Francis II
1768 – 1835 · 67 years · Vienna · Europe
Reign: 1792 – 1835 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
Defeated by Napoleon time and again, he proclaimed himself Emperor of Austria (as Francis I) in 1804 and laid down the Holy Roman crown in 1806. He married his daughter Marie Louise to Napoleon, and after Napoleon's fall hosted the Congress of Vienna with Metternich.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Friedrich von Amerling · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 19 years older
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 2 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 1 year younger
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 41 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 12 years older
- Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 50 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 31 years younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 39 years older
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 53 years younger
- Alexander I — emperor who defeated Napoleon, 9 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 23 years older
- Nicholas I — emperor who crushed the Decembrist revolt, 28 years younger
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 17 years younger
- Abdulmejid I — sultan of the Tanzimat reforms, 55 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 7 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 11 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 65 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 43 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 1 year younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 19 years younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 45 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 10 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 14 years older
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 18 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 8 years older
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 5 years younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 57 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 17 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 25 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 31 years older
Americas
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 15 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 36 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 41 years younger
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 62 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 1 year older
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 25 years older
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 40 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 10 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 4 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 30 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 4 years older
- Truganini — Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, 44 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 0, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 0, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 1, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 4, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 8, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 15, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 15, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 15, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 19, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 20, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 21, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 21, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 23, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 28, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 30, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 35, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 36, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 36, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 36, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 37, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 37, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 42, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 44, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 46, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 47, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 47, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 48, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 49, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 49, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 51, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 54, Americas
- 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — aged 60, Middle East
- c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — aged 63, Asia
- 1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — aged 65, Europe
- c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — aged 67, Africa
- 1835 Darwin in the Galápagos — aged 67, Americas