Francis I
1708 – 1765 · 57 years · Vienna · Europe
Reign: 1745 – 1765 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
A duke of Lorraine who swapped Lorraine for Tuscany and married Maria Theresa. Elected emperor in 1745, he left government to his wife, ran the court's finances shrewdly and built the collection that became the core of Vienna's Natural History Museum.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Martin van Meytens · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 14 years older
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 23 years older
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 65 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 41 years younger
- Carl Linnaeus — Swedish naturalist, 1 year older
- Louis XV — king under whom France lost Canada, 2 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 3 years younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 21 years younger
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 36 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 1 year older
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 1 year younger
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 22 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 20 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 35 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 5 years older
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 9 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 9 years younger
- Mahmud I — sultan who regained Belgrade by the 1739 peace, 12 years older
Africa
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 63 years older
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 46 years younger
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 54 years older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 3 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 24 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 43 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieshige — ailing shogun whose speech only one courtier understood, 4 years younger
- Cao Xueqin — Chinese novelist, 7 years younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 2 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 24 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 30 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 35 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 35 years younger
- Aleijadinho — Brazilian sculptor and architect, 22 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 20 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 17 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 30 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1709 Battle of Poltava — aged 1, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 13, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 39, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 47, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 48, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 49, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 52, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 54, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 56, Eastern Europe & Russia