Philip II of Spain
1527 – 1598 · 71 years · El Escorial · Europe
Ruled an empire 'on which the sun never set', including Portugal and the Philippines. Built El Escorial and sent the Armada against England.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Sofonisba Anguissola · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 6 years younger
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 20 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 52 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 37 years younger
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 37 years younger
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 44 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 3 years younger
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 5 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 54 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
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 44 years younger
- 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
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 56 years younger
- 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
- 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
- Oda Nobunaga — Japanese warlord, 7 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
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 40 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
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 55, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 55, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 61, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 64, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 65, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 71, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 71, Europe