Wenceslaus
1361 – 1419 · 58 years · Prague · Europe
Reign: 1378 – 1400 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
Son of Charles IV. In 1400 the electors stripped him of the German crown for neglect; in Bohemia his reign saw the death of John of Nepomuk (1393), the Decree of Kutná Hora favouring Jan Hus (1409) and the outbreak of the Hussite Wars, amid which he died.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 14th century
Portrait: User:Acoma · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johannes Gutenberg — inventor of the printing press, 39 years younger
- Sigismund — emperor of the Council of Constance that ended the Schism and burned Hus, 7 years younger
- Richard II — boy king who faced down the Peasants' Revolt and was deposed by his cousin, 6 years younger
- Henry V — victor of Agincourt who became heir to the French crown, 25 years younger
- Charles IV — emperor who made Prague an imperial capital and issued the Golden Bull, 45 years older
- Edward III — king who began the Hundred Years' War and won at Crécy, 49 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Andrei Rublev — icon painter, 1 year older
- Sergius of Radonezh — saint and abbot, 47 years older
- Dmitry Donskoy — Grand Prince of Moscow, 11 years older
- Vasily I — grand prince who annexed Nizhny Novgorod, 10 years younger
Middle East
- Bayezid I the Thunderbolt — sultan defeated and captured by Timur at Ankara, 1 year older
- Murad I — sultan who took Adrianople and fell at Kosovo, 35 years older
- Murad II — sultan who crushed the crusaders at Varna, 43 years younger
- Mehmed I Çelebi — sultan who reunited the realm after Timur, 28 years younger
- Hafez — Persian poet, 36 years older
Africa
- Ibn Khaldun — historian and thinker, 29 years older
Asia
- Timur — emir and conqueror, 25 years older
- Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 10 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshimitsu — shogun who reunited the two imperial courts and built Kinkaku-ji, 3 years older
- Sejong the Great — King of Joseon Korea, 36 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshimochi — shogun who broke off tributary trade with Ming China, 25 years younger
- Ulugh Beg — ruler and astronomer, 33 years younger
Americas
- Nezahualcoyotl — ruler of Texcoco, poet, 41 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1368 Founding of the Ming dynasty — aged 7, Asia
- 1370 Timur makes Samarkand his capital — aged 9, Asia
- 1377 Jikji, printed with movable metal type — aged 16, Asia
- 1380 Battle of Kulikovo — aged 19, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1385 Union of Krewo — aged 24, Europe
- 1392 Founding of Joseon — aged 31, Asia
- c. 1400 Founding of Malacca — aged 39, Asia
- 1405–1433 Voyages of Zheng He — aged 44, Asia
- 1410 Battle of Grunwald — aged 49, Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 1411 Andrei Rublev's Trinity — aged 50, Eastern Europe & Russia