← Fame through time1500-1599
The 16th century
Whose working lives fell in the 16th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 16th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Mary, Queen of Scots22 decades - 2
Anne Boleyn22 decades - 3
Mary I of England22 decades - 4
Henry VIII of England13 decades - 5
Francis Drake22 decades - 6
Catherine Howard22 decades - 7
Catherine Parr22 decades - 8
Edward VI of England0 decades - 9
James V of Scotland1 decades - 10
James IV of Scotland7 decades - 11
James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwellnot measured- - 12
Martin Frobisher22 decades - 13
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey1 decades - 14
William Adams22 decades - 15
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somersetnot measured- - 16
Elizabeth Blount0 decades - 17
George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochfordnot measured- - 18
Anne of York2 decades - 19
Cecily of York0 decades - 20
John Davis22 decades - 21
John Stewart, Duke of Albany22 decades - 22
Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchampnot measured- - 23
John Erskine, 17th Earl of Marnot measured- - 24Thomas Doughty8 decades
- 25
William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoynot measured- - 26Elizabeth Howard, Duchess of Norfolknot measured-
- 27Steven Bennetnot measured-
- 28William Mynorsnot measured-
- 29James Aldaynot measured-
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.