1568 in Scotland

Events from 1568 in the Kingdom of Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Monarch – James VI
 * Regent: James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray

Events

 * 2 May – The deposed Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Lochleven Castle.
 * 13 May – Marian civil war: Battle of Langside – The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
 * 16 May – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees across the Solway Firth from Scotland to England but on May 19 is placed in custody in Carlisle Castle on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I of England, her cousin.
 * 10 June – The Earl of Moray musters forces at Biggar for a march on Dumfries.
 * October – The Earl of Moray shows Mary's "casket letters" at a conference in York headed by the Duke of Norfolk, and again at Westminster Palace on 7 December

Arts and literature

 * Edinburgh merchant George Bannatyne begins compiling the Bannatyne Manuscript while confined to his home due to plague.

Births

 * John Row, ecclesiastical historian and Reformer (died 1646)
 * Approximate date – John Welsh of Ayr, Presbyterian leader (died 1622 in England)

Deaths

 * William Baillie of Lamington, landowner