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Years 1556-1558

Shakespeare's life contemporary events
1556
Oct. 2. John Shakespeare buys a tenement on Greenhill Street and a house on Henley Street.

Nov. 24. Robert Arden leaves his youngest daughter, Mary, 60 acres of land in Wilmcote, and 10 marks.
Thomas Cranmer is burnt at the stake.
1557
John Shakespeare and Mary Arden are married. [?] Thomas Lodge, George Peele, and Thomas Morley are born.
1558
Sept. 15. Joan, first child of John and Mary Shakespeare, is christened. Calais is lost to France after 211 years of occupation.

Elizabeth ascends to the throne; protestantism is restored.

Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin (later Francis II), promising to convert Scotland to Roman Catholicism.

Robert Greene and Thomas Kyd are born.

William Cecil is appointed Secretary.