| History of the World around the time period of this faire: |
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| 1565 | Mary Queen of Scots meets her cousin, Lord Darnley, for the first time. They have a catholic wedding the same year. |
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| 1566 | Mary Queen of Scots gives birth to the future King James VI of Scotland and I of England. |
| | Mary returns to Edinburgh with an army provided by the Earl of Bothwell and the conspirators flee, many subsequently being exiled. |
| | Mary's private secretary, David Rizzio, is murdered in front of her at the Palace of Holyroodhouse by a group including her husband Lord Darnley. The attempted coup that follows fails when Darnley has second thoughts and helps Mary to escape to Dunbar. |
| | Saint Pius V becomes Pope. |
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| 1567 | Lords Ruthven and Lindsay visit Mary and insist she abdicates immediately or be killed. She abdicates. |
| | Scottish nobles intent on retrieving Mary from Boswell meet the couple and a thousand supporters at Carberry Hill, east of Edinburgh. After a day long stand-off Mary agrees to the nobles' demands and sends Bothwell away. They never meet again. |
| | Bothwell, although already married, proposes marriage to Mary with the support of many influential nobles across Scotland. Mary turns him down. |
| | The Earl of Bothwell is tried for the murder of Darnley and found not guilty. Few Scots believe the trial to be fair. |
| | Bothwell kidnaps Mary on the edge of Edinburgh and takes her to Dunbar Castle, where, assuming Mary is an unwilling participant, he rapes her. They agree to marry. |
| | James VI crowned at Stirling (but aged just over one year). James Stewart, Earl of Moray and a half-brother of Mary Queen of Scots, proclaimed Regent of Scotland. |
| | Darnley, now ill with syphilis, is murdered while staying at the Provost's House on the edge of Edinburgh. The cellar of the building has been packed with gunpowder, but it seems Darnley may have been strangled while trying to escape the explosion. |
| | Mary Queen of Scots' last night in Edinburgh, at the house of Sir Simon Preston, the Lord Provost, on the Royal Mile, prior to her imprisonment at Loch Leven castle. |
| | Mary, Queen of Scots, married Earl of Bothwell (at 4am). |
| | First printed book ever published in Gaelic. It was "Forms of Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Catechism of the Christian Faith," translated from English by Bishop John Carsewell of the Isles. |
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| 1568 | Mary escapes from Lochleven Castle and revokes her abdication. She gathers an army and moves towards Dumbarton Castle. |
| | Mary, Queen of Scots, defeated at Battle of Langside. She sailed from Port Mary across the Solway Firth to exile in England. |
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| 1569 | Gerardus Mercator creates the Mercator projection. |
| | Elizabeth delivers an ambiguous judgement on the dispute between Mary and the Scottish Lords that alienates neither side but resolves nothing. |
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| 1570 | The Earl of Lennox, father of Lord Darnley, is appointed Regent with support from Queen Elizabeth. |
| | The Regent, the Earl of Moray, is shot and killed at Linlithgow by an assailant hiding in the home of the Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews. |
| | The council of Trent publishes changes to the Latin Mass as a result of the Protestant Reformation. |
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| 1571 | Dumbarton Castle, under siege since January the year before, captured by Captain Thomas Crawford scaling the walls. |
| | Mary, still captive in England, is implicated in a plot by the Catholic Duke of Norfolk to use Spanish troops to overthrow Elizabeth. This undermines much of her remaining support in Scotland. |
| | Earl of Lennox, Regent of Scotland, murdered. Earl of Mar appointed Regent but he dies the following year. |
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| 1572 | John Knox, leading reformer of Church of Scotland, died. |
| | Pope Gregory XIII becomes pope. |
| | Tycho Brahe observes supernova in Casseopeia. |
| | The Earl of Morton becomes Regent and is effectively ruler of Scotland for the next six years. |
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| 1573 | Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange executed, after defending Edinburgh Castle on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots for 15 years. |
| | The fall of Edinburgh Castle as the last bastion of support for Mary in Scotland brings three years of civil war to an end. |
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| 1574 | Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI, born. |
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| 1576 | First Bible (New Testament) printed in Scotland by Bassandyne. |
| | Maximillian II dies. |
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| 1578 | James VI takes over the government of Scotland at the age of 12. |
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| 1580 | Francis Drake returns to England after circumnavigating the globe. |
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