Michael I
1596 – 1645 · 49 years · Moscow · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 1613 – 1645 (Rus and Russia)
Elected by the Zemsky Sobor in 1613, ending the Time of Troubles. He concluded the Treaty of Stolbovo with Sweden (1617) and the Truce of Deulino with Poland (1618); for years his father, Patriarch Filaret, co-ruled the country.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Portrait: Johann Heinrich Wedekind · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, born the same year
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 32 years older
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 10 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 49 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 32 years older
- Oliver Cromwell — Lord Protector of England, 3 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Alexis the Most Quiet — tsar of the 1649 Law Code and the church schism, 33 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 15 years older
- Bohdan Khmelnytsky — Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, 1 year older
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 18 years older
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 44 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 25 years older
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 16 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 7 years older
- Mustafa I — mentally unstable sultan enthroned twice, 4 years younger
- Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 15 years younger
- Ibrahim the Mad — sultan nicknamed 'the Mad', 19 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 13 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 7 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 40 years older
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 53 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 19 years older
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 4 years older
- Tokugawa Iemitsu — shogun who closed Japan to the Europeans, 8 years younger
- Tokugawa Hidetada — second Tokugawa shogun, who locked in the house's grip on the daimyo, 17 years older
- Mumtaz Mahal — consort of Emperor Shah Jahan, 3 years older
Americas
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 29 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, born the same year
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 57 years older
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 7 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 2, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 2, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 4, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 4, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 4, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 9, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 11, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 13, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 14, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 16, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 17, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 22, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 28, Africa
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — aged 36, Asia
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — aged 48, Asia