Louis XII, called "the Father of the People" was the thirty-fifth king of France and the sole monarch from the Valois-Orléans branch of the House of Valois. He reigned from 1498 to 1515 and pursued a very active foreign policy. Due to th...

Frederick III of Saxony, also known as Frederick the Wise, was Elector of Saxony (from the House of Wettin) from 1486 to his death. Frederick was the son of Ernest, Elector of Saxony and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Albert III, Duke of B...

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, known as Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was a classical scholar and wrote in a pure Latin style. Among h...

Andrea Doria was a Genoese statesman, mercenary, and admiral, the foremost naval commander of his time. A member of an aristocratic family, he was orphaned at an early age and became a soldier of fortune. In 1522 he entered the service of F...

Paul III, Alessandro Farnese was Pope from 1534 to 1549. He also called the Council of Trent in 1545. Born Alessandro Farnese in Canino, Latium, Italy, the peculiar day of February 29, he was descended through his mother from the Caetani fa...

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He was for many years an official in the Florentine Republic, with responsibilit...

Guru Nanak was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated world-wide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Pooranmashi, the full-moon day in the month of Katak, October–November. Guru Nanak has been ca...

Charles VIII, called the Affable, was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois. His invasion of Italy initiated the long series of Franco-Italian wars which characterized the first half of t...

Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, engraver, printmaker, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His high-quality woodcuts established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conve...

Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo OP , also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di S. Marco, and his actual name Baccio della Porta, was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects. He spent all his career in Florence until hi...

James IV, King of Scotland (1488–1513), son and successor of James III. He was an able and popular king, and his reign was one of stability and progress for Scotland. After suppressing an insurrection of discontented nobles early in his rei...

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance- and Reformation-era mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe, likely independently of Aristarchus of S...

Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown. He led the first known European expedition to La Florida, which he named during his first voyage to...

Pope Leo X, born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was Pope from 9 March 1513 to his death in 1521. The second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruler of the Florentine Republic, he was elevated to the cardinalate in 1489. He is probably bes...

Michelangelo Buonarroti was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatil...