Figures of the Renaissance - Ferdinand Magellan

Figures of the Renaissance

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a leader of the Renaissance and a benefactor to modern science. The results of his voyage around the globe were such that the average person living during the Renaissance re-thought their paradigms of the world surrounding them, even know most scholars and other educated types knew that in fact, the world was round in shape. Ferdinand, however, proved it. Thus he lays claim to having circumnavigated the first voyage around the world.

Born 1480 to lesser nobles living near Vila Real in northern Portugal, Magellan was raised as a page to the Portuguese king John II in the royal court at Lisbon. Magellan was educated from then on, becoming interested in geography and astronomy, thus in 1496 he became a squire. In the year 1505 Magellan would get his first taste of the sea, at the age of 20. He was sent to India to install Portuguese viceroy Francisco de Almeida, as well as establish naval bases along the way. As it turns out, Magellan also had his first combat experience on this mission. A local king refused to pay a tribute to the king,