1485: Accession of Henry VII inaugurates Tudor dynasty

1486: Publication of the Malleus maleficarum (The Witches’ Hammer), outlining in great detail the correct methods of persecuting and prosecuting witches under ecclesiastical and secular law (sanctioned and inspired, apparently, by a papal bull)

1509: Accession of Henry VIII

1516: Thomas More’s Utopia published.

1517: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of the cathedral in Wittenberg
Beginning of the Reformation

1521: Henry VIII declared "Defender of the Faith" by Pope Leo X for his opposition to Luther

1525: William Tyndale, an English Lutheran, translates and prints the first English translation of the New Testament on the Continent; Old Testament follows in 1530

1533: Henry marries Anne Boleyn and is excommunicated by Pope Clement VII

1534: Act of Supremacy: Henry breaks with Rome and declares himself head of the Church of England, “Supreme Head on Earth”

1535: Execution of Thomas More; More resigns his post as Lord Chancellor (1529-1532) when the king divorces Catherine of Aragon; his subsequent refusal to take the oath of Succession and Supremacy and acknowledge Henry as head of the church led to an accusation of treason, imprisonment in the Tower of London, and eventually decapitation

1547-53: Reign of Henry’s successor, Edward VI (1537-1553) was king of England and Ireland from 1547 until his death. He was the son of King Henry VIII, whom he succeeded. Edward's mother was Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife. Edward belonged to the English ruling family known as the House of Tudor. Edward was only 9 years old when he became king, so his uncle Edward Seymour, who soon became the Duke of Somerset, governed for him. In 1549, the Earl of Warwick, later called the Duke of Northumberland, took Somerset's place. Edward, Somerset, and Northumberland all wished England to remain Protestant.

1549: Introduction of uniform Protestant service based on Edward VI's Book of Common Prayer

1553: Death of Edward VI
Lady Jane Grey proclaimed queen of England; executed 9 days after proclamation in the Tower of London by Mary I’s order in 1554

1553-58: Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England

Restoration of Roman Catholic bishops in England

1555: England returns to Catholicism: Protestants persecuted, about 300 are burned at the stake

1557: John Shakespeare (a glove-maker) and Mary Arden get married

1558: Death of Mary I; and accession of Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn; Repeal of Catholic legislation in England

1560: Geneva Bible published, English Protestant Bible with verse divisions

1561-2: Norton’s translation of John Calvin’s The Institution of the Christian Religion published

1563: Publication of Johann Weyer’s De praestigiis daemonum (On Witchcraft)
English translation of John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs published

1564: William Shakespeare born, presumably on 23 April in Stratford-upon-Avon

1570: Elizabeth I is excommunicated by papal bull; subjects are relieved of their loyalty to her

1576: James Burbage, a carpenter turned actor, builds The Theater, the first permanent structure in England for the presentation of plays

1577: John Shakespeare retires from public life (previously Member of Council), presumably because of financial troubles

1577-80: Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe

1580: Publication of Jean Bodin’s De la demonomanie des sorciers (On the Demon-Mania of Witches)

1582: Douay-Rheims Bible, a Catholic vernacular translation of the Bible, written by English refugees in opposition to Protestant readings and glosses

          William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway get married in November (birth of their daughter, Susanna, in May, 1583; the twins, Judith and Hamnet, born in 1585)

1584: Publication of Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft

1587: Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots
Tamburlaine is first produced and “Marlowe’s mighty line,” i.e. blank verse, is introduced

1588: Defeat of the Spanish Armada

1588-92: Shakespeare active in London as actor and playwright
Robert Greene refers to Shakespeare derogatively as “an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers”
Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus performed

1590: Publication of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (Books 1-3)

1590s: Shakespeare devotes himself mainly to chronicle histories and comedies

1592-4: Plague wreaks havoc in London; theaters closed

1594: Shakespeare now member of Lord Chamberlain’s Men (The King’s Men under James I)

1595: Publication of Sir Philip Sidney’s Defense of Poesie

1596: Shakespeares granted a coat of arms

1596: Publication of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (Books 1-6)

1597: James VI of Scotland (later to become James I of England) publishes his Daemonologie, a tract written in form of a philosophical dialogue and aimed against Scot’s and Weyer’s skeptical debunking of witches and witchcraft
Shakespeare purchases New Place, a handsome house in Stratford

1599: Lord Chamberlain’s Men open The Globe; Shakespeare owns a 1/10 share in the business

1601-9: Shakespeare’s period of the great tragedies and romantic comedies

1603: Death of Elizabeth I; accession of James I, the first of the Stuart kings
 Publication of Samuel Harsnett’s A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostors

1605: The Gunpowder Plot, an attempt by Catholic extremists to blow up Parliament and King

1607: Founding of the Jamestown colony in Virginia

1609: Galileo uses his telescope to observe Jupiter’s moon circling that planet, thus providing evidence for the Copernican theory of a solar system

1610: Shakespeare retires to Stratford-upon-Avon

1611: King James orders forty-seven scholars to undertake an authorized translation of the Bible; this version comes to be known as the King James Bible

1616: Death of Shakespeare; a clergyman who settled in Stratford in 1662 records in his diary: “Shakepeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted”

1620: Arrival of the Pilgrims in the New World aboard the Mayflower

1623: First Folio published: John Heminges and Henry Condell (members of Shakespeare’s company) publish a collection of the plays they consider authentic; it includes a poem of praise and reverence, presumably written by Ben Jonson, Shakespeare’s greatest critic and rival:   
"Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all time!"

1625: Death of James I; accession of Charles I

1629: Charles I dissolves Parliament

1631: Henry Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim publishes his Three Books of Occult Philosophy

1633: Galileo forced by the Inquisition to recant the Copernican theory

1642: Outbreak of civil war; theaters closed

1649: Execution of Charles I; beginning of Commonwealth and Protectorate

1649-1660: Time of the Interregnum

1655: Oliver Cromwell declared Lord Protector of the Realm

1658: Cromwell dies; his son Richard succeeds him as Lord Protector until 1559

1660: Restoration of Charles II