Who Was Alive
Christopher Wren
Godfrey Kneller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Christopher Wren

English architect

Born 20 October 1632 (Julian calendar) · died 25 February 1723 (Julian calendar), aged 90
Also known as Sir Wren, Christopher Michael Wren, Sir Christopher Wren

Who was alive at the same time as Christopher Wren?

  1. Galileo Galilei, 1564 – 1642
  2. Peter Paul Rubens, 1577 – 1640
  3. René Descartes, 1596 – 1650
  4. Diego Velázquez, 1599 – 1660
  5. Rembrandt, 1606 – 1669
  6. Molière, 1622 – 1673
  7. Blaise Pascal, 1623 – 1662
  8. John Locke, 1632 – 1704
  9. Christopher Wren, 1632 – 1723
  10. Baruch Spinoza, 1632 – 1677
  11. Louis XIV, 1638 – 1715
  12. Isaac Newton, 1642 – 1727
  13. Matsuo Bashō, 1644 – 1694
  14. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646 – 1716
  15. Jonathan Swift, 1667 – 1745
  16. Peter the Great, 1672 – 1725
  17. Antonio Vivaldi, 1678 – 1741
  18. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 – 1750
  19. Montesquieu, 1689 – 1755
  20. Voltaire, 1694 – 1778
  21. Benjamin Franklin, 1706 – 1790
  22. Leonhard Euler, 1707 – 1783
  23. Carl Linnaeus, 1707 – 1778
  24. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712 – 1778

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Christopher Wren was born, Galileo Galilei was 68, René Descartes was 36, Molière was 10, John Locke was under a year old and Rembrandt was 26.

When Christopher Wren died, Isaac Newton was 80, Johann Sebastian Bach was 37, Voltaire was 28, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was 10 and Benjamin Franklin was 17.

Born during Christopher Wren’s lifetime: Isaac Newton, Johann Sebastian Bach, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Benjamin Franklin, Carl Linnaeus, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Matsuo Bashō.

Not quite contemporaries: George Washington was born about 9 years after Christopher Wren died, Immanuel Kant was born about a year after Christopher Wren died, Adam Smith was born months after Christopher Wren died and Francis Bacon died about 6 years before Christopher Wren was born.

What happened in Christopher Wren’s lifetime

Where Christopher Wren’s contemporaries were born

Christopher Wren is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (81 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Christopher Wren

The 150 best-known contemporaries

223 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Christopher Wren. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1678.

  1. Isaac Newton 1642 – 1727
  2. Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642
  3. Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 – 1750
  4. Voltaire 1694 – 1778
  5. René Descartes 1596 – 1650
  6. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 – 1778
  7. Molière 1622 – 1673
  8. Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
  9. Carl Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
  10. John Locke 1632 – 1704
  11. Rembrandt 1606 – 1669
  12. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646 – 1716
  13. Matsuo Bashō 1644 – 1694
  14. Blaise Pascal 1623 – 1662
  15. Leonhard Euler 1707 – 1783
  16. Louis XIV 1638 – 1715
  17. Peter the Great 1672 – 1725
  18. Baruch Spinoza 1632 – 1677
  19. Peter Paul Rubens 1577 – 1640
  20. Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741
  21. Diego Velázquez 1599 – 1660
  22. Jonathan Swift 1667 – 1745
  23. Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
  24. Thomas Hobbes 1588 – 1679
  25. George Frideric Handel 1685 – 1759
  26. David Hume 1711 – 1776
  27. John Milton 1608 – 1674
  28. Denis Diderot 1713 – 1784
  29. Jean de La Fontaine 1621 – 1695
  30. Daniel Defoe c. 1661 – 1731
  31. Samuel Johnson 1709 – 1784
  32. Lope de Vega 1562 – 1635
  33. Oliver Cromwell 1599 – 1658
  34. Frederick the Great 1712 – 1786
  35. Alexander Pope 1688 – 1744
  36. Christiaan Huygens 1629 – 1695
  37. Jean Racine 1639 – 1699
  38. Johannes Vermeer 1632 – 1675
  39. Pierre de Fermat 1607 – 1665
  40. Robert Boyle 1627 – 1691
  41. Jean Le Rond d'Alembert 1717 – 1783
  42. Charles I of England 1600 – 1649
  43. George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
  44. Mikhail Lomonosov 1711 – 1765
  45. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 1632 – 1723
  46. Pierre Corneille 1606 – 1684
  47. Charles Perrault 1628 – 1703
  48. Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1600 – 1681
  49. Cardinal Richelieu 1585 – 1642
  50. Louis XV 1710 – 1774
  51. Maria Theresa 1717 – 1780
  52. Abel Tasman 1603 – 1659
  53. Robert Hooke 1635 – 1703
  54. Shah Jahan 1592 – 1666
  55. Edmond Halley 1656 – 1742
  56. Anders Celsius 1701 – 1744
  57. John Amos Comenius 1592 – 1670
  58. François de La Rochefoucauld 1613 – 1680
  59. Charles II of England 1630 – 1685
  60. John Dryden 1631 – 1700
  61. Aurangzeb 1618 – 1707
  62. Louis XIII 1601 – 1643
  63. Carlo Goldoni 1707 – 1793
  64. Hugo Grotius 1583 – 1645
  65. Anne, Queen of Great Britain 1665 – 1714
  66. William Harvey 1578 – 1657
  67. Evangelista Torricelli 1608 – 1647
  68. Nicolas Poussin 1594 – 1665
  69. Pope Benedict XIV 1675 – 1758
  70. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon 1707 – 1788
  71. Pope Urban VIII 1568 – 1644
  72. William III of England 1650 – 1702
  73. Robert Walpole 1676 – 1745
  74. Pope Pius VI 1717 – 1799
  75. James II of England 1633 – 1701
  76. Joseph Addison 1672 – 1719
  77. George II of Great Britain 1683 – 1760
  78. Daniel Bernoulli 1700 – 1782
  79. Claudio Monteverdi 1567 – 1643
  80. Ben Jonson 1572 – 1637
  81. Miyamoto Musashi 1584 – 1645
  82. Emanuel Swedenborg 1688 – 1772
  83. Christina, Queen of Sweden 1626 – 1689
  84. Pope Clement XII 1652 – 1740
  85. Pope Innocent XI 1611 – 1689
  86. Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux 1636 – 1711
  87. George I of Great Britain 1660 – 1727
  88. Elizabeth of Russia 1709 – 1762
  89. Gustavus Adolphus 1594 – 1632
  90. Anthony van Dyck 1599 – 1641
  91. John III Sobieski 1629 – 1696
  92. Vitus Bering 1681 – 1741
  93. Francisco de Quevedo 1584 – 1645
  94. Philip IV of Spain 1605 – 1665
  95. John Bunyan 1628 – 1688
  96. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit 1686 – 1736
  97. Pope Innocent X 1574 – 1655
  98. Cardinal Mazarin 1602 – 1661
  99. Charles II of Spain 1661 – 1700
  100. Pope Clement XIII 1693 – 1769
  101. William Hogarth 1697 – 1764
  102. Henry Fielding 1707 – 1754
  103. Francisco de Zurbarán c. 1598 – 1664
  104. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo 1617 – 1682
  105. Pope Benedict XIII 1649 – 1730
  106. Christoph Willibald Gluck 1714 – 1787
  107. Pope Clement X 1590 – 1676
  108. Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1598 – 1680
  109. Pope Alexander VII 1599 – 1667
  110. Pope Clement IX 1600 – 1669
  111. Pope Alexander VIII 1610 – 1691
  112. Pope Innocent XII 1615 – 1700
  113. Ole Rømer 1644 – 1710
  114. Pope Clement XI 1649 – 1721
  115. Pope Innocent XIII 1655 – 1724
  116. Mary II 1662 – 1694
  117. Giambattista Vico 1668 – 1744
  118. Charles XII of Sweden 1682 – 1718
  119. Philip V of Spain 1683 – 1746
  120. Catherine I of Russia 1684 – 1727
  121. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor 1685 – 1740
  122. Nader Shah c. 1693 – 1747
  123. Pope Clement XIV 1705 – 1774
  124. Giovanni Domenico Cassini 1625 – 1712
  125. Jean de La Bruyère 1645 – 1696
  126. Jacob Bernoulli c. 1655 – 1705
  127. Laurence Sterne 1713 – 1768
  128. Maria Gaetana Agnesi 1718 – 1799
  129. Tommaso Campanella 1568 – 1639
  130. Anna of Russia 1693 – 1740
  131. John Wesley 1703 – 1791
  132. Claude Adrien Helvétius 1715 – 1771
  133. Aphra Behn 1640 – 1689
  134. Baltasar Gracián c. 1603 – 1658
  135. Juana Inés de la Cruz 1651 – 1695
  136. Samuel de Champlain c. 1570 – 1635
  137. Iskandar Muda 1583 – 1636
  138. Artemisia Gentileschi 1593 – 1653
  139. Murad IV 1612 – 1640
  140. Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire 1615 – 1648
  141. Johann Bernoulli 1667 – 1748
  142. Georg Philipp Telemann 1681 – 1767
  143. Peter II of Russia 1715 – 1730
  144. Charles III of Spain 1716 – 1788
  145. Alexis of Russia 1629 – 1676
  146. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor 1640 – 1705
  147. Mehmed IV 1642 – 1693
  148. Maria Sibylla Merian 1647 – 1717
  149. Pierre Bayle 1647 – 1706
  150. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach 1714 – 1788