Historical Context of Macbeth
1533 - Henry VIII gets marriage to Catherine "annulled” while Anne Boleyn is already pregnant with Elizabeth.
The Church of England is started…
1535 – Thomas More executed
1547 – Henry VIII dies
1558 – Elizabeth I becomes queen of England at the age of 25, and reigns for 44 years
1559 - Queen Elizabeth bans all plays about current-day issues (of politics and/or religion). (Shakespeare wrote all
his plays under strict censorship laws.)
1564 – April 26 - Shakespeare baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, a town about 100 miles north of London, by his
parents John Shakespeare (a glover and alderman) and Mary Arden (daughter of genry). He is the third of their 8
children to be baptized, and receives a standard public education. He is drilled in the figures of speech, has “small
Latin and little Greek,” and never attends a university. The family is believed to have Roman Catholic sympathies
on both sides. The father ultimately loses his job as an alderman on account of being accused of illegal dealings in
wool.
1566 – England’s James I – to-be is born to Mary, Queen of Scots
1568 – Mary Queen of Scots imprisoned by Elizabeth
1570 – Pope declares Elizabeth illegitimate and says her subjects do not have to obey her
1578 – Shakespeare (age 18) marries Anne Hathaway (age 26). Their daughter Susanna is born 6 months later.
Later, they have twins (Hamnet and Judith).
1587 - Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, is killed by Elizabeth. Mary’s son, James, is being raised Presbyterian.
- 2nd edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles (Shakespeare’s source for Macbeth) is published
1592 – Shakespeare in London for sure!
1594 – Shakespeare a part-owner of an acting company, called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. After the accession of
King James, they became known as the King’s Men.
1596 – Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, dies.
1597 - Ben Jonson (author of “On My First Son”) is thrown into prison on account of writing a play that too closely
satirized Queen Elizabeth’s government. Shakespeare was one of the actors in that play.
1600 - Alexander Gowrie and his brother the Earl of Gowrie supposedly try to assassinate James in their Scottish
castle. They are killed, and James writes off his massive debt to them and takes their lands. One of them is rumored
to have worn an amulet of witches’ charms during the attempted assassination; he is killed by guards, and it is said
that only when the amulet is removed that his body began to bleed. In any case: It is said that James believed in
witchcraft.
before 1603 – Shakespeare wrote several plays that deal with legitimacy of a monarch
1603 – Elizabeth dies (end of Elizabethan period), and James (a Presbyterian) comes down from Scotland to take the
throne (start of Jacobean period)
Shakespeare begins to write happy plays.
after 1603 – Shakespeare wrote several plays that deal with what makes a monarch good
1604 - Feb, James banishes Catholic priests again
- July, Parliament passes a bill confirming all the old anti-Catholic laws again.
– Dec. The Tragedy of Gowrie -- written by one of the King's Men -- gets banned after 2 performances in
Dec. Some speculate that the playwrights were trying to test out how the new king would enforce Elizabeth’s
censorship law.1605 - Nov 5, Gunpowder Plot fails. The plot was engineered by Robert Catesby*, Guy Fawkes, and
others. It was quite possibly fostered or allowed to run its course by Sir Robert Cecil. Shakespeare was related
through his mother to Catesby, and many of the conspirators came from Shakespeare's hometown area of England
1606 – May, Shakespeare's daughter fined for being Catholic in Stratford
- Henry Garnet (head of the Jesuits in England) executed
- Shakespeare probably writing Macbeth, and in that winter season Macbeth probably first performed
1623 – Shakespeare died.