Who Was Alive
John Knox
William Holl, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Knox

Scottish writer

Born c. 1514 · died 24 November 1572

Who was alive at the same time as John Knox?

  1. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452 – 1519
  2. Vasco da Gama, c. 1464 – 1524
  3. Erasmus, 1466 – 1536
  4. Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469 – 1527
  5. Albrecht Dürer, 1471 – 1528
  6. Nicolaus Copernicus, 1473 – 1543
  7. Michelangelo, 1475 – 1564
  8. Ferdinand Magellan, c. 1480 – 1521
  9. Raphael, 1483 – 1520
  10. Martin Luther, 1483 – 1546
  11. Hernán Cortés, 1485 – 1547
  12. Mimar Sinan, c. 1490 – 1588
  13. Jacques Cartier, 1491 – 1557
  14. Suleiman the Magnificent, 1494 – 1566
  15. John Knox, c. 1514 – 1572
  16. Michel de Montaigne, 1533 – 1592
  17. Elizabeth I, 1533 – 1603
  18. Akbar, 1542 – 1605
  19. Miguel de Cervantes, c. 1547 – 1616
  20. Giordano Bruno, 1548 – 1600
  21. Francis Bacon, 1561 – 1626
  22. Galileo Galilei, 1564 – 1642
  23. William Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616
  24. Johannes Kepler, 1571 – 1630

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 John Knox died, William Shakespeare was 8, Galileo Galilei was 8, Elizabeth I was 39, Francis Bacon was 11 and Johannes Kepler was under a year old.

Born during John Knox’s lifetime: William Shakespeare, Galileo Galilei, Miguel de Cervantes, Elizabeth I, Francis Bacon, Johannes Kepler, Akbar and Giordano Bruno.

Not quite contemporaries: Christopher Columbus died about 6 years before John Knox was born, Peter Paul Rubens was born about 5 years after John Knox died, Sandro Botticelli died about 2 years before John Knox was born and Cardinal Richelieu was born about 13 years after John Knox died.

What happened in John Knox’s lifetime

Where John Knox’s contemporaries were born

John Knox is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (78 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare John Knox

The 150 best-known contemporaries

171 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as John Knox. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1545.

  1. William Shakespeare 1564 – 1616
  2. Leonardo da Vinci 1452 – 1519
  3. Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642
  4. Michelangelo 1475 – 1564
  5. Martin Luther 1483 – 1546
  6. Miguel de Cervantes c. 1547 – 1616
  7. Niccolò Machiavelli 1469 – 1527
  8. Nicolaus Copernicus 1473 – 1543
  9. Ferdinand Magellan c. 1480 – 1521
  10. Raphael 1483 – 1520
  11. Elizabeth I 1533 – 1603
  12. Francis Bacon 1561 – 1626
  13. Albrecht Dürer 1471 – 1528
  14. Johannes Kepler 1571 – 1630
  15. Vasco da Gama c. 1464 – 1524
  16. Hernán Cortés 1485 – 1547
  17. Akbar 1542 – 1605
  18. Jacques Cartier 1491 – 1557
  19. Erasmus 1466 – 1536
  20. Suleiman the Magnificent 1494 – 1566
  21. Giordano Bruno 1548 – 1600
  22. Michel de Montaigne 1533 – 1592
  23. Mimar Sinan c. 1490 – 1588
  24. John Calvin 1509 – 1564
  25. François Rabelais 1494 – 1553
  26. Thomas More c. 1478 – 1535
  27. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor 1500 – 1558
  28. Lope de Vega 1562 – 1635
  29. Tycho Brahe 1546 – 1601
  30. Nostradamus 1503 – 1566
  31. Francis Drake c. 1540 – 1596
  32. Henry VIII 1491 – 1547
  33. Ivan the Terrible 1530 – 1584
  34. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 1525 – 1594
  35. Caravaggio 1571 – 1610
  36. El Greco 1541 – 1614
  37. Luís de Camões c. 1525 – 1580
  38. Philip II of Spain 1527 – 1598
  39. Titian c. 1490 – 1576
  40. Teresa of Ávila 1515 – 1582
  41. Babur 1483 – 1530
  42. Mary, Queen of Scots 1542 – 1587
  43. Guru Nanak 1469 – 1539
  44. Paracelsus 1493 – 1541
  45. Ignatius of Loyola c. 1491 – 1556
  46. Anne Boleyn 1501 – 1536
  47. Henry IV of France 1553 – 1610
  48. Mary I 1516 – 1558
  49. Christopher Marlowe c. 1564 – 1593
  50. Huldrych Zwingli 1484 – 1531
  51. James VI and I 1566 – 1625
  52. Pope Gregory XIII 1502 – 1585
  53. Edward VI 1537 – 1553
  54. Torquato Tasso 1544 – 1595
  55. Pope Paul III 1468 – 1549
  56. Pope Leo X 1475 – 1521
  57. Ludovico Ariosto 1474 – 1533
  58. Francis I of France 1494 – 1547
  59. Pieter Bruegel the Elder c. 1525 – 1569
  60. Pope Pius V 1504 – 1572
  61. Selim I 1470 – 1520
  62. Francisco Pizarro c. 1478 – 1541
  63. Catherine de' Medici 1519 – 1589
  64. Pope Urban VIII 1568 – 1644
  65. Francis Xavier 1506 – 1552
  66. Giorgio Vasari 1511 – 1574
  67. Pope Paul V 1552 – 1621
  68. Claudio Monteverdi 1567 – 1643
  69. Ben Jonson 1572 – 1637
  70. Pope Adrian VI 1459 – 1523
  71. Hürrem Sultan c. 1507 – c. 1560
  72. Fuzuli c. 1488 – 1556
  73. Pope Pius IV 1499 – 1565
  74. Tintoretto 1519 – 1594
  75. Pope Leo XI 1535 – 1605
  76. Tokugawa Ieyasu 1543 – 1616
  77. John Napier 1550 – 1617
  78. Pope Clement VII 1478 – 1534
  79. Catherine of Aragon 1485 – 1536
  80. Andreas Vesalius 1514 – 1564
  81. Pope Clement VIII 1536 – 1605
  82. Pope Gregory XV 1554 – 1623
  83. Abbas the Great 1571 – 1629
  84. Ismail I 1487 – 1524
  85. Pope Julius III 1487 – 1555
  86. Pope Sixtus V 1521 – 1590
  87. Pedro Álvares Cabral 1467 – c. 1520
  88. Pope Paul IV 1476 – 1559
  89. Pope Urban VII 1521 – 1590
  90. John of the Cross 1542 – 1591
  91. Jahangir 1569 – 1627
  92. Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor 1459 – 1519
  93. Gerolamo Cardano 1501 – 1576
  94. Humayun 1508 – 1556
  95. William the Silent 1533 – 1584
  96. Philipp Melanchthon 1497 – 1560
  97. Oda Nobunaga 1534 – 1582
  98. Pope Gregory XIV 1535 – 1591
  99. Lady Jane Grey 1537 – 1554
  100. Murad III 1546 – 1595
  101. Andrea Palladio 1508 – c. 1580
  102. Paolo Veronese 1528 – 1588
  103. Willem Barentsz c. 1551 – 1597
  104. Hayreddin Barbarossa c. 1478 – 1546
  105. Lucrezia Borgia 1480 – 1519
  106. Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor 1503 – 1564
  107. Selim II 1524 – 1574
  108. Toyotomi Hideyoshi 1537 – 1598
  109. Edmund Spenser c. 1553 – 1599
  110. Guy Fawkes c. 1570 – 1606
  111. Pierre de Ronsard 1524 – 1585
  112. Henry III of France 1551 – 1589
  113. Tommaso Campanella 1568 – 1639
  114. Pope Marcellus II 1501 – 1555
  115. Charles IX of France 1550 – 1574
  116. Pope Innocent IX 1519 – 1591
  117. Mehmed III 1566 – 1603
  118. Tulsidas c. 1522 – 1623
  119. Gerardus Mercator 1512 – 1594
  120. Francis de Sales 1567 – 1622
  121. Henry II of France 1519 – 1559
  122. Joanna of Castile 1479 – 1555
  123. Gustav Vasa 1496 – 1560
  124. Hans Holbein the Younger 1497 – 1543
  125. William Gilbert 1544 – 1603
  126. Walter Raleigh c. 1552 – 1618
  127. Boris Godunov 1552 – 1605
  128. Hernando de Soto c. 1500 – 1542
  129. Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor 1552 – 1612
  130. Sigismund III Vasa 1566 – 1632
  131. Luca Pacioli 1440s – 1517
  132. Bartolomé de las Casas 1484 – 1566
  133. Atahualpa c. 1500 – 1533
  134. Francis II of France 1544 – 1560
  135. Étienne de La Boétie 1530 – 1563
  136. Margaret of Valois 1553 – 1615
  137. Moctezuma II 1466 – 1520
  138. Marguerite de Navarre 1492 – 1549
  139. James V 1512 – 1542
  140. Michael Servetus 1511 – 1553
  141. Catherine Howard 1524 – 1542
  142. François Viète 1540 – 1603
  143. Benvenuto Cellini 1500 – 1571
  144. Giuseppe Arcimboldo 1527 – 1593
  145. Abraham Ortelius 1527 – 1598
  146. Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor 1527 – 1576
  147. Pietro Perugino 1448 – 1523
  148. Anne of Cleves 1515 – 1557
  149. Sofonisba Anguissola 1532 – 1625
  150. Juan Sebastián Elcano c. 1486 – 1526