WCatherine de Clèves, Countess of Eu was the wife of Henry, Duke of Guise, and matriarch of the numerous and influential House of Guise. By marriage she was Duchess of Guise from 1570 to 1588, and Dowager Duchess of Guise thereafter. She was Countess of Eu in her own right from 1564.
WJeanne d'Albret, also known as Jeanne III, was the queen regnant of Navarre from 1555 to 1572. She married Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, becoming the Duchess of Vendôme and was the mother of Henri de Bourbon, who became King Henry III of Navarre and IV of France, the first Bourbon king of France.
WElizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death on 24 March 1603. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor.
WAnna d'Este was an important princess with considerable influence at the court of France and a central figure in the French Wars of Religion. In her first marriage she was Duchess of Aumale, then of Guise, in her second marriage Duchess of Nemours and Genevois.
WLéonor d'Orléans was duc de Longueville, prince of Châtellaillon, marquis of Rothelin, count of Montgommery and of Tancarville, visount of Abberville, Melun, count of Neufchâtel and of Valangin, was governor of Picardy and Normandy and one of the military leaders of the French Wars of Religion.
WCharles III, known as the Great, was Duke of Lorraine from 1545 until his death.
WPhilip II was King of Spain (1556–1598), King of Portugal, King of Naples and Sicily, and jure uxoris King of England and Ireland. He was also Duke of Milan from 1540. From 1555 he was Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.
WAgostino Ramelli was an Italian engineer best known for writing and illustrating the book of engineering designs Le diverse et artificiose machine del Capitano Agostino Ramelli, which contains, among others, his design for the bookwheel.
WJacqueline de Rohan, Marquise de Rothelin was a French court official and aristocrat. She was the daughter of Charles de Rohan and Jeanne de Saint-Severin, and regent of the Neufchâtel and of Valangin during the minority of her son Leonor, Duke de Longueville, Duke d' Estouteville.
WCharles Emmanuel de Savoie, 3rd Duc de Nemours was the son of Jacques of Savoy and Anne of Este, the widow of Francis, Duke of Guise. As a child he was known as the prince of Genevois. He was the Duke of Nemours from 1585 to his death in 1595, during the French Wars of Religion.
WPope Sixtus V or Xystus V, born Felice Piergentile, was Bishop of Rome and hence head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death in 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order, where he displayed talents as a scholar and preacher, and enjoyed the patronage of Pius V, who made him a cardinal. As a cardinal, he was known as Cardinal Montalto.
WFilippo di Piero Strozzi was an Italian condottiero, a member of the Florentine family of the Strozzi. He fought mainly for France.
WThe Valois Tapestries are a series of eight large tapestries depicting festivities or "magnificences" held by Catherine de' Medici's Royal Courts in the second half of the 16th century. The tapestries were primarily modeled on drawings by Antoine Caron, but to Caron's distant views of large panoramas crowded with figures much larger portraits of leading persons at the French court have been added in the foreground, usually to the side, as well as elaborate borders.
WWilliam the Silent, also known as William the Taciturn, or William of Orange, was the main leader of the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs that set off the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1581. Born into the House of Nassau, he became Prince of Orange in 1544 and is thereby the founder of the Orange-Nassau branch and the ancestor of the monarchy of the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, he is also known as Father of the Fatherland.
WCount Palatine Wolfgang of Zweibrücken was member of the Wittelsbach family of the Counts Palatine and Duke of Zweibrücken from 1532.