1560s in England

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth I
• Parliament – 2nd of Queen Elizabeth I

  Events

• 1560
• * 27 February – Treaty of Berwick: Terms agreed with the Lords of the Congregation in the Kingdom of Scotland for English forces to enter Scotland to expel French troops defending the Regency of Mary of Guise.
• * 6 July – Treaty of Edinburgh between England, France and Scotland, ending the Siege of Leith. The French withdraw from Scotland, largely ending the Auld Alliance between the two countries, and recognise Elizabeth I of England.
• 1561
• * 4 June – Old St Paul's Cathedral in London is badly damaged by fire and the spire is destroyed after being struck by lightning.
• * August – English merchant Anthony Jenkinson arrives in Moscow on his second expedition to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
• * Reform of coinage to combat debasement.
• *First publication of William Baldwin's Beware the Cat, an early example of extended fiction in English. This edition appears to have been suppressed and no copies survive.
• 1562
• * 18 January – first performance of Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's play Gorboduc before Queen Elizabeth I. It is the first known English tragedy and the first English language play to employ blank verse.
• * March – Anthony Jenkinson has an audience with Ivan the Terrible in Moscow before continuing his expedition to Qazvin, capital of the Safavid dynasty in Persia.
• * 20 September – Treaty of Hampton Court between Queen Elizabeth and Huguenot leader Louis, Prince of Condé.
• * October – John Hawkins initiates the trans-Atlantic slave trade, shipping slaves from Sierra Leone to Hispaniola.
• * 4 October – English troops occupy Le Havre in France in aid of the Huguenots.
• * Church of England approves the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, defining its doctrinal stance.
• * Publication of the metrical psalter The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Collected into English Meter, compiled mostly by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins and printed by John Day.
• *Dudley Grammar School established and Gresham's School granted a royal charter.
• 1563
• * March
• **Poor Relief Act requires wealthier parishes to help their poorer neighbours.
• ** Publication of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, John Foxe's account of Protestant persecution during the reign of Mary I of England, printed by John Day in London.
• * April – Parliament passes laws requiring Justices of the Peace to arbitrate trade disputes and conditions of apprenticeship.
• * June to October – outbreak of plague in London kills over 20,000.
• * 28 July – the English surrender Le Havre to the French after a siege.
• * Publication of John Shute's The First and Chief Groundes of Architecture, the first work in English on architecture.
• 1564
• * 11 April – Treaty of Troyes: England receives monetary compensation for renouncing its claims to Calais.
• * 30 April – consecration of new St Michael the Archangel parish church at Woodham Walter in Essex, probably the first new post-Reformation Church of England place of worship.
• * July – Anthony Jenkinson returns to London from his second expedition to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, having gained a considerable extension of trading rights for the English Muscovy Company.
• 1565
• *Thomas Gresham founds the Royal Exchange in London.
• * College of Physicians of London first licensed to carry out human dissection.
• * John Hawkins brings the first tobacco to England.
• *Protestant weavers from Flanders, fleeing persecution, settle in Colchester.
• *Hinchingbrooke School is established as Huntingdon Grammar School.
• 1566
• *Henry Sidney leads a punitive expedition to Ulster.
• * June – German miners find calamine in the Mendip Hills.
• * Autumn – probable completion of the Exeter Canal, the first in England, and with the first use of a pound lock in England.
• 1567
• * 2 January – Parliament dissolved as Queen Elizabeth refuses to name a successor.
• *John Brayne builds the Red Lion theatre just east of the City of London, a playhouse for touring productions and the first known to be purpose-built in the British Isles since Roman times. However, there is little evidence that the theatre survives beyond this summer's season.
• * Jean Carré arrives in England from Antwerp and obtains a royal monopoly for the production of window glass on condition that the techniques would be taught to native Englishmen.
• * Chatham Dockyard is established for the Royal Navy.
• * Rugby School is established under the will of grocer Lawrence Sheriff.
• 1568
• * 16 May – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees across the Solway Firth from Scotland to England but is taken prisoner on 19 May and put in Carlisle Castle.
• * 28 May – incorporation of two monopolies in metalliferous mining, the Society of Mines Royal and the Company of Mineral and Battery Works.
• * 23 September – Battle of San Juan de Ulúa : In the Gulf of Mexico, a Spanish fleet forces English privateers under John Hawkins to end their campaign.
• * 26 September – Spain seizes English ships off the coast of Mexico, and confiscates their cargo.
• * October – The Bishops' Bible published, a translation into English under the authority of the Church of England.
• * December – English seize bullion from Spanish ships at Plymouth.
• 1569
• * 11 January-6 May – the first known lottery in England is drawn outside St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. Each share costs ten shillings and proceeds are used to repair harbours and for other public works.
• * 20 January – Mary, Queen of Scots, detained at Tutbury Castle.
• * After September – publication in London of Thomas Preston's tragedy Cambises.
• * November–December – Rising of the North: Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland and Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland lead a rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I in an attempt to place the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, on the English throne. Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex drives the Earls out of England.
• * First publication of Henry de Bracton's De legibus & consuetudinibus Angliæ.
• Undated
• * During the decade Thomas Tallis composes his setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet for Maundy Thursday.

  Births

• 1560
• * 3 January – John Bois, Bible translator
• * 19 September – Thomas Cavendish, explorer
• 1561
• * 22 January – Francis Bacon, philosopher, scientist, and statesman
• * June – Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York
• * 20 June – Richard Whitbourne, colonist of Newfoundland
• * 23 June – Stephen Bachiler, non-conformist minister and pioneer settler of New England
• * 4 August – John Harington, courtier, writer and inventor
• * 24 August – Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk
• * 11 October – Thomas Lake, Secretary of State to King James I
• * 27 October – Mary Sidney, writer, patroness and translator
• * 9 December – Edwin Sandys, founder of the colony of Virginia
• 1562
• * January – Edward Blount, printer
• * 19 October – George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury
• * John Bull, composer
• * Henry Constable, poet
• * Samuel Daniel, poet and historian
• * Francis Godwin, writer and prelate
• * Richard Neile, churchman
• * Henry Spelman, antiquary
• 1563
• * January – Penelope Blount, Countess of Devonshire, née Devereux
• * 5 March – John Coke, politician
• * 1 June – Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, statesman and spymaster
• * 19 November – Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, statesman
• * 19 December – Lord William Howard
• * Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy
• * John Dowland, composer
• * Michael Drayton, poet
• * Robert Naunton, politician and writer
• * Josuah Sylvester, poet
• 1564
• * 26 February – Christopher Marlowe, poet and dramatist
• * 20 March – Thomas Morton, bishop
• * 26 April – William Shakespeare, poet and dramatist
• * 27 April – Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland
• * 24 September – William Adams, navigator and samurai
• * 22 November – Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, peer and traitor
• * Henry Chettle, dramatist
• * Thomas Shirley, adventurer and privateer
• 1565
• * 10 February – Edmund Whitelocke, soldier and courtier
• * July – Ferdinando Gorges, colonial entrepreneur
• * 10 November – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, politician
• * George Kirbye, composer
• * Francis Meres, churchman and author
• * Francis Tanfield, Governor of the South Falkland colony
• 1566
• * 19 June – King James I of England
• * 1 September – Edward Alleyn, actor
• * 20 December – Edward Wightman, Anabaptist
• 1567
• * 12 February – Thomas Campion, poet and composer
• * 27 February – William Alabaster, poet
• * 17 September – Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley, landowner
• * November – Thomas Nashe, poet
• 1568
• * 30 March – Henry Wotton, author and diplomat
• * Richard Baker, chronicler
• * Edward Chichester, 1st Viscount Chichester
• * Gervase Markham, poet and writer
• *Robert Wintour, conspirator
• 1569
• * 16 April – John Davies, poet and lawyer
• * September – Arthur Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells, a translator of the King James Bible
• * William Monson, admiral
• * John Suckling, politician

  Deaths

• 1560
• * 8 September – Amy Robsart, noblewoman
• * December – John Sheppard, composer and organist
• 1561
• * 1 September – Edward Waldegrave, politician and recusant
• 1562
• *Nicholas Grimald, poet and theologian
• 1563
• * 9 June – William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, statesman
• * 17 September – Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, soldier
• * 25 September – John Shute, architect
• 1565
• * 18 July – Kat Ashley, née Katherine Champernowne, governess of Elizabeth I
• * 14 October – Thomas Chaloner, statesman and poet
• 1566
• * 13 July – Sir Thomas Hoby, diplomat and translator
• * 31 October – Richard Edwardes, poet
• 1567
• * 26 January – Nicholas Wotton, diplomat
• * 12 June – Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, Lord Chancellor
• * 16 September – Lawrence Sheriff, gentleman and grocer to Elizabeth I
• * Thomas Beccon, Protestant reformer
• 1568
• * 15 January – Catherine Carey, Chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Elizabeth I
• * 20 January – Myles Coverdale, Bible translator
• * 26 January – Lady Catherine Grey, Countess of Hertford
• * 19 March – Elizabeth Seymour, Lady Cromwell, noblewoman
• * 7 July – William Turner, ornithologist and botanist
• * 23 August – Thomas Wharton, 1st Baron Wharton
• * 23 December – Roger Ascham, scholar, tutor of Elizabeth I
• * Henry Dudley, soldier, sailor, diplomat and conspirator
• 1569
• * 5 September – Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London