1579 in England

Events from the 1570s in England.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth I

Events

• 1570
• 25 February – Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England with the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis which is affixed to the door of Old St Paul's Cathedral in London on 24 May.
• Florentine banker Roberto di Ridolfi devises the Ridolfi plot to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots.
• Whitechapel Bell Foundry known to be in existence in London. By 2017, when it closes its premises in Whitechapel, it will be the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain.
• The home and library of John Dee at Mortlake begin to serve as an informal prototype English academy for gentlemen with scientific interests.
• Approximate date – Thomas Tallis composes his 40-part motet Spem in alium.
• 1571
• 23 January – the Royal Exchange officially opened by Queen Elizabeth.
• April – Treason Act forbids criticism of the monarchy.
• May – All papal bulls declared treasonable by Act of Parliament.
• 25 June
• An Act Against Usury permits moneylending at interest rates not exceeding 10%.
• Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle, is founded in Lincolnshire.
• 27 June – Establishment of Jesus College "within the City and University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's foundation" by Welsh cleric and lawyer Hugh Price.
• 25 July – The Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth of the Parishioners of the Parish of Saint Olave in the County of Surrey is established in Tooley Street, London.
• 29 August – Ridolfi plot discovered. On 7 September Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is arrested for his part in the conspiracy.
• The first Pro forma bill is introduced, symbolising Parliament's authority over its own affairs.
• Burford School is established in Oxfordshire.
• 1572
• 13 February – Harrow School is founded by local landowner John Lyon under royal charter.
• May – Hexhamshire is annexed to Northumberland.
• 2 June – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is executed for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
• 11 July – Humphrey Gilbert leads 1500 English volunteers on an expedition to assist the Dutch Sea Beggars in their struggle against Spanish Habsburg rule.
• Formation of 'Thomas Morgan's Company of Foot', a group of 300 volunteers from the London Trained Bands to assist the Dutch, origin of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).
• Vagabonds Act, part of the Tudor Poor Laws, prescribes punishment for rogues. This includes actors' companies lacking formal patronage.
• Publication of a revised version of the Bishops' Bible.
• 1573
• 24 March – Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys established in Barnet at the petition of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.
• 17 April – English troops capture Edinburgh Castle.
• 18 December – Francis Walsingham becomes Secretary of State.
• Humphrey Gilbert produces his proposal for '.
• 1574
• 18 August – Treaty of Bristol settles commercial disputes with Spain.
• The Queen grants freedom to any remaining villeins on crown lands, ending serfdom in England.
• Construction of Longleat House completed.
• 1575
• March – Spain opens the port of Antwerp to English traders, in return for Queen Elizabeth agreeing to stop aiding Dutch rebels against Spanish rule.
• 7 July – Raid of the Redeswire: Sir John Carmichael of Scotland defeats Sir John Forster of England in a border skirmish which will be the last battle between the two kingdoms.
• 26 July – Edmund Grindal succeeds Matthew Parker as Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 14 November – Elizabeth declines an offer of rule over the Netherlands.
• Christopher Saxton publishes his County Atlas of England and Wales.
• William Byrd and Thomas Tallis are granted a royal monopoly for the publication of most types of music (notwithstanding that both are Catholic).
• 1576
• 8 February – Peter Wentworth is imprisoned for speaking in Parliament against royal interference in its affairs.
• 11 August – Explorer Martin Frobisher discovers Frobisher Bay whilst searching for the Northwest Passage.
• December – James Burbage opens London's second permanent public playhouse (and the first to have a substantial life), The Theatre, in Shoreditch.
• The following schools are founded in Kent:
• Dartford Grammar School, by William d'Aeth, Edward Gwyn and William Vaughn.
• Sutton Valence School, by William Lambe.
• William Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent (completed 1570) is published, first of the English county histories.
• Composer Thomas Whythorne writes a Booke of songs and sonetts with longe discourses sett with them, an early example of autobiographical writing in English.
• 1577
• June – Edmund Grindal suspended for refusing to suppress Puritanism.
• 6 July – 'Black Assize' in Oxford results in an outbreak of epidemic typhus killing around three hundred in the city.
• 29 November – Catholic seminary priest Cuthbert Mayne is hanged, drawn and quartered at Launceston, Cornwall, for treason, first of the 158 Douai Martyrs.
• 13 December – Francis Drake leaves Plymouth aboard the Pelican with four other ships and 164 men on an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas which will become a circumnavigation.
• 1578
• 11 June – Humphrey Gilbert is granted letters patent to establish a colony in North America.
• 19 November – Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh set out from Plymouth leading an expedition to establish a colony in North America; forced to turn back six months later.
• December – Publication of John Lyly's didactic prose romance Euphues: the Anatomy of Wyt, originating the ornate prose style known as Euphuism.
• 1579
• 23 April – The English College, Rome, is established for the training of Roman Catholic priests to serve in England.
• 17 June – Drake claims New Albion on the Pacific coast of North America for England.
• June – Humphrey Gilbert sails in an unsuccessful attempt to intercept Spanish forces sailing to support the Second Desmond Rebellion in Ireland.
• 17 August – Eastland Company chartered to trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea states.
• Publication of Edmund Spenser's poetry The Shepheardes Calender, anonymously.