Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,430 metres (8,000 ft) above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamb...

The Order of the Golden Fleece (German: Orden vom Goldenen Vlies; Dutch: Orde van het Gulden Vlies; French: Ordre de la Toison d'Or; Italian: Ordine del Toson d'Oro; Spanish: Orden del Toisón de Oro) is an order of chivalry founded in Bruge...

James II who reigned as king of Scots from 1437 on, was the son of James I and Joan Beaufort. Nothing is known of his early life, but by his first birthday his twin and only brother, Alexander, who was also the older twin, had died, thus ma...

Hugo van der Goes was a Flemish painter. He was, along with Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Dieric Bouts, one of the most important of the Early Netherlandish painters. His most famous surviving work is the Portinar...

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, was a member of the House of Draculesti, a branch of the House of Basarab, also known by his patronymic name: Dracula. He was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler, and was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ru...

Alexander VI, (Rodrigo Borgia) pope 1492-1503, is the most memorable of the secular popes of the Renaissance. He was born at Xàtiva, València, Spain, and his father's surname was Lanzol or Llançol; that of his mother's family, Borgia or Bor...

Mehmed II (1432-1481), nicknamed the conqueror, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire a short time in 1444 to 1446, and from 1451 to 1481. Mehmed II brought an end to the Byzantine Empire by capturing Constantinople in 1453 (during the well-...

Charles the Bold (or Charles the Rash), was Duke of Burgundy from 1467 to 1477. Known as Charles the Terrible to his enemies, he was the last Valois Duke of Burgundy and his early death was a pivotal, if under-recognised, moment in European...

Isabella of Bourbon, Countess of Charolais was the second wife of Charles the Bold, Count of Charolais and future Duke of Burgundy. She was a daughter of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon and Agnes of Burgundy, and the mother of Mary of Burgundy,...

Johannes Müller von Königsberg, today best known by the Latin epithet Regiomontanus, was a German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, translator, instrument maker and Catholic bishop. He was born in the Franconian village of Unfinden,...

Elizabeth Woodville was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483. Her family, at the time of her birth was mid-ranked in the English aristocracy and her first marriage was to a minor support...

Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc), leading Flemish painter of the Bruges school during the period of the city's political and commercial decline. The number of his imitators and followers testified to his popularity throughout Flanders. H...

Ivan III Vasilyevich, also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Rus'. Sometimes referred to as the "gatherer of the Rus' lands", he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Gold...

Pedrarias Dávila (Pedro Arias de Ávila) y Ortiz de Cota, was a Spanish colonial administrator. He led the first great Spanish expedition in the New World. In 1519 he founded Panama City and moved his capital there in 1524. Moreover, he w...

Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England. The first half of his rule was characterised by violence, but he overcame the rema...