Throughout popular culture, authors and other producers have chosen to satirize or else refer to real people through their fictional characters. Other works of fiction feature those real people and historical figures themselves. An effort to list and describe each and every one of these figures is made here. Keep in mind that this page will describe characters directly intended to be historical figures rather than replacements, even if they are heavily fictionalized versions of themselves. For wholly fictional characters, see here.
Keep in mind that, while the characters described here are historical figures, fictional accounts of them are given instead of objective historical fact.
Keep in mind that, while the characters described here are historical figures, fictional accounts of them are given instead of objective historical fact.
Imhotep {The Mummy ₁₉₃₂, The Mummy ₁₉₉₉}
Imhotep (27th century BC; dates unknown; also spelled Immutef, Im-hotep, Ii-em-Hotep, and Imuthes) was an Ancient Egyptian polymath.
Solomon
Solomon (c. 1010 - c. 931 BC; also called Jedidiah) was a son of David and one of the wisest of all the kings of Israel; in the modern period, he is significant to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, where he is widely held as a prophet, especially in the Talmud and the Qur’ān. Solomon's actions and influences can be seen through to today in the various artifacts he left behind, especially the Seal of Solomon, a magical ring which--according to Islamic belief--he used to control demonic entities, especially djinni, and it's said that this ring was later recovered by ‘Alā’ ad-Dīn, who used the djinn trapped within the ring to become fabulously wealthy and marry a princess, {One Thousand and One Nights ₁₇₁₀} though it has been suggested that the Seal of Solomon may actually be much older and was instead co-opted by Solomon, who discovered it long after its original purpose as a "Ring of Power" was ended by the destruction of another Ring which bound it to eighteen other Rings of Power. {The Lord of the Rings ₁₉₅₄} He is also considered a founding father of modern occultism and is often invoked in occult rituals with many seeking to recover his artifacts. In his time and for centuries after, one of his most famous achievements was the construction of the First Temple--commonly known as Solomon's Temple--which was said to be the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant until it was moved from there prior to the Temple's destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II and then mysteriously disappeared. {Indiana Jones ₁₉₈₁}
Imhotep (27th century BC; dates unknown; also spelled Immutef, Im-hotep, Ii-em-Hotep, and Imuthes) was an Ancient Egyptian polymath.
Solomon
Solomon (c. 1010 - c. 931 BC; also called Jedidiah) was a son of David and one of the wisest of all the kings of Israel; in the modern period, he is significant to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, where he is widely held as a prophet, especially in the Talmud and the Qur’ān. Solomon's actions and influences can be seen through to today in the various artifacts he left behind, especially the Seal of Solomon, a magical ring which--according to Islamic belief--he used to control demonic entities, especially djinni, and it's said that this ring was later recovered by ‘Alā’ ad-Dīn, who used the djinn trapped within the ring to become fabulously wealthy and marry a princess, {One Thousand and One Nights ₁₇₁₀} though it has been suggested that the Seal of Solomon may actually be much older and was instead co-opted by Solomon, who discovered it long after its original purpose as a "Ring of Power" was ended by the destruction of another Ring which bound it to eighteen other Rings of Power. {The Lord of the Rings ₁₉₅₄} He is also considered a founding father of modern occultism and is often invoked in occult rituals with many seeking to recover his artifacts. In his time and for centuries after, one of his most famous achievements was the construction of the First Temple--commonly known as Solomon's Temple--which was said to be the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant until it was moved from there prior to the Temple's destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II and then mysteriously disappeared. {Indiana Jones ₁₉₈₁}
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (July 20/1 356 - June 10/1 323 BC) the King of Macedon from 336 until his death. Though he barely lived for three decades, Alexander became one of the most important people in history, ending the Greco-Persian Wars by conquering the Persia Empire and, in the process, creating the largest empire in recorded history at that time. An incarnation of him exists in the Throne of Heroes as a Heroic Spirit, which participated in the Fourth Holy Grail War as Rider; this incarnation of Alexander was consistently known as Iskander the King of Conquerors, who was explicitly noted by his master Waver Velvet to be very dissimilar from his historical personage. {Fate/stay night ₂₀₀₄} |
Vercingetorix
Vercingetorix (c. 82 - 46 BC; dates unknown) was a chieftain and king of the Arverni who united the Gauls against the Romans led by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, during the last phase of the Gallic Wars. Despite all his efforts, Vercingetorix was defeated at the Battle of Alesia, surrendering himself in order to save as many of his men as he could. Defiant to the end, Vercingetorix threw his weapons on, rather than at, Caesar's feet during his surrender, forcing the Roman commander to hobble rather than walk to his next conquest. {Astérix ₁₉₅₉} After five years' captivity, he was paraded through the streets of Rome and then publicly executed by strangulation on Caesar's orders. He is held as a folk hero in Auvergne, France, to this day.
Coel Hen {Old King Cole ₁₇₀₈}
Coel (c. 350 - c. 420 AD; dates unknown) was a leader in Roman and early Sub-Roman Britain, specifically of what is now Colchester, which derives its name from him, and was the grandfather of Constantine the Great. He kept himself entertained with three fiddlers.
Xuanzang {Journey to the West ₁₅₉₂}
Xuanzang (c. 602 - 664) was a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, and traveler who lived during the early Tang dynasty, famous for his 17-year overland journey to India in the west. He was tasked with making this pilgrimage by Gautama Buddha himself, and was accompanied by three disciples, Sha Wujing, Sun Wukong, and Zhu Bajie.
Vercingetorix (c. 82 - 46 BC; dates unknown) was a chieftain and king of the Arverni who united the Gauls against the Romans led by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, during the last phase of the Gallic Wars. Despite all his efforts, Vercingetorix was defeated at the Battle of Alesia, surrendering himself in order to save as many of his men as he could. Defiant to the end, Vercingetorix threw his weapons on, rather than at, Caesar's feet during his surrender, forcing the Roman commander to hobble rather than walk to his next conquest. {Astérix ₁₉₅₉} After five years' captivity, he was paraded through the streets of Rome and then publicly executed by strangulation on Caesar's orders. He is held as a folk hero in Auvergne, France, to this day.
Coel Hen {Old King Cole ₁₇₀₈}
Coel (c. 350 - c. 420 AD; dates unknown) was a leader in Roman and early Sub-Roman Britain, specifically of what is now Colchester, which derives its name from him, and was the grandfather of Constantine the Great. He kept himself entertained with three fiddlers.
Xuanzang {Journey to the West ₁₅₉₂}
Xuanzang (c. 602 - 664) was a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, and traveler who lived during the early Tang dynasty, famous for his 17-year overland journey to India in the west. He was tasked with making this pilgrimage by Gautama Buddha himself, and was accompanied by three disciples, Sha Wujing, Sun Wukong, and Zhu Bajie.
Charlemagne {Matter of France}
Charlemagne (April 2 742/7/8 - January 28 814) was the first Holy Roman Emperor, reigning from 800 after uniting most of Europe in the early Middle Ages, which laid the foundations for the modern states of France, Germany, and the Low Countries. |
Hārūn ar-Rašīd {One Thousand and One Nights ₁₇₀₆}
Hārūn ar-Rašīd (March 17 763/February 766 - March 24 809; transliterated Harun al-Rashid) was the fifth Abbasid Caliph, reigning from 786--as young as twenty--at the peak of the Islamic Golden Age, and his reign was marked by cultural, religious, and scientific progress and prosperity. He was the founder of the legendary House of Wisdom in Baghdad, one of the largest libraries in history, and was a contemporary of Charlemagne--the two were distant friends. During his lifetime, ar-Rašīd made a point of walking through the streets of his empire in disguise with his friend and vizier Ja'far ibn Yahya to observe the lives of ordinary people.
Macbeth {Macbeth ₁₆₀₆, Gargoyles ₁₉₉₄}
Mac Bethad mac Findlaích (c. 1005 - August 15 1057; transliterated Macbeth MacFindlay) was King of the Scots from 1040, formerly Thane of Glamis. His reign is controversial in part because there is disagreement as to how he came to power: contemporary records indicate that Macbeth was a just ruler who succeeded his cousin Duncan I through the normal channels of primogeniture, though accounts--which admittedly postdate Macbeth by at least 500 years--claim that he murdered Duncan and seized power, which was contested by several others, including future kings Malcolm III and Donald III. According to legend, shortly before he ascended to the throne, Macbeth encountered a trio of witches who predicted that he would soon become king and that he would rule until the forest of Birnam surrounded his castle and that no man of woman born would be able to kill him. During his reign, Macbeth allied himself to a gargoyle who he dubbed Demona, and she proved a pivotal figure in the years to come: Macbeth's rule was contested by Malcolm and Donalbain, among others, whose opposition drove him nearly to madness. His reign culminated in attempting to quash a perceived rebellion by his former ally Macduff, which led to Macduff swearing revenge against him and leading the charge to overthrow and kill Macbeth. Macduff's troops used branches and foliage from Birnam wood to cover their approach, and Macduff--who had been born by Cesarean section--entered single combat with Macbeth, fulfilling both prophecies about Macbeth's reign. While Macbeth is said to have died that day, rumors abound that he merely faked his death and may have even achieved immortality. Centuries later, William Shakespeare would write The Tragedy of Macbeth as a tribute to James VI of Scotland, whose ascension to the throne of England unified the two countries and who was a descendant of Banquo, one of the men who Macbeth supposedly murdered to secure his rule. While The Tragedy of Macbeth is one of the most famous plays in history, it is considered bad luck to refer to it by name and it is instead often called "The Scottish Play."
Malcom {Macbeth ₁₆₀₆}
Malcolm III of Scotland (c. March 26 1031 - November 13 1093; nicknamed Canmore) was King of the Scots from 1058, succeeding Macbeth after his disappearance, reportedly due to his ally Macduff killing him.
Donalbain {Macbeth ₁₆₀₆}
Domnall mac Donnchada (c. 1039 - 1099; regnal name Donald III, commonly Donalbain) was King of the Scots from 1093, succeeding his older brother Malcolm III and with a brief break in his reign from May to November of 1094.
Dante Alighieri {The Divine Comedy ₁₃₂₀}
Durante degli Alighieri (c. 1265 - 1321; often simply Dante) was an Italian poet, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in all of Italian literature, with his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, being highly regarded almost throughout the world. While many regard The Divine Comedy as wholly fiction and largely allegorical, it was, in fact, inspired by a real journey that Dante's soul briefly took through a part of the afterlife around 1308, guided by the spirit of Virgil through Hell and Purgatory to finally reach Heaven before returning to his body. Dante recorded his journey and finally published it the year before his death, though it is obviously difficult to confirm or deny his claims. That said, The Divine Comedy has been extremely influential on mankind's perception of the afterlife, and of Hell in particular, with most taking as truth that it is divided into nine Circles where the damned are punished according to their greatest sins.
Geoffrey Chaucer {The Canterbury Tales ₁₃₈₆, A Knight's Tale ₂₀₀₁}
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 - October 25 1400) is widely considered the Father of English Literature, famed during his lifetime as an astronomer, author, and philosopher who maintained an active civil service career. He is best known today as the author of The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer was also a companion of "Ulrich von Lichtenstein," a professional jouster who was actually an English peasant, working as his announcer at jousting tournaments in the years before he became a dedicated writer.
Dick Whittington {Dick Whittington and His Cat ₁₆₀₄}
Richard Whittington (c. 1354 - 1423) was an English merchant and politician, born to a poor Gloucestershire family; at a young age, he set out for London to make his fortune with his pet cat. He became prosperous after serving aboard a ship where his cat proved indispensible in dealing with a rat infestation and, eventually, was elected Lord Mayor of London three times (technically four--his "first" term comes from serving out the remainder of his predecessor Adam Bamme's term. Upon his death, Whittington's will stated that he bequeathed his entire fortune to the newly-formed Charity of Sir Richard Whittington, which aids needy Londoners to this day.
Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Montmorency-Laval (c. September 1405 - October 26 1440) was a Breton knight, Baron de Rais, and comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc, who retired from the military not long after Joan's execution. In the 1430s, his wealth began to run out as he began staging theatrical productions of his own make, and is said to have dabbled in the occult, possibly even owning a copy of the Necronomicon. It was eventually discovered that de Rais was responsible for a series of child murders, possibly numbering in the hundreds, and was executed by hanging as punishment. Despite his evil acts, an incarnation of de Rais exists in the Throne of Heroes as a Heroic Spirit, which participated in the Fourth Holy Grail War as Caster. {Fate/stay night ₂₀₀₄}
Faust {German folklore}
Johann Georg Faust (c. 1466/1480 - c. 1541; John Faustus in English) was an alchemist, astrologer, and magician of the German Renaissance. Though highly successful as a scholar, Faust was dissatisfied with his life and supposedly brokered a deal with Mephistopheles, claimed to be a representative of the Devil, to have unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures with Mephistopheles as his servant for twenty-four years, after which his soul would be claimed by the Devil. It is unclear what happened to Faust after those twenty-four years, but there are contradictory claims that he was either dragged into Hell by the Devil or saved by God. To this day, Faust lends his name to the word Faustian, as in a Faustian bargain or a deal with the Devil.
Pierre Gringoire {The Hunchback of Notre-Dame ₁₈₃₁}
Pierre Gringoire (1475? - 1538) was a French playwright and poet best known for satirical plays written from 1506 to 1512, and was a favorite of Louis XII. Before rising to prominence, Gringoire attempted to find an audience at the Feast of Fools in 1482, but was interrupted when it was found that the bell-ringer of Notre-Dame de Paris, Quasimodo, was in attendance and declared Pope of Fools, but finds solace at his play's failure in an attraction to Esmeralda, a Roma woman also at the festival. Though he married Esmeralda in the following days, she didn't love him back and he couldn't bring himself to touch her. After Esmeralda's death, Gringoire shifted his genre of writing to tragedies and achieved fame in the following decades.
Paracelsus
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (late 1493 - September 24 1541; better known as Paracelsus) was a Swiss astologer, botanist, occultist, philosopher, and physician credited as the founder of toxicology, naming the element zinc, and being the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological rather than physical conditions. He is also famous for using observations of nature rather than ancient texts to understand the world around him, a radical idea at the time. He is also closely associated with Johann Georg Faust, another occultist contemporary to him who purportedly made a deal with the Devil.
Lamoral, Count of Egmont {Snow White ₁₈₁₂}
Lamoral (November 18 1522 - June 5 1568) was the Count of Egmont and Prince of Gavere, a general and statesman in the Spanish Netherlands just before the start of the Eighty Years' War and head of one of the most powerful families in the Low Countries. He entered an ideological conflict with William of Orange over iconoclasm in Christianity, which Lamoral supported as a Catholic but William opposed as a Protestant. This led Lamoral to remain in Brussels even as Fernando Álvarez de Toledo was sent to the Netherlands by Philip II of Spain. Lamoral was arrested by the Duke of Alba, forcing his wife Snow White and their eleven children to seek refuge in a convent. Despite pleas for amnesty from all over Europe, even from the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Lamoral was executed by beheading, but faced his death with dignity. His execution sparked the nationalist uprising which ultimately led to the independence of the Netherlands from Spain.
Petrus Gonsalvus {Beauty and the Beast ₁₇₄₀}
Petrus Gonsalvus (1537 - 1618; dates unknown; born Pedro González) was a Spanish nobleman best known in life for his beastly appearance, covered in hair. At a young age, he was transformed into a hairy, beast-like creature by one of the Fair Folk; in 1547, he was discovered by Henry II of France, who was intrigued and amused by his appearance and gave Gonsalvus an estate in the Netherlands and made him a member of Margaret of Parma's court. Despite his station, Gonsalvus lived in forced isolation for years with only invisible servants for company until 1558 when a lost, impoverished merchant stumbled upon his estate and tried to take a rose from the gardens--one of Gonsalvus' most precious possessions--to give to his daughter Catherine. Gonsalvus brokered a deal with the merchant: he would grant the kindness of giving the rose to Catherine, but only if the merchant would then return to receive his punishment. Instead, Catherine went to the castle in her father's place and, as a courtesy to both her and the merchant, kept her under house arrest instead of executing her. Eventually, Gonsalvus and Catherine came to love each other and this broke the curse that had been placed on him; they were wed and settled in Italy to have seven children, where Gonsalvus passed away half a century later.
Alexander Leslie {There Was a Crooked Man ₁₈₄₂}
Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven, (1582 - April 4 1661) was a Scottish soldier, the illegitimate son of George Leslie and "a wench in Rannoch" who ultimately became a field martial of the Swedish military. He is said to have lived in a crooked house and had a crooked cat for a pet, leading to him being described as "the Crooked Man."
Miyamoto Musashi
Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584 - June 13 1645) was a rōnin renowned for his double-bladed sword style and record of sixty consecutive duels undefeated. Musashi is such a legendary figure that it is difficult to tell fact from fiction concerning him.
Eugene of Savoy {Rapunzel ₁₇₉₀, Tangled ₂₀₁₀}
Eugene of Savoy (October 18 1663 - April 21 1736) was an Austrian statesman and general of the Holy Roman Empire, and one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history. One of the most famous stories about him was when he rescued a young woman named Persinette--commonly transliterated as Rapunzel--from her towered prison; at the time, Eugene was using the alias "Flynn Rider" to hide his identity.
Caroline of Ansbach {There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe ₁₇₉₄}
Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (March 1 1683 - November 20 1737) was the wife of George II of the United Kingdom.
Jacob Grimm {The Brothers Grimm ₂₀₀₅}
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (January 4 1785 - 1863)
Wilhelm Grimm {The Brothers Grimm ₂₀₀₅}
Wilhelm Carl Grimm (February 24 1786 - 1859)
Pestilence {Marvel Comics}
Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (August 16 1796 - apparently 1848) was a British naval officer who participated in six different missions to explore the polar regions. In 1845, he joined John Franklin's expedition to locate the Northwest Passage. After six months, both of the expedition's ships--the Terror and the Erebus--became trapped in ice, and after nearly two years unable to free the ships, Franklin led an expedition on foot to find help in November 1847 and was never seen again. In April 1848, a desperate Crozier led the rest of the crew to try and escape over the ice, but most of them died of exposure. With almost no one left alive, Crozier mixed a concoction of chemicals and fell into suspended animation with the plan of remaining in that state until the weather improved, no matter how long it took. His crewmen mistook him for dead and interred him in the permafrost, leaving him buried alive to slowly become insane.
Juana Maria {Island of the Blue Dolphins ₁₉₆₀}
Juana Maria (died October 19 1853; born Karana) was the last of the Nicoleño tribe which lived on San Nicolas Island off of California. She had lived alone on the island from as late as 1835 to 1853 after her people were massacred by Aleuts led by one Captain Orlov and the survivors left the island with Christian missionaries, though Karana swam back to shore before leaving because her brother Ramo was accidentally left behind. Eventually, Ramo was killed by a pack of feral dogs left behind by the Aleuts, leaving her alone. When she was finally found, she willingly left with a pet dog, Rontu-Aru, and lived out her days at the Santa Barbara mission on the mainland.
Hārūn ar-Rašīd (March 17 763/February 766 - March 24 809; transliterated Harun al-Rashid) was the fifth Abbasid Caliph, reigning from 786--as young as twenty--at the peak of the Islamic Golden Age, and his reign was marked by cultural, religious, and scientific progress and prosperity. He was the founder of the legendary House of Wisdom in Baghdad, one of the largest libraries in history, and was a contemporary of Charlemagne--the two were distant friends. During his lifetime, ar-Rašīd made a point of walking through the streets of his empire in disguise with his friend and vizier Ja'far ibn Yahya to observe the lives of ordinary people.
Macbeth {Macbeth ₁₆₀₆, Gargoyles ₁₉₉₄}
Mac Bethad mac Findlaích (c. 1005 - August 15 1057; transliterated Macbeth MacFindlay) was King of the Scots from 1040, formerly Thane of Glamis. His reign is controversial in part because there is disagreement as to how he came to power: contemporary records indicate that Macbeth was a just ruler who succeeded his cousin Duncan I through the normal channels of primogeniture, though accounts--which admittedly postdate Macbeth by at least 500 years--claim that he murdered Duncan and seized power, which was contested by several others, including future kings Malcolm III and Donald III. According to legend, shortly before he ascended to the throne, Macbeth encountered a trio of witches who predicted that he would soon become king and that he would rule until the forest of Birnam surrounded his castle and that no man of woman born would be able to kill him. During his reign, Macbeth allied himself to a gargoyle who he dubbed Demona, and she proved a pivotal figure in the years to come: Macbeth's rule was contested by Malcolm and Donalbain, among others, whose opposition drove him nearly to madness. His reign culminated in attempting to quash a perceived rebellion by his former ally Macduff, which led to Macduff swearing revenge against him and leading the charge to overthrow and kill Macbeth. Macduff's troops used branches and foliage from Birnam wood to cover their approach, and Macduff--who had been born by Cesarean section--entered single combat with Macbeth, fulfilling both prophecies about Macbeth's reign. While Macbeth is said to have died that day, rumors abound that he merely faked his death and may have even achieved immortality. Centuries later, William Shakespeare would write The Tragedy of Macbeth as a tribute to James VI of Scotland, whose ascension to the throne of England unified the two countries and who was a descendant of Banquo, one of the men who Macbeth supposedly murdered to secure his rule. While The Tragedy of Macbeth is one of the most famous plays in history, it is considered bad luck to refer to it by name and it is instead often called "The Scottish Play."
Malcom {Macbeth ₁₆₀₆}
Malcolm III of Scotland (c. March 26 1031 - November 13 1093; nicknamed Canmore) was King of the Scots from 1058, succeeding Macbeth after his disappearance, reportedly due to his ally Macduff killing him.
Donalbain {Macbeth ₁₆₀₆}
Domnall mac Donnchada (c. 1039 - 1099; regnal name Donald III, commonly Donalbain) was King of the Scots from 1093, succeeding his older brother Malcolm III and with a brief break in his reign from May to November of 1094.
Dante Alighieri {The Divine Comedy ₁₃₂₀}
Durante degli Alighieri (c. 1265 - 1321; often simply Dante) was an Italian poet, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in all of Italian literature, with his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, being highly regarded almost throughout the world. While many regard The Divine Comedy as wholly fiction and largely allegorical, it was, in fact, inspired by a real journey that Dante's soul briefly took through a part of the afterlife around 1308, guided by the spirit of Virgil through Hell and Purgatory to finally reach Heaven before returning to his body. Dante recorded his journey and finally published it the year before his death, though it is obviously difficult to confirm or deny his claims. That said, The Divine Comedy has been extremely influential on mankind's perception of the afterlife, and of Hell in particular, with most taking as truth that it is divided into nine Circles where the damned are punished according to their greatest sins.
Geoffrey Chaucer {The Canterbury Tales ₁₃₈₆, A Knight's Tale ₂₀₀₁}
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 - October 25 1400) is widely considered the Father of English Literature, famed during his lifetime as an astronomer, author, and philosopher who maintained an active civil service career. He is best known today as the author of The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer was also a companion of "Ulrich von Lichtenstein," a professional jouster who was actually an English peasant, working as his announcer at jousting tournaments in the years before he became a dedicated writer.
Dick Whittington {Dick Whittington and His Cat ₁₆₀₄}
Richard Whittington (c. 1354 - 1423) was an English merchant and politician, born to a poor Gloucestershire family; at a young age, he set out for London to make his fortune with his pet cat. He became prosperous after serving aboard a ship where his cat proved indispensible in dealing with a rat infestation and, eventually, was elected Lord Mayor of London three times (technically four--his "first" term comes from serving out the remainder of his predecessor Adam Bamme's term. Upon his death, Whittington's will stated that he bequeathed his entire fortune to the newly-formed Charity of Sir Richard Whittington, which aids needy Londoners to this day.
Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Montmorency-Laval (c. September 1405 - October 26 1440) was a Breton knight, Baron de Rais, and comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc, who retired from the military not long after Joan's execution. In the 1430s, his wealth began to run out as he began staging theatrical productions of his own make, and is said to have dabbled in the occult, possibly even owning a copy of the Necronomicon. It was eventually discovered that de Rais was responsible for a series of child murders, possibly numbering in the hundreds, and was executed by hanging as punishment. Despite his evil acts, an incarnation of de Rais exists in the Throne of Heroes as a Heroic Spirit, which participated in the Fourth Holy Grail War as Caster. {Fate/stay night ₂₀₀₄}
Faust {German folklore}
Johann Georg Faust (c. 1466/1480 - c. 1541; John Faustus in English) was an alchemist, astrologer, and magician of the German Renaissance. Though highly successful as a scholar, Faust was dissatisfied with his life and supposedly brokered a deal with Mephistopheles, claimed to be a representative of the Devil, to have unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures with Mephistopheles as his servant for twenty-four years, after which his soul would be claimed by the Devil. It is unclear what happened to Faust after those twenty-four years, but there are contradictory claims that he was either dragged into Hell by the Devil or saved by God. To this day, Faust lends his name to the word Faustian, as in a Faustian bargain or a deal with the Devil.
Pierre Gringoire {The Hunchback of Notre-Dame ₁₈₃₁}
Pierre Gringoire (1475? - 1538) was a French playwright and poet best known for satirical plays written from 1506 to 1512, and was a favorite of Louis XII. Before rising to prominence, Gringoire attempted to find an audience at the Feast of Fools in 1482, but was interrupted when it was found that the bell-ringer of Notre-Dame de Paris, Quasimodo, was in attendance and declared Pope of Fools, but finds solace at his play's failure in an attraction to Esmeralda, a Roma woman also at the festival. Though he married Esmeralda in the following days, she didn't love him back and he couldn't bring himself to touch her. After Esmeralda's death, Gringoire shifted his genre of writing to tragedies and achieved fame in the following decades.
Paracelsus
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (late 1493 - September 24 1541; better known as Paracelsus) was a Swiss astologer, botanist, occultist, philosopher, and physician credited as the founder of toxicology, naming the element zinc, and being the first to note that some diseases are rooted in psychological rather than physical conditions. He is also famous for using observations of nature rather than ancient texts to understand the world around him, a radical idea at the time. He is also closely associated with Johann Georg Faust, another occultist contemporary to him who purportedly made a deal with the Devil.
Lamoral, Count of Egmont {Snow White ₁₈₁₂}
Lamoral (November 18 1522 - June 5 1568) was the Count of Egmont and Prince of Gavere, a general and statesman in the Spanish Netherlands just before the start of the Eighty Years' War and head of one of the most powerful families in the Low Countries. He entered an ideological conflict with William of Orange over iconoclasm in Christianity, which Lamoral supported as a Catholic but William opposed as a Protestant. This led Lamoral to remain in Brussels even as Fernando Álvarez de Toledo was sent to the Netherlands by Philip II of Spain. Lamoral was arrested by the Duke of Alba, forcing his wife Snow White and their eleven children to seek refuge in a convent. Despite pleas for amnesty from all over Europe, even from the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Lamoral was executed by beheading, but faced his death with dignity. His execution sparked the nationalist uprising which ultimately led to the independence of the Netherlands from Spain.
Petrus Gonsalvus {Beauty and the Beast ₁₇₄₀}
Petrus Gonsalvus (1537 - 1618; dates unknown; born Pedro González) was a Spanish nobleman best known in life for his beastly appearance, covered in hair. At a young age, he was transformed into a hairy, beast-like creature by one of the Fair Folk; in 1547, he was discovered by Henry II of France, who was intrigued and amused by his appearance and gave Gonsalvus an estate in the Netherlands and made him a member of Margaret of Parma's court. Despite his station, Gonsalvus lived in forced isolation for years with only invisible servants for company until 1558 when a lost, impoverished merchant stumbled upon his estate and tried to take a rose from the gardens--one of Gonsalvus' most precious possessions--to give to his daughter Catherine. Gonsalvus brokered a deal with the merchant: he would grant the kindness of giving the rose to Catherine, but only if the merchant would then return to receive his punishment. Instead, Catherine went to the castle in her father's place and, as a courtesy to both her and the merchant, kept her under house arrest instead of executing her. Eventually, Gonsalvus and Catherine came to love each other and this broke the curse that had been placed on him; they were wed and settled in Italy to have seven children, where Gonsalvus passed away half a century later.
Alexander Leslie {There Was a Crooked Man ₁₈₄₂}
Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven, (1582 - April 4 1661) was a Scottish soldier, the illegitimate son of George Leslie and "a wench in Rannoch" who ultimately became a field martial of the Swedish military. He is said to have lived in a crooked house and had a crooked cat for a pet, leading to him being described as "the Crooked Man."
Miyamoto Musashi
Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584 - June 13 1645) was a rōnin renowned for his double-bladed sword style and record of sixty consecutive duels undefeated. Musashi is such a legendary figure that it is difficult to tell fact from fiction concerning him.
Eugene of Savoy {Rapunzel ₁₇₉₀, Tangled ₂₀₁₀}
Eugene of Savoy (October 18 1663 - April 21 1736) was an Austrian statesman and general of the Holy Roman Empire, and one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history. One of the most famous stories about him was when he rescued a young woman named Persinette--commonly transliterated as Rapunzel--from her towered prison; at the time, Eugene was using the alias "Flynn Rider" to hide his identity.
Caroline of Ansbach {There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe ₁₇₉₄}
Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (March 1 1683 - November 20 1737) was the wife of George II of the United Kingdom.
Jacob Grimm {The Brothers Grimm ₂₀₀₅}
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (January 4 1785 - 1863)
Wilhelm Grimm {The Brothers Grimm ₂₀₀₅}
Wilhelm Carl Grimm (February 24 1786 - 1859)
Pestilence {Marvel Comics}
Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (August 16 1796 - apparently 1848) was a British naval officer who participated in six different missions to explore the polar regions. In 1845, he joined John Franklin's expedition to locate the Northwest Passage. After six months, both of the expedition's ships--the Terror and the Erebus--became trapped in ice, and after nearly two years unable to free the ships, Franklin led an expedition on foot to find help in November 1847 and was never seen again. In April 1848, a desperate Crozier led the rest of the crew to try and escape over the ice, but most of them died of exposure. With almost no one left alive, Crozier mixed a concoction of chemicals and fell into suspended animation with the plan of remaining in that state until the weather improved, no matter how long it took. His crewmen mistook him for dead and interred him in the permafrost, leaving him buried alive to slowly become insane.
Juana Maria {Island of the Blue Dolphins ₁₉₆₀}
Juana Maria (died October 19 1853; born Karana) was the last of the Nicoleño tribe which lived on San Nicolas Island off of California. She had lived alone on the island from as late as 1835 to 1853 after her people were massacred by Aleuts led by one Captain Orlov and the survivors left the island with Christian missionaries, though Karana swam back to shore before leaving because her brother Ramo was accidentally left behind. Eventually, Ramo was killed by a pack of feral dogs left behind by the Aleuts, leaving her alone. When she was finally found, she willingly left with a pet dog, Rontu-Aru, and lived out her days at the Santa Barbara mission on the mainland.