| 1542 |
(8 Dec.) Mary born at Linlithgow |
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(14 Dec.) James V dies at Falkland |
| 1543 |
(9 Sept.) Mary crowned Queen of Scots at Stirling |
| 1547 |
(10 Sept.) Battle of Pinkie |
| 1548 |
(July) Mary sails for France |
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(13 Aug.) Mary arrives in France |
| 1558 |
(19 April) Mary betrothed to the Dauphin Francis |
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(24 April) Mary marries the Dauphin |
| 1559 |
(10 July) Mary becomes Queen of France |
| 1560 |
(11 June) Mary’s mother, Mary of Guise, dies at Edinburgh |
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(5 Dec.) Mary’s husband, Francis II of France, dies at Orléans |
| 1561 |
(April) Mary meets her half-brother, Lord James Stuart, at St-Dizier |
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(19 Aug.) Mary disembarks at Leith, near Edinburgh |
| 1562 |
(April) Bothwell imprisoned on spurious charges |
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(May–July) Meeting between Mary and Elizabeth planned |
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(Aug.) Mary’s progress in the north-east |
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(28 Aug.) Bothwell escapes and goes into exile |
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(Sept.) Mary creates Lord James Stuart to be Earl of Moray |
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(28 Oct.) Battle of Corrichie |
| 1563 |
(Feb.) Chastelard hides under Mary’s bed and then enters her closet |
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(22 Feb.) Chastelard executed |
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(13 Feb.) Mary sends Maitland to London and Paris about her proposed marriage to Don Carlos |
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(18 Feb.) Mary’s uncle, the Duke of Guise, is assassinated |
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(Aug.) Cardinal of Lorraine proposes Archduke Charles as husband to Mary, but she rejects him |
| 1564 |
(March) Mary urged to marry Robert Dudley, later Earl of Leicester |
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(July) Mary’s progress to the far north |
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(Sept.) Castelnau’s mission to Elizabeth and Mary |
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(Sept.) Lennox returns to Scotland |
| 1565 |
(17 Feb.) Mary meets Darnley at Wemyss |
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(19 July) Bothwell recalled by Mary |
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(29 July) Mary marries Henry, Lord Darnley |
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(Aug.–Sept.) Chase-about Raid |
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(17 Sept.) Bothwell lands at Eyemouth |
| 1566 |
(9 March) David Rizzio murdered at Holyrood |
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(9 June) Mary summons the Lords to hear her will |
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(19 June) Prince James (later James VI of Scotland and I of England) born at Edinburgh Castle |
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(15/16 Oct.) Mary rides from Jedburgh to the Hermitage |
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(17 Oct.) Mary falls ill at Jedburgh |
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(17 Dec.) Baptism of James at Stirling |
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(24 Dec.) Mary pardons the Rizzio plotters |
| 1567 |
(Jan.) Darnley is treated for syphilis at Glasgow |
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(20/21 Jan.) Mary rides to Glasgow to visit Darnley |
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(10 Feb.) Darnley assassinated at Kirk o’Field at 2 a.m. |
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(12 April) Bothwell acquitted of Darnley’s murder |
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(19/20 April) Ainslie’s Tavern bond |
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(24 April) Mary abducted by Bothwell at Almond bridge |
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(15 May) Mary marries Bothwell |
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(15 June) Mary and Bothwell confront the Lords at Carberry Hill; Mary surrenders and Bothwell flees |
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(17 June) Mary imprisoned at Lochleven Castle |
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(24 July) Mary forced to abdicate |
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(29 July) James VI crowned at Stirling |
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(July/Aug.) Bothwell sails to the Orkneys and Shetland, then escapes to Norway and Denmark |
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(22 Aug.) Moray proclaimed regent |
| 1568 |
(Jan.) Bothwell taken to Malmö Castle |
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(2 May) Mary escapes from Lochleven |
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(13 May) Mary defeated at the battle of Langside |
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(16 May) Mary crosses the Solway Firth to Workington in Cumberland |
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(18 May) Mary is at Carlisle Castle |
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(13 July) Mary leaves Carlisle for Bolton Castle in Wensleydale |
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(Oct.–Dec.) Commissions to examine Mary’s ‘guilt’ at York and Westminster, concluding at Hampton Court; Casket Letters produced by Moray |
| 1569 |
(10 Jan.) Mary neither found guilty nor exonerated |
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(26 Jan.) Mary sets out for Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire |
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(20 April) Mary taken to Wingfield Manor, Derbyshire |
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(25 May) Mary moved to Chatsworth |
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(1 June) Mary returns to Wingfield |
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(21 Sept.) Mary returns to Tutbury |
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(25 Nov.) Mary arrives in Coventry |
| 1570 |
(2 Jan.) Mary returns to Tutbury |
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(24/25 May) Mary moved to Chatsworth |
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(Oct.) Mary visited by Cecil and Sir Walter Mildmay |
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(28 Nov.) Mary moved to Sheffield Castle |
| 1571 |
(Sept.) Ridolfi plot discovered by Cecil |
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[Nov.–Dec.] The case implicating Mary in Darnley’s murder published by Cecil in imitation Scots in Detection of the Doings of Mary Queen of Scots, including the Casket Letters |
| 1573 |
(25 April) Mary taken to Sheffield Lodge (or Manor) in Sheffield Park |
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(June) Bothwell moved to Dragsholm Castle |
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(21/22 Aug.) Mary sets out for Buxton |
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(27 Sept.) Mary moves to Chatsworth |
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(Nov.) Mary returns to Sheffield Castle |
| 1574 |
(June) Mary at Buxton again |
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(9 July) Mary returns to Sheffield |
| 1575 |
(June/July) Mary at Buxton |
| 1576 |
(March) Mary moves to Sheffield Lodge |
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(June) Mary at Buxton again |
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(30 July) Mary returns to Sheffield |
| 1577 |
(Jan.) Mary back at Sheffield Lodge |
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(11 Feb.) Mary makes her will |
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(May) Mary at Chatsworth |
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(July) Mary back at Sheffield Lodge |
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(Sept.) Mary at Chatsworth |
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(Nov.) Mary returns to Sheffield Castle |
| 1578 |
(14 April) Bothwell dies at Dragsholm Castle |
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(Aug./Sept.) Mary at Chatsworth |
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(5 Oct.) Mary at Sheffield Lodge |
| 1579 |
(June) Mary at Chatsworth |
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(Sept.) Mary at Sheffield |
| 1580 |
(May) Mary at Sheffield Lodge |
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(26 July) Mary goes to Buxton |
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(16 Aug.) Mary returns to Sheffield |
| 1581 |
(May) Mary at Sheffield Lodge |
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(July) Mary at Chatsworth |
| 1582 |
(June) Mary goes to Buxton |
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(July) Mary returns to Sheffield |
| 1583 |
(Nov.) Throckmorton Plot discovered |
| 1584 |
(July) Mary at Buxton |
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(8 Aug.) Mary returns to Sheffield |
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(Aug.) Sir Ralph Sadler replaces Shrewsbury as Mary’s custodian |
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(2 Sept.) Mary taken to Wingfield |
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(Oct.) Bond of Association |
| 1585 |
(4 Jan.) Sir Amyas Paulet first named as Mary’s custodian |
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(14 Jan.) Mary arrives at Tutbury Castle |
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(April) Paulet arrives at Tutbury |
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(24 Dec.) Mary is taken to Chartley |
| 1586 |
(spring/early summer) Babington Plot |
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(17 July) Mary writes to Babington |
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(11 Aug.) Mary taken to Tixall, her papers and ciphers seized |
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(25 Aug.) Mary brought to Chartley |
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(25 Sept.) Mary arrives at Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire |
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(8 Oct.) Commission for Mary’s trial named |
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(11 Oct.) Commissioners arrive at Fotheringhay |
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(12–15 Oct.) Commission sits at Fotheringhay |
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(14–15 Oct.) Mary appears before the Commission |
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(15 Oct.) Commission adjourned to Star Chamber |
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(25 Oct.) Commission sits in Star Chamber and finds Mary guilty |
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(mid-Nov.) Sir Drue Drury appointed to assist Paulet |
| 1587 |
(1 Feb.) Elizabeth signs Mary’s death warrant |
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(2 Feb.) Elizabeth expresses reservations about the warrant |
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(3 Feb.) Privy Council meets and decides to dispatch the warrant without telling Elizabeth |
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(7 Feb.) Robert Beale and the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent arrive at Fotheringhay and tell Mary of her planned execution |
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(8 Feb.) Mary executed |