David Beaton, the archbishop of St Andrews, burns a leading Protestant, George Wishart, as a heretic and is murdered in retaliation

John Knox is captured in St Andrews and is sent to serve in the French fleet as a galley slave

The Protestant martyrs, though few in number, ensure the reputation of Bloody Mary in English history

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

Catholics are now the martyrs in England, their numbers almost matching the Protestant martyrs of the previous reign

A shipload of Puritans, among them some of the future Pilgrim Fathers, sail from Boston in Lincolnshire to seek religious freedom in Holland

The English parliament's Petition of Right emphasizes the right of the citizen to be protected from royal tyranny

The Inquisition convicts Galileo of heresy and he denies the truth of Copernicus - on being shown the instruments of torture

Shah Jahan orders that all recently built Hindu temples shall be destroyed, ending the Mughal tradition of religious tolerance

The Cavalier Parliament begins to pass a series of acts, known as the Clarendon Code, containing punitive measures against Presbyterians

The Act of Uniformity demands that Anglican clergy accept all the Thirty-Nine Articles, costing many their livings

The Conventicle Act restricts worship in England to Anglican churches if more than a few people are present

The Five Mile Act prevents Nonconformist ministers in England from coming closer than five miles to any town where they have ministered

Charles II issues a Declaration of Indulgence, suspending the restrictions on Catholics and Nonconformists

Parliament in England passes a Test Act excluding Catholics and Nonconformists from public office

The Popish Plot, an invented Jesuit conspiracy to kill Charles II, results in the execution of about thirty-five Roman Catholics

Louis XIV persecutes the Huguenots by means of dragonnades - the billetting of unruly dragoons in the homes of villagers

400,000 Huguenots leave France after Louis XIV deprives them of their rights by revoking the Edict of Nantes

Government soldiers, mainly Campbells, massacre their MacDonald hosts in Glencoe

The Massachusetts town of Salem is gripped by witch-hunting hysteria

Twenty people convicted of witchcraft are hanged in Salem, and one is pressed to death

French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier is guillotined for having been involved with tax collection in the ancien régime

Magistrates order troops to fire on a crowd in Manchester, in what becomes known as the Peterloo massacre

The state government of Georgia declares that it is illegal for for the Cherokees to hold political assemblies