Ivan Kalita
c. 1288 – 1340 · 52 years · Moscow · Eastern Europe & Russia
Reign: 1325 – 1340 (Rus and Russia)
He helped the Horde crush the Tver uprising of 1327 and received the patent for the grand principality, along with the right to collect tribute. Under him the metropolitan moved to Moscow, making it the church capital of Rus.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 14th century
Portrait: Collective · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Dante Alighieri — poet, author of the Divine Comedy, 23 years older
- Edward III — king who began the Hundred Years' War and won at Crécy, 24 years younger
- Philip IV the Fair — king who destroyed the Knights Templar, 20 years older
- Charles IV — emperor who made Prague an imperial capital and issued the Golden Bull, 28 years younger
- Edward I Longshanks — conqueror of Wales, called the Hammer of the Scots, 49 years older
- Louis the Bavarian — emperor excommunicated by the pope and crowned in Rome without him, 6 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Sergius of Radonezh — saint and abbot, 26 years younger
- Yury of Moscow — first Moscow prince to become grand prince of Vladimir, 7 years older
- Simeon the Proud — grand prince "of all Rus" who died of the plague, 28 years younger
- Daniel of Moscow — first prince of Moscow, founder of the Moscow line of the Rurikids, 27 years older
- Ivan II the Fair — grand prince of Moscow, father of Dmitry Donskoy, 38 years younger
Middle East
Africa
- Mansa Musa — ruler of the Mali Empire, 8 years older
- Ibn Battuta — traveller, 16 years younger
Asia
- Marco Polo — Venetian traveller, 34 years older
- Emperor Go-Daigo — emperor who overthrew the Kamakura shogunate, born the same year
- Ashikaga Takauji — founder of the Muromachi shogunate who turned on Go-Daigo, 17 years younger
- Gajah Mada — prime minister of Majapahit, 2 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshiakira — second Ashikaga shogun, who held Kyoto against the Southern Court, 42 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1293 Founding of Majapahit — aged 5, Asia
- c. 1300 Onset of the Little Ice Age — aged 12, Europe
- 1309–1377 Avignon Papacy — aged 21, Europe
- 1315–1317 Great Famine — aged 27, Europe
- 1324 Hajj of Mansa Musa — aged 36, Africa
- c. 1325 Founding of Tenochtitlan — aged 37, Americas
- c. 1327 The Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu — aged 39, Africa
- 1337–1453 Hundred Years' War — aged 49, Europe
- c. 1337 Sergius of Radonezh founds his monastery — aged 49, Eastern Europe & Russia