18 June – the first known life insurance policy is issued in London.[11]
5 August – Humphrey Gilbert, in what is to become the city of St. John's, claims the island of Newfoundland on behalf of England.[5] Ships of his fleet are wrecked, and Gilbert drowns, on the return passage of the Atlantic.
10 December – great fire of Nantwich in Cheshire breaks out.[13]
Posthumous publication of Thomas Smith's treatise De Republica Anglorum: the Maner of Gouernement or Policie of the Realme of England (written 1562–65).
Publication of Philip Stubbs' tract The Anatomie of Abuses.
21 January – Robert Nutter, Thomas Worthington and 18 other Roman Catholic priests are perpetually banished from England by order of Queen Elizabeth, placed on the ship Mary Martin of Colchester and transported to France.[17]
2 March – William Parry executed for plotting Queen Elizabeth's murder.[1]
19 May – Spain seizes English ships in Spanish ports.[1]
14 March – Black Assize of Exeter opens: "gaol fever" (probably epidemic typhus), spreading from Rougemont Castle in Exeter, kills 8 judges, 11 of 12 jurors, and ravages the surrounding population for several months; many prominent members of the Devonshire gentry are among the dead.
22 September – Battle of Zutphen: Spanish troops defeat Dutch rebels and their English allies. Poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney is mortally wounded and dies on 17 October.[4]
1 March – Sir Anthony Cope and Sir Peter Wentworth are imprisoned for attempting to bring forward Parliamentary legislation interfering with the Queen's ecclesiastical prerogative.[1]
18–20 May (28–30 May NS) – the Spanish Armada sets sail from the Tagus estuary for an attempted invasion of England.[1]
19 July (29 July NS) – the Armada is sighted off The Lizard in Cornwall; the news is relayed to London via a series of beacons built along the south coast.[1]
21 July (31 July NS) – the first engagement between the English and Spanish fleets, off Plymouth, results in an English victory. The English fleet is under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham with Sir Francis Drake as Vice Admiral.
23 July (2 August NS) – the English and Spanish fleets meet again, off Portland; the English again have the better of it.
28 July (7 August NS) – the English send fire ships into the French fleet, now anchored off Calais, breaking their formation.
2 August (12 August NS) – the fleeing Spanish fleet sails past the Firth of Forth and the English call off their pursuit. Much of the Spanish fleet will be destroyed by storms as it sails for home around Scotland and Ireland.
13 April – an English Armada led by Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys and largely financed by private investors sets sail to attack the Iberian Peninsula's Atlantic coast[4] but fails to achieve any naval advantage.
Publication of Richard Hakluyt's The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation begins.
^ abcdefghijklmnopPalmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 160–162. ISBN0-7126-5616-2.
^Churchyard, Thomas (April 8, 1580). A Warning to the Wyse, a Feare to the Fond, a Bridle to the Lewde, and a Glasse to the Good; written of the late Earthquake chanced in London and other places, the 6th of April, 1580, for the Glory of God and benefit of men, that warely can walk, and wisely judge; Set forth in verse and prose. London.
^ abTracy, James D. (2008). The Founding of the Dutch Republic: War, Finance, and Politics in Holland 1572–1588. Oxford University Press. pp. 157–158, 216.
^"Vens. Robert Nutter and Edward Thwing", in The Catholic Encyclopedia, ed. by John Wainewright (Robert Appleton Company, 1911).
^Wainewright, John Bannerman (1914). "Venerable John Adams". In Burton, Edwin H.; Pollen, J. H. (eds.). Lives of the English Martyrs. London: Longmans, Green.
^Wagner, Peter; Davis, Pat; Sauter, John; McKeone, John (1999-01-07). "Oaten Hills Martyrs". RCNet. Archived from the original on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2012-06-06.
