Alexander Nevsky
1221 – 1263 · 42 years · Novgorod · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 1252 – 1263 (Rus and Russia)
Defeated the Swedes on the Neva (1240) and the Livonian Knights on Lake Peipus (1242) while keeping peace with the Horde.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 13th century
Portrait: Collective of Kremlin Armory artists · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Saint Louis (Louis IX) — crusader king canonised as a saint, 7 years older
- Rudolf I — first Habsburg king, who won Austria for his house, 3 years older
- Thomas Aquinas — theologian and philosopher, 4 years younger
- Frederick II — "Wonder of the World", polyglot emperor who regained Jerusalem without a fight, 27 years older
- Edward I Longshanks — conqueror of Wales, called the Hammer of the Scots, 18 years younger
- Henry III — king under whom the English Parliament was born, 14 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Yaroslav II of Vladimir — first Russian prince to receive a patent to rule from the Horde, 30 years older
- Yuri II of Vladimir — grand prince of Vladimir killed fighting the Mongols on the Sit, 32 years older
Middle East
- Rumi — Sufi poet, 14 years older
Africa
- Sundiata Keita — founder of the Mali Empire, 4 years older
Asia
- Kublai Khan — Great Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty, 6 years older
- Razia Sultana — Sultan of Delhi, 16 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1223 Battle of the Kalka River — aged 2, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1237–1240 Mongol invasion of Rus' — aged 16, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1240 Batu Khan takes Kiev — aged 19, Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 1242 The Golden Horde is founded — aged 21, Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 1250 The moai of Easter Island — aged 29, Oceania
- c. 1251 The Tripitaka Koreana — aged 30, Asia
- 1257 Samalas eruption — aged 36, Asia
- 1258 Mongol sack of Baghdad — aged 37, Middle East