private life; the facts included here are almost the only indisputable ones. The dates of Shakespeare’s plays are those on which they were first produced.
1558
Queen Elizabeth crowned.
1561
Francis Bacon born.
1564
Christopher Marlowe born.
William Shakespeare born, April 23rd, baptized April 26th.
1566
Shakespeare’s brother, Gilbert, born.
1567
Mary, Queen of Scots, deposed. James VI (later James I of England) crowned King of Scotland.
1572
Ben Jonson born. Lord Leicester’s Company (of players) licensed; later called Lord Strange’s, then the Lord Chamberlain’s and fi nally (under James) the King’s Men.
1573
John Donne born.
1574
The Common Council of London directs that all plays and playhouses in London must be licensed.
1576
James Burbage builds the first public playhouse, The Theatre, at Shoreditch, outside the walls of the City.
1577
Francis Drake begins his voyage round the world (completed 1580). Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland published (which Shakespeare later used extensively).
1582
Shakespeare married to Anne Hathaway.
1583
The Queen’s Company founded by royal warrant.
Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna, born.
1585
Shakespeare’s twins, Hamnet and Judith, born.
1586
Sir Philip Sidney, the Elizabethan ideal ‘Christian knight’, poet, patron, soldier, killed at Zutphen in the Low Countries.
1587
Mary, Queen of Scots, beheaded. Marlowe’s Tamburlaine (Part I) first staged.
1588
Defeat of the Spanish Armada. Marlowe’s Tamburlaine (Part II) first staged.
1589
Marlowe’s Jew of Malta and Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy (a ‘revenge tragedy’ and one of the most popular plays of Elizabethan times).
1590
Spenser’s Faerie Queene (Books I–III) published.
1592
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Edward II first staged. Witchcraft trials in Scotland. Robert Greene, a rival playwright, refers to Shakespeare as ‘an upstart crow’ and ‘the only Shake-scene in a country’.
Titus Andronicus Henry VI, Parts I, II and III Richard III
1593
London theatres closed by the plague. Christopher Marlowe killed in a Deptford tavern.
Two Gentlemen of Verona Comedy of Errors The Taming of the Shrew Love’s Labour’s Lost
1594
Shakespeare’s company becomes The Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
Romeo and Juliet
1595
Raleigh’s first expedition to Guiana. Last expedition of Drake and Hawkins (both died).
Richard II A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1596
Spenser’s Faerie Queene (Books IV–VI) published. James Burbage buys rooms at Blackfriars and begins to convert them into a theatre.
King John The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare’s son Hamnet dies. Shakespeare’s father is granted a coat of arms.
1597
James Burbage dies, his son Richard, a famous actor, turns the Blackfriars Theatre into a private playhouse.
Henry IV (Part I) Shakespeare buys and redecorates New Place at Stratford.
1598
Death of Philip II of Spain
Henry IV (Part II) Much Ado About Nothing
1599
Death of Edmund Spenser. The Globe Theatre completed at Bankside by Richard and Cuthbert Burbage.
Henry V Julius Caesar As You Like It
1600
Fortune Theatre built at Cripplegate. East India Company founded for the extension of English trade and influence in the East. The Children of the Chapel begin to use the hall at Blackfriars.
Merry Wives of Windsor Troilus and Cressida
1601
Hamlet
1602
Sir Thomas Bodley’s library opened at Oxford.
Twelfth Night
1603
Death of Queen Elizabeth. James I comes to the throne. Shakespeare’s company becomes The King’s Men. Raleigh tried, condemned and sent to the Tower
1604
Treaty of peace with Spain
Measure for Measure Othello All’s Well that Ends Well
1605
The Gunpowder Plot: an attempt by a group of Catholics to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
1606
Guy Fawkes and other plotters executed.
Macbeth King Lear
1607
Virginia, in America, colonized. A great frost in England.
Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Coriolanus Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna, married to Dr. John Hall.
1608
The company of the Children of the Chapel Royal (who had performed at Blackfriars for ten years) is disbanded. John Milton born. Notorious pirates executed in London.
Richard Burbage leases the Blackfriars Theatre to six of his fellow actors, including Shakespeare. Pericles, Prince of Tyre
