Henry VIII
1491 – 1547 · 56 years · London · Europe
Reign: 1509 – 1547 (England and Britain)
To divorce Catherine of Aragon he broke with the pope, declared himself head of the Church of England in 1534 and then dissolved the monasteries. He married six times; two of his wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, were beheaded.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Hans Holbein the Younger · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 16 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 8 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 18 years older
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 39 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 42 years younger
- Francis I — Renaissance king who brought Leonardo to France, 3 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 39 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 12 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 41 years younger
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 51 years older
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 36 years older
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 3 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 14 years younger
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 21 years older
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 33 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 44 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 35 years younger
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 48 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 15 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 22 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 8 years older
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 22 years older
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 43 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 46 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 46 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 40 years older
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 7 years older
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 6 years older
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 11 years younger
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 11 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 25 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 1, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 1, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 3, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 7, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 10, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 17, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 20, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 26, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 28, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 29, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 30, Americas
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 35, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 35, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 38, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 41, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 43, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 51, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 52, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 54, Americas
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 56, Eastern Europe & Russia