Henry VI
1421 – 1471 · 50 years · London · Europe
Reign: 1422 – 1461 (England and Britain)
Became king at nine months old and was the only English king also crowned in Paris. Under him England lost nearly all its French lands and the Wars of the Roses began; he founded Eton College and was killed in the Tower in 1471.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: Poems and Romances (Shrewsbury book), illuminated by the MASTER OF… · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johannes Gutenberg — inventor of the printing press, 21 years older
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 31 years younger
- Joan of Arc — heroine of the Hundred Years' War, 9 years older
- Louis XI — the "universal spider" who pieced France together, 2 years younger
- Charles VII — king under whom the Hundred Years’ War ended, 18 years older
- Isabella I of Castile — Queen of Castile, 30 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 19 years younger
- Vasily II the Blind — grand prince blinded in a dynastic civil war, 6 years older
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 34 years younger
Middle East
- Mehmed II — Ottoman sultan, 11 years younger
- Murad II — sultan who crushed the crusaders at Varna, 17 years older
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 26 years younger
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 22 years younger
Asia
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 15 years younger
- Sejong the Great — King of Joseon Korea, 24 years older
- Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 50 years older
- Ulugh Beg — ruler and astronomer, 27 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshinori — shogun chosen by lot and murdered by his own vassal, 27 years older
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 30 years younger
- Pachacuti — Sapa Inca, 3 years older
- Nezahualcoyotl — ruler of Texcoco, poet, 19 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1429 Joan of Arc relieves Orléans — aged 8, Europe
- c. 1438 Pachacuti founds the Inca Empire — aged 17, Americas
- c. 1445 Extinction of the moa — aged 24, Oceania
- 1446 King Sejong promulgates Hangul — aged 25, Asia
- c. 1450 Gutenberg's printing press — aged 29, Europe
- c. 1450 Building of Machu Picchu — aged 29, Americas
- c. 1450 Founding of the Iroquois Confederacy — aged 29, Americas
- 1453 Fall of Constantinople — aged 32, Middle East