March 24 Queen Elizabeth died between 2 and 3 A. M. The Lords Spiritual and Temporal, together with her former Privy Councellors, forming a provisional goverment, proclaimed James King.
25 They sent Charles Percy and Thomas Lord Somerset to the King with letters in which they signified these things and requested him to come into England as quickly as possible.
28 George Carew and Thomas Lake were sent to inform the King of the current state of affairs.
April 6 The King entered Berwick.
8 Disturbances in the Border country, and at Waterford and elsewhere in Ireland.
The King arrived at York.
10 Southampton and other prisoners were frieed.
15 Cecil the Secretary, summoned to York, began his journey thither.
28 Elizabeth’s funeral service was performed.
May *** Henry Howard, Thomas Howard, and Baron Montjoy were taken onto the Privy Council at Theobalds.
7 Setting forth from Theobalds, the king was first received by Sheriff Swinnerton, whose orator rather severely criticized the administration of the realm under Elizabeth for His Majesty’s benefit. Afterwards he was received by the Lord Mayor and the citizenry, and led off to the Carthusian hall, where he created eighty knights in a bunch.
Proclamation against monopolies.
13 Robert Cecil, Robert Sidney, William Knollys, and Edward Wotton were created Barons in the Tower of London.
16 Proclamation for the preservation of deer.
19 And one for the suppression of disturbances in the Border country.
June 4 Valentine Thomas, who confessed to having conspired against the life of the Queen, was condemned and punished.
Ambassadors arrive from a number of princes to offer congratulations.
21 The Earl of Rutland is sent to the King of Denmark, to take up his son at his baptise him, and to invest him with the Garter.
The plague is raging at London.
July 2 The festival of St. George is celebrated, where Prince Henry, the Duke of Lennox, the Earl of Southampton, the Earl of Marr, and the Earl of Pembroke are invested in the Order [of the Garter].
Anthony Copley, Griffin Markham, William Watson, and William Clark, priests, Baron Cobham, his brother George, Baron Grey, and Walter Ralegh are arrested on suspicion of treason.
21 The Earl of Southhampton is created and restored.
Thomas Howard is created the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Montjoy the Earl of Devonshire, Thomas Egerton the Baron of Ellesmere, and William Russell, Henry Grey, John Petrie, John Harington, Henry Danvers, Thomas Gerard, and Robert Spencer are created Barons at Hampton Court.
Thomas Edmonds is sent Ambassador to the Archduke [of Austria].
23 Sixty-one knights of the Bath are created.
24 The King and Queen are crowned, though the weather is most foul and the plague exceedingly savage. For this week 1103 have died.
August 8 It is decreed that this day is to be observed as holiday on account of the King’s rescue from the Gowrie Plot, and that throughout the kingdom a fast is to be observed on Wednesdays.
November 9 Baron Cobham, Baron Grey, Walter Ralegh, Griffin Markham, George Brook, Anthony Copley, William Watson, and William Clark are condemned of trason at Winchester, of whom George Brook and the two priests suffer the penalty of death.
From December 1602 to December 22, 1603, 34,244 have perished at London, of whom 30,578 died of the plague.