Louis XV
%20-%20Portrait%20of%20Louis%20XV%20-%20Louvre%20-%20INV%206319.jpg?width=160 "Manner of Louis-Michel van Loo · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
1710 – 1774 · 64 years · Versailles · Europe
Reign: 1715 – 1774 (Franks and France)
He became king at five and reigned for almost 59 years. In the Seven Years’ War France lost Canada and most of its Indian possessions to Britain, while his mistresses Madame de Pompadour and du Barry embodied court extravagance.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Manner of Louis-Michel van Loo · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
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Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 16 years older
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 25 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 39 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 46 years younger
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 67 years older
- Carl Linnaeus — Swedish naturalist, 3 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 1 year younger
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 19 years younger
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 38 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 3 years older
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 1 year older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 20 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 22 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 37 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 7 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 7 years younger
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 15 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 11 years older
Africa
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 44 years younger
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 65 years older
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 56 years older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 1 year younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 26 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 41 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 50 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieshige — ailing shogun whose speech only one courtier understood, 2 years younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 4 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 22 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 28 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 33 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 33 years younger
- Aleijadinho — Brazilian sculptor and architect, 20 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 18 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 15 years younger
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 48 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 28 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 54 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 11, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 37, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 45, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 46, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 47, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 50, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 52, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 54, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 58, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 58, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 59, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 62, Eastern Europe & Russia