The Story of the Elizabethans - 2020

The Elizabethans / Timeline

1590

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1590

Archbishop John Whitgift

brings a number of

Presbyterians before the

Court of High Commis-

sion. Among them is

Thomas Cartwright

(below), the theologian

thought of as the

‘father of English

Presbyterianism’.

1592

Plague spreads through-

out London in an epidemic

lasting nearly two years.

The government orders

the closure of the theatres

to prevent further conta-

gion. While they are

closed, William Shake-

speare writes his narrative

poems Venus and Adonis

and The Rape of Lucrece.

Around 11,000 London-

ers are reported to have

died from the pestilence.

1587

Mary, Queen of Scots is executed on 8 February at Fotheringhay

Castle, having been convicted of treason the previous October after

the uncovering of the Babington Plot to assassinate the queen.

Elizabeth has held off signing the death warrant for several months,

and blames her junior secretary for passing it on to the executioners.

1588

Philip II of Spain launches his Grand Armada to

support an invasion of England by troops gathered

in the Netherlands. At the battle of Gravelines, English

fire-ships break the Spanish formation, forcing the

Spanish fleet to sail around the British Isles before

eventually limping home to Spain. The English see

the Spanish defeat as the work of God.

A prayer book owned by

Mary, Queen of Scots, and

a gold rosary that she is

believed to have carried at

her execution in 1587

English ships fight the Spanish Armada in 1588, in a contemporary painting.

Though English fire-ships inflicted heavy losses on the Armada, the Spanish

campaign had already been compromised by bad weather and poor planning