February 23 – The Scottish crown jewels, recovered for King James VI by William Stewart of Caverston, are formally returned to the royal treasurer, Lord Melville. The jewels include a square gold pendant, inlaid with a large diamond and a ruby and several other diamonds, the "Great H of Scotland".[5]
March 12 – Greek-born Spanish artist Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos, known better as El Greco, is commissioned to paint his most famous work, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, which he finishes in early 1588.[7]
March 18 – The Black Assize of Exeter begins in England as infected prisoners go on trial and an epidemic of typhus spreads quickly through the courtrooms above Exeter Prison.[8] The disease is quickly transmitted from body lice on inmates who had been incarcerated in unsanitary conditions. In addition to prisoners who died from the disease, typhus claims the life of eight judges and 11 of the 12 jurors. Author Alexander Jenkins writes later, "A noisome and pestilential smell came from the prisoners who were arraigned at the crown bar which so affected the people present that many were seized with a violent sickness which proved mortal to the greatest part of them."[9]
March 25 – Forty Martyrs of England and Wales: The most infamous case in England of a torture and execution by Peine forte et dure— slowly piling heavy stones upon a prisoner until they make a plea or die — is carried out against Margaret Clitherow of York after she refuses to enter a plea on charges of harboring Roman Catholic priests. She will be canonized as a Catholic saint in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
April 12 – Francis Drake and the English conquerors depart Cartagena after having looted the city and being paid a ransom of 250,000 Spanish pesos by the New Granadan Governor, Don Pedro Fernández.
July 22 – Sir Francis Drake and his crew return to England, arriving at Portsmouth to heroes' welcome.[14]
August 4 – Conspirator John Ballard is the first person to be arrested by English security agents for the plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. Under torture, he implicates Anthony Babington.
October 19– Burmese–Siamese War (1584–1593): Nanda Bayin, King of Burma, launches a two-pronged invasion of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (now Thailand) with 25,000 troops, 1,200 horses and 220 elephants.[18] The invasion will fail, as thousands of troops die from starvation and disease and the Burmese troops will withdraw in April.
^"Augustus I", Encyclopædia Britannica (1911). Vol. 2
^Yamamura, Norika; Kano, Yasuyuki (2020). "1586年天正地震の震源断層推定の試み: 液状化履歴地点における液状化可能性の検討から" [Source Fault Estimation of the 1586 Tensho Earthquake by Evaluating the Possibility of Liquefaction]. Zisin (Journal of the Seismological Society of Japan). Second Series (in Japanese). 73. Seismological Society of Japan: 97–110. doi:10.4294/zisin.2019-7. S2CID229523816.
^Haidar Malik Chadurah, History of Kashmir (Jaykay Books, 2013) p.185
^Thomas Thomson, A Collection of Inventories and Other Records of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewelhouse (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 316-320
^Johann Heinrich Hennes, Der Kampf um das Erzstift Köln zur Zeit der Kurfürsten (1878), pp. 156–162
^Mauricia Tazartes, El Greco (Explorer Press, 2005) p.49
^"Exeter Typhus Epidemic of 1586", in Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present, 2008, by George C. Kohn (Facts on File, 2007) p.122
^Alexander Jenkins, Civil and Ecclesiastical History of the City of Exeter and its Environs (Exeter, 1841) p. 125
^Angus Konstam, The Great Expedition: Sir Francis Drake on the Spanish Main - 1585-86 (Osprey, 2011) p.66-70
^Graham Darby, The Origins and Development of the Dutch Revolt (Routledge, 2001) p.190
^ abPalmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. ISBN0-7126-5616-2.