Geoffrey Chaucer

poet, author of The Canterbury Tales

c. 1343 – 1400 · 57 years · London · Europe

The 'father of English poetry', whose Canterbury Tales established English as a literary language.

Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Charles IV — emperor who made Prague an imperial capital and issued the Golden Bull, 27 years older
Edward III — king who began the Hundred Years' War and won at Crécy, 31 years older
Richard II — boy king who faced down the Peasants' Revolt and was deposed by his cousin, 24 years younger
Sigismund — emperor of the Council of Constance that ended the Schism and burned Hus, 25 years younger
Henry V — victor of Agincourt who became heir to the French crown, 43 years younger
Rupert of the Palatinate — Elector Palatine chosen to replace the deposed Wenceslaus, 9 years younger

Sergius of Radonezh — saint and abbot, 29 years older
Andrei Rublev — icon painter, 17 years younger
Dmitry Donskoy — Grand Prince of Moscow, 7 years younger
Vasily I — grand prince who annexed Nizhny Novgorod, 28 years younger
Ivan II the Fair — grand prince of Moscow, father of Dmitry Donskoy, 17 years older
Simeon the Proud — grand prince "of all Rus" who died of the plague, 27 years older

Murad I — sultan who took Adrianople and fell at Kosovo, 17 years older
Bayezid I the Thunderbolt — sultan defeated and captured by Timur at Ankara, 17 years younger
Orhan — bey who took Bursa and led the Ottomans into Europe, 62 years older
Hafez — Persian poet, 18 years older
Mehmed I Çelebi — sultan who reunited the realm after Timur, 46 years younger

Timur — emir and conqueror, 7 years older
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu — shogun who reunited the two imperial courts and built Kinkaku-ji, 15 years younger
Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 28 years younger
Ashikaga Takauji — founder of the Muromachi shogunate who turned on Go-Daigo, 38 years older
Ashikaga Yoshiakira — second Ashikaga shogun, who held Kyoto against the Southern Court, 13 years older
Gajah Mada — prime minister of Majapahit, 53 years older