| 1533 | Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn, January 25. Elizabeth born September 7. | |
| 1536 | Anne Boleyn executed. Elizabeth disinherited from crown. Henry weds Jane Seymour. | |
| 1537 | Prince Edward born. Queen Jane dies of childbed fever. | |
| 1543 | Henry VIII weds sixth wife, Katherine Parr, who brings Elizabeth to court. | |
| 1544 | Act of succession and Henry VIII’s will establish Mary and Elizabeth in line of succession. | |
| 1547 | Henry VIII dies. Edward VI crowned; Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, his uncle, becomes his protector. Thomas Seymour, King Edward’s younger uncle, weds Henry’s widow, Queen Dowager Katherine Parr, in secret. John Harington enters Thomas Seymour’s service. Seymour tries to seduce Elizabeth in Parr’s household; Elizabeth is sent away. | |
| 1548 | Katherine Parr dies in childbirth. Thomas Seymour tries to court Elizabeth and Jane Grey; fails in attempt to gain control of King Edward. | |
| 1549 | Thomas Seymour arrested for treason. John Harington accompanies Seymour to Tower. Elizabeth denies complicity in Seymour plot. Thomas Seymour beheaded; Harington released. Edward Seymour ousted from power as Lord Protector by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, father of Robert Dudley. | |
| 1550 | Robert Dudley, age seventeen, weds Amy Robsart. | |
| 1552 | Edward Seymour executed. | |
| 1553 | Lady Jane Grey forced to wed Guildford Dudley. King Edward dies. Mary Tudor overthrows Northumberland’s attempt to put Protestant “Queen” Jane Grey and her husband, Guildford Dudley, Northumberland’s son, on the throne. Robert Dudley sent to Tower for his part in rebellion. Queen Mary I crowned. Northumberland executed. Queen Mary weds Prince Philip of Spain by proxy; he arrives in England in 1554. Queen Mary begins to force England back to Catholicism. | |
| 1554 | John Harington weds Elizabeth’s friend Lady Isabella Markham. Protestant Wyatt Rebellion fails, but Elizabeth implicated. Jane Grey, Guildford Dudley, and Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk (“Queen” Jane’s father) beheaded. Elizabeth sent to Tower for two months, accompanied by Kat Ashley, John and Isabella Harington. | |
| 1555-1558 | Elizabeth lives mostly in rural exile as queen sickens. | |
| 1558 | Mary dies; Elizabeth succeeds to throne, November 17. Elizabeth appoints William Cecil Secretary of State. Robert Dudley made Master of the Queen’s Horse. | |
| 1559 | Elizabeth crowned in Westminster Abbey, January 15. Parliament urges the queen to marry; she resists, February 4. Bishop Alvaro de Quadra becomes Spanish ambassador in England, May. Mary Queen of Scots becomes Queen of France at accession of her young husband, Francis II, July. | |
| 1560 | English army defeats the French in Scotland, January. Cecil achieves Treaty of Edinburgh in Scotland to get France out of Scotland and make Scotland a Protestant nation, July. | |
| 1561 | Now widowed and not permitted to pass through English territory, Mary Queen of Scots returns to Scotland, August 19. |