Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba
1583 – 1663 · 80 years · Ndongo (Angola) · Africa
Mbundu queen who resisted Portuguese colonisation and the slave trade for decades as a skilled diplomat and war leader.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Portrait: Achille Devéria · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 19 years older
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 23 years younger
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 13 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 36 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 19 years older
- Louis XIV — King of France, the Sun King, 55 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 13 years younger
- Alexis the Most Quiet — tsar of the 1649 Law Code and the church schism, 46 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 2 years older
- Bohdan Khmelnytsky — Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, 12 years younger
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 5 years older
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 31 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 12 years older
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 29 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 6 years younger
- Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 28 years younger
- Mustafa I — mentally unstable sultan enthroned twice, 17 years younger
- Ibrahim the Mad — sultan nicknamed 'the Mad', 32 years younger
Africa
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 20 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 27 years older
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 34 years older
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 62 years younger
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 40 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 41 years older
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 9 years younger
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 6 years older
- Tokugawa Hidetada — second Tokugawa shogun, who locked in the house's grip on the daimyo, 4 years older
- Tokugawa Iemitsu — shogun who closed Japan to the Europeans, 21 years younger
Americas
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — Mexican poet and nun, 65 years younger
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 16 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 44 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 13 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 20 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 5, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 8, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 9, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 15, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 15, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 17, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 17, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 17, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 22, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 24, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 26, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 27, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 29, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 30, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 35, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 41, Africa
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — aged 49, Asia
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — aged 61, Asia
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — aged 65, Europe
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — aged 66, Europe
- 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement — aged 71, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1662 Last sighting of the dodo — aged 79, Africa