George II
1683 – 1760 · 77 years · London · Europe
Reign: 1727 – 1760 (England and Britain)
In 1743 he personally led his army at Dettingen, the last British monarch to do so. His reign saw the Jacobite rising of 1745 crushed and, in the Seven Years' War, Britain win Canada and strengthen its hold on India.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: John Shackleton · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 11 years younger
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 2 years younger
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 40 years older
- Louis XIV — King of France, the Sun King, 45 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 66 years younger
- Carl Linnaeus — Swedish naturalist, 24 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 28 years younger
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 11 years older
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 46 years younger
- Vitus Bering — Danish explorer in Russian service, 2 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 24 years younger
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 26 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 5 years younger
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 10 years older
- Mahmud I — sultan who regained Belgrade by the 1739 peace, 13 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 16 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 20 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 34 years younger
Africa
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 38 years older
- Osei Tutu I — founder of the Ashanti Empire, 23 years older
- Kimpa Vita — Kongolese prophet, 1 year younger
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 29 years older
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 1 year younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 28 years younger
- Tokugawa Tsunayoshi — the 'Dog Shogun' who outlawed cruelty to animals, 37 years older
- Aurangzeb — Mughal emperor, 65 years older
- Matsuo Bashō — Japanese poet, 39 years older
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 23 years younger
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 49 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 55 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 60 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 60 years younger
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — Mexican poet and nun, 35 years older
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 45 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 42 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 55 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1683 Battle of Vienna — aged 0, Europe
- 1687 Newton's Principia — aged 4, Europe
- 1688–1689 Glorious Revolution — aged 5, Europe
- 1703 Founding of Saint Petersburg — aged 20, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1709 Battle of Poltava — aged 26, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 38, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 64, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 72, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 73, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 74, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 77, Europe