576 | Gasciogne's Steel Glass A Paradise of Dainty Devices (ed. Richard Edwards) George Pettie's Petite Palace of Pettie his Pleasure The Theater built |
|
| Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the earth in the Golden Hind |
1577-1580 | |
| 1578 | A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (Revised edition 1586-1587) Lyly's Eupheus, the Anatomy of Wit |
|
| 1579 | Stephen Gosson's School of Abuse Sir Thomas North's English translation of Plutarch's Lives Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar |
|
| 1580 | Lyly's Euphues and his England John Stowe's Chronicles of England |
|
| c. 1580 | Sidney's Arcadia and Astrophel and Stella written; his Defense of Poesy begun |
|
| 1580-1597 | Montaigne's Essays (d. 1592) | |
| 1581 | Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered English translation of Seneca's Tragedies, by Thomas Newton and others |
|
| 1582 | Richard Stanyhurst's translation of Virgil's Aeneid, Books I-IV |
|
| 1583 | Philip Stubbe's Anatomie of Abuses |
|
| 1584 | A Handful of Pleasant Delights (ed. Clement Robinson) |
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| Political, Social, Religious Events | Dates | Literary, Philosophical Events |
|---|---|---|
| 1586 | William Webbe's Discourse of English Poetrie William Warner's Albion's England William Camden's Britannia |
|
| Execution of Mary Queen of Scots | 1587 | |
| Defeat of the Spanish Armada | 1588 | |
| 1588-1589 | Martin Merprelate tracts | |
| 1589 | Greene's Menaphon George Puttenham's Art of English Poesie Richard Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation (enlarged 1598-1600) |
|
| 1590 | Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde Spenser's Faerie Queene, Books I-III |
|
| 1590-1593 | Signey's Arcadia published (earlier shorter version first printed, from manuscript, 1926) |
|
| 1591 | John Harrignton's English translation of Aristo's Orlando Furioso Signey's Astrophel and Stella published Spenser's Complaints |
|
| 1591-1592 | Greene's Conny-Catching pamphlets | |
| 1592 | Daniel's Delia | |
| 1593 | The Phoenix' Nest Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis |
|
| 1594 | Drayton's Idea Thomas Nashe's Unfortunate Traveler Shakespeare's Rape of Lucrece |
|
| 1594-1597 | Richard Hooker's Of Ecclesiastical Polity, Books I-V |
|
| 1595 | Daniel's Civil Wars Sidney's Defense of Poesy published Spenser's Amoretti and Epithalamion |
|
| Cadiz Expedition (under Essex and Ralegh) | 1596 | Ralegh's Discovery of Guiana Spenser's Faerie Queene, Books IV-VI |
| c. 1596 | Thomas Deloney's Thomas of Reading |
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| Political, Social, Religious Events | Dates | Literary, Philosophical Events |
|---|---|---|
| 1597 | Bacon's Essays (First edition, ten essays) Drayton's Heroical Epistles |
|
| Edict of Nantes | 1598 | Francis Mere's Palladis Tamia John Stow's Survey of London |
| The rebellion of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone |
1598-1603 | |
| 1598-1611 | Chapman's English translation of the Illiad |
|
| 1599 | Sir John Davies's Nosce Teipsum The Globe Theater built |
|
| 1600 | England's Helicon (ed. John Bodenham) England's Parnassus (ed. Robert Allot) |
|
| Elizabethan Poor Law Execution of the Earl of Essex |
1601 | |
| 1602 | Founding of the Bodleian Library Champions' Observations in the Art of English Poesie Political Rhapsody (ed. Francis and Walter Davison) |
|
| c. 1602 | Daniel's Defense of Ryme | |
| 1603 | John Florio's English translation of Montaigne's Essays |
|
| Reign of James I | 1603-1625 |
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