Official Release: Famous Men of the 16th & 17th Century

It’s done! Finished, edited, proofed and approved. And we have copies on the shelves!

The sequel to Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation.

Rather than reprinting Famous Men of Modern Times (which is a bit uneven in both tone and selection), we have made the decision to complete the Famous Men biography series with four new books:

• Famous Men of the 16^th & 17^th Century (Queen Elizabeth to Louis XIV) – available now
• Famous Men of the 18^th Century (Isaac Newton to Robespierre) - 2010
• Famous Men of the 19^th Century (Napoleon Bonaparte to Mark Twain) - 2011
• Famous men of the 20^th Century (Teddy Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan) - 2012

The 17th century was an age of religious wars and revolutions. The French had seven civil wars of religion from 1570-1590. The German Empire had a religious civil war from 1618-1648. The English had a civil war from 1642-1649. It was also the century in which the English and French settlements were founding colonies in North America at Jamestown, Plymouth, Boston, & Quebec. But learning the wars will not convey to students what the times were like. Biographies will. Twenty-eight key individuals are profiled in chronological order:

Birth Crowned Death

1519	1547	1589	Catherine de’ Medici
1553	1589	1610	Henry of Navarre (Henry IV)
1533	1558	1603	Elizabeth I
1540		1595	Sir Francis Drake
1552		1618	Sir Walter Raleigh
1566	1603	1625	James I
1552		1610	Matteo Ricci
1564		1616	William Shakespeare
1580		1631	John Smith
1583		1634	Wallenstein
1594	1611	1632	Gustavus Adolphus
1575		1635	Samuel de Champlain
1564		1642	Galileo
1585		1642	Cardinal Richelieu
1600	1625	1649	Charles I
1599		1658	Oliver Cromwell
1590	1620	1657	William Bradford
1588	1629	1649	John Winthrop
1623		1662	Blaise Pascal
1606		1669	Rembrandt
1608		1674	John Milton
1632		1675	Johannes Vermeer
1630	1660	1685	Charles II
1629	1674	1696	Jan Sobieski
1650	1688	1702	William of Orange (William III)
1632		1704	John Locke
1653		1706	Johan Pachelbel
1638	1643	1715	Louis XIV

I am particularly pleased with how the chapters on the colonial founders turned out. John Smith (Jamestown), Samuel de Champlain (Quebec), William Bradford (Plymouth), and John Winthrop (Boston) all have incredible and fascinating stories. A simple comparison of their backgrounds and their reasons for leaving England and France will give students far more understanding about the founding of the colonies than any textbook can.

I also enjoyed greatly retelling the events of the English Civil War, the Restoration, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. These events (with a number of larger-than-life characters) were critical in shaping the political ideas of America’s Founding Fathers – whose stories I am looking forward to telling in Famous Men of the 18^th Century.

I’ve also included accounts of the lives of artists (Rembrandt, Vermeer), a musician (Johan Pachelbel), and writers (Shakespeare & Milton) so that students will become acquainted with more than just the political history of the times.

The reading level is targeted on upper elementary/jr. high, but even older students and adults will find much here that gets left out of the textbook accounts.

Famous Men of the 16^th & 17^th Century is 28 chapters, 228 pages and retails for $17.95, directly from Greenleaf Press.

Get ‘em while they’re hot off the press!

- Rob Shearer, (author and) Publisher

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