Ferdinand II
1578 – 1637 · 59 years · Vienna · Europe
Reign: 1619 – 1637 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
Jesuit-educated champion of the Counter-Reformation. After the victory at the White Mountain in 1620 he executed the Bohemian rebel leaders and forcibly re-Catholicised Bohemia; he relied on Wallenstein's army, and his Edict of Restitution of 1629 only prolonged the war.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Unidentified painter · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 14 years older
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 18 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 31 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 14 years older
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 28 years younger
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 45 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 18 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 3 years younger
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, born the same year
- Bohdan Khmelnytsky — Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, 17 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 26 years older
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 26 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 7 years older
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 34 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 11 years younger
- Mustafa I — mentally unstable sultan enthroned twice, 22 years younger
- Ahmed I — sultan who built the Blue Mosque, 12 years younger
- Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 33 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 5 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 22 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 25 years younger
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 29 years older
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 35 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 36 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 1 year older
- Tokugawa Hidetada — second Tokugawa shogun, who locked in the house's grip on the daimyo, 1 year younger
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 14 years younger
- Mumtaz Mahal — consort of Emperor Shah Jahan, 15 years younger
Americas
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 11 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 39 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 18 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 25 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 4, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 4, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 10, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 13, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 14, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 20, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 20, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 22, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 22, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 22, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 27, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 29, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 31, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 32, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 34, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 35, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 40, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 46, Africa
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — aged 54, Asia