Years 1586-1587
| Shakespeare's life | contemporary events |
| 1586 | |
|
The Babington Plot to assassinate Elizabeth. Mary
condemned to death because of alleged complicity. Pope Sixtus V offers Philip of Spain one million crowns for a successful invasion of England. Cavendish's first voyage to the South Seas. John Ford is born. Sir Philip Sidney dies. | |
| 1587 | |
| [The "lost years." Sometime between 1586 and 1594 Shakespeare leaves Stratford and moves to London.] |
Mary, Queen of Scots is executed. Drake raids the port of Cadiz, delaying the Armada. The Rose theatre is built on the Bankside in London; Companies of Earls of Essex and Leicester act at Stratford. Christopher Marlowe writes Tamburlaine. |