On this day in Tudor history, 14th October, statesman, diplomat and poet Thomas Chaloner died (1563); and the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots began at Fotheringhay Castle (1586)…

On this day in Tudor history, 26th September, Sir Francis Drake returned from his 3-year circumnavigation of the Globe; and Sir Amias Paulet, who had served as Mary, Queen of Scots’ gaoler, died…

On this day in Tudor history, 11th September, Mary, Queen of Scots, began a rather eventful first royal progress in Scotland; and Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 2nd Baron of Upper Ossory, a good friend of Edward VI, died in Dublin…

On this day in Tudor history, the English force defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden while Catherine of Aragon was regent (1513); and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned queen at Stirling Castle (1543)…

On this day in Tudor history, 19th August, Edward VI’s half-sister, Mary, wrote to him regarding him forbidding her to celebrate the Mass, and Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to Scotland from France to rule as its queen…

On this day in Tudor history, 24th July, merchant and conspirator Richard Hesketh was born; Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicated and her one-year-old son became King James VI of Scotland; and Catholic priest John Boste was executed…

On this day in Tudor history, The Battle of Blackheath ended the Cornish Rebellion; Sir George Blage was lucky to die a natural death: and Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned at Loch Leven Castle after surrendering to the Protestant nobles…

On this day in Tudor history, 19th April, Mary, Queen of Scots got betrothed to the Dauphin; Sir Francis Drake “singed the King of Spain’s beard”; and a Catholic bookseller was hanged at Tyburn…

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd January, King Ferdinand II of Aragon died, the half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots, was assassinated, and Elizabeth I opened the Royal Exchange in London…

On this day in Tudor history, 25th September 1586, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, was moved to Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, and Elizabeth finally backed down and agreed to the appointing of 36 commissioners to act as judges in her trial. Mary would never leave the castle.

On this day in Tudor history, 7th September 1571, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, was arrested for his part in the Ridolfi Plot.

This plot aimed to assassinate the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I and replace her with Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots.

Norfolk confessed to corresponding with Mary’s supporters and was taken to the Tower of London. He was executed on 2nd June 1572 after being found guilty of high treason.

On this day in Tudor history, 14th May 1571, Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox and regent to the young King James VI of Scotland, held the “Creeping Parliament” in Edinburgh.

It was called the Creeping parliament because members had to crawl on their hands and knees into the Canongate to avoid being shot by the supporters of the abdicated Mary, Queen of Scots, who held Edinburgh Castle.

On this day in Tudor history, 7th February 1587, the warrant for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, arrived at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, where Mary was being held.

Mary had been tried for treason in October 1586 after being implicated in the Babington Plot, a plot to depose Queen Elizabeth I and to replace her with Mary. She had been found guilty and sentenced to death, but Elizabeth would not sign the execution warrant, not wanting the responsibility of killing an anointed queen. However, Mary’s gaoler, Sir Amias Paulet, would not agree to quietly doing away with Mary, and after pressure from her council and petitions from Parliament, Elizabeth finally signed the warrant, although she later said she had asked for it not to be sent to Fotheringhay yet.