1530s in England

1530s in England:

Other decades

1510s | 1520s | 1530s | 1540s | 1550s

Events from the 1530s in England.

Incumbents

Monarch - Henry VIII

Events

• 1530
  • 26 January - Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire becomes Keeper of the Privy Seal.
  • January - The first printed translation of the Torah into English, by William Tyndale, is published in Antwerp for distribution in Britain.
  • 6 February - Charles Brandon becomes Lord President of the Council.
  • 4 November - Cardinal Wolsey arrested as a traitor for secretly communicating with Pope Clement VII.
  • Parliament of England passes the Egyptians Act in attempt to expel Gypsies.
• 1531
  • 11 February - Henry VIII recognised as supreme head of the Church of England.
  • March - Statute Against Vagabonds requires registration of all genuine beggars; unlicensed beggars to be whipped or pilloried.
  • Sir Thomas Elyot's treatise The Boke Named the Governour is published, the first English work concerning moral philosophy.
  • Construction of the Great Hall of Hampton Court begins.
• 1532
  • 15 April - Submission of the Clergy: Royal approval required for all ecclesiastical laws.
  • 16 May - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor.
  • 20 May - Thomas Audley appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.
  • 1 September - Anne Boleyn is created Marquess of Pembroke by Henry VIII.
  • Henry VIII grants the Thorne brothers a Royal Charter to found Bristol Grammar School.
  • Construction of Saint James's Palace begins.
  • German painter Hans Holbein the Younger settles permanently in England.
• 1533
  • 25 January - King Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn, his second Queen consort.
  • 6 February - Act in Restraint of Appeals declares England to be a wholly independent 'empire'.
  • 30 March - Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.
  • 12 April - Thomas Cromwell becomes Secretary of State.
  • 23 May - Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon officially declared annulled. Catherine refuses to accept and continues to believe herself the wife of Henry until her death.
  • 28 May - Cranmer declares the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn valid.
  • 1 June - Anne Boleyn crowned Queen at Westminster Abbey, the culmination of four days of ceremonies.
  • 11 July - Pope Clement VII excommunicates Henry VIII.
  • Sumptuary law, An Act for reformation of excess in apparel, passed.
  • Buggery Act (applicable from 1534) makes buggery subject to the death penalty, the first time such acts had been legislated for outside the ecclesiastical courts.
• 1534
  • 15 January - The English Reformation Parliament passes the Act Respecting the Oath to the Succession recognising the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and their children as the legitimate heirs to the throne.
  • 20 April - Elizabeth Barton executed for making prophesies against King Henry.
  • 3 November–18 December - The Reformation Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy establishing Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England.
  • Treasons Act makes it treason, punishable by death, to disavow the Act of Supremacy.
  • Suffragan Bishops Act authorises the appointment of suffragan (i.e. assistant) bishops in England and Wales.
  • Cambridge University Press is given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII and becomes the first of the privileged presses.
  • Polydore Vergil's Anglica Historia is first published in Basel.
• 1535
  • January–May - Valor Ecclesiasticus: local commissioners survey the finances of religious establishments with a view to the imposition of a new tax by the Exchequer.
  • February - The Reformation Parliament passes the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535 ("Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act").
  • March - English forces under William Skeffington storm Maynooth Castle in Ireland, the stronghold of Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare.
  • 4 May - First of the Carthusian Martyrs executed at Tyburn.
  • 20 May - William Tyndale arrested in Antwerp for heresy in relation to his bible translation.
  • 22 June - Execution of Cardinal John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, on Tower Hill in London for his refusal to swear an oath of loyalty to Henry VIII.
  • 6 July - Sir Thomas More is executed for treason on Tower Hill after refusing to agree to Henry VIII's decision to separate the English church from the Roman Catholic church.
  • First of the Laws in Wales Acts passed, beginning the Anglicisation of the Welsh legal system.
  • Study of canon law at English universities prohibited.
  • First appointment to the chair of Regius Professor of Divinity, founded by King Henry VIII: Richard Smyth at the University of Oxford.
  • Beard tax introduced.
• 1536
  • April - An Acte for Laws & Justice to be ministred in Wales in like fourme as it is in this Realme (27 Henry VIII c. 26) further incorporates the legal system of Wales into that of England.
  • 14 April - The Reformation Parliament passes an Act for the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Religious houses closed as part of Henry VIII's dissolution include
    • Basingwerk Abbey
    • Bourne Abbey
    • Brinkburn Priory
    • Buildwas Abbey
    • Cartmel Priory
    • Dorchester Abbey
    • Dore Abbey
    • Haltemprice Priory.
  • The Court of Augmentations is set up to administer former religious revenues confiscated by the crown.
  • May - William Tyndale's Bible publicly burned as heretical.
  • 19 May - Execution of Anne Boleyn.
  • 30 May - Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour.
  • 11 July - Thomas Cranmer's Ten Articles are presented to Parliament.
  • 1 October–5 December - The Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion against Henry VIII's church reforms.
  • 6 October - Bible translator William Tyndale burnt at the stake in Vilvoorde, Flanders.
  • 29 October - Coronation of Jane Seymour as queen consort of England.
  • Sir Thomas Elyot's popular medical text The Castell of Helth is published.
• 1537
  • January - Bigod's Rebellion, an armed insurrection by Roman Catholics in Cumberland and Westmorland against the king.
  • July - Pilgrimage of Grace: Robert Aske executed along with over 200 other rebels.
  • 25 August - The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army and the second most senior, is formed.
  • 15 October - Council of the North meets for the first time, in York.
  • Publication of the Matthew Bible, the first complete English translation of the bible.
  • Continuing dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, from late summer mostly by voluntary surrender, including
    • Bisham Priory (5 July, Bisham Abbey being founded by Henry in its place on 18 December)
    • Bridlington Priory
    • Castle Acre Priory
    • London Charterhouse
    • Valle Crucis Abbey
  • Publication of An Introduction for to Lerne to Recken with the Pen and with the Counters, the first known English translation of an arithmetic textbook, at St Albans.
• 1538
  • 19 June - The newly founded Bisham Abbey is dissolved.
  • 21 September (3 a.m.) - Cromwell's commissioners for the dissolution of the monasteries destroy the shrine of St. Swithun in Winchester Cathedral.
  • 30 November - Byland Abbey is dissolved.
  • John Bale's Kynge Johan is the earliest known English historical drama (in verse).
  • Sir Thomas Elyot's Dictionary is published.
• 1539
  • 12 January - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Francis I of France sign the Treaty of Toledo, agreeing to make no further alliances with the Kingdom of England.
  • 9 February - First horse race held at Chester Racecourse, the oldest in use in England.
  • March - Canterbury Cathedral surrenders, and reverts to its previous status of 'a college of secular canons'.
  • March - Invasion scare, following reports of an alliance between Spain, France, and Scotland.
  • April - Printing of the Great Bible (The Byble in Englyshe) is completed and it is distributed to churches. Prepared by Myles Coverdale, it contains much material from the Tyndale Bible (unacknowleged as this version is officially considered heretical).
  • May - The Six Articles reaffirm certain Catholic principles in Henry VIII's Church of England.
  • 19 September - Reading Abbey is suppressed and the Abbot, Hugh Cook Faringdon, indicted and hanged, drawn and quartered for treason on 14 November. Also on 19 September, Glastonbury Abbey is suppressed by visitors without warning and Abbot Richard Whiting hanged on Glastonbury Tor on 15 November. The same fate befalls the abbot of St. John's Abbey, Colchester, Thomas Marshall, who is hanged on 1 December.
  • 4 October - A treaty is arranged for Henry VIII to marry Anne of Cleves.
  • Beaulieu Abbey, Colchester Abbey, Newstead Abbey, St Albans Abbey, St Mary's Abbey, York and Hartland Abbey are dissolved.
  • Game Place House in Great Yarmouth becomes the first premises to be used regularly as a public theatre.

Births

• 1530
  • Thomas Hoby, diplomat and translator (died 1566)
  • Ralph Lane, explorer (died 1603)
  • Richard Tarlton, actor (died 1588)
  • Nicholas Sanders, Catholic propagandist (died 1581)
• 1531
  • September - Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby (died 1594)
  • John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England (died 1607)
• 1532
  • 24 June - Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, politician (died 1588)
  • William Allen, cardinal (died 1594)
  • John Hawkins, navigator (died 1595)
  • Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland (died 1585)
  • Thomas Norton, lawyer (died 1584)
  • Richard Topcliffe, landowner and MP (died 1604)
• 1533
  • 7 September - Queen Elizabeth I of England (died 1603)
• 1534
  • 18 April - William Harrison, clergyman (died 1593)
  • Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, statesman (died 1601)
  • Amy Robsart, wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (died 1560)
• 1535
  • Thomas North, translator (died c. 1604)
  • Robert Parsons, composer (died 1572)
• 1536
  • 10 March - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, politician (died 1572)
  • Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, statesman and poet (died 1608)
  • Guilford Dudley, son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland (died 1554)
  • Roger Marbeck, chief physician to Elizabeth I(died 1604)
  • Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, statesman and admiral (died 1624)
• 1537
  • 28 June - Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel, nobleman (died 1595)
  • 12 October - King Edward VI of England (died 1553)
  • 12 October or earlier - Lady Jane Grey, claimant to the throne of England (died 1554)
  • Jane Lumley, translator (died 1578)

Deaths

• 1530
  • 29 November - Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, statesman (born c. 1473)
• 1532
  • 31 January - Edward Sutton, 2nd Baron Dudley (born 1460)
  • May - Elizabeth Stafford, Countess of Sussex (year of birth unknown)
  • 22 August - William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1450)
• 1533
  • 28 April - Nicholas West, bishop and diplomat (born 1461)
  • 4 July - John Frith, Protestant priest and martyr (born 1503)
• 1534
  • 20 April - Elizabeth Barton, nun (executed) (born 1506)
  • 8 November - William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, scholar and patron (born c. 1478)
  • Sir Edward Guildford, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (born c. 1474)
  • Humphrey Kynaston, highwayman and outlaw (born c. 1474)
  • John Taylor, Master of the Rolls (born c. 1480)
• 1535
  • 4 May - John Houghton, Robert Lawrence, Augustine Webster, Prior and monks of the London Charterhouse, along with Richard Reynolds, Bridgettine monk of Syon (executed)
  • 22 June - John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester (executed) (born c. 1469)
  • 6 July - Sir Thomas More, lawyer, writer, and politician (executed) (born 1478)
  • September - George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny (born 1469)
  • 31 December - William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland (born 1465)
• 1536
  • 7 January - Catherine of Aragon, queen of Henry VIII (born 1485)
  • 17 May - George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, diplomat (born 1503)
  • 19 May - Anne Boleyn, queen of Henry VIII (executed) (born c. 1511)
  • 18 June - Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, illegitimate son of Henry VIII (born 1519)
  • 28 June - Richard Pace, diplomat (born 1482)
  • 6 October - William Tyndale, Protestant scholar (burned at the stake) (born 1484)
  • 21 December - Sir John Seymour, courtier (born 1474)
  • John Rastell, printer and author (born c. 1475)
• 1537
  • 24 October - Jane Seymour, queen of Henry VIII (complications of childbirth) (born c. 1507)
  • Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland (born 1502)
• 1538
  • 8 May - Edward Foxe, churchman (born 1496)
  • 22 May - John Forrest, Franciscan friar (martyred) (born 1471)
  • 22 November - John Lambert, Protestant martyr (burned at stake) (year of birth unknown)
  • Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire (born 1480)
• 1539
  • 12 March - Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, diplomat and politician (born 1477)
  • 8 September - John Stokesley, prelate (born 1475)
  • 14 November - Hugh Cook Faringdon, Abbot of Reading (hanged) (year of birth unknown)