Robert II the Pious
c. 972 – 1031 · 59 years · Paris · Europe
Reign: 996 – 1031 (Franks and France)
Son of Hugh Capet, crowned co-king as early as 987. His marriage to his cousin Bertha of Burgundy brought excommunication; after a long war he brought Burgundy under the crown.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 10th century
Portrait: Natalis de Wailly · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Æthelred the Unready — king who paid off the Vikings with Danegeld, 6 years older
- Cnut the Great — Danish king who ruled a North Sea empire, 23 years younger
- Edward the Confessor — pious king who built Westminster Abbey, 31 years younger
- Hugh Capet — founder of the Capetian dynasty, 32 years older
- Henry II — last Ottonian emperor, founder of the see of Bamberg, canonised as a saint, 1 year younger
- Conrad II — first Salian emperor, who added the Kingdom of Burgundy to the empire, 18 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Vladimir the Great — Grand Prince of Kiev, 12 years older
- Yaroslav the Wise — Grand Prince of Kiev, 6 years younger
- Sviatopolk the Accursed — prince of Kiev blamed by the chronicles for murdering Boris and Gleb, 8 years younger
Middle East
- Avicenna (Ibn Sina) — physician and philosopher, 8 years younger
- Ferdowsi — Persian poet, 32 years older
Asia
- Murasaki Shikibu — novelist, author of The Tale of Genji, 1 year younger
- Al-Biruni — polymath, 1 year younger
- Sei Shōnagon — writer and court lady, 6 years older
Americas
- Leif Erikson — Norse explorer, 2 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 972 Al-Azhar Mosque opens — aged 0, Africa
- 988 Christianization of Kievan Rus' — aged 16, Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 1000 Extinction of the elephant birds — aged 28, Africa
- c. 1000 Stephen I, first king of Hungary — aged 28, Europe
- 1006 Supernova SN 1006 — aged 34, Africa
- c. 1010 The Tale of Genji — aged 38, Asia
- 1021 Norse in North America — aged 49, Americas
- 1025 Avicenna's Canon of Medicine — aged 53, Middle East