Otto II
955 – 983 · 28 years · Magdeburg · Europe
Reign: 973 – 983 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
Son of Otto I, married to the Byzantine princess Theophanu. In 982 he was badly defeated by the Sicilian Arabs at Cape Colonna and died in Rome a year later — the only emperor buried in St Peter's.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 10th century
Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Hugh Capet — founder of the Capetian dynasty, 15 years older
- Otto the Great — founder of the Holy Roman Empire who crushed the Magyars at the Lech, 43 years older
- Æthelred the Unready — king who paid off the Vikings with Danegeld, 11 years younger
- Edgar the Peaceful — king of a peaceful united England and patron of monastic reform, 12 years older
- Robert II the Pious — pious king excommunicated for marrying a kinswoman, 17 years younger
- Henry II — last Ottonian emperor, founder of the see of Bamberg, canonised as a saint, 18 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Vladimir the Great — Grand Prince of Kiev, 5 years younger
- Olga of Kiev — grand princess of Kiev, 35 years older
- Yaropolk I — prince of Kiev who fell in a civil war with his brother Vladimir, born the same year
- Sviatoslav I — Grand Prince of Kiev, warrior, 13 years older
Middle East
- Ferdowsi — Persian poet, 15 years older
Asia
- Murasaki Shikibu — novelist, author of The Tale of Genji, 18 years younger
- Sei Shōnagon — writer and court lady, 11 years younger
- Al-Biruni — polymath, 18 years younger
Americas
- Leif Erikson — Norse explorer, 15 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 960 Founding of the Song dynasty — aged 5, Asia
- 962 Coronation of Otto I — aged 7, Europe
- 966 Baptism of Poland — aged 11, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 969 Founding of Cairo — aged 14, Africa
- 972 Al-Azhar Mosque opens — aged 17, Africa