Sejong the Great

King of Joseon Korea

1397 – 1450 · 53 years · Hanseong (Seoul) · Asia

Joseon king under whom the Korean alphabet, Hangul, was created; a great patron of science and invention.

Portrait: Bank of Korea · South Korean currency · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Johannes Gutenberg — inventor of the printing press, 3 years younger
Joan of Arc — heroine of the Hundred Years' War, 15 years younger
Charles VII — king under whom the Hundred Years’ War ended, 6 years younger
Sigismund — emperor of the Council of Constance that ended the Schism and burned Hus, 29 years older
Louis XI — the "universal spider" who pieced France together, 26 years younger
Henry V — victor of Agincourt who became heir to the French crown, 11 years older

Andrei Rublev — icon painter, 37 years older
Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 43 years younger
Vasily II the Blind — grand prince blinded in a dynastic civil war, 18 years younger
Vasily I — grand prince who annexed Nizhny Novgorod, 26 years older

Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 26 years older
Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 39 years younger
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu — shogun who reunited the two imperial courts and built Kinkaku-ji, 39 years older
Ulugh Beg — ruler and astronomer, 3 years older
Ashikaga Yoshinori — shogun chosen by lot and murdered by his own vassal, 3 years older
Ashikaga Yoshimochi — shogun who broke off tributary trade with Ming China, 11 years older