Millennium Timeline
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 - "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
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)
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