Publication of Edmund Spenser's poetry The Faerie Queene[1] and his satire Mother Hubbard's Tale.
Publication of Thomas Lodge's prose tale Rosalynde: Euphues Golden Legacie.
1591
10 April – Merchant James Lancaster sets off on a voyage to the East Indies.[1]
22 July – The Durtnell (Dartnell) family of Brasted, Kent, begin to work as building contractors. The business continues under thirteen generations of the family until ceasing to trade in 2019.[2]
30 August–1 September – Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604): Battle of Flores off Flores Island (Azores) – the fleet of Spain is victorious over the English; English ship Revenge is captured on 1 September (and Richard Grenville fatally wounded) but soon afterwards is among many ships lost with all hands in a week-long Atlantic hurricane.
Nicholas Bacon completes the building of his red brick mansion, Culford Hall, in Suffolk, planting an oak in Culford Park which, as "King of the Park", will still be flowering in the 21st century.
August – 1592–93 London plague outbreak first observed: over 19,000 deaths in London and its surrounding parishes up to December 1593.[4] Theatres in London are consequently closed for much of the period.[1]
7 September – The great Portuguese carrack the Madre de Deus, captured on 3 August at the fierce Battle of Flores (1592) in the Azores, enters Dartmouth harbour and is subjected to mass theft.
approximate date – First performance of Shakespeare's play Richard III.[4]
1593
January – John Norden commissioned to make maps of all the counties of England.[4]
23 February – Peter Wentworth imprisoned for raising the issue of succession to the throne in Parliament.[4]
6 April – Witches of Warboys: Alice, John and Agnes Samuel found guilty of witchcraft and hanged.[6]
18 April – Anglo-Spanish War: Naval Battle of Blaye in the Gironde estuary sees a Spanish victory over the blockading English fleet, allowing the Spanish to relieve the French Catholic garrison of Blaye.[7]
After April – William Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis probably becomes his first published work, printed in London from his own manuscript. In his lifetime it will be his most frequently reprinted work: at least nine times.[8]
12 May – Arrest of dramatist Thomas Kyd in connection with the "Dutch church libel". "Atheist" literature found in his home is claimed to be Marlowe's.
30 May – Marlowe is stabbed to death in a dispute over the bill at a lodging house in Deptford.[1]
12 June – Sir Richard Hawkins sails from Plymouth to the South American Pacific with the aim of emulating the circumnavigation voyage of his cousin Drake. His squadron consists of the galleon Dainty (flagship), the storeshipHawk and the pinnace Fancy.
7 June – Roderigo Lopez executed for allegedly trying to poison Queen Elizabeth.[4]
1 or 2 July – Anglo-Spanish War: Hawkins is defeated in the South American Pacific by the Spanish Beltrán de Castro in the action of Atacames Bay, being captured along with his flagship.
Christmas – Students of Gray's Inn perform The Maske of Proteus and the Adamantine Rock before the Queen. Written by Francis Davison with music by Thomas Campion, it is probably the first staged masque in England.[10]
First known performances and publication of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus in London.[1]
21 February – Catholic martyr Robert Southwell hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London.[12] His Saint Peters Complaint, with Other Poemes is published in three editions posthumously.
February – James Burbage buys the disused Blackfriars Theatre in London, but is prevented from reusing it as a public theatre by a November petition by wealthy influential neighbors.[1]
John Harington describes the "Ajax", a precursor to the modern flush toilet, in The Metamorphosis of Ajax.
1597
October/November – The 3rd Spanish Armada almost makes landfall after being dispersed by a storm – a number of Spanish ships are captured off the coasts of Wales, Cornwall and Devon.
Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson's satirical comedy The Isle of Dogs performed in July or August before being suppressed by the Privy Council for its "slanderous matter".
1 January – Darcy v. Allein (The Case of Monopolies): The Court of King's Bench decides it is improper for any individual to be allowed a state monopoly over a trade.[17]
4 June – Bishops' Ban of 1599: Thomas Middleton's Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satires and John Marston's Scourge of Villainy are publicly burned as the ecclesiastical authorities clamp down on published satire.
9 October – Reginald Scot, writer on witchcraft and politician (born c. 1538)
29 November – Christopher Barker, royal printer (born c. 1529)
References
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwWilliams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 233–238. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
^"Britain's oldest building firm collapses". BBC News. 4 July 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
^Mabillard, Amanda (20 August 2000). "The Chronology of Shakespeare's Plays". Shakespeare online. Archived from the original on 2 August 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
^ abcdefghijkPalmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 163–165. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^"Witches of Warboys, Warboys Community Primary School website". Archived from the original on 9 October 2007. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
^Castex, Jean-Claude (2012). Dictionnaire des Batailles navales franco-anglaises. Les Éditions du Phare-Ouest. p. 59. ISBN 9782921668194.
^Cox, Michael, ed. (2004). The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860634-6.
^Chambers, Anne (2003). Ireland's Pirate Queen: The True Story of Grace O'Malley (2nd ed.). New York: MJF Books. ISBN 978-1-56731-858-6.
^Orgel, Stephen (1965). The Jonsonian Masque. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. p. 9.
^ abLeavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (2nd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.
^ abPenguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^"College history". Cambridge: Sidney Sussex College. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
^Rosen, Adrienne (2010). "Tudor Rebellions". In Tiller, Kate; Darkes, Giles (eds.). An Historical Atlas of Oxfordshire. Chipping Norton: Oxfordshire Record Society. pp. 82–3. ISBN 978-0-902509-68-9.
^Burke, James (1978). Connections. London: Macmillan. p. 162. ISBN 0-333-24827-9.
^Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X., eds. (1967). The Course of Irish History. Cork: Mercier Press. p. 371.
^A reverse sequence of events is argued in: Bednarz, James (1993). "Marston's Subversion of Shakespeare and Jonson: Histriomastix and the War of the Theaters". Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England. 6. New York: AMS Press: 103–28.
1590s in England 
