16th century

Timeline

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Years of interest

1599 1597 1593 1589 1588 1587 1572 1568 1560 1555 1554 1505 1592 1500 1519 1520 1540 1558 1559 1562 1582 1594 1507 1553 1526 1580 1522 1590 1536 1539 1598 1561 1586 1504 1575 1542 1564 1585 1503 1516 1544 1591 1535 1511 1509 1512 1537 1571 1514 1547 1563 1567 1578 1584 1538 1543 1518 1596 1566 1533 1541 1506 1502 1574 1550

• 1500: The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith are briefly seen as ghosts. (MA: The Ghosts of N-Space, BBCR: The Ghosts of N-Space)
• 1503: Leonardo da Vinci begins work on the Mona Lisa. The Doctor would later remember her as "that terrible woman with no eyebrows who wouldn't smile." (DW: City of Death)
• 1505: The Doctor arrives at Leonardo da Vinci's studio from the year 1979 seeking clues to Count Scarlioni's plot to steal the Mona Lisa in that year. He discovers that Leonardo is painting copies of his most famous work for his new patron, Captain Tancredi. He learns that both Scarlioni and Tancredi are temporal splinters of the same person, Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth. After being briefly captured and interrogated by Tancredi, the Doctor escapes back to 1979 after writing "This is a fake" on Leonardo's canvasses in felt tip. (DW: City of Death)
• 1508: Michelangelo begins working on the Sistine Chapel. The Doctor is present at some point during the work. (MA: Managra)
• 1509: Henry VIII succeeds his father and becomes king of England. At some point during his reign he meets the First Doctor. When the king throws a parson's nose at the Doctor, he throws it back. The angry king sends the Doctor and Susan to the Tower. Fortunately, the TARDIS happens to be in the Tower, and the two travellers escape. (DW: The Sensorites)
• 1516: Mary I of England is born. The Doctor will meet her during the events of "The Marian Conspiracy."
• 1519: Hernando Cortez lands on the shores of Mexico, as predicted by Barbara Wright ("The Aztecs") and mentioned by Bernice Summerfield ("The Left-Handed Hummingbird").
• Leonardo da Vinci dies in France. The Doctor had met and befriended "Leo" sometime between the events of "The Masque of Mandragora" and "City of Death."
• 1520: According to Barbara Wright and Susan Foreman, this year Hernando Cortez landed in Mexico and began his conquest of the Aztecs. ("The Aztecs").
• 1521: Hernando Cortez defeats the Aztecs, as predicted by Barbara Wright ("The Aztecs").
• 1527: Historical date for the birth of John Dee, who was actually Jared Khan. (NA: Birthright)
• 1530: Nicholas Copernicus formulates his model of a sun-centered planetary system, but will not publish it until shortly before his death in 1543. During his meeting with Professor J.P. Kettlewell, the Doctor mentions Copernicus as one of many scientists who have faced opposition to their ideas. (DW: Robot)
• 1533: Elizabeth I of England is born. The Doctor will be present at her coronation in 1559 (DW: The Curse of Peladon), and will visit her occasionally until shortly before her death in 1603 (NA: Birthright).
• Stephen Bathory, King of Poland, is born. He will briefly receive John Dee and Edward Kelley during their tour of Europe. (MA: Managra)
• 1537: Lady Jane Grey is born. The Doctor will meet her during the events of "The Nine-Day Queen."
• 1540: The Haemovariform's shooting star crashes in the Glen of St Catherine. (TS: Tardisode 2)
• 1550: Charles IX of France, who will play a pivotal role in the events of "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve," is born in Paris.
• Nostradamus writes the first of his almanacs, containing his now famous prophecies, conceived with the assistance of the Canavitchi. (PDA: The King of Terror) Madame Nostradamus, "a witty little knitter," creates the scarf the Doctor will wear during his fourth incarnation. (DW: The Ark in Space)
• 1553: The events of "The Nine-Day Queen" occur at this time, concluding as Mary I of England deposes Jane Grey and imprisons her in the Tower of London under charges of treason.
• 1554: The Doctor visits Jane Grey in the Tower of London just prior to her execution. (BFA: The Marian Conspiracy)
• Jane Grey is beheaded for treason by Mary I of England. The Doctor foresaw this, but knew he could not prevent it. (VD: The Nine-Day Queen)
• Mary I of England enacts Heresy Laws against English Protestants, especially those who voice support for her sister, Elizabeth. (BFA: The Marian Conspiracy)
• 1555: In January, the Doctor visits England with Evelyn Smythe, a history lecturer from 2000, in pursuit of the source of a temporal nexus that is causing Smythe's family to disappear from the timestream. Posing as Queen Mary's physician, the Doctor discovers that it is Smythe's own actions in encouraging an attempt on Mary's life that are paradoxically causing the nexus. Averting these attempts - after a spell in the Tower of London - the TARDIS leaves England, with Mary praying for the Doctor to return and the safe birth of an heir, neither of which come to pass. (BFA: The Marian Conspiracy)
• 1560: Elizabeth Bathory is born in Hungary. The Doctor will have a particularly haunting encounter with her, and her black magic experiments. (MA: Managra)
• The Doctor and Chris Cwej arrive in feudal Japan, encountering Penelope Gate and Joel Mintz. (NA: The Room With No Doors)
• 1562: Over 1000 Huguenots are killed at Wassy by Francis, Duke of Guise. The act starts the First War of Religion in France and is noted ten years later when the Doctor and Steven Taylor visit France. (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve)
• 1563: Robert Cecil is born. (MA: The Plotters)
• 1564: On 15th February, Galileo Galilei is born in Pisa, Italy, while Christopher Marlowe is baptized on 24th February in Canterbury. Both will be involved in the events surrounding the Armageddon Convention in Venice in 1609. (MA: The Empire of Glass)
• On 18th February, Michelangelo dies in Rome. The Doctor had been present at some point during Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel, and it was because of this fact that the Doctor deduced the replica of the Chapel in Europa's version of the Vatican was just that. (MA: Managra)
• 1566: The future James VI of Scotland/James I of England is born at Edinburgh Castle. During James' reign as James I of England, the Doctor and his companions become involved in the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate James in 1605. (MA: The Plotters)
• Nostradamus dies. His now famous prophecies were written with the assistance of the Canavitchi. (PDA: The King of Terror) Madame Nostradamus, "a witty little knitter," created the scarf the Doctor wore during his fourth incarnation. (DW: The Ark in Space)
• 1568: The Doctor and Evelyn Smythe meet John Dee. (ST: Mortlake)
• 1572: The events of "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve" occur at this time.
• Boscombe Hall was built on the former site of the Convent of the Little Sisters of St. Gudula at Boscombe. Earlier in the century, Henry VIII of England had sealed the unhappy fate of the convent, headed by Cessair of Diplos posing as its Mother Superior, by conducting his so-called "Dissolution of the Monasteries" campaign. (DW: The Stones of Blood)
• 1580: From around this time, John Whiteside-Smith - an ancestor of Evelyn Smythe - becomes an adviser at the court of Elizabeth I. The Doctor vaguely recalls "the chap" being around during one of his many visitors to this period. (BFA: The Marian Conspiracy)
• 1582: The Doctor and Ace make a stopover in Rome during their search for the Timewyrm. (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation)
• 1583: John Dee and Edward Kelley depart for Poland to begin a tour of Europe. Welcomed by King Stephen Bathory of Poland, they eventually travel to visit the king's neice, the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, in Austria. Elizabeth is conducting black magic rituals which involve the blood sacrifice of young women. Francis Pearson is also present at these rituals, which result in the conjuration of the Mimic, which pursues Pearson back to England. The Doctor is also present at some point in these events, and tries and fails to save a young girl from the countess. The experience still haunts him in his fourth incarnation. (MA: Managra)
• 1587: The west wing of Chase Mansion is completed. (DW: The Seeds of Doom)
• The Greld attack the Roanoke colony, implanting mind-control devices in the colonists together with components of a meta-cobalt bomb. Christopher Marlowe escapes and returns to England with a Greld control device in his brain. (MA: The Empire of Glass)
• 1588: The Doctor is playing nine pins with Francis Drake when Drake is called away to fight the Spanish Armada. The Doctor lets Drake win so he can get away in time to join the fight. (DW: Four to Doomsday, NA: Birthright)
• 1589: John Dee returns to England, having parted company with Edward Kelly during their tour of Europe. (MA: Managra)
• 1593: At some point after August of last year English playwright and spy Christopher Marlowe was mortally wounded during a duel in a London tavern. Marlowe survived, and the control device implanted in his brain by the Greld during their attack on the Roanoke colony was removed by the attending surgeon, who was unaware of its true nature. Some time after his brush with death, Marlowe left London, allowing others to believe him dead. He will later turn up in Venice using the name Giovanni Chigi. (MA: The Empire of Glass)
• 1594: A Zygon spacecraft, crippled during an attack on its fleet by the Xaranti, crashes on Earth. Its crew hides amongst the human inhabitants of London for the next three centuries. (EDA: The Bodysnatchers)
• 1597: Mr Chadwick and Gregario join Joanna Harris' vampire coven. (EDA: Vampire Science)
• 1598: *Queen Elizabeth I discusses Shakespeare's latest play, probably Henry VI, with the playwright and Francis Bacon. The event is witnessed by the TARDIS crew on the Doctor's Time-Space Visualiser. (DW: The Chase)
• 1599: The Doctor takes Martha Jones to the Globe Theatre in London to meet William Shakespeare. There, the Carrionites attempt to release their brethren and invade Earth, but are stopped by Shakespeare himself. (DW: The Shakespeare Code)