← Fame through time1400-1499
The 15th century
Whose working lives fell in the 15th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 15th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Richard III of England0 decades - 2
Henry V of England1 decades - 3
Henry VII of England7 decades - 4
Henry VI of England0 decades - 5
Henry IV of England0 decades - 6
James I of Scotland3 decades - 7
James II of Scotland0 decades - 8
James III of Scotland0 decades - 9
Elizabeth Woodvillenot measured- - 10
Lady Margaret Beaufortnot measured- - 11
Anne Nevillenot measured- - 12
Richard of York, 3rd Duke of Yorknot measured- - 13
Edward V of England0 decades - 14
William Caxton22 decades - 15
Edward of Westminster1 decades - 16
Richard Nevillenot measured- - 17Thomas Malory18 decades
- 18
Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmondnot measured- - 19
Catherine of Lancaster19 decades - 20
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshirenot measured- - 21
Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of Yorknot measured- - 22
Cecily Neville, Duchess of Yorknot measured- - 23
Philippa of England0 decades - 24
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarencenot measured- - 25
Margaret of York11 decades
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.