Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

7

🕯️ 0

Louise Labé

Louise Charly (dite Labé)

France

c. 1524 – 1566 (42 years old)

Pioneering Renaissance poet of the Lyon School known as 'La Belle Cordière' whose impassioned sonnets and feminist manifesto in Débat de Folie et d'Amour voiced female sexual agency and intellectual autonomy.

Parcieux (Ain), France

7 Full Record →

Military Leaders & Strategists

9

🕯️ 0

Rais Dragut (Turgut Reis)

طرغود باشا (درغوث)

Algeria

1485 – 1565 (80 years old)

Legendary Mediterranean admiral, described by contemporary European chroniclers as 'a drawn sword over the seas', key ally of Hayreddin Barbarossa in Algiers.

Tripoli / Algiers honored, Libya

9 Full Record →

Military Leaders & Strategists

36

🕯️ 0

Turgut Reis (Dragut Rais)

Turgut Reis / Dragut

Turkey

1 – 1565 (80 years old)

Ottoman admiral, privateer, and Bey of Tripoli described by contemporaries as 'a living drawn sword', who captured Tripoli and commanded at the Great Siege of Malta.

Tripoli, Libya

36 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

40

🕯️ 890

Andreas Vesalius

Andreas van Wesel

Belgium

31 December 1514 – 15 October 1564 (49 years old)

Brilliant anatomist whose 1543 masterpiece De Humani Corporis Fabrica founded modern human anatomy through direct cadaver dissection, correcting over 200 errors in Galen's texts.

Zakynthos, Greece

40 Full Record →

Religious Figures & Theologians

41

🕯️ 910

John Calvin (Jean Cauvin)

Jean Cauvin

France

10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564 (54 years old)

Systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation who established Geneva as the spiritual bastion of Reformed Christianity. Authored the Institutes of the Christian Religion, articulating doctrines of divine sovereignty, grace, and civic duty.

Geneva, Switzerland

41 Full Record →

Arts & Music

37

🕯️ 999

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Italy

6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564 (88 years old)

Titan of the High Renaissance revered as 'Il Divino', whose colossal masterpieces—the marble David, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, The Last Judgment, and the dome of St. Peter's Basilica—define the pinnacle of Western art.

Rome, Italy

37 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

7

🕯️ 0

Maurice Scève

Maurice Scève

France

c. 1501 – c. 1564 (63 years old)

Leading Renaissance poet of the Lyon humanist school whose hermetic 1544 canzoniere Délie, objet de plus haute vertu was the first French poetic cycle modeled on Petrarch, celebrating idealized love for Pernette du Guillet.

Lyon, France

7 Full Record →

Music

6

🕯️ 0

Adrian Willaert

Adrian Willaert

Belgium

c. 1490 – 1562 (72 years old)

Flemish musical genius who was appointed Maestro di Cappella of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, creating the Venetian polychoral style (cori spezzati) and mentoring Andrea Gabrieli and Cipriano de Rore.

Venice, Italy

6 Full Record →

Religious Figures & Theologians

35

🕯️ 0

Menno Simons

Menno Simons

Netherlands

c. 1496 – 1561 (65 years old)

Former Catholic priest who revitalized and unified the peaceful Anabaptist movement, teaching adult believer's baptism, radical non-violence, and giving his name to the Mennonites.

Bad Oldesloe, Germany

35 Full Record →

Statesmanship & Statesmen

27

🕯️ 0

Sayyida al-Hurra

السيدة الحرة (عائشة العلمي)

Spain

c. 1485 – c. 1561 (76 years old)

Legendary Andalusian-Moroccan queen and governor of Tetouan who commanded western Mediterranean naval fleets in strategic alliance with Hayreddin Barbarossa to avenge the fall of Granada.

Chefchaouen, Morocco

27 Full Record →

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

33

🕯️ 0

Gustav I of Sweden (Gustav Vasa)

Gustav I (Gustav Eriksson Vasa)

Sweden

1496 – 1560 (64 years old)

Founding father of modern Sweden who led the War of Liberation against Danish rule, introduced the Protestant Reformation, and created hereditary kingship.

Uppsala, Sweden

33 Full Record →

Religious Figures & Theologians

36

🕯️ 0

Philipp Melanchthon

Philipp Melanchthon

Germany

1497 – 1560 (63 years old)

Intellectual partner of Martin Luther, author of the historic 'Augsburg Confession' (1530), and systematic theologian whose 'Loci Communes' grounded Protestant dogma.

Wittenberg, Germany

36 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

39

🕯️ 0

Joachim du Bellay

Joachim du Bellay

France

c. 1522 – 1560 (38 years old)

French Renaissance poet and Pléiade theorist whose manifesto Défense et illustration and elegiac sonnets Les Regrets defined modern French poetic identity.

Paris, France

39 Full Record →

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

31

🕯️ 0

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (Carlos I of Spain)

Carlos I de España y V del Sacro Imperio

Belgium

1500 – 1558 (58 years old)

Ruler of the Habsburg Empire on which 'the sun never set', sovereign of Spain, the Low Countries, and the Holy Roman Empire.

San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid, Spain

31 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

39

🕯️ 0

Caupolican

Kallpolikan (Flint Polisher)

Chile

c. 1515 – c. 1558 (43 years old)

Legendary Mapuche supreme war chief (Toqui) celebrated in Alonso de Ercilla's epic 'La Araucana', who won leadership by carrying a colossal tree trunk on his shoulders for two days and two nights, leading the Mapuche in epic resistance against Spanish conquest.

Santiago, Chile

39 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

39

🕯️ 0

Galvarino

Kalwarin

Chile

c. 1520 – 1557 (37 years old)

Fabled Mapuche warrior whose hands were both amputated by Spanish governor Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza to terrorize his people; returning to the Mapuche council, Galvarino strapped steel blades to his severed wrists to lead the frontline charge at the Battle of Millarapue.

Coronel (Biobio), Chile

39 Full Record →

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

19

🕯️ 0

Mohammed ash-Sheikh

محمد الشيخ السعدي

Morocco

c. 1490 – 1557 (~67 years old)

First Sultan of a reunified Saadian Morocco, who drove the Portuguese out of Agadir, conquered Fez, and preserved Moroccan imperial sovereignty between Spain and the Ottoman Empire.

Marrakesh, Morocco

19 Full Record →

Resistance & Human Rights

36

🕯️ 0

Lautaro

Leftraru (Swift Hawk)

Chile

c. 1534 – 1557 (23 years old)

Genius Mapuche military commander (Toqui) who escaped Spanish captivity as Pedro de Valdivia's page, studied Spanish cavalry tactics, and returned to lead the Mapuche in destroying Spanish colonial forces, celebrated as the greatest indigenous strategist of South America.

Concepcion, Chile

36 Full Record →