The bishop of Transylvania, Ferenc Dávid, preaches that only God the Father is divine, launching the Unitarian faith

Marlowe and Shakespeare are born in the same year, with Marlowe the older by two months

Pieter Brueghel the Elder depicts biblical events taking place among the peasants of the Netherlands countryside

Mary Queen of Scots marries her Catholic cousin, Henry Darnley

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

The duke of Alba introduces a reign of terror in the Spanish Netherlands, by means of a tribunal known as the Council of Blood

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

Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator publishes a map of the world, using the projection now known by his name

Palladio publishes I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura ('The Four Books of Architecture'), which include his influential designs for villas

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

Galleys are rowed into battle for the last time at Lepanto, ending a fighting career of some 2500 years

Spanish and Venetian galleys defeat the Turks in the battle of Lepanto

A massacre of French Protestants, known as the Huguenots, begins in Paris on St Bartholomew's Day

Luis de Camoëns publishes The Lusiads, the poem which becomes Portugal's national epic

Sea beggars seize the town of Brill and raise the flag of William of Orange (also known as William the Silent)

William of Orange declares himself a Calvinist and assumes the leadership of the united provinces of the Netherlands

Venice cedes the island of Cyprus to the Turks, in spite of the Christian victory at Lepanto two years earlier