24 April 1558

Mary, Queen of Scots marries the 14-year-old French dauphin, the future Francis II, in a theatrical wedding at Notre Dame in Paris. The pair had been engaged for ten years and had grown up together. In Edinburgh the great bombard Mons Meg is fired in celebration of the marriage. The following year Francis's father, Henry II, is mortally wounded in a jousting accident and the young married couple are crowned king and queen of France. Eighteen months later the sickly Francis dies of an ear infection and Mary returns to Scotland.

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24 April 1559

Robert Dudley, favourite of Queen Elizabeth I and Master of the Queens Horse, is elected to the Order of the Garter. Five years later he will be created Earl of Leicester.

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