1540s in England

Incumbents

• Monarch – Henry VIII, Edward VI
• Regent – Catherine, Queen Consort
• Lord Protector – Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
• Parliament – 7th of King Henry VIII, 8th of King Henry VIII, 9th of King Henry VIII, 1st of King Edward VI

  Events

• 1540
• * January – Shap Abbey and Dunstable Priory are closed down as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• * 2 January – Gloucester Abbey is closed down as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• * 6 January – King Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort.
• * 14 January – Southwark Priory in London is surrendered to the Crown as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• * 29 January – Bolton Abbey, a Yorkshire priory, is closed down as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• * 16 February – Thetford Priory is closed down as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• * 23 March – Waltham Abbey is the last abbey to close as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• * April – the cathedral priories of Canterbury and Rochester are transformed into secular cathedral chapters, concluding the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• * 9 July – Henry divorces Anne of Cleves.
• * 28 July – Thomas Cromwell is executed on order from the king on charges of treason in public on Tower Hill, London. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day at Oatlands Palace.
• * Summer – Council of the West last sits.
• * 17 September – Anglican Diocese of Westminster created.
• * Statute of Wills makes it possible to dispose of real estate by will.
• * Regius Professorships endowed at Cambridge University.
• * Publication of The Byrth of Mankynde, the first printed book in English on obstetrics, and one of the first published in England to include engraved plates.
• 1541
• * 18 June – by the Crown of Ireland Act, the Parliament of Ireland declares King Henry VIII of England and his heirs to be Kings of Ireland, replacing the Lordship of Ireland with the Kingdom of Ireland.
• * Early summer – Collyer's School opens to scholars in Horsham.
• * 14 August – Anglican Diocese of Chester created.
• * 3 September – the Anglican Diocese of Gloucester is created from part of the Diocese of Worcester with John Wakeman as first Bishop of Gloucester.
• * Anglican Diocese of Peterborough formed.
• * Berkhamsted School founded by John Incent, Dean of St Paul's.
• * The King's School, Canterbury, King's School, Chester, The King's School, Ely, King's School, Gloucester, The King's School, Peterborough, King's School, Rochester and King's School, Worcester are established by Henry VIII.
• 1542
• * 13 February – Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, is executed in the Tower of London for adultery.
• * 4 June – the Anglican Diocese of Bristol is created from part of the newly formed Diocese of Gloucester with Paul Bush as first Bishop of Bristol.
• * 24 August – Battle of Haddon Rig: Scottish victory over the English.
• * 4 September – earliest recorded Preston Guild Court in the modern sequence, which lasts unbroken until 1922.
• * September – Anglican Diocese of Oxford formed.
• * 24 November – Battle of Solway Moss: English victory over the Scots.
• * Muster rolls are compiled in the counties.
• 1543
• * 11 February – Henry allies with Emperor Charles V against France.
• * March – Consolidating Act of Welsh Union: Parliament establishes counties and regularises parliamentary representation in Wales.
• * 1 July – Treaty of Greenwich between England and Scotland.
• * 12 July – King Henry VIII marries his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.
• * 4 August – three Protestant Windsor Martyrs suffer death by burning.
• * Thomas Tallis becomes a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.
• 1544
• * March – Third Succession Act, reinstating Princesses Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession to the English throne, given Royal Assent.
• * April – posthumous publication of Cardinal John Fisher's Psalmi seu precationes in the original and in an anonymous English translation by its sponsor, Queen Catherine Parr.
• * 3 May – Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford captures Leith and Edinburgh from Scotland, start of the first major campaign in the Rough Wooing.
• * 19 July–18 September – Italian War of 1542–1546: Henry VIII leads the First Siege of Boulogne in France.
• * Thomas Cranmer's "Exhortation and Litany" is issued, the first officially authorised vernacular church service in English.
• * Second programme of construction of Device Forts for defence of the Solent is ordered.
• * English coinage debased.
• 1545
• * 27 February – Scottish victory over the English at the Battle of Ancrum Moor.
• * 29 May – publication of Catherine Parr's Prayers or Meditations, the first book published by an English queen under her own name, and the King's Primer, another devotional work overseen by her.
• * July – Italian Wars: Attempted French invasion of the Isle of Wight.
• * 18-19 July – Battle of the Solent between English and French fleets. On 19 July, Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, sinks.
• * c.21 July – Battle of Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight: The French are defeated.
• * Sir Thomas Cawarden becomes the first Master of the Revels to be head of an independent office.
• * Roger Ascham's Toxophilus, the first book on archery written in English, is published.
• * Thomas Phaer's The Boke of Chyldren, the first book on paediatrics written in English, is published.
• * First published edition of Sir John Fortescue's De laudibus legum Angliae.
• 1546
• * 24 April – Navy Board established.
• * 7 June – Treaty of Ardres ends the Italian War of 1542–1546; Henry VIII promises eventual return of Boulogne to France.
• * 4 November – Christ Church, Oxford, refounded as a college by Henry VIII under this name.
• * 19 December – Trinity College, Cambridge, founded by Henry VIII.
• * Regius Professorship of Hebrew at the University of Oxford established by Henry VIII.
• 1547
• * 19 January – execution of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, for treason.
• * 28 January – King Henry VIII dies at the Palace of Whitehall and is succeeded by his 9-year-old son Edward VI as King.
• * 31 January – Edward Seymour becomes regent of England.
• * 20 February – Edward VI is crowned at Westminster Abbey.
• * 4 April – Catherine Parr, widow of King Henry VIII, secretly marries Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley.
• * 10 September – Battle of Pinkie: An English army under Edward Seymour, now the Duke of Somerset, defeats a Scottish army under James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, the Regent. The English seize Edinburgh.
• * Edward Seymour begins the construction of Somerset House, London.
• * Treason Act makes it high treason to interrupt the line of succession to the throne established by the Act of Succession; and requires two witnesses to prove a charge of treason.
• *Six Articles repealed.
• * King James's School, Almondbury, West Yorkshire, founded as a chantry school.
• 1548
• * Dissolution of collegiate churches and chantries:
• **Beverley Minster in Yorkshire is suppressed as a collegiate church on Easter Sunday.
• ** Howden Minster in Yorkshire is suppressed as a collegiate church.
• ** Destruction of the religious colleges of Glasney and Crantock in Cornwall end the formal scholarship that has helped sustain the Cornish language and cultural identity.
• * King's School, Pontefract, re-founded.
• * Clergy Marriage Act 1548 removes bars to clerical marriage.
• * John Bale writes Kynge Johan, the earliest English historical drama.
• * Edward Hall's The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke is published posthumously.
• 1549
• * 15 January – Act of Uniformity imposes the Book of Common Prayer.
• * 9 June
• ** Book of Common Prayer introduced in churches.
• ** Prayer Book Rebellion against the Book of Common Prayer breaks out at Sampford Courtenay in Devon and in Cornwall.
• * July – Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk against land enclosures; rebellion in Oxfordshire against landowners associated with religious changes.
• * 6 August – Prayer Book Rebellion: Battle of Clyst Heath – John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford defeats rebels.
• * 8 August – France declares war on England.
• * 9 August – England declares war on France.
• * 17 August – Battle of Sampford Courtenay: Prayer Book rebellion quashed.
• * 26 August – Battle of Dussindale, near Norwich: Kett's Rebellion quashed.
• * 10 October – Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset loses the position of Lord Protector, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick assumes his powers but does not acquire the title.
• * 5 December – Cardinal Reginald Pole receives 26 votes at the Papal conclave, only two short of the requisite two-thirds majority to be elected as Pope.
• * December – Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter is published.
• * The spire of Lincoln Cathedral is blown down.

  Births

• 1540
• * 24 January – Edmund Campion, Jesuit and Roman Catholic martyr
• * 25 February – Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, courtier and scholar
• * c. February or March – Sir Francis Drake, explorer and soldier
• * 11 June – Barnabe Googe, poet
• * William Byrd, composer
• * George Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, nobleman
• * Christopher Hatton, politician
• 1541
• * Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, nobleman
• 1542
• * 5 May – Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, politician
• * 6 June – Richard Grenville, soldier and explorer
• 1543
• * 8 November – Lettice Knollys, lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I
• * Thomas Deloney, novelist and balladeer
• * Douglas Sheffield, Baroness Sheffield, née Howard, lover of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
• 1544
• * April – Thomas Fleming, judge
• * 24 May – William Gilbert, scientist
• * Thomas Hobson, carrier and origin of the phrase "Hobson's choice"
• * George Whetstone, writer
• 1545
• * 2 March – Thomas Bodley, diplomat and library founder
• * Nicholas Breton, poet and novelist
• * John Field, Puritan clergyman and controversialist
• * John Gerard, botanist
• 1546
• * 13 June – Tobias Matthew, archbishop of York
• * 24 June – Robert Persons, Jesuit priest
• * Thomas Digges, astronomer
• 1547
• *Peter Bales, calligrapher
• * George Carey, Baron Hunsdon, politician
• * Richard Stanyhurst, translator of Virgil
• 1548
• * William Stanley, soldier
• 1549
• * 12 July – Edward Manners, Earl of Rutland
• * 30 November – Sir Henry Savile, educator
• * John Rainolds, scholar and Bible translator

  Deaths

• 1540
• * c. January – Elizabeth Blount, mistress of King Henry VIII
• * 28 July – Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, statesman
• * 30 July
• ** Thomas Abel, priest
• ** Robert Barnes, reformer
• 1541
• * 27 May – Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury
• * 24 November – Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII and queen of James IV of Scotland
• * 10 December – Thomas Culpeper, courtier
• 1542
• * 13 February – Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII
• * 3 March – Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, illegitimate son of King Edward IV
• * 6 October – Thomas Wyatt, poet and diplomat
• 1543
• * 19 July – Mary Boleyn, mistress of Kings Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England
• * 20 September – Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland
• * Margaret Lee, lady-in-waiting, sister of poet Thomas Wyatt
• 1544
• * 30 April – Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, Lord Chancellor
• 1545
• * April/October – William Latimer, churchman and scholar
• * May – Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, noblewoman
• * 24 August – Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, politician and husband of Mary Tudor
• * 18 October – John Taverner, composer
• 1546
• * 26 March – Thomas Elyot, diplomat and scholar
• * 16 July – Anne Askew, Protestant
• 1547
• * 19 January – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, nobleman, politician and poet
• * 28 January – King Henry VIII
• * c. May – Edward Hall, chronicler and lawyer
• * October or November – John Redford, composer, poet and playwright
• 1548
• * 7 September – Catherine Parr, queen of Henry VIII
• 1549
• * 10 March – Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, politician and diplomat
• * April – Andrew Boorde, traveller
• * 15 April – Henry Somerset, Earl of Worcester
• * 7 December – Robert Kett, rebel