Francis I
1494 – 1547 · 53 years · Paris · Europe
Reign: 1515 – 1547 (Franks and France)
He won at Marignano (1515) but was captured by Charles V at Pavia in 1525. Patron of Leonardo da Vinci, he built Chambord and made French the language of official acts by the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Jean Clouet · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 19 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 11 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 21 years older
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 42 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 39 years younger
- Henry VIII — king of six wives who broke with Rome and created the Church of England, 3 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 36 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 15 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 38 years younger
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 54 years older
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, born the same year
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 11 years younger
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 24 years older
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 30 years younger
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 32 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 47 years older
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 51 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 12 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 25 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 11 years older
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 25 years older
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 40 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 43 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 43 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 43 years older
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 10 years older
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 9 years older
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 8 years younger
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 14 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 28 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 0, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 4, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 7, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 14, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 17, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 23, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 25, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 26, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 27, Americas
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 32, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 32, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 35, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 38, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 40, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 48, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 49, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 51, Americas
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 53, Eastern Europe & Russia