Henry VIII (1509-1547)

Edward VI (1547-1553)

                                                                                                                   1552 Birth of Edmund Spenser
                                                                                                                   1552-53 The Courtier translated

Mary Tudor (1553-1558)

                                                                                                                       1554 Birth of Sir Philip Sidney
                                                                                                                       1557 Tottel's Miscellany

Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                       1564 Birth of Christopher Marlowe
                                                                                                                       1564 Birth of William Shakespeare
1570 Excommunication of Elizabeth by Pope
                                                                                                                       1572 Birth of John Donne
1576 Construction of the Theatre on the South Bank
1584-86 Unsuccessful attempts to colonize Virginia
                                                                                                                       1586 Death of Sir Philip Sidney
                                                                                                                       1587 Tamburlaine performed
1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada
                                                                                                                       1590 Faerie Queene I-III
                                                                                                                       1590 Tamburlaine published
                                                                                                                       1593 Birth of George Herbert
                                                                                                                       1593 Death of Marlowe
                                                                                                                       1595 Sidney's Defence of Poetry
                                                                                                                       1599 Death of Edmund Spenser
                                                                                                                       1599-1601 Hamlet

James I (1603-1625)

1604 Hampton Court Conference
1605 Gunpowder Plot
1607 Foundation of colony in Virginia
                                                                                                                        1608 Birth of John Milton
1610 Galileo's Starry Messenger
1611 Publication of Authorized Version of the Bible
                                                                                                                        1616 Death of Shakespeare
1620 Mayflower Expedition

Charles I (1625-1649)

                                                                                                                        1631 Death of John Donne
1632 Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Principal Systems
                                                                                                                        1633 Death of George Herbert
                                                                                                                        1633 Donne's Songs and Sonnets
                                                                                                                        1633 Herbert's The Temple
1642-6 English Civil War
                                                                                                                        1645 Poems of Mr John Milton
1649 Execution of Charles I
1649-1660 The Commonwealth (Inter-regnum)

Charles II (1660-16xx)

                                                                                                                         1667 First edition of Paradise Lost
                                                                                                                         1674 Death of John Milton