Early 17th Century

• After more than four decades on the throne, Elizabeth I died in 1603. James VI of Scotland succeeded her, becoming James I and establishing the Stuart dynasty. 
• Political and religious tensions intensified under James's son, Charles I, who succeeded to the throne in 1625. Charles married French princess Henrietta Maria, who promoted a conversion back to Catholicism. 
• In 1642, a Civil War broke out between the king's forces and armies loyal to the House of Commons, and the conflict ended with Charles defeat and beheading in 1649. 
• The English Interregnum (1649-1660) was a republican period, comprising of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell after the regicide of Charles I and before the restoration of Charles II.
• During the Interregnum, England was dominated by Puritan literature and intermittent official censorship. Printing of literary works became more common, but printers and acting companies were obliged to submit works to the censor before public presentation. 
• The twenty-year period between 1640 and 1660 saw the emergence of concepts such as religious toleration, separation of church and state, freedom from press censorship and popular sovereignty. 
• In the early 17th century, John Donne, Ben Jonson and George Herbert led the shift towards "new" poetic genres such as the classical elegy and satire, epigram, verse epistle, meditative religious lyric and the country-house poem. 
• Jonson distinguished himself as an acute observer of urban manners and mentored a group of younger poets including Herrick and Carew, known as the Tribe or Sons of Ben.
• Donne's poetry concerns with a dyad - the speaker and either a woman or God. He has been regarded as the founder of "Metaphysical poetry", which was an overlap between sexual and religious love.
• Many leading poets were staunch royalists, or Cavaliers. However, John Milton and Andrew Marvell sided with the republic.