Pocahontas fascinates Londoners when she arrives with her husband to publicize Jamestown

John Smith publishes A Description of New England, an account of his exploration of the region in 1614

The Pilgrims (or Pilgrim Fathers), a group of 102 English settlers, sail in the Mayflower to the new world

In his Novum Organum Francis Bacon introduces a modern philosophy of experimental science

John Donne, England's leading Metaphysical poet, becomes dean of St Paul's

John Heminge and Henry Condell publish thirty-six Shakespeare plays in the First Folio

On the death of his father, James VI and I, Charles I becomes king of England and Scotland

The English parliament attempts to clip the wings of the new king, Charles I, by placing an annual limit on his power to raise taxes

William Harvey publishes a short book, De Motu Cordis, proving the circulation of the blood

The English parliament's Petition of Right emphasizes the right of the citizen to be protected from royal tyranny

John Winthrop, appointed governor of the new Massachusetts Bay Company, sails from England with 700 settlers

Van Dyck moves to London and becomes portrait painter to the British court and aristocracy

George Herbert's only volume of poems, The Temple, is published posthumously

Charles I demands ship money to increase his revenue, albeit in the absence of its conventional justification - a crisis of national defence

John Milton's Lycidas is published in memory of a Cambridge friend, Edward King

A National Covenant, first signed in an Edinburgh churchyard, commits the Covenanters to oppose Charles I's reforms of the Church of Scotland

Charles I's financial crisis causes him to summon another parliament to Westminster (the Long Parliament, not dissolved until 1660)

Under pressure from parliament, Charles I signs the death warrant of his most powerful supporter, the earl of Strafford

Charles I comes in person to the House of Commons, but fails in his attempt to arrest the Five Members whom he accuses of treason

Charles I leads his army into action at Edgehill - the first, but inconclusive, battle in the English Civil War

In the first decisive battle of the English Civil War the king's nephew, Rupert of the Rhine, is heavily defeated at Marston Moor

The royalist forces, again under the command of Rupert of the Rhine, suffer another major defeat at Naseby

Charles I is held at his palace of Hampton Court, as a prisoner of Cromwell and parliament

Colonel Thomas Pride denies entrance to the House of Commons to about 140 opponents of Cromwell's policies

Cromwell persuades the House of Commons, purged now of all opposition, that it is treason for a king to wage war against parliament