Maximilian II
1527 – 1576 · 49 years · Vienna · Europe
Reign: 1564 – 1576 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
Son of Ferdinand I, so sympathetic to the Lutherans that his father feared he would convert. As emperor he kept the religious peace, allowed Protestant worship to the Austrian nobility, and in 1575 was elected by one faction to the Polish throne.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Workshop of Nicolas Neufchatel · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 6 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 52 years older
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 20 years younger
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 44 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 54 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 37 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 3 years younger
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 5 years younger
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 25 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 25 years younger
- Feodor I — last Rurikid tsar, under whom the Moscow Patriarchate was founded, 30 years younger
Middle East
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 3 years older
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 33 years older
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 22 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 1 year older
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 19 years younger
- Mehmed III — sultan who executed 19 brothers and won at Keresztes, 39 years younger
Africa
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 22 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 29 years younger
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 21 years older
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 84 years older
Asia
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 15 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 16 years younger
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 7 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 10 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 10 years younger
- Yi Sun-sin — Korean admiral, 18 years younger
Americas
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 43 years older
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 42 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 12 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 2, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 5, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 7, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 15, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 16, Europe
- 1545–1548 Cocoliztli epidemic — aged 18, Americas
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 20, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — aged 28, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — aged 29, Asia
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — aged 29, Asia
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 42, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 44, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 45, Europe