Maximilian I
1459 – 1519 · 60 years · Innsbruck · Europe
Reign: 1493 – 1519 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
His marriage to Mary of Burgundy brought him the Netherlands, and the marriages of his children and grandchildren brought Spain, Bohemia and Hungary. He carried out the Imperial Reform of 1495 and in 1508 took the title "Elected Roman Emperor" without a papal coronation.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: Albrecht Dürer · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 7 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 14 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 16 years younger
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 24 years younger
- Henry VII — founder of the Tudor dynasty who ended the Wars of the Roses, 2 years older
- Isabella I of Castile — Queen of Castile, 8 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 19 years older
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 20 years younger
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 4 years older
Middle East
- Mehmed II — Ottoman sultan, 27 years older
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 11 years younger
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 35 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 46 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 12 years older
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 16 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 47 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 10 years younger
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 10 years younger
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 24 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 23 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshitane — shogun who held office twice and was driven out twice, 7 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshizumi — puppet shogun of the Hosokawa clan, 22 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 8 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 7 years younger
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 21 years younger
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 25 years younger
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 26 years younger
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 43 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — aged 19, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — aged 21, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 29, Africa
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 33, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 33, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 35, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 39, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 42, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 49, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 52, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 58, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 60, Americas