Christian III was king of Denmark and Norway from 1534–59. Early in his reign, he allied with Gustavus I of Sweden to defeat the German city of Lübeck in 1536. That victory broke the power of the Hanseatic League and made the Danish fleet s...

Ferdinand I was an Austrian monarch from the House of Habsburg. He was first the Archduke of Austria from 1521-1564. After the death of Louis II, Ferdinand ruled as King of Bohemia and Hungary (1526–1564). After his brother Charles V abdica...

Nostradamus was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publi...

Lakandula or Lakan Dula, was the regnal name of the Lakan (king or paramount ruler) of the pre-colonial Philippine Kingdom of Tondo when the Spaniards first conquered the lands of the Pasig River delta in the 1570s. Along with Rajah Matanda...

Agnolo di Cosimo, usually known as Il Bronzino, or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. The origin of his nickname, Bronzino is unknown, but could derive from his dark complexion, or from that he gave many of his...

Pope Saint Pius V was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman liturgy within the Latin Church. P...

Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the coast of Africa in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometers (560 mi) east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the republic includes the i...

Nikolaus Federmann was a German adventurer and conquistador in the colonies of Venezuela and Colombia. He worked in the service of the Welser brothers. Nikolaus Federmann was born in Ulm (Baden-Württemberg) around 1505. In 1529 he was sent...

Mary of Austria, also known as Mary of Hungary, was queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia as the wife of King Louis II, and she was later Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. The daughter of Queen Joanna of Castile and King Philip I of C...

The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, and has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written a...

Louis II was King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia from 1516 to 1526. Louis owed allegiance to the Imperial Habsburgs as a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece. In 1522 Louis II was married to Mary of Habsburg, a Habsburg princess, gr...

Francis Xavier was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre (currently Spain) and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montm...

Juliana of Stolberg was the mother of William 1 of Orange (Willem van Oranje), also known as William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger). Juliana was the daughter of Botho VIII of Stolberg-Wernigerode and Anna of Eppstein-Königstein. Her first m...

Jane Seymour was Henry VIII’s third wife. Jane married him just eleven days after Anne Boleyn was executed. Jane was born between 1507 and 1509. The marriage between Jane Seymour and Henry was on May 30th 1536. In October 1537, Jane gave b...

Guillaume Rondelet was professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier in southern France and Chancellor of the Medical Faculty from 1560. Famed as a teacher, Rondelet was also the author of a book Libri de Piscibus Marinis on the na...