18 June – the first known
life insurance policy is issued in London.[11]
5 August – Humphrey Gilbert, in what is to become the city of
St. John's, claims the island of
Newfoundland on behalf of England.[5] Ships of his fleet are wrecked, and Gilbert drowns, on the return passage of the Atlantic.
10 December – great fire of
Nantwich in Cheshire breaks out.[13]
Posthumous publication of
Thomas Smith's treatise De Republica Anglorum: the Maner of Gouernement or Policie of the Realme of England (written 1562–65).
Publication of
Philip Stubbs' tract The Anatomie of Abuses.
21 January –
Robert Nutter,
Thomas Worthington and 18 other Roman Catholic priests are perpetually banished from England by order of Queen Elizabeth, placed on the ship Mary Martin of Colchester and transported to France.[17]
2 March –
William Parry executed for plotting Queen Elizabeth's murder.[1]
19 May –
Spain seizes English ships in Spanish ports.[1]
14 March –
Black Assize of Exeter opens: "gaol fever" (probably
epidemic typhus), spreading from
Rougemont Castle in
Exeter, kills 8 judges, 11 of 12 jurors, and ravages the surrounding population for several months; many prominent members of the
Devonshire gentry are among the dead.
22 September –
Battle of Zutphen: Spanish troops defeat Dutch rebels and their English allies. Poet and courtier Sir
Philip Sidney is mortally wounded and dies on 17 October.[4]
1 March –
Sir Anthony Cope and Sir
Peter Wentworth are imprisoned for attempting to bring forward Parliamentary legislation interfering with the Queen's ecclesiastical prerogative.[1]
28–30 May – the
Spanish Armada sets sail from the
Tagus estuary for an attempted invasion of England.[1]
19 July – the Armada is sighted off
The Lizard in
Cornwall; the news is relayed to
London via a series of beacons built along the south coast.[1]
21 July – the first engagement between the English and Spanish fleets, off
Plymouth, results in an English victory. The English fleet is under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham with Sir
Francis Drake as
Vice Admiral.
23 July – the English and Spanish fleets meet again, off
Portland; the English again have the better of it.
28 July – the English send
fire ships into the French fleet, now anchored off
Calais, breaking their formation.
2 August – the fleeing Spanish fleet sails past the
Firth of Forth and the English call off their pursuit. Much of the Spanish fleet will be destroyed by storms as it sails for home around
Scotland and
Ireland.
13 April – an
English Armada led by Sir Francis Drake and Sir
John Norreys and largely financed by private investors sets sail to attack the
Iberian Peninsula's Atlantic coast[4] but fails to achieve any naval advantage.
Publication of
Richard Hakluyt's The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation begins.
2 April –
Raleigh, Native American captive in the household of Richard Grenville
References
^
abcdefghijklmnopPalmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 160–162.
ISBN0-7126-5616-2.
^Churchyard, Thomas (April 8, 1580). A Warning to the Wyse, a Feare to the Fond, a Bridle to the Lewde, and a Glasse to the Good; written of the late Earthquake chanced in London and other places, the 6th of April, 1580, for the Glory of God and benefit of men, that warely can walk, and wisely judge; Set forth in verse and prose. London.
^
abTracy, James D. (2008). The Founding of the Dutch Republic: War, Finance, and Politics in Holland 1572–1588. Oxford University Press. pp. 157–158, 216.
^"Vens. Robert Nutter and Edward Thwing", in The Catholic Encyclopedia, ed. by John Wainewright (Robert Appleton Company, 1911).
^Wainewright, John Bannerman (1914). "Venerable John Adams". In Burton, Edwin H.; Pollen, J. H. (eds.). Lives of the English Martyrs. London: Longmans, Green.
^Wagner, Peter; Davis, Pat; Sauter, John; McKeone, John (1999-01-07).
"Oaten Hills Martyrs". RCNet. Archived from
the original on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2012-06-06.