1542
8 December; Mary Stuart is born at Linlithgow Palace
14 December; James V, King of Scots, Mary’s father, dies at 31
1543
Mary crowned Queen of Scots
1546
Cardinal Beaton is murdered; ascendancy of pro-French party
1547
January; King Henry VIII of England dies
March; King Francis I of France dies
10 September; battle of Pinkie; Scots defeated by English forces led by duke of Somerset; new French king, Henry II, sends troops and money to Scotland; Mary is betrothed to Henry II’s heir Francis, dauphin of France
1548
August; Mary sent to France
1550
Mary’s mother, Mary of Guise, visits her in France
1554
Mary of Guise is officially named Regent in Scotland
1558
Fifteen-year-old Mary marries the 14-year-old Francis, dauphin of France, in Paris
Queen Mary I of England dies and Elizabeth Tudor becomes Queen
Mary’s father-in-law quarters her arms with those of England, offending Elizabeth
1559
Death of King Henry II of France; Francis and Mary are crowned king and queen of France
1560
June; Mary of Guise passes away in Scotland
December; Mary’s husband, Francis, Mary’s husband, passes away
1561
Mary returns to Scotland
1562 Northern campaign and visit to Inverness; aged 19
1563 Mary visits Inveraray,Dunure Castle, Dumfries, and Peebles; aged 20
1564 Mary hunts near Blair Atholl, Tayside; aged 21
1565 Mary marries her 19-year-old cousin Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley; aged 22
1566 Mary’s Piedmontese secretary, David Riccio/Rizzio, is murdered; Mary’s only child born (James, later king of Scotland and England); aged 23
1567 Mary’s husband, Lord Darnley, murdered; Mary weds James Hepburn, the 30-year-old Earl of Bothwell; the Carberry Hill confrontation; Mary is imprisoned at Lochleven Castle; Mary’s one-year-old son James is crowned as James VI of Scotland; aged 24
1568 Mary escapes from Lochleven Castle; Battle of Langside, Glasgow; Mary flees to England; aged 25
1568-87 Mary is held captive in various English prisons; aged 25-44
1569 Elizabeth exonerates Mary from the charges made against her; aged 26
1578 Mary’s third husband, the earl of Bothwell (age 41), dies in a prison in Denmark; aged 35
1580 Mary writes Essay on Adversity in prison; aged 37
1586 Mary is tried for conspiring to kill Elizabeth; aged 43
1587 on 8 February, Mary is executed in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire
1603 Queen Elizabeth I dies in March & Mary’s only child, James VI of Scotland, becomes James I of England. He is the first King of both Scotland and England. He moves his mother’s body to Westminster Abbey and has a grand monument built.
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Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "Mary Queen of Scots Chronology & Timeline – 1542 to 1587" https://englishhistory.net/tudor/relative/mary-queen-of-scots-chronology-timeline/, February 8, 2015