Part 51

1255 All possessing £15 per annum, obliged to be knighted, or pay a fine. Tapestry introduced by Eleanor, wife of prince Edward.

1264 There were 700 Jews slain in London, because one of them would have forced a Christian to have paid more than two-pence, for the use of twenty shillings a week.

1269 About this time, Roger Bacon, a divine of Merton College in Oxford, was imprisoned by the Pope, for preaching against the Romish church.

1273 The Scots swear fealty to Edward, June 12.

1275 Jews obliged to wear a badge; usury restrained by the same act of parliament, October 6.

1279 The first statute of Mortmain. 280 Jews hung for clipping and coining.

1282 The Rolls in Chancery-lane given to the Jews. Wales reduced, after having preserved her liberties 800 years.

1284 Edward II born at Caernarvon, and created first prince of Wales, April 25.

1285 The abbey Church of Westminster finished, being sixty years in building.

1286 The Jews seized, and £12,000 extorted from them by order of the king. He likewise laid great fines upon his judges, and other ministers, for their corruption; the sum imposed upon eleven of them was 236,000 marks.

1289 15,000 Jews banished.

1291 Charing, Waltham, St. Albans, and Dunstable crosses erected, where the corpse of queen Eleanor was rested on its way from Lincoln to Westminster for interment.

1295 The Scots confederate with the French against the English.

1296 Baliol, king of Scotland, brought prisoner to London.

1298 40,000 Scots killed by the English at the battle of Falkirk. Sir William Wallace defeated at Falkirk. Baliol released. Spectacles invented.

1301 Parliament declared Scotland subject to England.

1302 The treasury robbed of property to the amount of £100,000. Magnetic needle first used.

1308 Crockery ware invented.

1314 The king defeated at Bannockburn, in Scotland.

1319 Dublin University founded.

1322 Knights templar order abolished. Under the accusation of heresy and other vices, all the knights templar were seized by order of the king, in one day. The knights templar were an order instituted by Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, for the defence of the Holy City, and of the pilgrims that travelled thither, and were afterwards dispersed through all the kingdoms in Christendom. They were so enriched by the superstitious world, that they possessed no less than 14,000 lordships, besides other valuable lands.

1325 The queen and her adherents declared enemies to the kingdom.

1326 The nobility renounce all fealty to Edward. The king resigns his crown to his son Edward III.

1327 The first general pardon granted at a coronation, which was afterwards imitated by succeeding kings.

1330 Gunpowder invented. The use of guns by Berthold Swartz of Cologne in Germany, a monk, who being addicted to the study of Chemistry, and making up a preparation of Nitre, and other things, a spark of fire fell into it and caused a quick and violent explosion; whereupon he made a composition of powder, and inclosing it in an instrument of brass, found it answer his intention, and by this accident came the invention of Guns.

1331 The art of weaving cloth brought from Flanders.

1340 Copper money first used in Scotland and Ireland. Thomas Blanket and some other inhabitants of Bristol, set up looms for weaving those woollen cloths that yet bear that name.

1341 Gold first coined in England.

1346 Cannon first used by the English at Cressy.

1347 So great a plague in England, that in one year there was buried in London 50,000; and there succeeded a famine and murrain. August 3rd, king Edward took the City of Calais, which he filled with English inhabitants; and it remained in the possession of the Crown of England 210 years after.

1348 The Order of the Garter instituted by Edward the Black Prince, April 3. The plague destroyed one-half of the people.

1352 The largest silver coin in England was groats.

1357 Coals first imported into London.

1362 Council obliged to plead in English.

1364 Four kings entertained at one time, by Sir Henry Picard, lord mayor of London.

1377 The first champion at coronation. Orders to arm the clergy.

1378 The plague in the north of England. In this year Greenland was discovered.

1379 Every person in the kingdom taxed, April 25.

1381 Bills of Exchange first used. Wat Tyler’s rebellion begun May 3. 1506 rebels hung, July 2.

1385 The French land in Scotland, in order to invade England, whereupon king Richard went to fight them, and put Edinburgh into flames, but they refusing to fight, he returns.

1386 Linen-weavers company first settled.

1387 The first high-admiral of England appointed. William of Wickham, bishop of Winchester, and lord treasurer, and chancellor of England, laid the foundation of the college in Winchester, as a nursery for his college in Oxford.

1388 Bombs invented.

1391 A great plague and famine. Cards invented for the King of France. Charles VI.

1392 Thirteen counties charged with treason, and obliged to purchase their pardons. Provision seized, without payment, for the army. Duke of Lancaster landed, and declared his pretensions to the crown, July 4. Richard confined in the tower, August 20. Resigned his crown, September 29. In this reign piked shoes were worn tied with ribands and chains of silver to the knees. Ladies began to ride on side saddles, before which time they used to ride astride like men.

1399 Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, died. A conspiracy formed to restore Richard.

1400 Richard II murdered in Pontefract Castle. Emperor of Constantinople visited England.

1403 The battle of Shrewsbury, July 22, gained by Henry and the valour of his sons.

1405 Great guns first used in England, at the siege of Berwick.

1407 A plague destroyed 30,000 persons in London.

1409 Wickliffe’s doctrine condemned.

1414 King Henry sends his brother, the Duke of Bedford, &c., with 200 sail of ships, who fell upon the French fleet, sunk 500 French vessels, and took three great Carricks of Genoa; relieved Harfleur, and so forced the French to raise the siege. In this action many thousands of the French were killed.

1415 The battle of Agincourt gained by Henry, with a loss of 10,000 men to the French, killed, and 14,000 prisoners, October 25th. Henry sent David Gam, a Welsh captain, to view the strength of the enemy, who reported, “There were enough to be killed, enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away.”

1418 Sir John Oldcastle burnt for heresy in St. Giles’s fields.

1419 Vines and sugar-cane first planted in Madeira.

1420 Henry assumes the title of King of France, on a new coin, April 18th. Kings of France and England make a magnificent entry into Paris.

1421 The Duke of Clarence, making an inroad into Anjou, in an unhappy engagement with the French, he and about 2,000 English were slain.

1422 The two Courts of England and France held at Paris, on Whitsunday: the two Kings and Queens dined together in public, May 21st. In this reign it was enacted that knights, citizens, and burgesses, should be resident in the place for which they were chosen. The crown and jewels were pawned to raise money for maintaining the war with France.

1422 The French King enlisted 15,000 Scots.

1424 The King of Scotland ransomed.

1430 Every person possessed of £40 per annum, obliged to be knighted.

1436 Paris taken by the English.

1437 James, King of Scotland, murdered, February 19th. So great a dearth, that bread was made of fern roots and ivy berries.

1447 The Bodleian library at Oxford founded.

1448 Duke of York asserts his title to the crown.

1449 A rebellion in Ireland.

1450 The King and his forces defeated at Seven-oaks, by Jack Cade, in May. Cade killed, and his followers dispersed, in June.

1453 The first Lord Mayor’s show. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, encounters the Queen’s army, near Wakefield in Yorkshire, in which he was killed, and his army routed. Edward Plantagenet, Earl of March, hearing of his father’s death, took upon him the title of Duke of York, and in a battle, at Mortimer’s-cross, near Ludlow, overthrew the Earls of Pembroke, Ormond, and Wiltshire, and beheaded Owen Tudor, the King’s father-in-law. And in another battle with the Queen, he killed the Earls of Northumberland, and Westmoreland; the Lords Dacres, Wells, Clifford, Beaumont, and Grey. This was the bloodiest battle that England ever knew, for there were killed that day 36,776 men.

1454 The king defeated by the Duke of York, at Barnet.

1459 Engravings and etchings invented.

1460 The King taken prisoner at the battle of Northampton.

1461 Edward, the Duke of York, proclaimed King. Richard Plantagenet, brother to Edward IV, created Duke of Gloucester. Henry, Margaret, their sons, and adherents, attained by parliament, November 6th.

1463 Woollens, laces, ribands, and other English manufactures, prohibited exportation.

1464 Henry, in disguise, taken prisoner, and conveyed to the Tower.

1469 5,000 Welsh slain at the battle of Branbury.

1470 Warwick, being offended at the marriage of Edward IV, landed September 13th, with 60,000 men from France. Edward IV flies to the Duke of Burgundy, his brother-in-law, in Holland.

1471 King Edward, endeavouring to re-obtain the crown, encounters King Henry in a bloody battle, upon Gladmore heath, near Barnet, and King Henry taken prisoner a second time. On both sides were slain 10,000 men. King Henry’s Queen, in a battle with King Edward, was taken prisoner, 3,000 on her side were slain, and her son Edward killed; and soon after, King Henry himself was murdered by the hand of the crook-back’d Duke of Gloucester.

1472 A plague in England destroyed more than preceding fifteen year’s war.

1475 Margaret of Anjou, ransomed for £12,500.

1481 James, King of Scotland, caused one of his brothers to be murdered. Thomas Parr born this year, and lived 152 years. A remarkable act was passed in this reign, which enacted what sort of dress each class of men should wear. Another enacted that no peaked shoes should be worn.

1483 Gloucester conveyed the King to Northampton. Lords Hastings, Rivers, and Grey beheaded. The Lord Mayor, &c., at the instigation of the Duke of Buckingham, offered the crown to the Duke of Gloucester, who, with affected hesitation, accepted it, June 17th. King Edward V, and his brother, the Duke of York, murdered in the Tower. Jane Shore, concubine to King Edward IV, and afterwards to Lord Hastings, was obliged to do penance publicly in St. Paul’s. She was afterwards starved to death, no person being allowed to relieve her, and died in a ditch; to which circumstance, Shoreditch is said to owe its name. Edward V was born in Westminster Abbey, November 4th, 1470; reigning two months and eighteen days, was murdered in the Tower, and buried there privately. His remains were afterwards found in 1674, and removed to Westminster. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, (the English Nero,) proclaimed King of England. Post-horses and stages established. Earl of Richmond landed at Pool in Dorsetshire. Being nearly surprised by Richard, he embarked again, and returned to Picardy.

1484 Anne, the Queen of Richard, died March 16th. Richard treats with Laudais, the Duke of Bretagne’s prime minister, for surprising and delivering up the Earl of Richmond. Richmond, escaping from Bretagne, went to Angers, in Anjou.

1485 Lord Stanley raises 5000 men, and his brother 2000, with whom they joined Richmond. The sweating sickness, raged in London.

1486 King Henry, to balance the power of the Lords, found a way to raise that of the Commons, which ever since has carried a much greater sway than formerly in the government.

1487 Lambert Simnel, who personated the Duke of York, was made a scullion in the King’s kitchen. The star chamber instituted.

1488 The King of Scotland, James III, killed by his subjects. Cape of Good Hope discovered.

1489 Maps and sea charts first brought into England by Bartholomew Columbus.

1491 The Greek language first introduced into England.

1492 3rd August, Columbus set sail from Palos, a port of Spain, and on the 12th of October, to his unspeakable gratification, he made his first discovery in the New World. This was one of the Bahama Islands, called by the natives Guanahani, named by Columbus St. Salvador, and afterwards, by some unpardonable caprice, called by the English Cat Island. He landed the same day, took possession of it in the name of the Spanish sovereigns, and assumed the titles of Admiral and Viceroy, which had been awarded to him before he sailed from Europe.

1493 15th March. Columbus arrived in Spain after a stormy and dangerous voyage, having taken not quite seven months and a-half to accomplish this momentous enterprize.

1494 Poyning’s law, which enacted that the statutes in England, respecting the English, should be observed in Ireland likewise, first instituted by Sir Edward Poyning.

1495 Cicely, Duchess of York, mother to King Edward IV, died, being very old, who had lived to see three Princes born of her body, crowned, and four murdered.

1497 Perkin Warbeck besieged Exeter. The passage to the Indies by the way of the Cape of Good Hope discovered. 3rd July, John Cabot discovered Newfoundland. He sailed from the Port of Bristol, in the spring of 1497, and, on the 3rd of July, discovered the coast of Labrador. The opposite Island, now called Newfoundland, they called St. Johns, having landed there on St. John’s day. To the mainland they gave the name of _Terra prima vista_--or Primavista (first seen). The English navigators thus reached the continent of North America only five years after Columbus had discovered the West Indies, and more than a year before he had landed on the continent or main land.

1499 Perkin Warbeck taken and hung at Tyburn, and the last Earl of the Plantagenet line was beheaded on Tower-hill, November 28th.

1500 A plague in London, which destroyed 30,000 of its inhabitants. A marriage was concluded between James IV, King of Scotland, and Margaret, the daughter of King Henry VII, which afterwards united England and Scotland under one King.

1505 Shillings first coined in England.

1513 Earl of Surrey gained the battle of Flodden-field, over the Scots, whose King, James IV, fell in the contest. King Henry invades France in person, takes Terwin and Tournay, at the siege of which, the Emperor Maximilian served under the King’s pay. At which siege likewise, was fought that battle called the battle of Spurs, because the English put some of the French troops to flight who made great use of their spurs.

1514 Enacted that surgeons should not sit on juries, nor be employed in parish offices.

1517 Oxford depopulated by stagnated waters. Martin Luther began the reformation in Germany.

1521 King Henry derived the title to him and his successors of Defender of the Faith, from writing a book against Luther. Musquets first invented. Mexico city yielded, after a prolonged siege, to Cortez, in August.

1522 Magellan performed his voyage under the auspices of Charles V, of Spain. He set sail from Seville, in Spain, in August, 1519. After spending several months on the coast of South America, searching for a passage to the Indies, he continued his voyage to the South, passed through the strait that bears his name, and after sailing three months and twenty-one days, through an unknown ocean, he discovered a cluster of fertile islands, which he named the Ladrones, or the Islands of Thieves, from the thievish disposition of the natives. The fair weather and favourable winds which he experienced induced him to bestow on this the name of the Pacific, which it still retains. Proceeding from the Ladrones, he discovered the islands which were afterwards called the Philippines in honour of Philip, King of Spain, who subjected them forty years after the voyage of Magellan. Here, in a contest with the natives, Magellan was killed, and the expedition was prosecuted under other commanders. After taking in a cargo of spices at the Moluccas, the only vessel of the squadron then fit for a long voyage, sailed for Europe by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived in Spain in September, 1522.

1530 The palace of St. James built.

1535 Brass cannon first cast in England by John Owen. Jacques Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence on that Saint’s day. He explored the north-east coast carefully, and, passing through the Strait of Belleisle, traversed the great Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and arrived in the Bay of Chaleurs in July. He was delighted with the peaceable and friendly conduct of the natives, “who,” says Hakluyt, “with one of their boats, came unto us, and brought us pieces of seals ready sodden, putting them upon pieces of wood: then, retiring themselves, they would make signs unto us, that they did give them to us.” From this hospitable place, where the natives seem to have displayed some of the politeness of modern society, Jacques Cartier proceeded to Gaspé Bay, where he erected a cross thirty feet high, with a shield bearing the three fleurs-de-lis of France, thus taking possession in the name of Francis the First. He carried off two natives from Gaspé, who were of great use to him on his succeeding voyage. It appears, however, that it was with their own consent, as they allowed themselves to be clothed in shirts, coloured coats and caps, and to have a copper chain placed about their neck, “whereat they were greatly contented, and gave their old clothes to their fellows that went back again.” Cartier coasted along the northern shores of the Gulf, when, meeting with boisterous weather, he made sail for France, and arrived at St. Malo on the 5th of September. This celebrated navigator deserves especial notice, inasmuch as he was the first who explored the shores of Canada to any considerable extent, and was the very first European who became acquainted with the existence of Hochelaga, and in 1535 pushed his way through all obstacles till he discovered and entered the village which occupied the very spot on which now stands the city of Montreal.

1536 376 monasteries suppressed.

1539 Leaden pipes to convey water invented.

1540 645 religious houses seized, and their property, amounting to £161,000, given to the King. The number of monasteries suppressed in England and Wales, were 313, Priories 290, Friaries 122, Nunneries 142, Colleges 152, and Hospitals 129; in all 1148.

1541 1st voyage to India by an English ship.

1543 Mortars and cannon first cast in iron.

1544 Pistols first used.

1545 William Foxley slept fourteen days, and lived forty-one days after.

1547 The vows of celibacy before taken by priests, annulled, and the communion ordered to be administered in both kinds. Evening prayers began to be read in English in the King’s chapel, April 16th. The Scots refusing to marry their young Queen to King Edward (according to their promise in his father’s life-time), the protector enters Scotland with an army of 12,000 foot, and 600 horse, and fights them in Pinkey-field, near Musselburgh, and kills 14,000 Scots, and takes 1500 prisoners, having lost but sixty of his own men.

1548 Some ceremonies were now abrogated, and an order of council against the carrying of candles, on Candlemas-day, ashes on Ash-Wednesday, and palms on Palm-Sunday.

1549 Telescopes invented.

1551 The sweating-sickness broke out this year In England with such contagion, that 800 died in one week of it in London. Those that were taken with it were inclined much to sleep, and all that slept died; but if they were kept awake a day, they got well. A college founded in Galway in Ireland. Common-prayer books established by act of parliament. Monks and nuns allowed inheritances. Sternhold and Hopkins translated and put the Psalms into verse.

1553 There was so great a plenty of malt and wheat, that a barrel of beer with the cock sold for six-pence, and four great loaves for one penny. The King founded St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Bridewell, improved the Hospital of Christchurch and St. Thomas’ Hospital, Southwark. Judge Hales, in his circuit into Kent, required the justices to see to the execution of King Edward’s laws: for which he was committed, and removed from prison to prison, and threatened so, that he attempted to cut his own throat, and at last drowned himself.

1553 Spitzbergen, the White Sea, and Nova Zembla, discovered by the English.

1554 The laws against Lollards and Heretics were revived, and the statutes of Mortmain repealed. There was at this time a discovery in London of the imposter of the Spirit of the Wall, who, by the help of a whistle, uttered several things relating to religion, and the state, through a hole in a wall. It was found to be Elizabeth Croses, and one Drake, her accomplice, who were both made to do penance for it publicly at St. Paul’s. Scory, bishop of Chichester, renounced his wife, and did penance for his marriage. It is supposed there were 12,000 of the clergy deprived for being married, and most of them were judged upon common fame, without any process, but a citation.

1555 The church lands, in the Queen’s possession, restored. Coaches first used in England.

1556 300 Protestants burnt for heresy.

1557 This year began with a visitation of the Universities. Commissioners were sent to Oxford, where they burnt all the English Bibles and heretical books they could find; and took up the body of Peter Martyr’s wife, who they said was a heretic, and buried it in a dunghill. And at Cambridge, they dug up the bodies of Bucer and Fagius, two heretics, and tied their coffins to stakes, and burnt them and their heretical books together. Cardinal Pole died November 15th.

1576-77-78 Three voyages by Frobisher in search of a North-west passage. Greenland explored.

1580 Drake, the first English circumnavigator.

1584 Virginia discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh.

1587 Davies’ Straits discovered by Davies, an English navigator. February 9th. Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay Castle.

1588 Destruction of the Spanish Armada.

1595 Falkland Islands, discovered by Hawkins.

1596 The first trading expedition to the East Indies.

1599 East India Company. Chauvin made two voyages to Tadousac.

1603 Death of Queen Elizabeth on 24th March, and accession of James VI.

1604 The present translation of the Bible made.

1605 The gun-powder plot discovered. The channel for the New River allowed to be cut. 97,304 person died in London, this year, whereof 68,596 died of the plague.

1608 Virginia planted by the English. Champlain returned to Canada, and Quebec founded 3rd July.

1609 East India company’s patent removed. Chelsea college founded. Alum brought to perfection by Sir J. Bouchier. Silk-worms first brought into England.

1610 Thermometers invented. King Henry IV of France murdered at Paris, by Ravillac, a Romish priest.

1611 Bartholomew Legat was condemned by the convocation for an Arian heretic. Legat was burnt at Smithfield for an Arian.

1612 Edward Wightman of Burton, burnt at Lichfield for a heretic.

1614 Sir Thomas Overbury poisoned in the Tower. The New River brought to London. Champlain returned to France. An inundation of the sea overflowed an extent of twelve miles in Norfolk and Lincolnshire.