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- Muhammad was born in 570 in Mecca, Arabia [now Saudi Arabia]. He was married to Khadija bint Khuwaylid. He died on 8 June 632 in Medina, Hejaz, Arabia [now Saudi Arabia].
- Granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH), Daughter of Imam Ali(AS) and Fatima(SA) and Sister of Imam Hossein(AS) who named as Hero of Karbala Martyrdom who saved Imam Sajjad(AS) life as Saviour of Imams and Standing against Yazid Soldiers for Allah and Islam Religion. Zeynab Kobra is Frontline of Ahlebait(PBUT) that Zeynab(PBUH) Holy Grave placed in Damascus, Syria.
Zeynab is Zeynab as clear explanation of her like (Fatima is Fatima) that Dr. Ali Shariati said. But, Zeynab(SA) is another Fatima(PBUH) that Seyed Sadegh Abdosalehi as Persian Prophet said. She is Shield of Ahlebait(PBUT) where her Saint Grave is closer than Kabah, Medina, Aqsa, Beynoul Harameyn, Kazemeyn, Kufah Mosque and Razavi Shrine to West as clear evidence that she is always a Shield.
Karbala Martyrdom had too hard for Zeynab when she walked thirsty from Karbala to Sham (Syria today) while her brother killed by enemies of Islam. Zeynab Kobra is Green, White and Red line of Islamic Republic of Iran that youngest peoples who believing in Zeynab(PBUH) are ready to protecting her holy shrine as Shrine Protectors.
Zeynab Kobra death day is named as Nurse Day in Iran to remember what she did. - Kenneth the First died on 13 February 858 in Perthshire, Scotland, UK.
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Born in a wealthy province of Seljuk-ruled Persia, Omar Khayyam was educated well as a youth and became fascinated by science, especially astronomy and mathematics. He built an observatory and created the Jalalaean Calender that was far more accurate than the Julian Calender in use by his European contemporaries. But it was his poetry that would earn him eternal fame. Edward FitzGerald's translation of his Rubaiyat into English sparked interest in his exotic poems and ruminations on the fragility of human life and the nature of the universe. Ironically, Omar Khayyam was not in his own lifetime remembered as a literary talent. His love of wine ("it drives sorrow from the heart") and money ("Cash is better than a thousand promises") and the generally pessimistic nature of his poetry did not make him popular among his Muslim peers. After going on hajj to Mecca in 1092, he returned to his native city of Nishapur to teach. Omar Khayyam died on December 4, 1131.- Music Department
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Hildegard von Bingen was born on 16 September 1098 in Bermersheim vor der Höhe, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. She was a composer and writer, known for Breath of God, Personal Shopper (2016) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). She died on 17 September 1179 in Bingen am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Genghis Khan was the founder and first Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of the Mongol steppe and being proclaimed the universal ruler of the Mongols, or Genghis Khan. With the tribes of Northeast Asia largely under his control, he set in motion the Mongol invasions, which ultimately witnessed the conquest of much of Eurasia, and incursions by Mongol raiding parties as far west as Legnica in western Poland and as far south as Gaza. He launched campaigns against the Qara Khitai, Khwarezmia, the Western Xia and Jin dynasty during his life, and his generals raided into medieval Georgia, Circassia, the Kievan Rus', and Volga Bulgaria.
- Jalaluddin Rumi, Scholar in Religious Sciences and famed Sufi Mystic Poet, was born on September 29th 1207 A.D. in Balkh (modern day Afghanistan). Escaping Mongol invasions he travelled extensively to Muslim lands, Bagdad, Mecca, Damascus, Malatia (Turkey). Married Gevher Khatun of Samarquand and moved to Quonya (Konya in present day Turkey). Encountering the wandering dervish and Saint Shamsuddin Tabrezi, who introduced him to the path of mystical and spiritual knowledge. Author of six volumes of didactic epic works. His most famous work in seven books and 24,660 couplets is written in Dari and Arabic and commonly referred to as the "Persian Quran" by Jami. His son was killed with the mystic dervish Shams. He himself died on December 16th 1273 A.D. and his bier was followed by men of five faiths. The night became the "Sebul Arus" or "Night of Union", and ever since the Mawlawi Dervishes celebrate this date as a Festival. Rumi leaves the world a legacy of profound poetry and writings of the most intense spirituality and simplicity ever to be written. Rumi's "Divan-e-Shams" and "Mathnawi" are his most popular works worldwide.
- Edward the First was born on 17 June 1239 in Westminster, London, England, UK. He died on 7 July 1307 in Carlisle, Cumbria, England, UK.
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Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 into the lower nobility of Florence, to Alighiero di Bellincione d'Alighiero, a moneylender. A precocious student, Dante's education focused on rhetoric and grammar. He also became enamored with a young girl, Beatrice Portinari, whose death in 1290 threw a grieving Dante into intense religious studies. Though the Alighieri family had managed to avoid entanglement in the power struggles between the Ghibelline and Guelf families for control of Florence, Dante allied himself with the democratic Guelfs and married a member of that clan, Gemma di Manetto Donati, in 1285.
After serving in the Guelf forces as a cavalryman in the Battle of Campaldino, Dante enrolled in the Guild of Doctors and Pharmacists and became politically active. He became an ambassador and a prior, but after finding himself on the opposite side of the political party in power he was forced to flee Florence in 1301, never able to return to the city of his birth. He narrowly escaped being executed for treason.
Dante left for Verona and Ravenna, where he was joined by his children. He then wrote his most famous work, "Commedia", not in scholarly Latin but in the vernacular Italian of the time, giving his countrymen a literature of their own. In it he would resurrect the love of his youth, Beatrice, giving her a place among the angels. This work would also take the author, escorted by the Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro, on a grand tour to Hell and Purgatory, and later by his beloved Beatrice to Paradise. History would later judge Dante's creation to be divine. Dante Alighieri died in 1321 and was buried in Ravenna. Three sons--Pietro, Jacopo and Giovanni--and a daughter, Antonia, survived him.- His father Niccolò Polo came from an old Dalmatian family that had settled in the Adriatic lagoon city around 1000 and was primarily dedicated to trade with the Middle East. Little is known about Marco's youth: he grew up with his mother in Venice in the absence of his traveling salesman father. During those years, Niccolò Polo and his brother Matteo Polo undertook extensive journeys to Asia Minor, which even took them to Beijing in 1266. In 1271, the young Marco Polo accompanied his father and uncle on their journey, which they undertook again on Pope Gregory X's diplomatic mission to the Emperor of China. The Polo traveled from Venice to Beijing via Acri, Persia, Afghanistan, the Silk Road and the Gobi Desert in three and a half years.
After arriving in Beijing in 1275, Marco Polo undertook various diplomatic missions on behalf of the Chinese emperor, which took him to Tibet and other provinces of the empire. He meticulously wrote down his travel impressions and experiences that he collected throughout China in the following years. In 1292, the Venetians found the opportunity to return by joining the Chinese princess's journey to Persia to join her fiancé. First they reached Hormuz in Persia on a sea voyage via Sumatra, Ceylon and the west coast of India. After a stay of several months at the Persian court, the Polo traveled back to Venice via Constantinople, where they arrived in 1295.
After Marco Polo began regular business as a merchant in his hometown, he was taken prisoner by the Genoese around 1297 as a result of military conflicts at sea between Venice and Genoa. There he dictated his extensive travel report to a fellow prisoner. In 1299, Marco Polo regained his freedom after the peace agreement between the two city republics. A little later he married Donata Badoer, with whom he had three daughters. Marco Polo's travel report was widely distributed under the title "Il milione" and was soon translated into several languages. One of the most important geographical texts of the Middle Ages, "Il milione" offered a colorful description of the cultures and landscapes of Asia as well as a treasure trove of information for future trade with those regions.
Marco Polo died on January 8, 1324 in Venice. - Giovanni Boccaccio was born in June 1313 in Certaldo, Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was a writer, known for The Little Hours (2017), Decameron n° 3 - Le più belle donne del Boccaccio (1972) and Decameron Nights (1953). He died on 21 December 1375 in Certaldo, Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
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Geoffrey Chaucer was born in 1343 in London, Kingdom of England [now UK]. He was a writer. He was married to Philippa Roet. He died on 25 October 1400 in London, Kingdom of England [now UK].- The girl history would come to know as Joan of Arc was the youngest of 5 children born in Domrémy, Duchy of Bar (which Louis XV annexed in 1766 per the Treaty of Vienna after the passing of his father-in-law Stanislaus Leszczynski, the deposed king of Poland and the last Duc de Bar). She was 13 years when she began to hear voices and saw visions of Saints Catherine, Margaret, and Michael directing her to seek out the Dauphin. Around this time, her father was having a reoccurring dream of Joan leaving home with a group of soldiers -- which at the time meant only one thing. The dream was so vivid, he instructed his sons to kill her if she ever tried to leave home; and if they didn't, he would.
Ironically, it was her father contracting a marriage for Joan with a neighbor's boy which made her decide to accept her mission. When the boy sued for breach of contract, she traveled alone to Toul, the nearest diocese, to defend herself. Fortunately, the law was on her side: a woman could not be forced to marry against her will. In ruling in her favor, the judge called Joan "an extraordinary child". She returned to Toul a year later as Commander of the French Army.
In February 1429, the now-17-year-old used the pretense of traveling to Burey-le-Petit to care for her aunt into persuading her aunt's husband to take her to Vaucouleurs to attempt for a second time to gain an audience with the captain of the garrison, Robert de Baudricourt, whom, after increasing pressure from the townsfolk, agreed to provide her an escort to the Dauphin. The men Baudricourt provided, Jéan de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy, would become two of her generals.
What happened when she arrived at Chinon on March 6, 1429, became the stuff of legend. The Dauphin disguised himself as a courtier and had another courtier dressed as the Dauphin, however, she identified the real Dauphin immediately. After an examination by his clerics, the Dauphin furnished Joan with a small force and sent her to Orléans to assist in lifting the Siege, which his army had been contending with since October 1428.
Arriving on April 29th, she proceeded to whip the troops into shape: no more pillaging, profanity, or "camp followers", and each man was to attend Mass at least once a week. Since their humiliating loss at Agincourt (1415), the French had fought from a defensive posture; Joan went on the offensive. In what came to be known as The Audacious Attack, Joan snuck a small group into the town, then ordered them to regroup for an assault on the Siege Post, saving Orléans from capitulation. The commanders regarded her at first as little more than a glorified cheerleader, yet the rank-and-file loved her: she belonged to the same class as they and was willing to take the same risks she asked them to take. Her brothers Jéan and Pierre, sent by their father to bring her home, instead found themselves fighting under her banner.
The lifting of the Siege in just 9 days brought new recruits from all over France, eager to fight for The Maid. She scored victories at Jargeau (June 11-12), Meung-sur-Loire (June 15), Beaugency (June 16-17), and Patay (June 18), the most disastrous English defeat since Baugé (1421). In stark contrast to Agincourt, where the victorious Henry V had French POWs executed, Joan spared the lives of English POWs. At Patay, she came across a wounded English soldier who asked her if she would hear his confession. Comrades fearing her among the dead found Joan cradling the now-dead young man in her arms, weeping uncontrollably. The English did not win another major engagement for the rest of the Hundred Years' War.
Accepting the peaceful surrender of every town along her path, Joan, her army, and their Scottish allies escorted the Dauphin deep into English territory. On July 17th, he was crowned Charles VII at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims. This marked the height of her career, as she was stymied repeatedly by an apathetic Charles, who preferred to negotiate with the English and the Burgundians than capitalize on the momentum she had given him. He gave her just one day to take Paris, an impossible task made worse by his order that the pontoons her general Jéan de Alençon had built be destroyed. The fighting at Porte Saint-Honoré, main entry to Paris from the West, was brutal, even by medieval standards: Joan was wounded twice, and her standard bearer was killed. Alençon had to literally drag her away from the battle as she continued to direct action. Her "failure" to take Paris pummeled her standing at court, as Charles's scheming courtiers hoped. She was forced to abandon the Siege of La Charité (November 24-December 25) after her pleas for supplies and artillery fell on deaf ears. Joan and her family were ennobled on December 29th, officially, in acknowledgment for her service, but, in reality, to get her to go home.
On May 23, 1430, Joan and Pierre were captured by the Burgundians during the Siege of Compiègne, with Joan commanding 400 volunteers. Having ordered a retreat, she ushered her group through Compiègne's city gates, but the gates were closed before she, Pierre, and the rest of the rear guard could enter. Historians are divided as to if the gate were closed to prevent the Burgundians from entering, or if it was an act of treachery by Compiègne's governor. Pierre was released after his ransom was paid, ultimately marrying the daughter of the man who raised it.
Sold to the English after Charles did not pay her ransom, Joan was put on trial, paid for by the Duke of Bedford (regent for his and Charles's nephew, Henry VI). The judges were pro-English French clerics from the University of Paris, led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon (who was forced to flee his seat at Beauvais when Joan took the town). At the time of her capture, Joan was the most-famous person in all Christendom, so Cauchon (hoping to prove that Joan was a fraud) had the proceedings meticulously recorded. In something of an irony, Bedford's wife confirmed Joan's virtue, preventing Cauchon from trying her as a witch. After 15 interrogations in less than a month, followed by a "trial" which rubber-stamped the foregone conclusion, she was convicted of heresy and turned over to secular authorities. Bedford signed her death warrant, and she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431, at the Vieux-Marché in Rouen before a crowd of 10,000, including 800 English soldiers who escorted her to the venue. One soldier gave her a cross fashioned from twigs and twine as his comrades wept, despite orders from their superiors to show no emotion.
It wasn't until 1450 that Charles ordered an inquiry into the "faults and abuses" committed by the judges whom "brought about her death iniquitously and against right reason, very cruelly". He knew that he owed Joan his throne, and if she was indeed a heretic, that made him a heretic as well. Hence, the inquiry had nothing to do with clearing her name and everything to do with legitimating his rule. Meanwhile, Joan's mother petitioned Pope Nicholas V for redress. Jéan Bréhal, inquisitor-general of France, was charged by the papal legate, Guillaume d'Estouteville, with reviewing the case. Bréhal urged the new pope, Callixtus III, to take up Joan's cause. On July 7, 1456, after a "retrial" at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Joan was declared a martyr, the victim of a political vendetta which violated canon law and cleared of all charges, however, her claims of divinity were not addressed. Callixtus excommunicated the now-deceased Cauchon in 1457.
Her popularity grew over the centuries, yet not everyone was a fan. Shakespeare depicted her as a witch in "Henry VI, Part I". Voltaire mocked her in "The Maid of Oranges". The Revolutionaries who overthrew Louis XVI banned the yearly celebration of the lifting the Siege of Orléans, destroyed her relics, and turned her statues into cannons. It was only after Napoléon declared her a national symbol of France that she was on her way to becoming universally revered. On May 16, 1920, Joan was canonized by Pope Benedict XV. A gold halo was placed over the head of her statue at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris as Parisians, whose ancestors fought Joan at Porte Saint-Honoré, crammed the streets in celebration.
In the years immediately following her death, several women came forward claiming to be Joan; in 1434, Jéan and Pierre recognized one named Claude. For the next 6 years, the brothers and their "sister" traveled from town to town, receiving lavish gifts from Joan's many admirers, all of whom were desperate to believe she had escaped her fate. Then the trio made the mistake of visiting court. Unable to tell Charles the "secret" Joan told him, proving to him she that had been sent by God, Claude confessed to the subterfuge, and begged forgiveness. Jéan's fate is unknown. Pierre continued to serve in the Army. Claude married and had two children.
Clotilde Forgeot d'Arc, who played Joan in the 2022 celebration of the lifting of the Siege of Orléans, claims to be Pierre's descendant. However, this is disputed. Genealogist Michel de Sachy de Fourdrinoy wrote in "Bulletin de L'alliance Française" (October 1973) "there is no longer any known descendants of the brothers of the Maid", confirming scholar François de Bouteiller's findings published in "Revue des Questions Historiques" (1878) that Joan's great-great nephew Charles du Lys (d. 1632) was the "last remaining male of the line". Clotilde's great-great-grandfather, Henri Gaultier, renamed his children "d'Arc" after being granted an Ordonnance Royale by Charles X in 1827.
Joan's birthplace Domrémy was renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle ("The Maid") in 1578. - Johannes Gutenberg was born in 1398 in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He died on 3 February 1468 in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
- Born around 1414-1420 into an English gentry family, Sir Thomas Malory spent his first couple of decades in quiet obscurity, aside from campaigning at the Siege of Calais in 1436. By 1441 he had been knighted, and had developed a growing interest in politics. In 1445 he became MP for his county and over the next few years developed a startling talent for lawlessness. In 1444 he had been charged with assault and theft, and in 1450 Malory tried to ambush and murder the Duke of Buckingham. He allegedly raped Joan Smith not once but twice, stole goods from her husband, extorted money, pilfered cattle, and destroyed the Duke of Buckingham's hunting lodge. In 1451 Malory was imprisoned at Coleshill, but escaped two days later by swimming the moat at night. He then twice raided Combe Abbey alongside a band of outlaws, stealing a great deal of money and harassing the monks. Malory was captured in 1452 and thrown into a London prison where he spent eight years awaiting trial. After he was bailed out, he was caught stealing horses and placed in a Colchester jail, but fought his way through the guards and escaped. He was recaptured and returned to the London prison, but was freed by royal pardon in 1460. However, by 1468 Malory was back in Newgate prison, where he would die in 1471. While in Newgate he turned to writing, creating the immortal "Le Morte D'Arthur", which would win him eternal fame. The truth behind the seemingly contradictory nature of Sir Thomas Malory is hotly debated, and may never be fully known.
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Dieric Bouts was born in 1415 in Haarlem, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He is known for Met Dieric Bouts (1975) and Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum (2002). He died on 6 May 1475 in Leuven, Flanders, Belgium.- Louis XI of France was born on 3 July 1423 in Bourges, Berry [now Cher], France. He was married to Charlotte of Savoy and Margaret of Scotland. He died on 30 August 1483 in La Riche, Touraine [now Indre-et-Loire], France.
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Johannes Ockeghem was born in 1410 in Saint-Ghislain, Hainaut, Wallonia, Belgium. He is known for eXtrañas heterodoXias (2021). He died on 6 February 1497 in Tours, France.- Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.
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The archetypal "Renaissance Man," Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest scientific minds as well as one of the greatest visual artists the human race has ever produced. The illegitimate son of a wealthy Florentine notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman named Caterina, Leonardo was born in Tuscany on April 15, 1452, in Anchiano, a town near Vinci, which is in the proximity of Florence.
When he was about 17 years old, Leonardo was apprenticed as a garzone or studio boy to the workshop of the Renaissance master Andrea Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and artist of his day. From roughly 1469 to 1476, Leonardo acquired a variety of skills during his apprenticeship at Verrocchio's workshop, including painting altarpieces and panel pictures and making large sculptures in bronze and marble. In 1472, he joined the painters' guild, and six years later, he became an independent master. His first commission was in 1478, to paint an altarpiece for the Palazzo Vecchio's chapel. The painting was never executed. Florence's Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto commissioned Leonardo's first large painting in 1481. 'The Adoration of the Magi' was left unfinished when Leonardo left Florence for Milan approximately a year later, to work for Duke Lodovico Sforza as court artist and as an engineer.
Leonardo had written the Duke of Milan touting his skills as a military engineer. In his letter, Leonardo claimed that he could build portable bridges, manufacture cannon, and build ships and war machines, including armored vehicles and catapults. He also told the Duke he could sculpt in bronze, clay and marble. He worked for the Duke of Milan for almost 18 years, painting portraits, designing festivals, and planning to sculpt a massive equestrian monument to honor the Duke's father. In addition to serving the duke as an architect and working for him as a military engineer, Leonardo assisted the mathematician Luca Pacioli in the celebrated work Divina Proportione.
Leonardo's interest in science began to flourish in Milan, and as a civil and military engineer, he delved into the field of mechanics. His scientific research also embraced anatomy, biology, mathematics, and physics. It was during this period that he finished "The Last Supper," which along with the "Mona Lisa," is his most significant masterpiece.
France captured Milan in 1499, and Leonardo moved to Mantua and then to Venice to seek employment. By April 1500, he had returned to Florence, though two years later, he left to work for Cesare Borgia, the Duke of Romagna, in a military capacity. The son of Pope Alexander VI, Borgia served his father as his general in-chief. Leonardo. as the duke's chief architect and engineer, supervised construction on forts in the Papal states in central Italy.
Back in Florence in 1503, Leonardo served on the art commission of artists that determined the proper placing of Michelangelo's sculpture 'David.' Florence was at war with Pisa, and Leonardo served the city-state as a military engineer while continuing his scientific research. Leonardo began to design a painting for the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio to commemorate the Battle of Anghiari, a Florentine victory over Pisa. While Leonardo produced a full-size sketch in 1505, he never executed the wall painting. During his second residency in Florence, Leonardo painted the portrait 'La Giocondane,' more famously known as Mona Lisa. Leonardo apparently was quite fond of the completed work, as it accompanied him on all of his subsequent travels.
Arguably the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa is a bravura technical performance. The innovative Leonardo exhibits his mastery of chiaroscuro, the technique of modeling and defining form through contrasts of light and shadow, and sfumato, the technique of using subtle transitions between areas of color. The Mona Lisa, like many of his paintings, features a landscape background utilizing atmospheric perspective. Leonardo was one of the first painters to introduce atmospheric perspective into art, and his work influenced the High Renaissance Florentine masters, including Raphael. He also was a major influence on the artistic development of Correggio.
Returning to Milan in June 1506, at the invitation of French governor Charles d'Amboise, Leonardo went to work for the French court, which with King Louis XII of France, was residing in the Italian city. Except for a sojourn back in Florence in the period 1507-08, Leonardo stayed in Milan for seven years, though he returned to Florence often to visit his half-brothers and -siters and to manage his inheritance. In 1507, Leonardo went was named court painter to King Louis XII.
In Milan, he worked on engineering projects and on the planning of an equestrian statue to honor Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, the French military commander of Milan. The statue was never realized. During this Milan stay, scientific research became paramount. He applied his artistic gifts toward scientific illustration. In addition to his study of anatomy, he studied the stratification of rocks and researched the principles behind light, the flow of water, and the growth of plants. Leonardo's method was to draw and describe things by first approaching the surface before delving in to the underlying structure. He was interested in exactly describing the appearance of natural things in order to analyze their functioning. Similar to his artistic innovations, Leonardo's scientific theories were based on careful observation, precisely documented. He also made sketches of mechanical devices for the transmission of energy.
Along with Giuliano de'Medici, the brother of Pope Leo X, Leonardo moved to Rome in 1514. Enjoying the patronage of Pope Leo X, he lived in the Palazzo Belvedere in the Vatican and was mostly concerned with scientific experimentation. In 1516, he left Italy and moved to France to become the architectural adviser of King Francis I, an admirer of his work. Leonardo lived at the Château de Cloux, near Amboise, France, where he died on May 2, 1519 at at the age of 67.- Art Department
Raphael was born on 6 April 1483 in Urbino, Duchy of Urbino [now Marche, Italy]. He is known for Parajanov: The Last Spring (1992), Night Descends on Treasure Island (1940) and Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum (2002). He died on 6 April 1520 in Rome, Papal State [now Lazio, Italy].- Composer
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Josquin Desprez was born in 1440 in France. He was a composer, known for When Will I Be Loved (2004), Vaya con Dios (2002) and Vai~E~Vem (2003). He died on 27 August 1521 in Condé-sur-l'Escaut, Nord, France.- Born into a time of extreme political upheaveal, Niccolò Machiavelli was a member of the old Florentine nobility. He received a proper humanistic Renaissance education, and as a young man began the climb up the perilous political ladder of Italy. In 1502 he was sent to Romagna as an envoy to Cesare Borgia, the infamous papal prince and despot who would later influence Machiavelli's political philosophy. The return of the Medici dynasty in 1512 resulted in Machiavelli's downfall. He lost his office and was imprisoned and tortured before finally being banished from Florence. It was during his exile that Machiavelli wrote his most famous work, "Il Principe (The Prince)", a handbook of sorts for autocratic rulers. Though his sympathies lay with republicanism, he was first and foremost intensely pragmatic, a quality which did not endear him to later, more idealistic, generations.
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Albrecht Dürer was born on 21 May 1471 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire [now Bavaria, Germany]. He was a writer, known for Knight, Death and the Devil (2023) and Unser Sandmännchen (1959). He died on 6 April 1528 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire [now Bavaria, Germany].- Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in Torun, Poland. He was a writer, known for Teatr Polskiego Radia (2004). He died on 24 May 1543 in Frombork, Poland.
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Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben, Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire [now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany]. He was a composer, known for Gangs of New York (2002), Alias Nick Beal (1949) and Mitt folk är icke ditt (1944). He was married to Katherine Von Bora. He died on 18 February 1546 in Eisleben, Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire [now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany].- Soundtrack
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 - 28 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is also known as "the father of the Royal Navy", as he invested heavily in the navy, increasing its size from a few to more than 50 ships, and established the Navy Board.- François Rabelais was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and songs.
Ecclesiastical and anticlerical, Christian and considered by some as a free thinker, a doctor and having the image of a "Bon Vivant", the multiple facets of his personality sometimes seem contradictory. Caught up in the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation, Rabelais showed himself to be both sensitive and critical towards the great questions of his time. Subsequently, the views of his life and work have evolved according to the times and currents of thought. - Writer
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Ludovico Ariosto was born on 8 September 1474 in Reggio Emilia, Duchy of Modena and Reggio [now Emilia-Romagna, Italy]. He was a writer, known for The Madness of Roland (1992), Prestige de la musique (1963) and Il viaggio di Astolfo (1972). He died on 6 July 1553 in Ferrara, Duchy of Ferrara [now Emilia-Romagna, Italy].- Pietro Aretino was born on 20 April 1492 in Arezzo, Republic of Florence [now Tuscany, Italy]. He was a writer, known for Der Kaufmann von Venedig (1923), Gli altri racconti di Canterbury (1972) and Beautiful Antonia, First a Nun Then a Demon (1972). He died on 21 October 1556 in Venice, Republic of Venice [now Veneto, Italy].
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- Art Department
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese, Florence, Italy. He was a writer, known for So kindly to the cold stone is the fire... (2022), Yksitoista ihmisen kuvaa (2012) and Michelangelo (1963). He died on 18 February 1564 in Rome, Italy.- Antonio de Cabezón was born in 1510 in Castrillo de Matajudios, Spain. He was a composer, known for Returns (2018) and El alquimista (1971). He died on 26 March 1566 in Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain.
- An apothecary before he began to practice the occult, Michel de Nostredame spent the early part of his career battling outbreaks of the bubonic plague in southern France, and northern Italy. Historians attribute his higher-than-average survival rates to his then-radical practice of personal hygiene, his insistence that patients be bathed and their homes cleaned, his refusal to enter a town until the bodies of plague victims were properly interred (it was routine for bodies to be stacked in the streets like cord-wood), and his refusal to bleed patients. In a cruel irony, he lost his wife and two children to the plague while he was in Italy. After several years, he eventually settled in Salon-de-Provence, married a wealthy widow, and had six children. He and his wife were investors in a canal project to use the Durance River to irrigate Salon-de-Provence and the Désert de la Crau, which de Nostredame hoped would further his efforts to promote sanitation.
Writing under the Latinized version of his surname "Nostradamus", he began publishing farmers almanacs containing his prophecies in 1550. In "The Prophecies" (1555-1558), a collection of quatrains in three volumes, believers claim he predicted the Great London Fire of 1666; the French Revolution; the rise of Napoléon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler; the atom bomb; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy; the first Gulf War; the death of Princess Diana; the 9/11 attacks; and Hurricane Katrina. He also supposedly predicted that the United States and Russia would go to war against China. Among his supporters was Catherine de Médicis, consort of King Henri II, whose death in a jousting match he had predicted. She made de Nostredame Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her son, King Charles IX.
After having his lawyer draft a last will, he told his secretary: "You will not find me alive at sunrise." The next morning, July 2, 1566, he was dead. De Nostredame was buried in the local Franciscan chapel, but was re-interred during the French Revolution in the Collégiale Saint-Laurent, where he remains.
In the 20th and 21st Centuries, he has been used as a touchstone in books, films, television shows, comic books, and video games. - Additional Crew
- Actor
Pieter Bruegel was born in 1525 in Breda, Netherlands. He was an actor, known for The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), Human Nature: Creating It Comes at Night (2017) and Five Revolutionary Painters (1959). He died on 9 September 1569 in Brussels, Southern Netherlands [now Belgium].- Writer
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Luís Vaz de Camões sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, e.g. by Byron in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads). His collection of poetry The Parnasum of Luís de Camões was lost during his life. The influence of his masterpiece Os Lusíadas is so profound that Portuguese is sometimes called the "language of Camões".
The day of his death, 10 June, is Portugal's national day.- Anton Francesco Grazzini was born on 22 March 1504 in Florence, Republic of Florence [now Tuscany, Italy]. He was a writer, known for Neskolko lyubovnykh istoriy (1994). He died on 18 February 1584 in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany [now Tuscany, Italy].
- Ivan IV Vasilyevich, was the first of two children of Basil III and Elena Glinskaya. Ivan came into the world on August 25, 1530. Nearly a year after this Ivan's father died when he was only three. Basil had died due to a small, little pimple on his thigh that had developed into a deadly sore. Basil requested at his deathbed that his son Ivan would become the ruler of Russia when he became a man at age 15. Once Basil died the boyars took over Russia, denying Ivan's right to the throne. Ivan's mother then with other trusted boyars took over the ruling party. Elena was able to successfully rule Russia for four years, until she died suddenly in 1538, apparently from poisoning, leaving eight-year-old Ivan an orphan.
Through all this Ivan had remained isolated, Ivan's brutal behavior later on in life is testimony to his never having forgotten nor forgiven the childhood indignities he had suffered. The boyars would only pay attention to him when his presence was required at a ceremony. As the rivalry in the Palace for the power of Russia escalated into a bloody feud, Ivan witnessed horrible things. Living in poverty he watched and heard murders, beatings, and verbal and physical abuse regularly. The boyars alternately neglected or molested him; Ivan and his deaf-mute brother Yuri often went about hungry and threadbare. Incapable to strike at his tormentors, Ivan took out his terrible frustrations on defenseless animals, He tore feathers off birds, pierced their eyes and slit open their bodies.
On December 29, 1543 Ivan surprised his boyars by calling them to a meeting. He condemned them for their neglect of him and the nation, and denounced them for their misconduct. Prince Andrew Shuiksy, the leader of the boyars was thrown to a pack of hungry hunting dogs as an example to the others. After this the boyars conceded that their rule had ended and that Ivan had complete power. On Sunday, January 16, 1547, Ivan was crowned czar in Moscow's lavish Cathedral of the Assumption. Ivan soon married Anastasia Romanovna-Zakharyina-Yurueva. Anastasia bore him six children of whom only two survived infancy.
At times Ivan was very devote; he used to throw himself before the icons, banging his head against the floor. It resulted in a callosity at his forehead. Once Ivan even did a public confession of his sins in Moscow.
During the beginning of Ivan's reign, the administrative functions of the government were handled by two brothers of Ivan's mother, Prince Yuri Glinsky and Prince Mikhail Glinsky abused their position in the government, mistreating the boyars and the citizens. Ivan vowed to no longer leave administration duties in the hands of others.
From 1547 to 1560 Ivan is believed to have governed with the aid of a talented group of advisers dubbed the Chosen Council. It is unknown who wielded more power, Ivan or the council. In 1550, Ivan announced a reformed code of laws and a new system for justice, the Sudebnik. Criminal acts now were clearly defined, and punishments were prescribed for each. In addition, judges who were appointed by Moscow, would share their benches with representatives elected by local populations, in an effort to curb the practice of corrupt judges that sold justice to those who could afford it. Now magistrates would, at least in theory, enforce the laws equally, without discrimination against persons of low status. The central Moscow government also became more professional through a division of labor responsibilities. The Foreign Office was established, as was the Bureau of Criminal Affairs, the Land Office, and the Office of Military Affairs. Local officials were appointed to oversee the rebuilding of Muscovy's fortresses and then given other assignments. In the 1530s local police officials were appointed to try to stamp out crime, which was rampant during the disorder of Ivan's early years.
In June 1552 Ivan led his newly formed army of 100,000 troops down the Volga toward Kazan, the fortified capital of khanate. Ivan besieged the Tartar stronghold in late August and waited for its surrender. After Ivan's victory over Kazan he received, from his troops, the second part of his name that still remains today. This name that he received is Grozny, which has been taken to mean "the terrible" or "the dread," but most accurately translated as "the awesome."
Ivan's victories over Kazan and Astrakhan extended the Russian nation to the Caspian Sea in the south and to the Ural Mountains in the east, adding nearly 1,000,000 square kilometers to Ivan's realm.
When Moscow needed revenue to invade Kazan, Ivan planned to sell what was left of provincial administration to the locals. This was so successful that the sale of provincial civil administration was completed in 1556 to raise funds for the Astrakhan campaign. The tsar's treasury benefited, but the Russian people benefited also, as locally elected officials replaced the exploitative governors sent from Moscow.
In 1556, Ivan exerted control over the boyars and princes who still held private lands in Muscovy by requiring them and their personal slave soldiers to serve in the cavalry as well. By forcing them into the "service class," Ivan took away the Russian nobility's independence. The country's vast lower class, the peasants, also saw their lot worsened during Ivan's reign. Much of the land turned over to the military servicemen had been state land worked by free peasants. The system gradually turned many peasants into serfs, bound to the land they tilled. In 1581 Ivan even issued an edict forbidding some peasants on service lands from moving.
Looking to further expand his empire, Ivan targeted Livonia, a small, Baltic-coast nation in 1558. After the annexation of the Volga, Muscovy had two expansionist alternatives: either to conquer and annex the Crimean khanate, which was ceaselessly raiding Russia and Poland for slaves; or to reconquer Slavic lands to the west which had been annexed by Livonia, Lithuania, and Poland. Adopting a defensive posture toward Crimea the Russians plunged into an war against the Livonians on the western front.
With the Livonian monopoly on trade between Russia and Western Europe broken, merchants from as far away as Holland and France rushed to Narva to negotiate trade agreements with the Russians. Ivan had pursued relations with England, opened the port of Archangel to British merchant ships, and started trading directly with Western Europe. He brought Moscow a wide variety of artisans to teach his people the new trades that were essential for success in the modern world. He instituted sweeping reforms in the Church and the army, as well as in the way the country was governed
Ivan's much-loved wife Anastasia withered away due to a lingering illness in of 1560. Ivan suffered a severe emotional collapse. He banged his head on the floor in full view of the court and smashed his furniture. His suspicion deepened into paranoia. Angry and depressed, with his old cruelty resurfacing. Ivan had alternately violent fits of temper and feelings of remorse.
In December 1564 Ivan left Moscow with some of his court supposedly to visit various monasteries. In reality, the paranoid tsar had abandoned the capital, taking valuables and relatives with him. Ivan returned to the capital in February 1565, the hair on his head had fallen out and his beard had turned white, signs of major psychological stress.
Shortly after Ivan returned, he set up the Oprichniki, which became a separate police state within Russia. They dressed in black, the traditional colors of death, and rode black horses, from whose saddle hung two emblems - those of a broom and a dog's head. The broom signified the rider's mission to sweep Russia clean of Ivan's enemies; the dog's head symbolized that he was watchful for the czar.
The Oprichniki didn't hesitate to burst into a church during mass, either abducting the priest or murdering him in front of the altar. Subsequently, Ivan founded a pseudo-monastic order: he was the 'abbot' and his Oprichniki were the 'monks'. Supposedly they regularly performed sacrilegious masses that were followed by extended orgies of sex, rape and torture. Drunken licentiousness was alternated with passionate acts of repentance. After throwing himself down before the altar with such vehemence that his forehead would be bloody and covered with bruises, Ivan would rise and read sermons on the Christian virtues to his drunken retainers.
Among those killed were the head of the church, Metropolitan Filipp Kolychëv, who had criticized the Oprichnina. In1570, on the basis of unproved accusations of treason, Ivan massacred the 60,000 citizens of Novgorod with his Oprichniki. Novgorod's archbishop was first sewn up in a bearskin and then hunted to death by a pack of hounds. Men, women and children were tied to sleighs, which were then run into the freezing waters of the Volkhov River. The mass of corpses made it flood its banks. In the same year, there were mass public executions in Moscow. Crimean Tatars were able to sack Moscow in 1571, and much of the land around Moscow was depopulated.
In 1572 the Oprichniki were disbanded after their failure to defend Moscow. Ivan abdicated and placed a Tartar general, Simeon Bekboelatovitch, on the Moscow throne, while he retired to a country estate. Ivan made regular visits to the capital to pay homage to the new Tsar. This strange game lasted for a year.
Ivan grew increasingly vicious and blood thirsty. So much that on November 19, 1582 his pregnant daughter-in-law Elena appeared immodestly dressed and Ivan attacked and caused her to miscarry. His son Ivan Ivanovich rose to defend his wife, whereupon the tsar killed his son, his only possible respectable heir. This left as heir Ivan's feebleminded son Fyodor. Ivan left behind a joyless Russia on March 18, 1584, when he died suddenly of a heart attack while preparing for a game of chess.
Scholars believe that Ivan manifested psychopathic characteristics; his quick mood shifts, unreliability, egocentricity and lack of lasting emotions. His first mock abdication showed that he was a master at manipulating other people, while convincing them of his good intentions. His personal friendships were of short duration and his friends usually ended up dead.
Later the exhumation of his body showed he suffered from mercury poisoning. It has also been suggested that Ivan suffered from syphilis; his sexual promiscuity with both sexes, his last illness and many features of his personality support such a diagnosis. However, it can not be determined indisputably if Ivan's problems were basically organic or psychological. - Music Department
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Thomas Tallis was born in 1505 in England. He was a composer, known for Inspector Gadget (1999), Elizabeth (1998) and The Keep (1983). He died on 23 November 1585 in Greenwich, London, England, UK.- Writer
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Born the son of a shoe-maker two months before the birth of another famous playwright, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe achieved fame as an Elizabethan dramatist as well as an atheist. He was killed in a tavern brawl by a former friend, allegedly over a bill. There is now some evidence that suggests his death was in fact an assassination.- Composer
- Music Department
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Orlando di Lasso was born in 1530 in Mons, Spanish Hainaut [now in Belgium]. He was a composer, known for The Flowers of War (2011), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) and Haunted Summer (1988). He died on 14 June 1594 in Munich, Germany.- Writer
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Torquato Tasso was born on 11 March 1544 in Sorrento, Kingdom of Naples [now Campania, Italy]. He was a writer, known for La Gerusalemme liberata (1957), La Gerusalemme liberata (1913) and La Gerusalemme liberata (1918). He died on 25 April 1595 in Rome, Papal State [now Lazio, Italy].- Tycho Brahe was born on 14 December 1546 in Knutstorp Castle, Scania, Denmark, Denmark-Norway (now Sweden). He died on 24 October 1601 in Prague, Habsburg Bohemia, Holy Roman Empire [now Czech Republic].
- Music Department
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Emilio de' Cavalieri was born in 1550 in Rome, Papal State [now Lazio, Italy]. He is known for The Son of Joseph (2016), Lamenta (2015) and Cavalieri: La rappresentazione di anima e di corpo (2000). He died on 11 March 1602 in Rome, Papal State [now Lazio, Italy].- Giulio Cesare Della Croce was born in 1550 in San Giovanni in Persiceto, Italy. He was a writer, known for Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno (1937). He died on 12 January 1609 in Bologna, Italy.
- Michelangelo da Caravaggio was born on 29 September 1571 in Milan, Duchy of Milan, Holy Roman Empire. He was an actor and writer, known for Alex & Aki (2019), Five Revolutionary Painters (1959) and Canvas (1966). He died on 18 July 1610 in Porto Ecole, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Holy Roman Empire.
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Tomás Luis de Victoria was born in 1549 in Avila, Castilla y León, Spain. He was a composer, known for The Prophecy (1995), Death in Brunswick (1990) and Maleficarum (2011). He died on 27 August 1611 in Madrid, Spain.- Composer
- Music Department
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Born into the Italian nobility, Don Carlo Gesualdo developed an early and passionate interest in music. Though recognized as a dynamic composer who was far ahead of his time, Gesualdo's brilliance as a musical talent has been overshadowed by his violent personal life. After discovering his wife (and first cousin), the lovely and charming Maria d'Avalos, in the arms of the Duke of Andria, Gesualdo flew into a jealous rage and stabbed them both to death. He fled to northern Italy to avoid persecution, and was never tried nor punished for his crimes. His second wife was Eleonora d'Este, a highborn lady whose powerful family included the Dukes of Ferrara and Modena. Gesualdo treated his second bride as dismally as his first, and his death in 1613 was rumored to have been arranged by the vengeful Eleonora. The incredible chromatic harmony and wild contrasts in his music seem to be a reflection of Gesualdo's temptestuous personality. His mania for constantly composing music may have been a sign of melomania.- Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian form Báthory Erzsébet, (born August 7, 1560, Nyírbátor, Hungary-died August 21, 1614, Castle Cachtice, Cachtice, Hungary [now in Slovakia]), Hungarian countess who purportedly tortured and murdered hundreds of young women in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Báthory was born into prominent Protestant nobility in Hungary. Her family controlled Transylvania, and her uncle, Stephen Báthory, was king of Poland. She was raised at the family castle in Ecséd, Hungary. In 1575 she married Count Ferencz Nádasdy, a member of another powerful Hungarian family, and subsequently moved to Castle Cachtice, a wedding gift from the Nádasdy family. From 1585 to 1595, Báthory bore four children.
Meet extraordinary women who dared to bring gender equality and other issues to the forefront. From overcoming oppression, to breaking rules, to reimagining the world or waging a rebellion, these women of history have a story to tell. After Nádasdy's death in 1604, rumours of Báthory's cruelty began to surface. Though previous accounts of the murder of peasant women had apparently been ignored, the claims in 1609 that she had slain women from noble families attracted attention. Her cousin, György Thurzó, count palatine of Hungary, was ordered by Matthias, then king of Hungary, to investigate. The count palatine determined, after taking depositions from people living in the area surrounding her estate, that Báthory had tortured and killed more than 600 girls with the assistance of her servants. On December 30, 1609, Báthory and her servants were arrested. The servants were put on trial in 1611, and three were executed. Although never tried, Báthory was confined to her chambers at Castle Cachtice. She remained there until she died.
While documents from the 1611 trial supported the accusations made against her, modern scholarship has questioned the veracity of the allegations. Báthory was a powerful woman, made more so by her control of Nádasdy's holdings after his death. The fact that a large debt owed by Matthias to Báthory was canceled by her family in exchange for permitting them to manage her captivity suggests that the acts attributed to her were politically motivated slander that allowed relatives to appropriate her lands. - Writer
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William Shakespeare's birthdate is assumed from his baptism on April 25. His father John was the son of a farmer who became a successful tradesman; his mother Mary Arden was gentry. He studied Latin works at Stratford Grammar School, leaving at about age 15. About this time his father suffered an unknown financial setback, though the family home remained in his possession. An affair with Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior and a nearby farmer's daughter, led to pregnancy and a hasty marriage late in 1582. Susanna was born in May of 1583, twins Hamnet and Judith in January of 1585. By 1592 he was an established actor and playwright in London though his "career path" afterward (fugitive? butcher? soldier? actor?) is highly debated. When plague closed the London theatres for two years he apparently toured; he also wrote two long poems, "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece". He may have spent this time at the estate of the Earl of Southampton. By December 1594 he was back in London as a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the company he stayed with the rest of his life. In 1596 he seems to have purchased a coat of arms for his father; the same year Hamnet died at age 11. The following year he purchased the grand Stratford mansion New Place. A 1598 edition of "Love's Labors" was the first to bear his name, though he was already regarded as England's greatest playwright. He is believed to have written his "Sonnets" during the 1590s. In 1599 he became a partner in the new Globe Theatre, the company of which joined the royal household on the accession of James in 1603. That is the last year in which he appeared in a cast list. He seems to have retired to Stratford in 1612, where he continued to be active in real estate investment. The cause of his death is unknown.- Miguel de Cervantes' baptism occurred on October 9, 1547, at Alcala de Henares, Spain, so it is reasonable to assume he was born around that time, and Alcala de Henares has long claimed itself as his birthplace. The son of Rodrigo de Cervantes, an itinerant and not-too-successful surgeon, Miguel was educated by monks as he and his family wandered from city to city. In 1570 he obtained a position as a kind of secretary to Cardinal Aquaviva in Rome. In 1571 he became a soldier and fought in the famous Battle of Lepanto that pitted Spain against Turkish forces. Being ill with fever at the time, and wishing to prove his bravery, he asked to be put in the most dangerous fighting position on his ship. He was, and received two wounds in the chest and one in his left hand, which rendered him disabled for life. Returning home with his brother Rodrigo in 1575, they were captured by the Barbary pirates and sold into slavery. He and his fellow captives made three attempts to escape, all unsuccessful - one because they were betrayed by a fellow captive. In each attempt Cervantes deliberately shouldered the blame on himself, in an attempt to shield his fellow captives from torture. The Turkish Bey was so impressed with his perhaps foolhardy audacity that he spared him each time. The Cervantes family was able to ransom Rodrigo but not Miguel, and he remained in captivity until 1580, when he was finally ransomed by two Trinitarian friars.
He then began a writing career, which was at first completely unsuccessful due to the fact that Cervantes deliberately tried to write the kind of plays and poetry popular at the time, and to imitate their style, something he was woefully inadequate at doing. He fathered a daughter out of wedlock, and entered into an unhappy marriage in 1584. He took on a series of odd jobs to make ends meet. His financial difficulties netted him three or more prison terms and an excommunication by the Spanish Inquisition, although it was clear he never committed any crimes. Finally, in 1605, he published the first part of the novel which gave him immortality, the brilliant and unforgettable "Don Quixote de La Mancha", which was supposed to be a satire on the chivalric novels of the time, but was actually a work unlike anything anyone else had ever written (the second part followed ten years later, after the success of the first had produced a plagiarized sequel that not only coarsened the satire but contained openly insulting remarks about Cervantes). "Don Quixote"'s surface seems comic, but Cervantes, finally writing in his own personal style and no one else's, created two characters, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, to whom he gives more multi-layered depth than anyone else up to that time had given characters, except possibly the depth that William Shakespeare had given to Hamlet. The novel "Don Quixote" itself becomes an ironic mixture of comedy, humiliation, disillusionment and tragedy. All of its characters, except those in the interpolated romance novels, are believable and each reacts to Don Quixote's madness in an illuminating way. "Don Quixote" was immensely successful in its time, but it did not make Cervantes a wealthy man.
His other highly regarded works are his collection of "Exemplary Stories", published in 1613, and his "Eight Interludes", published in 1615. He died of dropsy on April 23, 1616, but in an especially ironic twist, his gravesite is lost. His contemporary, William Shakespeare, died ten days later, which according to the Julian calendar then used in England was, coincidentally, also April 23, 1616. Strangely enough, to the end of his life, Cervantes valued his poetic work more highly than his prose (perhaps just a case of wishful thinking) and never considered "Don Quixote" his masterpiece. He died without knowing that it would be one day regarded as the world's greatest novel by many critics.