Mary Queen of Scots' secretary, David Rizzio, is dragged from her presence and stabbed to death

Mary Queen of Scots' husband Darnley is treacherously involved in the murder of her secretary, Rizzio

The Book of Common Prayer and the New Testament are published in Welsh, to be followed by the complete Bible in 1588

Darnley is murdered, almost certainly at the instigation of Mary Queen of Scots' lover, Bothwell, whom she marries just three months later

A casket of letters seems to incriminate Mary Queen of Scots herself in the murder of her husband, Darnley

The events of this year give the Protestant nobility the occasion and opportunity of deposing Mary Queen of Scots

On the removal of Mary from the Scottish throne, her one-year-old son succeeds her as James VI

Mary Queen of Scots flees across the border to seek the help of her English cousin, Elizabeth, but finds herself kept under close guard

A rebellion in the north of England aims to put Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne

Pope Pius V excommunicates the English queen, Elizabeth I, causing a severe crisis of loyalty for her Catholic subjects

Roberto di Ridolfi, a Florentine banker, coordinates a scheme to win the English throne for Mary Queen of Scots

English sailor and slave-trader John Hawkins turns the top-heavy carrack into the more seaworthy galleon

James Burbage builds London's first theatre and calls it the Theatre

Francis Drake sails from Plymouth, heading west for the Pacific and the East Indies

The first Jesuit missionaries arrive in England, with Edmund Campion among their number

Francis Drake returns to England after his three-year voyage round the world and is knighted by Queen Elizabeth on board his Golden Hind

The 18-year-old William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon

Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland on behalf of England's queen Elizabeth

England's queen Elizabeth sends 6000 troops to support the Dutch rebels against Spain

Catholics are now the martyrs in England, their numbers almost matching the Protestant martyrs of the previous reign

Anthony Babington is involved in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne

Mary Queen of Scots, implicated in the Babington plot, is beheaded in Fotheringay castle

Marlowe's first play, Tamburlaine the Great, introduces the swaggering blank verse of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama

A new group of English settlers arrives at Roanoke Island and makes a second attempt at a settlement

Virginia Dare becomes the first English child to be born in America, on Roanoke Island