History & royalty

People whose lives shaped earlier eras.

People in History & royalty

79 profiles

Royal figure

Diana, Princess of Wales

Bringing royal attention to AIDS patients and landmine survivors.

Emperor · Japan

Akihito

Serving as Japan’s emperor during the Heisei era and abdicating in 2019.

Queen · United Kingdom

Elizabeth II

Reigning for seventy years as the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch.

Royal figure

Mansa Musa

Ruling the Mali Empire and becoming renowned for the wealth displayed on his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Royal figure

Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba

Defending and expanding her rule through diplomacy and warfare against Portuguese encroachment.

Emperor · France

Napoleon Bonaparte

Building a European empire through military conquest and reshaping French law.

Emperor · Maurya Empire

Ashoka

Ruling much of the Indian subcontinent and issuing edicts promoting dhamma after the Kalinga war.

Khan · Mongol Empire

Genghis Khan

Uniting Mongol groups and founding an empire through far-reaching conquest.

Queen · Egypt

Cleopatra

Ruling Ptolemaic Egypt during its final struggle with Roman power.

Queen · Hawaii

Liliʻuokalani

Serving as Hawaii’s last reigning monarch and composing Aloha ʻOe.

Political leader

Toussaint Louverture

Becoming a central leader of the Haitian Revolution against slavery and colonial rule.

Political leader

Sitting Bull

Leading Lakota resistance to US expansion and reservation policies.

Emperor · Mughal Empire

Akbar

Expanding the Mughal Empire and building an influential system of imperial government.

Queen · Jhansi

Rani Lakshmibai

Leading resistance to British rule during the Indian rebellion of 1857–1858.

Queen · Kush

Amanirenas

Leading Kushite resistance to Roman expansion in Africa.

Queen · United Kingdom

Queen Victoria

Reigning through the Victorian era of industrial and imperial expansion.

Emperor · China

Wu Zetian

Becoming China’s only woman to rule formally as emperor.

Emperor · Inca Empire

Pachacuti

Transforming the Inca state into an expanding empire.

Pharaoh · Egypt

Hatshepsut

Ruling as pharaoh and commissioning the temple at Deir el-Bahri.

King · Zulu Kingdom

Shaka

Expanding the Zulu kingdom and reorganising its military.

Queen · England

Elizabeth I

Ruling during the Elizabethan age and the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Emperor · Inca Empire

Atahualpa

Ruling the Inca Empire when Spanish forces captured him at Cajamarca.

King · Hawaii

Kamehameha I

Uniting the Hawaiian Islands under one kingdom.

King · Maratha Kingdom

Shivaji

Establishing an independent Maratha kingdom in seventeenth-century India.

Emperor · Ethiopia

Haile Selassie

Leading Ethiopia during invasion, restoration and the emergence of continental African institutions.

King · England

Henry VIII

Breaking with papal authority and reshaping England’s church and monarchy.

Emperor · China

Kublai Khan

Founding China’s Yuan dynasty and completing the Mongol conquest of the Southern Song.

Emperor · Aztec Empire

Montezuma II

Ruling the Mexica empire when Hernán Cortés arrived.

Pharaoh · Egypt

Tutankhamun

Becoming the best-known Egyptian boy king through the discovery of his largely intact tomb.

Emperor · Ethiopia

Menelik II

Defending Ethiopian independence through victory at Adwa in 1896.

Empress · Russia

Catherine the Great

Expanding the Russian Empire during a long eighteenth-century reign.

King · Korea

Sejong the Great

Sponsoring the creation of Hangul, the Korean writing system.

Pharaoh · Egypt

Ramesses II

Leaving an extraordinary monumental legacy during a long reign.

Military leader

Crazy Horse

Leading Lakota resistance to United States expansion.

Sultan · Mysore

Tipu Sultan

Resisting East India Company expansion and developing military rocketry.

Empress · Ethiopia

Taytu Betul

Playing an important political and military role in Ethiopia’s resistance to Italian invasion.

Sultan · Ottoman Empire

Suleiman the Magnificent

Expanding the Ottoman Empire and overseeing major legal and cultural developments.

Sultan · Ottoman Empire

Mehmed II

Conquering Constantinople in 1453 and remaking it as an Ottoman capital.

Sultan · Mamluk Sultanate

Baybars

Helping defeat the Mongols at Ain Jalut and consolidating Mamluk power in Egypt and Syria.

Caliph · Córdoba

Abd al-Rahman III

Establishing the Caliphate of Córdoba and making it a major Mediterranean power.

Emperor · Mughal Empire

Babur

Founding the Mughal Empire after defeating the Delhi sultan at Panipat.

Emperor · Mughal Empire

Jahangir

Patronizing Mughal painting and ruling the empire after Akbar.

Emperor · Mughal Empire

Shah Jahan

Commissioning the Taj Mahal and major monuments of the Mughal Empire.

Sultan · Delhi Sultanate

Razia Sultana

Ruling the Delhi Sultanate as its only female sovereign.

Regent · Ahmednagar

Chand Bibi

Leading Ahmednagar’s defence against Mughal forces in 1595.

Queen · Kakatiya kingdom

Rudrama Devi

Ruling the Kakatiya kingdom as a female sovereign in thirteenth-century India.

Emperor · Chola Empire

Rajaraja I

Expanding the Chola Empire and commissioning Thanjavur’s great Brihadisvara Temple.

Emperor · Vijayanagara Empire

Krishnadevaraya

Leading Vijayanagara at a military and cultural high point and writing Amuktamalyada.

Pharaoh · Egypt

Ramesses III

Fighting the Sea Peoples and building the mortuary temple at Medinet Habu.

King · Zulu Kingdom

Dingane

Ruling the Zulu kingdom during conflict with the Voortrekkers, including the Battle of Blood River.

King · Achaemenid Empire

Cyrus the Great

The founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire who conquered Babylon in 539 BCE.

King · Achaemenid Empire

Darius the Great

Organising the Achaemenid Empire and building the royal centre at Persepolis.

King · Achaemenid Empire

Xerxes I

Leading the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BCE and expanding Persepolis.

King · Babylonia

Hammurabi

Issuing the law collection known as the Code of Hammurabi.

King · Assyria

Ashurbanipal

Assembling the great library at Nineveh while ruling the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Pharaoh · Egypt

Akhenaten

Redirecting ancient Egyptian worship towards the sun-disc Aten.

Pharaoh · Egypt

Thutmose III

Expanding Egypt’s empire through military campaigns during the New Kingdom.

King · Kush

Piye

The Kushite king whose Egyptian campaign helped establish the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.

Political leader

Samori Ture

Building the Wassoulou Empire and resisting French colonial conquest in West Africa.

King · Dahomey

Behanzin

Leading Dahomey’s resistance to French colonial conquest.

Emperor · Songhai Empire

Askia Muhammad I

Expanding and organising the Songhai Empire during its sixteenth-century rise.

Ruler

Sonni Ali

Expanding Songhai into a major West African empire.

Ruler

Idris Alooma

Strengthening Kanem–Bornu through military, legal and diplomatic reforms.

King · Lesotho

Moshoeshoe I

Building the Basotho kingdom through alliance, refuge and diplomacy.

King · Bangwato

Khama III

Opposing the transfer of Bechuanaland to Cecil Rhodes’s company.

Ruler

Chandragupta II

The Gupta emperor associated with territorial expansion and a flourishing period of classical Indian culture.

Ruler

Samudragupta

The Gupta emperor whose campaigns greatly expanded imperial power across northern India.

Historian

Sohan Lal Suri

Chronicling the Sikh Empire in Umdat-ut-Tawarikh.

Historian

Pushpindar Singh

Documenting Indian military aviation and founding Vayu.

Historian

Saroj Nalini Arambam Parratt

Translating the royal chronicle of Manipur into English.

Historian

Karl Richard Lepsius

Recording Egyptian and Nubian monuments in the Denkmäler volumes.

Royal figure

Ntfombi

Serving as Eswatini’s queen mother and former regent.

Historian

Rajmohan Gandhi

Writing biographies of Gandhi, Rajagopalachari and Vallabhbhai Patel.

Historian

Ramachandra Guha

Writing India After Gandhi and histories of the environment and cricket.

Archaeologist

Wilhelm Dörpfeld

Developing precise excavation records at Olympia, Troy and Tiryns.

Historian

Sarvepalli Gopal

Writing major biographies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

Historian

Syad Muhammad Latif

Writing histories of Punjab, Lahore and Agra.

Historian

Ganda Singh

Building archival foundations for the study of Sikh and Punjab history.

Historian

Radharaman Mitra

Documenting Kolkata’s history in Kalikata Darpan.