Who Was Alive

William Shakespeare

English playwright and poet

Born April 1564 · died 23 April 1616 (Julian calendar), aged 51 or 52

Who was alive at the same time as William Shakespeare?

  1. Mimar Sinan
  2. Suleiman the Magnificent
  3. Nostradamus
  4. John Calvin
  5. Ivan the Terrible
  6. Michel de Montaigne
  7. Elizabeth I of England
  8. Francis Drake
  9. Akbar
  10. Miguel de Cervantes
  11. Tycho Brahe
  12. Giordano Bruno
  13. Francis Bacon
  14. Lope de Vega
  15. Galileo Galilei
  16. William Shakespeare
  17. Johannes Kepler
  18. Peter Paul Rubens
  19. Thomas Hobbes
  20. René Descartes
  21. Diego Velázquez
  22. Oliver Cromwell
  23. Rembrandt
  24. John Milton
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.

When William Shakespeare was born, Galileo Galilei was under a year old, Francis Bacon was 3, Elizabeth I of England was 30, Akbar was 21 and Suleiman the Magnificent was 69.

When William Shakespeare died, Galileo Galilei was 52, René Descartes was 20, Rembrandt was 9, Francis Bacon was 55 and Johannes Kepler was 44.

Born during William Shakespeare’s lifetime: René Descartes, Rembrandt, Johannes Kepler, Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velázquez, Thomas Hobbes, John Milton and Oliver Cromwell.

Not quite contemporaries: Michelangelo died months before William Shakespeare was born, Molière was born 6 years after William Shakespeare died, Blaise Pascal was born 7 years after William Shakespeare died and Jacques Cartier died 7 years before William Shakespeare was born.

Compare

All 54 contemporaries we track

  1. Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642
  2. René Descartes 1596 – 1650
  3. Miguel de Cervantes c. 1547 – 1616
  4. Rembrandt 1606 – 1669
  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. John Milton 1608 – 1674
  13. Suleiman the Magnificent 1494 – 1566
  14. Giordano Bruno 1548 – 1600
  15. Michel de Montaigne 1533 – 1592
  16. Mimar Sinan c. 1490 – 1588
  17. John Calvin 1509 – 1564
  18. Lope de Vega 1562 – 1635
  19. Oliver Cromwell 1599 – 1658
  20. Tycho Brahe 1546 – 1601
  21. Nostradamus 1503 – 1566
  22. Francis Drake c. 1540 – 1596
  23. Ivan the Terrible 1530 – 1584
  24. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 1525 – 1594
  25. Caravaggio 1571 – 1610
  26. El Greco 1541 – 1614
  27. Pierre de Fermat 1607 – 1665
  28. Luís de Camões 1524–1525 – 1580
  29. Charles I of England 1600 – 1649
  30. Philip II of Spain 1527 – 1598
  31. Titian c. 1490 – 1576
  32. Teresa of Ávila 1515 – 1582
  33. Mary, Queen of Scots 1542 – 1587
  34. Pierre Corneille 1606 – 1684
  35. Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu 1585 – 1642
  36. Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1600 – 1681
  37. Henry IV of France 1553 – 1610
  38. Abel Tasman 1603 – 1659
  39. Christopher Marlowe c. 1564 – 1593
  40. Shah Jahan 1592 – 1666
  41. John Donne 1572 – 1631
  42. John Amos Comenius 1592 – 1670
  43. François de La Rochefoucauld 1613 – 1680
  44. James VI and I 1566 – 1625
  45. Gregory XIII 1502 – 1585
  46. Louis XIII of France 1601 – 1643
  47. Torquato Tasso 1544 – 1595
  48. William Harvey 1578 – 1657
  49. Hugo Grotius 1583 – 1645
  50. Evangelista Torricelli 1608 – 1647
  51. Pieter Brueghel the Elder c. 1525 – 1569
  52. Pius V 1504 – 1572
  53. Nicolas Poussin 1594 – 1665
  54. Urban VIII 1568 – 1644