Chronology of the Coventry Area
(1400 - 1600)
| 1400-1485 | Coventry tends to support the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses (dynastic civil wars). The city occasionally supported the Yorkists |
| 1404 | Henry IV (1399-1413) summoned Parliament to
meet in Coventry. No one with the knowledge of the law was allowed
to attend so it became known as the Unlearned Parliament. It
met in the Great Hall of the Benedictine Monastery |
| 1405 | John Thornton,
Coventry Glazier, undertakes the glazing of the East Window in
York Minster |
| 1411 | Prince Hal, Prince of Wales , arrested by
Coventry Mayor John Horneby |
| 1416 | Coventry Mystery Plays start
and continue up to the present |
| 1422 | First Coventry Cross Built |
| 1423 | Coventry was run by a Mayor and a Council of 48 merchants who formed an oligarchy |
| 1424 | John Grace, a Lollard, preached to many
thousands in Coventry. This marked the beginnings of religious
change in the city |
| 1449 | Prior of St Mary's employs 59 master
drapers, 57 mercers, 37 dyers, 28 fullers, 64 shearmen, and a
large number of weavers. The Priory had 400 sheep |
| 1450 | The insurrections
in Kent and Sussex led by Jack Cade lead to Coventry's Wall being
armed |
| 1452-1842 | Coventry granted County Borough status by Henry
VI. The cities boundaries remained to 1842 |
| 1459 | Henry VI (1422
- 1461 & 70-1) summons Parliament to meet in Coventry - only
Lancastrian supporters were permitted to attend and it became
known as the Diabolic Parliament |
| 1461 | Coventry sides with Edward
IV (1461-1483) against Henry VI |
| 1470 | Coventry supports
Henry VI during his brief restoration (1470-1471) |
| 1474 | Thatched
roofs forbidden in Coventry |
| 1478 | Population of Coventry about
9,000. Over 3,000 had been killed by the Plague in the city and
surrounding villages in the previous 30 years |
| 1485 | Battle of
Bosworth Field, to the north of Coventry: Richard III (1483-1485)
defeated by Henry VII (1485-1509) |
| 1497 | Prince Arthur, Prince of
Wales, receives Cheylesmore Manor on his marriage to Catherine
of Aragon |
| 1500's | Sometime in this century of religious turmoil,
the pagan and Celtic tradition of burning giant wicker figures
died out |
| 1509 | Ford Hospital founded in Coventry |
| 1510 | Joan Ward
refuses to recant religious heresy and was burnt at the stake
in Little Park Street |
| 1519 | Mrs Smith, Lansdail, Hawkin, Wigston
and Bond were burnt at the stake for religious heresy |
| 1530-1650 | Reformation: Coventry becomes a Puritan stronghold |
| 1539 | Dissolution
of the monasteries: Greyfriars Church destroyed to be rebuilt
in 1832 as Christchurch. The Dissolution damaged Coventry' economy |
| 1542 | Second Coventry Cross built on the site of the first built in 1422. 16m high |
| 1545 | John Hales founds the Free Grammar School |
| 1547 | Suppression of Mediaeval Guilds |
| 1555 | Under Queen Mary I (1553-
1558) Protestants Robert Glover and Cornelius Burgess burnt
at the stake in Coventry |
| 1560 | Thomas Wheatly founds Bablake Hospital
and School |
| 1563 | Elizabeth I (1558-1603) gives Kenilworth Castle
to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester |
| 1564 | William Shakespeare (1564
- 1616) born in Stratford upon Avon |
| 1567 | Rugby School founded |
| 1568 | Flemish weavers begin to settle in Coventry |
| 1569 | Mary, Queen
of Scots imprisoned in Coventry |
| 1575 | John Marston (1575 - 1634)
playwright born in Coventry |
| 1587 | Population of Coventry: 6,502 -
a decline reflecting the economic dislocation following the dissolution
of the monasteries |
| 1589 | Mystery Plays suspended after they
conflict with the principles of the Reformation |
© 1996 Coventry City Council. City Development Directorate. Myles Mackie
Page updated 20.10.96 by Ecosaurus: coventry@ecosaurus.co.uk