Mary, queen of Scots - Chronology

portrait of Mary, queen of Scots

Mary, queen of Scots is renowned for her misguided, tragic life.  A passionate woman whose life was ruled too often by her emotions, she ended her days in misery, locked away by Elizabeth I and eventually executed.  Yet it is too easy to paint Elizabeth I as the great villain in Mary's life.  Mary allowed herself to be positioned as the Catholic alternative to Elizabeth's rule and was complicit in efforts to assassinate Elizabeth.  As a result of such indiscretions, she was beheaded in 1587.

If you would like to look at Scottish royal genealogy, click here.

Read Mary's last letter, an eyewitness account of her execution in 1587, and other documents relating to her life at Primary Sources.

Elizabeth I wrote a letter to Mary at her trial, and about the execution to Mary's son, King James VI.  Read her letters here.

Portraits of Mary, her parents, husbands and child, with commentary, can be found at the Tudor England: Images site.

If you are interested in further research, The Catholic Encyclopedia features an article on Mary's life.
Encyclopedia Britannica also has an article about Mary.

And the most comprehensive website about the Scottish queen is maintained by The Marie Stuart Society of Scotland.
   


Chronology

1542  8 December; Mary Stuart is born at Linlithgow Palace

1542  James V, King of Scots, Mary's father, died at 31

1543  Mary crowned Queen of Scots; not yet one year old

1546  murder of Cardinal Beaton; aged 3

1548  Mary sent to France for safety; aged 5

1550  Mary of Guise, Mary's mother, visits her in France; aged 7

1554  Mary of Guise is Regent in Scotland; aged 11

1558  Mary marries the 14-year-old Dauphin of France, heir to Henry II, in Paris; aged 15

1558  Mary Tudor of England dies and Elizabeth becomes Queen; aged 15

1559  death of Henry II; Francis becomes King of France and Mary becomes Queen of France and Scotland; aged 16

1560  Mary of Guise passes away in June; aged 17

1560  Francis II of France, Mary's husband, passes away in December; aged 17

1561  Mary comes back to Scotland; aged 18

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 French 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.


Read the biography of Mary, queen of Scots.

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