James I
1566 – 1625 · 59 years · London · Europe
Reign: 1603 – 1625 (England and Britain)
Son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and king of Scotland from the age of one, he inherited the English throne in 1603 as the first Stuart. He survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605; his reign gave us the King James Bible and the founding of Jamestown.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: John de Critz · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 2 years older
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 19 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 2 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 33 years older
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 30 years younger
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 40 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 36 years older
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 30 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 15 years younger
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 34 years older
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 12 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 14 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 5 years younger
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 46 years younger
- Mehmed III — sultan who executed 19 brothers and won at Keresztes, born the same year
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 23 years younger
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 20 years older
- Ahmed I — sultan who built the Blue Mosque, 24 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 17 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 10 years older
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 17 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 37 years younger
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 23 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 24 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 11 years younger
- Tokugawa Hidetada — second Tokugawa shogun, who locked in the house's grip on the daimyo, 13 years younger
- Matteo Ricci — Jesuit missionary in China, 14 years older
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 26 years younger
Americas
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 1 year younger
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 27 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 30 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 37 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 3, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 5, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 6, Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 16, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 16, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 22, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 25, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 26, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 32, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 32, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 34, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 34, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 34, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 39, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 41, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 43, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 44, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 46, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 47, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 52, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 58, Africa