Miguel de Cervantes
1547 – 1616 · 69 years · Madrid · Europe
Author of Don Quixote, one of the first and greatest modern novels. Fought at Lepanto and spent five years as a captive in Algiers.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Attributed to Juan de Jáuregui · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 14 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 17 years younger
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 17 years younger
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 49 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 72 years older
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 59 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 17 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 15 years older
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 34 years younger
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 49 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 5 years younger
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 5 years younger
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 24 years younger
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 23 years older
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 53 years older
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 42 years older
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 1 year older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 21 years older
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 36 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 9 years younger
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 2 years younger
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 56 years younger
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 4 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 5 years older
- Matteo Ricci — Jesuit missionary in China, 5 years younger
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 10 years older
- Yi Sun-sin — Korean admiral, 2 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 10 years older
Americas
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 63 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 8 years older
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 20 years younger
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 49 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 56 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar — aged 0, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — aged 8, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1556 Shaanxi earthquake — aged 9, Asia
- 1556 Akbar and the Second Battle of Panipat — aged 9, Asia
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 22, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 24, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 25, Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 35, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 35, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 41, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 44, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 45, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 51, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 51, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 53, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 53, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 53, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 58, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 60, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 62, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 63, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 65, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 66, Eastern Europe & Russia