Matthias
.jpg?width=160 "Circle of Hans von Aachen · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
1557 – 1619 · 62 years · Vienna · Europe
Reign: 1612 – 1619 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
Brother of Rudolf II, who wrested Austria, Hungary and then Bohemia from him in the "Brothers' Quarrel". He moved the court back to Vienna; in 1618 Bohemian Protestants threw his regents out of a window in Prague Castle, starting the Thirty Years' War.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Circle of Hans von Aachen · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
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Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 10 years older
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 7 years younger
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 7 years younger
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 24 years older
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 39 years younger
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 49 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 27 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 25 years older
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 24 years younger
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 39 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 5 years older
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 5 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 14 years younger
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 33 years older
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 11 years older
- Mehmed III — sultan who executed 19 brothers and won at Keresztes, 9 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 32 years younger
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 31 years older
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 26 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 1 year older
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 8 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 46 years younger
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 14 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 15 years older
- Matteo Ricci — Jesuit missionary in China, 5 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 20 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 20 years older
- Yi Sun-sin — Korean admiral, 12 years older
Americas
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 18 years older
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 10 years younger
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 39 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 46 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 12, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 14, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 15, Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 25, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 25, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 31, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 34, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 35, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 41, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 41, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 43, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 43, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 43, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 48, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 50, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 52, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 53, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 55, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 56, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 61, Europe