Patriot. In a war between her native Portugal and Spain, she courageously fought with a baking tool.

Poet. He helped fashion a Scottish national identity by writing his epic poem, The Brus, about the life of King Robert Bruce, the hero who secured Scottish independence after many failed attempts. In Barbour's fable of "Robert Bruce and the Spider," the king has been defeated six times, but after seeing a spider in a cave cast its web six times and fail, only to succeed the seventh time, the hero resolves to try again, and subsequently defeats the English at the battle of Bannockburn.

Writer and scholar. Influential Italian poet, author of Decameron, a celebration of Bohemian lifestyles, in addition to other works.

King. Repeatedly defeated, his indomitability ultimately brought Scottish independence.

Theologian. Although a churchman, he is remembered for his work in logic, especially the problem of Buridan's Ass, in which an ass cannot decide between two equally desirable bales of hay and thus starves.

Theologian. He was a master of logic and of argument.

Author. He was an important mystic whose work was eventually condemned by the Roman Catholic Church.

Poet. He was a Sufi, and his work was thought to have a hidden, mystical meaning.

He is the primary source on the remarkable life of Louis IX, King of France, known as St. Louis. (See St. Louis.)