Christine de Pizan

writer

c. 1364 – 1430 · 66 years · Paris · Europe

Europe's first known professional woman writer, who defended women's dignity in The Book of the City of Ladies.

Portrait: photography The British Library Board, Harley 4431, f.259v · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

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Joan of Arc — heroine of the Hundred Years' War, 48 years younger
Sigismund — emperor of the Council of Constance that ended the Schism and burned Hus, 4 years younger
Henry V — victor of Agincourt who became heir to the French crown, 22 years younger
Richard II — boy king who faced down the Peasants' Revolt and was deposed by his cousin, 3 years younger
Charles VII — king under whom the Hundred Years’ War ended, 39 years younger

Andrei Rublev — icon painter, 4 years older
Sergius of Radonezh — saint and abbot, 50 years older
Dmitry Donskoy — Grand Prince of Moscow, 14 years older
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Vasily II the Blind — grand prince blinded in a dynastic civil war, 51 years younger

Bayezid I the Thunderbolt — sultan defeated and captured by Timur at Ankara, 4 years older
Murad II — sultan who crushed the crusaders at Varna, 40 years younger
Murad I — sultan who took Adrianople and fell at Kosovo, 38 years older
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Hafez — Persian poet, 39 years older

Timur — emir and conqueror, 28 years older
Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 7 years younger
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu — shogun who reunited the two imperial courts and built Kinkaku-ji, 6 years older
Sejong the Great — King of Joseon Korea, 33 years younger
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Ulugh Beg — ruler and astronomer, 30 years younger