Ulrich von Hutten

Born April 21, 1488, Ulrich von Hutten straddled two worlds—Renaissance humanism and religious rupture. By 1519, the scholar-poet had become an outspoken critic of Rome, using his pen as a blade. He found common cause with Martin Luther's reformers and Franz von Sickingen's militant knights, bridging intellectual revolt and armed defiance. Together, Hutten and Sickingen led the Knights' War, an uprising of the Holy Roman Empire's lower nobility. He died August 29, 1523, having lived just long enough to see the old order crack.