Who Was Alive

Famous people born in the 16th century

47 people we track were born in the 16th century. The best known are on the timeline.

  1. Nostradamus
  2. John Calvin
  3. Luís de Camões
  4. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
  5. Ivan the Terrible
  6. Michel de Montaigne
  7. Elizabeth I of England
  8. Francis Drake
  9. El Greco
  10. Akbar
  11. Miguel de Cervantes
  12. Tycho Brahe
  13. Giordano Bruno
  14. Francis Bacon
  15. Lope de Vega
  16. Galileo Galilei
  17. William Shakespeare
  18. Caravaggio
  19. Johannes Kepler
  20. Peter Paul Rubens
  21. Thomas Hobbes
  22. René Descartes
  23. Diego Velázquez
  24. Oliver Cromwell
Drag across the timeline to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.
  1. William Shakespeare 1564 – 1616
  2. Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642
  3. René Descartes 1596 – 1650
  4. Miguel de Cervantes c. 1547 – 1616
  5. Francis Bacon 1561 – 1626
  6. Elizabeth I of England 1533 – 1603
  7. Johannes Kepler 1571 – 1630
  8. Peter Paul Rubens 1577 – 1640
  9. Akbar 1542 – 1605
  10. Diego Velázquez 1599 – 1660
  11. Thomas Hobbes 1588 – 1679
  12. Giordano Bruno 1548 – 1600
  13. Michel de Montaigne 1533 – 1592
  14. John Calvin 1509 – 1564
  15. Lope de Vega 1562 – 1635
  16. Oliver Cromwell 1599 – 1658
  17. Tycho Brahe 1546 – 1601
  18. Nostradamus 1503 – 1566
  19. Francis Drake c. 1540 – 1596
  20. Ivan the Terrible 1530 – 1584
  21. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 1525 – 1594
  22. Caravaggio 1571 – 1610
  23. El Greco 1541 – 1614
  24. Luís de Camões 1524–1525 – 1580
  25. Charles I of England 1600 – 1649
  26. Philip II of Spain 1527 – 1598
  27. Teresa of Ávila 1515 – 1582
  28. Mary, Queen of Scots 1542 – 1587
  29. Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu 1585 – 1642
  30. Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1600 – 1681
  31. Anne Boleyn 1501 – 1536
  32. Henry IV of France 1553 – 1610
  33. Mary I 1516 – 1558
  34. Christopher Marlowe c. 1564 – 1593
  35. Shah Jahan 1592 – 1666
  36. John Donne 1572 – 1631
  37. John Amos Comenius 1592 – 1670
  38. James VI and I 1566 – 1625
  39. Gregory XIII 1502 – 1585
  40. Edward VI of England 1537 – 1553
  41. Torquato Tasso 1544 – 1595
  42. William Harvey 1578 – 1657
  43. Hugo Grotius 1583 – 1645
  44. Pieter Brueghel the Elder c. 1525 – 1569
  45. Pius V 1504 – 1572
  46. Nicolas Poussin 1594 – 1665
  47. Urban VIII 1568 – 1644