Shakespeare’s life: a timeline

Shakespeare's Globe. Credit: Visit Britain
Shakespeare's Globe. Credit: Visit Britain

To mark the 400 anniversary of the death of Shakespeare, we have put together a timeline of the life and times of the great British playwright.

Britain magazine

 

 1564

William Shakespeare is born to parents John Shakespeare and Mary Arden in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.

1582
Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a local farmer, who is eight years his senior.

1583

William and Anne welcome their first child, Susanna, only six months after their wedding.

1593

Shakespeare’s first poem is published in London – Venus and Adonis.

1594

Records of Shakespeare’s first plays begin to appear. He joins other playwrights to form a new theatre company under the patronage of Lord Chamberlain. They are known as Lord Chamberlain’s Men.

1597

Shakespeare buys a second home called New Place in Stratford. He is starting to become wealthy from his work and New Place is the second biggest house in Stratford.

1602

Shakespeare buys a place in London’s Silver Street – the location in which the Barbican Centre now stands. It was here where he wrote many of his great plays  such as Hamlet and Macbeth.

1603

King James I comes to the English throne and grants royal patronage to Shakespeare’s acting company who then came to be known as the King’s Men.

1609

The King’s Men acquire an indoor theatre – the Blackfriars.

1616

Shakespeare spends the last few years of his life at New Place before dying in 1616, aged 52.

 

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