French Renaissance poet and co-founder of La Pléiade who championed French literature's equality with classical traditions

German Lutheran reformer, first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, and influential designer of educational systems

King of Sweden from 1523 to 1560, he led the Swedish War of Liberation and secured Sweden's independence from the Kalmar Union

King of France from 1559 to 1560 and husband to Mary, Queen of Scots, who faced the onset of the French Wars of Religion