Hernán Cortés
1485 – 1547 · 62 years · Tenochtitlan · Americas
Spanish conquistador who, with a small force and Indigenous allies, overthrew the Aztec Empire.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 10 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 2 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 12 years older
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 33 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 48 years younger
- Henry VIII — king of six wives who broke with Rome and created the Church of England, 6 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 45 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 6 years older
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 45 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 47 years younger
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 30 years older
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 9 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 20 years younger
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 15 years older
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 39 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 38 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 41 years younger
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 42 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 21 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 16 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 2 years older
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 16 years older
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 49 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 52 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 52 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 34 years older
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 1 year older
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 5 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 19 years older
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 17 years younger
- Huayna Capac — Sapa Inca, 21 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 3, Africa
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 7, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 7, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 9, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 13, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 16, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 23, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 26, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 32, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 34, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 35, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 36, Americas
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 41, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 41, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 44, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 47, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 49, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 57, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 58, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 60, Americas
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 62, Eastern Europe & Russia