Henry III
1551 – 1589 · 38 years · Paris · Europe
Reign: 1574 – 1589 (Franks and France)
Before taking the French throne he was briefly king of Poland (1573–1574). Amid the Wars of Religion he had the Duke of Guise murdered and was himself stabbed by the friar Jacques Clément, naming Henry of Navarre his heir.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Attributed to Étienne Dumonstier · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 18 years older
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 4 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 13 years younger
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 13 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 76 years older
- Philip II of Spain — King of Spain, 24 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 21 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 19 years older
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 1 year younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 1 year younger
- Feodor I — last Rurikid tsar, under whom the Moscow Patriarchate was founded, 6 years younger
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 27 years younger
Middle East
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 27 years older
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 20 years younger
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 57 years older
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 5 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 25 years older
- Mehmed III — sultan who executed 19 brothers and won at Keresztes, 15 years younger
Africa
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 2 years older
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 5 years younger
Asia
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 9 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 8 years older
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 14 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 14 years older
- Yi Sun-sin — Korean admiral, 6 years older
- Matteo Ricci — Jesuit missionary in China, 1 year younger
Americas
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 67 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 12 years older
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 16 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — aged 4, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — aged 5, Asia
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — aged 5, Asia
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 18, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 20, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 21, Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 31, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 31, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 37, Europe