Marlowe's Life

A timeline of key dates in Christopher Marlowe's life with links to more information.

Childhood

  • Thursday 22 May 1561: Christopher's parents John Marlowe and Katherine Arthur marry.
  • Saturday 26 February 1564: Christopher is baptised at St George the Martyr Church in Canterbury.
  • Thursday 20 April 1564: His father John Marlowe becomes a freeman of the city of Canterbury.
  • Saturday 28 August 1568: His sister Mary dies aged 6 leaving Christopher as the eldest surviving child in the Marlowe house.
  • Sunday 08 April 1576: The last of the Marlowe's nine children Thomas is baptised at St Andrew's Church.

Schooldays

  • 1568/9? to 1572?: There are no extant records of Christopher Marlowe's early school attendance, but if he had followed the most common Elizabethan educational path, he would have likely begun attending a petty school from age of four or five until he was perhaps eight years old.
  • 1573? to 1578?: Again in the absence of any extant records, we can only speculate when Marlowe began his grammar school education. Typically, boys might start around the age of nine, but as Marlowe only left the King's School aged sixteen, it seems unlikely he spent a full seven years at Grammar School.
  • 1579-1580: Evidence of Marlowe's education only starts when he became a funded King's Scholar, the first extant record of a £1 quarterly payment to him was recorded in the Canterbury King's School accounts on Lady Day, 25 March 1579. The last payment to Marlowe is recorded the following year at Michaelmas, September 1580, three months before he began at Cambridge University.
  • Tuesday 23 February 1580: On this day, an inventory was taken of the possessions of the late John Gresshop, Marlowe's headmaster at the King's School, including details of an exceptional and extensive library comprising around 350 volumes.

To be continued.