Gustavus Adolphus
1594 – 1632 · 38 years · Stockholm · Europe
Made Sweden a great power and revolutionised warfare. Led the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War and fell at the Battle of Lützen.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Portrait: Presumably Jacob Hoefnagel · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 30 years older
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 2 years younger
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 12 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 47 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 30 years older
- Ferdinand II — zealous Catholic who crushed the Bohemian revolt in the Thirty Years' War, 16 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 2 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 13 years older
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 16 years older
- Bohdan Khmelnytsky — Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, 1 year younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 42 years older
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 42 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 23 years older
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 18 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 5 years older
- Mustafa I — mentally unstable sultan enthroned twice, 6 years younger
- Ahmed I — sultan who built the Blue Mosque, 4 years older
- Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 17 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 11 years older
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 38 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 9 years younger
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 51 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 52 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 17 years older
- Tokugawa Hidetada — second Tokugawa shogun, who locked in the house's grip on the daimyo, 15 years older
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 2 years older
- Mumtaz Mahal — consort of Emperor Shah Jahan, 1 year older
Americas
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 27 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 55 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 2 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 9 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 4, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 4, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 6, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 6, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 6, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 11, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 13, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 15, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 16, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 18, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 19, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 24, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 30, Africa
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — aged 38, Asia