Edward the Confessor
c. 1003 – 1066 · 63 years · London · Europe
Reign: 1042 – 1066 (England and Britain)
The last-but-one Anglo-Saxon king. He built Westminster Abbey, consecrated days before his death; he died childless, and the dispute over his succession led to the Norman Conquest. Canonised in 1161.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 11th century
Portrait: Myrabella · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- William the Conqueror — Duke of Normandy, King of England, 25 years younger
- Cnut the Great — Danish king who ruled a North Sea empire, 8 years older
- Henry IV — emperor humbled at Canossa in his struggle with the pope, 47 years younger
- Æthelred the Unready — king who paid off the Vikings with Danegeld, 37 years older
- Henry I — king who married Anne of Kiev, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, 5 years younger
- Henry III — emperor who deposed three rival popes at the Synod of Sutri, 13 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Vladimir the Great — Grand Prince of Kiev, 43 years older
- Yaroslav the Wise — Grand Prince of Kiev, 25 years older
- Vladimir II Monomakh — Grand Prince of Kiev, 50 years younger
- Iziaslav I — prince of Kiev twice driven from his capital, 21 years younger
- Vsevolod I — prince of Kiev, father of Vladimir Monomakh, 27 years younger
- Sviatopolk the Accursed — prince of Kiev blamed by the chronicles for murdering Boris and Gleb, 23 years older
Middle East
- Avicenna (Ibn Sina) — physician and philosopher, 23 years older
- Omar Khayyam — poet, mathematician, astronomer, 45 years younger
- Ferdowsi — Persian poet, 63 years older
Asia
- Murasaki Shikibu — novelist, author of The Tale of Genji, 30 years older
- Al-Biruni — polymath, 30 years older
- Shen Kuo — polymath, 28 years younger
- Sei Shōnagon — writer and court lady, 37 years older
Americas
- Leif Erikson — Norse explorer, 33 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1006 Supernova SN 1006 — aged 3, Africa
- c. 1010 The Tale of Genji — aged 7, Asia
- 1021 Norse in North America — aged 18, Americas
- 1025 Avicenna's Canon of Medicine — aged 22, Middle East
- c. 1037 Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev — aged 34, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1044 First gunpowder formulas in the Wujing Zongyao — aged 41, Asia
- 1054 East–West Schism — aged 51, Middle East
- 1054 Supernova SN 1054 — aged 51, Asia
- 1066 Battle of Hastings — aged 63, Europe
- 1066 Halley's Comet over England — aged 63, Europe