The 16th Century (1501 - 1600)

A Royal Century in Greenwich - discovery of the New World.

1485 - 1509 King Henry VII

1509: Death of King Henry VII, King Henry VIII accedes to the throne and marries Catherine of Aragon , his elder brother's widow, at Greenwich.

1509 - 1547 King Henry VIII

1514: Thomas Wolsey appointed Archbishop of York

1515: Wolsey made Cardinal and then Chancellor of England

1515: Great tournament ground built at Greenwich by King Henry VIII.

1516: 18 February - Queen Mary I "Bloody Mary" (1516 - 1558) born in Greenwich.

1518: Ordinance depot (later Royal Arsenal) established at Woolwich.

1521: 11 October - Henry VIII became "Fidei Defensor" (Defender of the Faith)

1533: Henry VIII divorces Catherine of Aragon and marries Anne Boleyn

1533: 7 September - Queen Elizabeth I (1533 -1603) born in Greenwich.

1536: Anne Boleyn (second wife of Henry VIII) divorced then beheaded for adultery and incest

1536: Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour

1537: 12 October - Birth of Prince Edward (Edward VI)

1537: 25 October - Death of Jane Seymour

c1539: King Henry VIII met Anne of Cleaves at a Blackheath pageant.

1540: Henry VIII marries and divorces Anne of Cleaves, then marries Catherine Howard

1540: Dissolution of the Monasteries begins

1542: Catherine Howard beheaded

1543: Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr

1547: 28 January - Death of King Henry VIII, Edward VI succeeds

1547 - 1553 King Edward VI

1553: Edward VI dies at Greenwich, aged 15, Mary Tudor succeeds

1553 - 1558 Queen Mary I

1555: Nostradamus publishes Centuries

1558: Queen Mary dies, Elizabeth succeeds

1558 - 1603 Queen Elizabeth I

1558: 17 November - Elizabeth proclaimed Queen

1559: Queen Elizabeth made head of the Church of England

1562: Hawkins and Drake initiate slave-trade with America

1568: Gerardus Mercator develops cylindrical map projections

1577: Drake starts voyage to circumnavigate the globe

1579: Francis Drake claims California for England

1581: Queen Elizabeth I watches, from Greenwich, Sir Francis Drake's return in Golden Hind. He is knighted at Deptford.

1582: Pope Gregory XIII introduces New Style (Gregorian) Calendar. April 1 no longer is New Year's Day and is known as "fool's holiday" for those who did not accept the change.

1587: Queen Elizabeth I signed death warrant of Mary Queen of Scots (1542 - 1587) at Greenwich.

1588: Spanish Armada defeated by the English fleet

1595: Sir Walter Ralegh's first expedition to South America

1596: Johannes Kepler publishes Mysterium cosmographicum (Mysteries of the Cosmos)