A Brief Chronology of Shakespeare's Life and Work

(Some dates are approximate, especially those of the plays.)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

1509-47	Reign of Henry VIII
1534	Act of Supremacy, declaring Henry VIII head of the Church of England
1547-53	Reign of Edward VI
1553-58	Reign of Mary I. Return to Catholicism
1558-1603	Reign of Elizabeth I
1563	Adoption of the Thirty-Nine Articles
1564	William Shakespeare born April 23
1569	Northern Catholic rebellion suppressed
1576	James Burbage builds The Theatre
1578	John Lyly, Euphues
1579	Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calendar
1582	Shakespeare's marriage to Anne Hathaway, November
1583	Birth of Susanna, May 26
1583-84	Plots against Elizabeth on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots
1584	John Lyly, Galatea
1585	Births of Shakespeare's son Hamnet and his twin sister Judith, February 2. Earl of Leicester sent to aid the Dutch against the Spanish
1587	Execution of Mary Queen of Scots February 8
1588	At some point, Shakespeare moves to London; family remains in Stratford War with Spain. The Spanish Armada fleet destroyed in July
1588-94	Shakespeare writes the early comedies and histories and the early tragedy Titus Andronicus
1590	Thomas Lodge, Rosalynde; Philip Sidney, Arcadia; Spenser, Faerie Queene, Books 1-3
1592	Shakespeare attacked in print by Robert Greene
1593	Venus and Adonis
1593-1603	The Sonnets
1594	Shakespeare joins the Lord Chamberlain's Men; The Rape of Lucrece
1594-5	A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard II, Romeo and Juliet
1596-8	The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV Parts I and II
1597	Earl of Essex sent to Ireland to put down a rebellion led by the Earl of Tyrone; George Chapman, An Humorous Day's Mirth
1598	Jonson, Every Man in His Humour
1598-9	Much Ado About Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor
1599	Shakespeare's company moves to the Globe. As You Like It, Henry V, Julius Caesar Prohibition and public burning of satires
1600-02	Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet, All's Well That Ends Well
1601	Shakespeare's father dies Essex's abortive rebellion and his execution; T. Dekker, Satiromastix; Jonson, Poetaster; the "Poet's War"
1603	Shakespeare's company the Chamberlain's Men becomes the King's Men Death of Elizabeth I; coronation of James I, March 24
1603-4	Measure for Measure, Othello
1604	James's confrontation of the Puritans at the Hampton Court Conference. Peace with Spain.
1605	The Gunpowder Plot foiled November 5
1605-6	King Lear
1606-7	Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles
1608	Coriolanus
1609-11	Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest
1613-14	Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen Shakespeare in retirement, living in Stratford. Globe burns
1616	Death of Shakespeare, April 23