Chronology

1558

(Nov) The Count of Feria’s embassy to Queen Mary’s court; Feria meets Princess Elizabeth

 

(17 Nov) Accession of Elizabeth as Queen of England and Ireland

1559

(Jan–May) Parliament passes Act of Supremacy, making Elizabeth supreme governor of the Church of England, and Act of Uniformity, putting into law a Protestant prayer book

1568

(May) Mary Queen of Scots seeks asylum in England

 

(Oct–Dec) Tribunal at York and Westminster examines the Casket Letters

1569

(Dec) The Northern Rising of the earls of Northumberland and Westmorland

1570

(Feb) Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth

1571

(Apr–Aug) The Ridolfi Plot

 

Parliament’s Treasons Act

1572

(June) Duke of Norfolk executed for treason

 

(Aug) Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre in Paris

1579

(Feb) Anthony Munday arrives in Rome

 

(July) Charles Sledd arrives in Rome

1580

(May) Sledd arrives in London

 

(June) Edmund Campion and Robert Persons enter England

1581

(July) Campion captured

 

(Nov) Campion tried

 

(Dec) Campion executed

1583

(June) Duke of Guise plans the invasion of England

 

(Sept) Charles Paget, alias Mope, arrives secretly in England

 

(Oct) John Somerville sets out to kill Elizabeth

 

(Nov) Francis Throckmorton arrested; Lord Paget leaves England secretly

1584

A True, Sincere, and Modest Defence of English Catholicques, by William Allen, printed in Rouen

 

(July) Francis Throckmorton executed for treason; William of Nassau, Prince of Orange assassinated

 

(Oct) Privy Council subscribes to the Instrument of Association

1585

(Feb) William Parry tried for treason

 

(Mar) Parry executed; Act for the Queen’s Surety

 

(Dec) Gilbert Gifford leaves Paris for England

1586

(June–Aug) Babington Plot

 

(July) Mary Queen of Scots composes the ‘bloody letter’

 

(Aug) Gilbert Gifford leaves England secretly for Paris

 

(Sept) Anthony Babington and his group tried and executed

 

(Oct) Commission under Act for the Queen’s Surety (1585) tries Mary Queen of Scots

1587

(Feb) Queen Elizabeth signs Mary Queen of Scots’s death warrant; Mary executed

 

(July) King Philip of Spain and Pope Sixtus V agree on the Enterprise of England

1588

(July) Philip launches his Great Armada against England

1590

(Apr) Sir Francis Walsingham dies

 

(May) Lord Burghley conducts an audit of Walsingham’s espionage network

1591

(May) John Snowden and John Fixer recruited to spy on William Allen; Thomas Phelippes courted by the Earl of Essex and Francis Bacon

1592

(May) William Sterrell’s mission begins

1594

(Jan–Feb) The Lopez Plot; Patrick O’Collun’s conspiracy discovered

 

(June) Roderigo Lopez hanged

 

(Aug) Edmund Yorke’s plot discovered

1596

(early) Thomas Phelippes goes to prison

1600

(Apr) Phelippes makes an offer of service to Sir Robert Cecil

1601

(summer) Cecil begins a secret correspondence with James VI of Scotland concerning the English succession

1603

(24 Mar) Queen Elizabeth dies at Richmond Palace; James VI of Scotland succeeds her as King of England and Ireland