1515: Born the eldest child of Claude de Guise and Antoinette de Bourbon.

1534: King Francis I helps arrange her marriage to Louis II, 2nd Duke of Longueville

1535: Birth of son Francis

1537: Birth son Louis, who dies the same year. Duke Louis dies. Henry VIII of England suggests marriage, Mary refuses, reputedly saying her neck was too small

1538: Henri II of France persuades Mary to wed James V. Marries by proxy at the Castle of Chateaudun and arrives at St Andrews. James V commissions a new palace at Stirling Castle.

1539: Crowned queen at Holyrood Abbey

1540: Birth of Prince James

1541: Birth of Prince Robert. Both princes die

1542: Princess Mary is born and James V dies

1543: The Marys move from Linlithgow Palace to Stirling Castle, where the infant’s coronation was held in the Chapel Royal

1547: English defeat Scots at Pinkie Cleugh

1548: Mary, Queen of Scots sent to France. French troops arrive to fight the English

1550-1: Mary returns to France to see her daughter and nurses her dying son, Francis

1554: Becomes regent of Scotland, ruling on her daughter’s behalf

1558: Mary, Queen of Scots weds the dauphin Francis, the heir to the French throne

1559: The dauphin becomes King Francis II. Uprising of the Protestant Lords of the Congregation in Scotland.

1560: Francis II dies. Mary oversees the doomed French defence of Leith from Edinburgh Castle. Dies at Edinburgh Castle and is buried is Reims.