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1500Tower of London
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1516Thomas More's Utopia
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1518Songs written by Henry VIII
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1518Catherine of Aragon's pregnancy
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1526First printed Bible in English
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1539Dissolution of the Monasteries
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1547Edward VI's diary
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1549Book of Common Prayer
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1553Letter from Elizabeth I
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1563John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
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1567The First National Lottery
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1577Elizabethan dress codes
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1580Handwritten recipe
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1580Evidence of Royal Scots
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1582Beginnings of an English Dictionary
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1588Speech by Elizabeth I
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1590Spenser, The Faerie Queene
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1592Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
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1595A cure for drunkenness
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1597Shakespeare’s Richard III
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Intro
Sir Thomas More (1477 - 1535) was the first person to write of a 'utopia', a word used to describe a perfect imaginary world. More's book imagines a complex, self-contained community set on an island, in which people share a common culture and way of life. He coined the word 'utopia' from the Greek ou-topos meaning 'no place' or 'nowhere'. It was a pun - the almost identical Greek word eu-topos means 'a good place'. So at the very heart of the word is a vital question: can a perfect world ever be realised? It is unclear as to whether the book is a serious projection of a better way of life, or a satire that gave More a platform from which to discuss the chaos of European politics.
More was an English lawyer, writer, and statesman. He was at one time, one of Henry VIII's most trusted civil servants, becoming Chancellor of England in 1529.
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