Sophia Palaiologina
c. 1455 – 1503 · 48 years · Moscow · Eastern Europe & Russia
Niece of the last Byzantine emperor and wife of Ivan III, linked to Moscow's adoption of Byzantine imperial symbols.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: Sergey Nikitin · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 3 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 18 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 20 years younger
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 28 years younger
- Johannes Gutenberg — inventor of the printing press, 55 years older
- Isabella I of Castile — Queen of Castile, 4 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 15 years older
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 24 years younger
Middle East
- Mehmed II — Ottoman sultan, 23 years older
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 15 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 8 years older
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 12 years older
Asia
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 19 years older
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 14 years younger
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 14 years younger
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 28 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshitane — shogun who held office twice and was driven out twice, 11 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshihisa — shogun whose birth set off the Ōnin War, 10 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 4 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 11 years younger
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 25 years younger
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 29 years younger
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 30 years younger
- Pachacuti — Sapa Inca, 37 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — aged 23, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — aged 25, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 33, Africa
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 37, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 37, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 39, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 43, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 46, Middle East