text:
930

Year 930 (CMXXX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * 17 June (traditional date) – The Althing, the parliament of Iceland, is established at þingvellir ("Thing Fields"). Chieftains from various tribes gather for 2 weeks at a thing (assembly) to settle disputes, arrange marriages, etc.; it continues in existence into the 21st century, as the world's oldest parliament of the Icelandic Commonwealth.
 * Bishopwearmouth is formed and settled in the north-east of England, after Æthelstan grants the lands to the Bishop of Durham.
 * Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine, besieges Douai in West Francia.

Arabian Empire

 * January 11 – Sack of Mecca: The Qarmatians, led by Abu Tahir al-Jannabi, sack Mecca, desecrating the Zamzam Well and carrying off the Black Stone to their homeland in Eastern Arabia.
 * Mardavij ibn Ziyar is sent by Asfar ibn Shiruya along with his brother Shirzad, to capture the fortress of Shamiran in Tarom (Northern Iran), the capital of the Sallarid ruler Muhammad ibn Musafir. During the siege Mardavij is persuaded to revolt against Asfar, by letters from Makan ibn Kaki. With the help of the sons of the Sallarid, he kills other members of his tribe, including Shirzad. Mardavij founds the Ziyarid Dynasty and becomes the ruler of Asfar's former territories, which include Rey, Qazvin, Zanjan, Abhar, Qom and Karaj.

Asia

 * October 16 – Emperor Daigo of Japan, being fatally ill, abdicates in favor of his 7-year-old son Suzaku, after a 33-year reign. He enters the Buddhist priesthood, but dies shortly after. Former Emperor Uda (Daigo's father), remains the power behind the Japanese throne (until 931).
 * The independent Korean island state of Usan-guk becomes a protectorate of Goryeo.
 * Yelü Bei, prince and elder brother of the Liao dynasty (Khitan) Emperor Taizong, leaves for China.

Births

 * Alferius, Italian abbot and saint (d. 1050)
 * Boleslaus II, duke of Bohemia (d. 999)
 * Gisulf I, prince of Salerno (d. 977)
 * Herbert of Wetterau, German nobleman (d. 992)
 * Lambert of Chalon, Frankish nobleman (d. 978)
 * Liudolf,Swabia (approximate date) (d. 957)
 * Mieszko I, prince of Poland (approximate date) (d. 992)
 * Nikon the Metanoeite, Byzantine monk (d. 998)
 * Odo I, German nobleman (approximate date) (d. 993)
 * Ya'qub ibn Killis, Fatimid vizier (d. 991)
 * Zhang Mi, Chinese Ci lyric poet (d. unknown)

Deaths

 * May 31 – Liu Hua, princess of Southern Han (b. 896)
 * June 19 – Xiao Qing, chancellor of Later Liang (b. 862)
 * June 20 – Hucbald, Frankish monk and music theorist
 * October 26 – Li Qi, chancellor of Later Liang (b. 871)
 * November 19 – Yan Keqiu, Chinese chief strategist
 * December 2 – Ma Yin, Chinese warlord and king (b. 853)
 * Amoghavarsha II, ruler of Rashtrakuta (India)
 * García II Sánchez, duke of Gascony (approximate date)
 * Sharwin II, ruler of the Bavand Dynasty (Iran)
 * Xia Luqi, general of Later Tang (b. 882)
 * Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ ibn Aslam, Egyptian mathematician (b. c. 850)
 * Óengus mac Óengusa, Irish poet and Chief Ollam of Ireland

title: 930


text:
923

Year 923 (CMXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * June 15 – Battle of Soissons: King Robert I is killed; the Frankish army, led by Charles the Simple, is defeated and routed near Soissons. Charles is captured and imprisoned at Péronne. The nobles elect Robert's son-in-law Rudolph, duke of Burgundy, as king of the West Frankish Kingdom (until 936).
 * July 29 – Battle of Fiorenzuola: Lombard forces led by King Rudolph II and Adalbert I, margrave of Ivrea, defeat the deposed Emperor Berengar I at Firenzuola (Tuscany). A pact is reached between Rudolph and Berengar, who abdicates the imperial throne and cedes sovereignty over the rest of Italy.

Asia

 * May 13 – The Later Liang, one of the Five Dynasties in China, falls to Later Tang (founded by Li Cunxu). Li proclaims himself emperor and moves his residence back to the old Tang capital of Luoyang.
 * August 11 – The Qarmatians of Bahrayn capture and pillage the city of Basra.

Births

 * September 7 – Suzaku, emperor of Japan (d. 952)
 * Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī, Muslim intellectual (d. 1023)
 * Al-Shaykh al-Saduq, Muslim scholar (approximate date)
 * Eadred (or Edred), king of England (d. 955)
 * Fujiwara no Nakafumi, Japanese waka poet (d. 992)
 * Jeongjong, king of Goryeo (Korea) (d. 949)
 * Liu Honggao, Chinese chancellor (d. 943)

Deaths

 * June 15 – Robert I, king of the West Frankish Kingdom (b. 860)
 * August 2 – Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury (or 914)
 * August 27 – Ageltrude, queen of Italy and Holy Roman Empress
 * October 8 – Pilgrim I, archbishop of Salzburg
 * November 20
 * Jing Xiang, Chinese strategist
 * Li Zhen, official of Later Liang
 * Abu Bakr al-Khallal, Muslim scholar and jurist (b. 848)
 * Adarnase IV, prince of Iberia/Kartli (Georgia)
 * Badr al-Hammami (the Elder), Abbasid general
 * Gurgen I, prince of Tao-Klarjeti (Georgia)
 * Harshavarman I, king of Angkor (Cambodia)
 * Ibn Khuzaymah, Muslim hadith and scholar (b. 837)
 * Ma Chuo, general and official of Wuyue (or 922)
 * Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Persian scholar (b. 839)
 * Reccared, Galician clergyman (b. 885)
 * Ricwin (or Ricuin), Frankish nobleman
 * Walter (or Vaulter), archbishop of Sens
 * Wang Yanzhang, general of Later Liang (b. 863)
 * Zhao Yan, military prefect and official of Later Liang
 * Zhu Youzhen, emperor of Later Liang (b. 888)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 923


text:
952

Year 952 (CMLII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Summer – At the Reichstag in Augsburg (assembled by King Otto I), joined by German nobles and bishops, Berengar of Ivrea pays homage. He becomes a vassal of the East Frankish Kingdom. Otto leaves a strong garrison at Pavia in the hands of his son-in-law Conrad the Red, duke of Lotharingia.

Scotland

 * King Constantine II dies at the monastery of St. Andrews (where he has been retired since 943). His cousin and ruling monarch, Malcolm I, fights a battle against the Northmen or the Norse–Gaels.

Africa

 * Summer – Kalbid forces under Al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi (an aristocratic member of the ruling Fatimid Caliphate) sail from Sicily and invade Byzantine Calabria. He attacks several towns, including Gerace and Cassono.

Births

 * Adelaide of Aquitaine, French queen consort (or 945)
 * Adela of Hamaland, Frankish countess and regent (d. 1021)
 * Fakhr al-Dawla, emir of Gurgan and Tabaristan (d. 997)
 * Sa'd al-Dawla, Hamdanid emir of Aleppo (d. 991)
 * Song, Chinese empress consort (d. 995)

Deaths

 * June 15 – Murong Yanchao, Chinese general
 * July 17 – Wu Hanyue, Chinese noblewoman (b. 913)
 * September 6 – Suzaku, emperor of Japan (b. 923)
 * September 10 – Gao Xingzhou, Chinese general (b. 885)
 * December 17 – Hugh the Black, duke of Burgundy
 * date unknown
 * Alan II (Wrybeard), duke of Brittany
 * Constantine II, king of Alba (Scotland)
 * Li Jianxun, Chinese official and chancellor
 * Mansur ibn Qara-Tegin, Samanid governor

title: 952


text:
926

Year 926 (CMXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Spring – The Italian nobles turn against King Rudolph II of Burgundy and request that Hugh of Provence, the effective ruler of Lower Burgundy, be elected as king of Italy. Rudolph's father-in-law Duke Burchard II of Swabia is ambushed and killed near Novara, by the henchmen of Archbishop Lambert of Milan. Rudolph, disillusioned by the news, returns to Burgundy to protect himself. Hugh has himself crowned King of Italy. and appoints Giselbert I as count palatine of Bergamo (Northern Italy).
 * Battle of the Bosnian Highlands: Bulgarian forces under Duke Alogobotur are ambushed and defeated by a Croatian army of King Tomislav, in the mountainous area of Eastern Bosnia. Tsar Simeon I meets his first defeat against Croatia, but overruns the Western Balkans several times.
 * The Hungarians besiege Augsburg in Bavaria, then conquer the monastery of St. Gallen (modern Switzerland). After an unsuccessful battle with the locals, they burn the suburbs of Konstanz, then they cross westwards and defeat a Frankish army led by Duke Liutfred of Alsace.

Britain

 * King Æthelstan of Wessex and Mercia annexes Northumbria, and forces Wales and Strathclyde to accept his sovereignty along with the Picts and the Scots (approximate date).

Asia

 * May 15 – Emperor Zhuang Zong is killed during an officer's rebellion led by Guo Congqian at the old Tang capital of Luoyang. He is succeeded by his adoptive brother Li Siyuan (Ming Zong) as ruler of Later Tang. Li sends Yao Kun, as an emissary, to create a friendly relationship with the Khitan Empire.
 * September 6 – Emperor Taizu dies after a 10-year reign. He is succeeded by his second son Tai Zong (Yaogu) as ruler of the Chinese Liao Dynasty. Taizu's eldest son Yelü Bei (designated heir apparent) becomes ruler of the Dongdan Kingdom (former Balhae), a puppet state of the Khitan Empire.

Religion

 * Pope John X allies himself with Hugh of Provence provoking the ire of Marozia, daughter of the Roman consul Theophylact I, who is married to Hugh's rival Guy of Tuscany.

Births

 * July 14 – Murakami, emperor of Japan (d. 967)
 * Gao Huaide, Chinese general (approximate date)
 * Liu Jun, emperor of Northern Han (d. 968)
 * Ordoño III, king of León (approximate date)
 * Ordoño IV, king of León (approximate date)
 * Phạm Thị Trân, Vietnamese opera singer and Mandarin (d. 976)

Deaths

 * January 8 – Athelm, archbishop of Canterbury
 * March 9 – Zhu Youqian, Chinese warlord
 * April 29 – Burchard II, duke of Swabia
 * May 15 – Zhuang Zong, emperor of Later Tang (b. 885)
 * May 26 – Yuan Xingqin, Chinese general
 * May 28
 * Kong Qian, official of Later Tang
 * Li Jiji, prince of Later Tang
 * September 6 – Abaoji (Taizu), emperor of the Khitan Empire
 * December 12, William II, duke of Aquitaine
 * Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Khaqani, Abbasid vizier (or 927)
 * Alogobotur, Bulgarian nobleman (approximate date)
 * Ero Fernández, Galician magnate (approximate date)
 * Guo Chongtao, general of Later Tang
 * Jin Feishan, empress of Former Shu
 * Kang Yanxiao, Chinese general
 * Liu, empress and wife of Zhuang Zong
 * Pelagius of Córdoba, Christian martyr
 * Wang Zongyan, emperor of Former Shu (b. 899)
 * Wiborada, Swabian anchoress and martyr
 * Xu, empress dowager of Former Shu
 * Zhang Quanyi, Chinese warlord (b. 852)

title: 926


text:
870

Year 870 (DCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 870th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 870th year of the 1st millennium, the 70th year of the 9th century, and the 1st year of the 870s decade.

Europe

 * August 8 – Treaty of Meerssen: King Louis the German forces his half-brother Charles the Bald to accept a peace treaty, which partitions the Middle Frankish Kingdom into two larger east and west divisions. Louis receives most of Austrasia (which evolves into the Kingdom of Germany), and Charles receives territory in Lower Burgundy (which evolves into the Kingdom of France). However, large parts of the Frisian coast are under Viking control.
 * Charles the Bald marries Richilde of Provence, after the death of his first wife, Ermentrude of Orleans. He intends to secure his rule in Lotharingia through the powerful Bosonid family and the connection to Teutberga, widow-queen of Lothair II.
 * Rastislav, ruler (knyaz) of Great Moravia, dies in prison after he is condemned to death for treason, by Louis the German. He is succeeded by his nephew Svatopluk I, who becomes a vassal of the East Frankish Kingdom.
 * Bořivoj I, duke of Bohemia, makes Levý Hradec (modern Czech Republic) his residence. Around this time Prague Castle is founded (approximate date).
 * Wilfred the Hairy, a Frankish nobleman, becomes count of Urgell and Cerdanya (modern-day Catalonia).

Britain

 * Autumn – The Great Heathen Army, led by Ivar the Boneless and Ubba, invades East Anglia and plunders Peterborough. King Edmund the Martyr is captured, tortured, beaten and used for archery practice (or 869).
 * The Danes, led by Ivar the Boneless and King Olaf of the Dublin Vikings, besiege Dumbarton in Scotland, the capital of King Artgal of Stratchlyde. After a siege of four months, the citadel is captured and destroyed.
 * The Danes, led by Halfdan Ragnarsson and Bagsecg, invade Wessex and take the royal estate at Reading (Berkshire), which Halfdan makes his headquarters. A naval Viking contingent sails up the Thames River.
 * December 31 – Battle of Englefield: The Vikings clash with ealdorman Æthelwulf of Berkshire. The invaders are driven back to Reading; many of the Danes (including one of the earls named Sidrac) are killed.

Abbasid Caliphate

 * January 29 – Anarchy at Samarra: The rebel Salih ibn Wasif is hunted down and killed in Abbasid Samarra by troops of Musa ibn Bugha al-Kabir.
 * June 21 – Caliph Al-Muhtadi is deposed and killed by the Turks, after a brief reign. He is succeeded by Al-Mu'tamid (son of the late Al-Mutawakkil) as ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate, who moves his court to Baghdad. End of the Anarchy at Samarra.
 * Byzantine–Arab War: A Muslim expeditionary force, led by Halaf al-Hadim, Arab governor of Sicily, conquers Malta. He is welcomed by the local Christian inhabitants as liberator of the agonizing Byzantine yoke. The Muslims sign a treaty with the Christians to live in peace after liberating the island from the Byzantines.
 * The Zanj Rebellion: The Zanj (black slaves from East Africa) capture the Abbasid seaport of Al-Ubdullah at the Persian Gulf, and cut off communications with Basra (modern Iraq).

Religion

 * February 28 – The Fourth Council of Constantinople ends. The Bulgarians are granted an autocephalous archbishopric. with its seat in the capital of Pliska.

Births

 * Æthelflæd, lady ruler of Mercia (d. 918)
 * Alexander III, Byzantine emperor (d. 913)
 * Bernard, illegitimate son of Charles the Fat (d. 891)
 * Ebalus, duke of Aquitaine (approximate date)
 * Ermengol, Frankish nobleman (d. 937)
 * Fulk I, Frankish nobleman (approximate date)
 * Lde-dpal-hkhor-btsan, Indian ruler (approximate date)
 * Pavle, prince of Serbia (approximate date)
 * Petar, prince of Serbia (approximate date)
 * Romanos I, Byzantine emperor (d. 948)
 * Sunifred II, count of Urgell (approximate date)
 * Sunyer, count of Barcelona (approximate date)
 * Theodora, Roman politician (approximate date)
 * Wang Dingbao, Chinese chancellor (d. 941)
 * Zhu Yanshou, Chinese governor (d. 903)
 * Zwentibold, king of Lotharingia (d. 900)

Deaths

 * January 29 – Salih ibn Wasif, Muslim general
 * February 4 – Ceolnoth, archbishop of Canterbury
 * April 2 – Æbbe the Younger, Frankish abbess
 * June 21 – Al-Muhtadi, Muslim caliph
 * September 1 – Muhammad al-Bukhari, Persian scholar (b. 810)
 * November 20 – Edmund the Martyr, king of East Anglia (or 869)
 * December 4 – Suairlech ind Eidnén mac Ciaráin, Irish bishop
 * December 27 – Aeneas of Paris, Frankish bishop
 * Adarnase II, Georgian Bagratid prince (approximate date)
 * Al-Harith ibn Sima al-Sharabi, Muslim governor
 * Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar, Muslim historian (b. 788)
 * Caesar of Naples ("the Brave"), Italian admiral
 * Gregory III, co-regent and duke of Naples
 * He Quanhao, general of the Tang Dynasty (b. 839)
 * Neot, English monk and saint (approximate date)
 * Rastislav, ruler (knyaz) of Great Moravia
 * Ratramnus, Frankish monk and abbot (approximate date)
 * Wen Tingyun, Chinese poet and lyricist (b. 812)

title: 870


text:
873

Year 873 (DCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Carloman, son of King Charles the Bald, is hauled before a secular court and condemned to death – for plotting against his father. He is blinded, but avoids imprisonment by escaping to the East Frankish Kingdom, where his uncle, Louis the German, gives him protection.
 * Al-Andalus: The city of Toledo (modern Spain) rises up for a second time against Umayyad rule, due to ethnic tensions over two years.

Britain

 * The Danish Great Heathen Army, led by the Viking leaders Halfdan and Guthrum, attack Mercia and capture the royal centre at Repton (Derbyshire). The Vikings establish an encampment with a U-shape ditch, on the south bank of the River Trent and spend the winter there.

Abbasid Caliphate

 * Azugitin, Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tamid appointed Azugitin as governor of Mosul with deputies.
 * Muhammad ibn Ali al-Armani, was killed at the Caliphate - Byzantine border in 873.
 * Muhammad ibn Tahir, Muslim governor of Khorasan, is overthrown by the Saffarids, led by Ya'qub ibn al-Layth, who conquer the capital, Nishapur. Khorasan is annexed to their own empire in eastern Persia. The Tahirid Dynasty falls.

China

 * August 15 – Emperor Yi Zong (Li Cuī) dies after a 13-year reign. He is succeeded by his 11-year-old son Xi Zong, as ruler of the Tang Dynasty. During his reign, a widespread failure of the agricultural harvest leads to famine (which causes people to resort to cannibalism) and agrarian rebellions.

Births

 * Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah, was the founder of the Isma'ili Fatimid Empire, the only major Shi'a caliphate in the 10th century history, and the eleventh Imam of the Isma'ili faith (d. 934)
 * Abu Yazid, Kharijite Berber leader (d. 947)
 * Ahmad al-Muhajir, Muslim imam (d. 956)
 * Al-Tabarani, Muslim hadith scholar (d. 970)
 * Fujiwara no Sadakata, Japanese poet (d. 932)
 * Ordoño II, king of Galicia and León (d. 924)

Deaths

 * July 8 – Gunther, archbishop of Cologne
 * August 1 – Thachulf, duke of Thuringia
 * August 15 – Yi Zong, emperor of the Tang Dynasty (b. 833)
 * Al-Kindi, Muslim philosopher and polymath
 * Du Cong, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty (b. 794)
 * Ecgberht I, king of Northumbria
 * Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Muslim scholar and physician (b. 809)
 * Ivar the Boneless, Viking leader (approximate date)
 * John III, Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch
 * Kang Chengxun, general of the Tang Dynasty
 * Lethlobar mac Loingsig, king of Ulaid (Ireland)
 * Malik ibn Tawk, Muslim governor
 * Muhammad ibn Ali al-Armani, Muslim general
 * Rodrigo, Asturian nobleman
 * Rodulf Haraldsson, Viking leader
 * Shinshō, Japanese Buddhist monk (b. 797)
 * Vímara Peres, Asturian nobleman
 * Wei Baoheng, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty

title: 873


text:
874

Year 874 (DCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Salomon, duke ('king') of Brittany, is murdered by a faction which includes his son-in-law Pascweten and Gurvand, son-in-law of late ruler Erispoe. After Salomon's death they divide the country, and Pascweten and Gurvand co-rule Brittany.
 * Svatopluk I, ruler (knyaz) of Great Moravia, concludes a peace treaty at Forchheim (Northern Bavaria). He is able to expand his territories outside the Frankish sphere, and subjugates the Vistulans.
 * Ingólfr Arnarson arrives from Norway, as the first permanent Viking settler in Iceland. He builds his homestead and founds Reykjavík. The settlement of Iceland begins (approximate date).

Britain

 * The Danish Vikings (from their base at Repton) drive King Burgred of Mercia into exile, and sack Tamworth. They conquer his kingdom and install his political opponent, Ceolwulf II, as sub-king.
 * Autumn – The Great Heathen Army splits into two bands; Halfdan returns with his forces to Northumbria, along with his brother Ubba, where he establishes a new base on the River Tyne.
 * Amlaíb Conung, the first Norse 'king' of Dublin, is killed in Scotland, during a campaign against his rival Constantin I (approximate date).
 * November – Frost begins in Scotland, and lasts until April 875.

China

 * Huang Chao, a salt privateer, joins forces with Wang Xianzhi to raise a rebel army at Changyuan (modern Xinxiang). The uprising further weakens the Tang dynasty, which is already weakened by natural disasters such as severe droughts and floods.

Religion

 * March 13 – The remains of Saint Nikephorus I are interred in the Church of the Holy Apostles, in Constantinople.
 * The monastery of Sevanavank, located on the shore of Lake Sevan (Armenia), is founded.
 * Muhammad al-Mahdi, the child of the eleventh Shi'i Twelver Imam Hasan al-Askari, begins his Imamate. His first period of occultation, known as the Minor Occultation, also begins (ends 941 CE).

Births

 * May 10 – Meng Zhixiang, general of Later Tang (d. 934)
 * Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, Muslim scholar (d. 936)
 * Edward the Elder, king of Wessex (approximate date)
 * Constantine II, king of Scotland (approximate date)
 * Liu Yin, governor (jiedushi) of Southern Han (d. 911)
 * Lothar II, Frankish nobleman (d. 929)
 * Ota, Frankish queen and Holy Roman Empress (approximate date)
 * Wang Shifan, Chinese warlord (d. 908)

Deaths

 * January 4 – Hasan al-Askari, 11th Shia Imam (b. 846)
 * August 15 – Altfrid, bishop of Hildesheim
 * December 16 – Ado, archbishop of Vienne
 * Amlaíb Conung, Viking leader (approximate date)
 * Bayazid Bastami, Persian Sufi (approximate date)
 * Han Yunzhong, general of the Tang dynasty (b. 814)
 * Liu Zhan, chancellor of the Tang dynasty
 * Lu Yan, chancellor of the Tang dynasty (b. 829)
 * Pei Tan, chancellor of the Tang dynasty
 * Salomon, duke ('king') of Brittany
 * Unruoch III, margrave of Friuli

title: 874


text:
877

Year 877 (DCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Summer – King Charles II ("the Bald") sets out for Italy, accompanied by his wife Richilde and a number of his chief vassals. He gives orders for an expedition, but Duke Boso (his brother-in-law) refuses to join the army. At the same time Carloman, son of Louis the German, has crossed the Alps into eastern Lombardy at the head of a Frankish army. Charles sends Richilde back to Gaul, for the coronation as empress of the Holy Roman Empire, and with orders for reinforcements. However, the Frankish aristocracy is more concerned with the attacks by the Vikings in their country, than the war with the Saracens in southern Italy. Pope John VIII receives Charles at Vercelli, where he requests help against the attacks by the Saracens in southern Italy. He forms an alliance with the Italian states at Traetto.
 * August – Siege of Syracuse: The Aghlabids begin raiding the Byzantine territories, in the east of the island of Sicily. They besiege Syracuse, and blockade the fortress city by sea and land.
 * October 6 – Charles II dies while crossing the pass of Mont Cenis at Brides-les-Bains, en route back to Gaul. He is succeeded by his son Louis the Stammerer, king of Aquitaine, who becomes ruler of the West Frankish Kingdom. Carloman, forced by an epidemic which breaks out in his army, returns to Germany. After the death of his father, Louis makes plans to receive the oath of fidelity from his subjects, but he learns that the magnates are refusing him obedience and rallying around Boso. The rebels are supported by his stepmother Richilda, and, as a sign of their displeasure, ravage the country. Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, intercedes and the rebels agree to a settlement. The magnates, whose rights Louis promises to recognize, all make their submissions.
 * December 8 – Louis the Stammerer is crowned by Hincmar as king (not emperor) of the West Frankish Kingdom, in the church of Compiègne. The imperial throne will remain vacant until 881.

Britain

 * Autumn – King Alfred the Great raises a large force, and marches on the Viking camp at the city of Exeter. His army besieges the Great Summer Army, led by Guthrum, and forces the Vikings to surrender. They flee north to Gloucester, and settle in the Five Boroughs (modern East Midlands).
 * Battle of Strangford Lough: King Halfdan I leaves for Ireland, in an attempt to claim the Kingdom of Dublin from his rival Bárid mac Ímair. He is killed in battle at Strangford Lough, and a probable interregnum follows in York.
 * Ceolwulf II is installed as puppet king of Mercia. The west of the kingdom comes under Ceolwulf's rule, while in the east the Five Boroughs begin as fortified Danish burhs.
 * The Vikings invade Wales once more, and King Rhodri ap Merfyn ("the Great") of Gwynedd, Powys and Seisyllwg is forced to flee to Ireland (approximate date).
 * King Constantin I is killed fighting Viking raiders, at the "Black Cave" in Fife. He is succeeded by his brother Áed mac Cináeda as ruler of Alba (Scotland).

Asia

 * King Jayavarman III dies after a 42-year reign. He is succeeded by his cousin Indravarman I, as ruler of the Khmer Empire (modern Cambodia).

Religion

 * October 23 – Photius I is reinstated as patriarch of Constantinople, after the death of Ignatius.

Births

 * January 31 – Wang Kon, founder of Goryeo (d. 943)
 * September 10 – Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria (d. 940)
 * Ælfthryth, English princess and countess of Flanders (d. 929)
 * Fujiwara no Kanesuke, Japanese nobleman (d. 933)
 * Liu, Chinese empress of Qi (d. 943)
 * Luo Shaowei, Chinese warlord (d. 910)
 * Pi Guangye, Chinese chancellor (d. 943)
 * Rudesind I, bishop of Mondoñedo (d. 907)
 * Wang Rong, Chinese warlord (d. 921)

Deaths

 * August 5 – Ubayd Allah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan, Abbasid vizier
 * October 6 – Charles the Bald, Holy Roman emperor (b. 823)
 * October 23 – Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople
 * Andrew the Scot, Irish archdeacon (approximate date)
 * Bernard II, Frankish nobleman (approximate date)
 * Carloman, Frankish abbot (approximate date)
 * Constantine I, king of Alba (Scotland)
 * Engelram, Frankish chamberlain
 * Gérard II, Frankish nobleman (or 879)
 * Halfdan Ragnarsson, Viking leader and 'king' of Northumbria
 * Jayavarman III, king of the Khmer Empire (Cambodia)
 * Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Irish theologian (approximate date)
 * Musa ibn Bugha al-Kabir, Abbasid general
 * Ōe no Otondo, Japanese scholar (b. 811)
 * Savaric I, bishop of Mondoñedo (b. 866)
 * Wang Ying, Chinese rebel leader

title: 877


text:
878

Year 878 (DCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * March–April – Wilfred the Hairy (ruler of the Catalan counties) with other supporters of Louis the Stammerer (King of West Francia) defeat noble supporters of the rebel Bernard of Gothia.
 * September 11 – Bernard of Gothia is dispossessed of his titles by Louis.

Britain

 * January 6 – Battle of Chippenham: King Alfred the Great of Wessex is surprised by a Viking attack at Chippenham in Wiltshire. He is forced to flee, with his retinue, into the Somerset Levels for safety. From his headquarters at Athelney, Alfred wages guerrilla warfare against the Vikings.
 * May – Battle of Edington: Supported by all the levies of Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire, Alfred the Great decisively defeats the main body of Danish Vikings, led by King Guthrum, at modern-day Edington, Wiltshire (near Bratton Castle).
 * Treaty of Wedmore: Guthrum agrees to a peace treaty and is baptised, taking the name of Aethelstan. England is divided between Wessex in the south, and the Vikings in the Danelaw up north. Guthrum returns to East Anglia.
 * Battle of Cynwit: Viking raiders, led by Ubba Ragnarsson, land on the coast at Combwich with 23 ships, and besiege a hillfort (called Cynwit) at Cannington, Somerset. Ealdorman Odda launches a surprise attack, and kills Ubba in battle.
 * King Rhodri the Great of Gwynedd, Powys and Seisyllwg, returns to his kingdoms, but is killed fighting the Mercians of King Ceolwulf II. His kingdoms are divided amongst his three sons: Anarawd, Merfyn and Cadell.
 * King Áed mac Cináeda of Scotland is killed in battle, by his rival Giric mac Dúngal. Giric becomes king of the Picts, and allies himself with Eochaid (grandson of Kenneth I). The two rule all of Alba (Scotland) together as joint-kings.

Arabian Empire

 * May 21 – Siege of Syracuse: The Aghlabids capture the Byzantine fortress city of Syracuse, after a nine-month siege. Most of the population is massacred by the Arabs.
 * Zanj Rebellion: The Zanj (black slaves from East Africa) in Mesopotamia seize Wasit (modern Iraq), and establish a presence in the Persian province of Khuzestan.
 * Reconquista: King Alfonso III of Asturias conquers the city of Coimbra (modern Portugal), which is under the Umayyad Caliphate.

Religion

 * April 16 – The city of Belgrade is first mentioned in a papal letter to Boris I, ruler (khan) of the Bulgarian Empire.
 * September 7 – Pope John VIII crowns Louis the Stammerer as king of the West Frankish Kingdom, in the cathedral at Troyes.
 * Poorna, the illegitimate grand-daughter of Shankara, unifies all of his teaching in the Upadeśasāhasrī.
 * The excommunication of Formosus is lifted, after he has promised never to return to Rome. He will become Pope in 891.

Births

 * Bardas Phokas the Elder, Byzantine general (d. 968)
 * Ermentrude of France, daughter of Louis the Stammerer (or 875)
 * Krishna II, king of Rashtrakuta (India) (d. 914)
 * Miró II of Cerdanya, Frankish nobleman (approximate date)
 * Odo of Cluny, Frankish abbot (approximate date)

Deaths

 * Abu Zur'a al-Razi, Muslim scholar
 * Áed mac Cináeda, king of Alba (Scotland)
 * Adelchis, prince of Benevento
 * Amoghavarsha I, king of Rashtrakuta (b. 800)
 * Anastasius Bibliothecarius, antipope of Rome (approximate date)
 * Gauzfrid, Count of Maine, Frankish nobleman
 * Iljko, duke (knyaz) of Croatia
 * Rhodri the Great, king of Wales
 * Run of Alt Clut, king of Strathclyde (approximate date)
 * Ubba Ragnarsson, Viking chieftain
 * Wang Xianzhi, Chinese rebel leader

title: 878


text:
879

Year 879 (DCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * April 10 – King Louis the Stammerer dies at Compiègne, after a reign of 18 months. He is succeeded by his two sons, Louis III and Carloman II. They are crowned at Ferrières Abbey, and rule the West Frankish Kingdom together as joint-kings.
 * Baldwin I ("Iron Arm") dies, after 15 years as margrave of Flanders. He is buried in the Abbey of Saint Bertin (near Saint-Omer), and is succeeded by his son Baldwin II.
 * Oleg, brother-in-law of the Varangian ruler Rurik, is entrusted to take care of his kingdom Novgorod after his death. He becomes regent of his son Igor.
 * King Charles the Fat becomes ruler of the Kingdom of Italy, after the abdication of his brother Carloman of Bavaria, who has been incapacitated by a stroke.

Britain

 * King Alfred the Great establishes a series of fortified villages (or burhs) to protect Wessex against Viking raids. He creates a standing army to defend the strategic ports, and builds a network of well-maintained army roads (known as herepaths).
 * Viking leader Guthrum becomes 'king' of East Anglia. A Viking fleet sails up the River Thames, and builds a camp at Fulham (near London) to prepare for an invasion of France.

Arabian Empire

 * Zanj Rebellion: The Abbasid Caliphate concentrates its efforts against the Zanj rebels in Mesopotamia. The Abbasid general Al-Mu'tadid leads an expeditionary force (10,000 men) to suppress the revolt. This marks the turning-point of the war.

Asia

 * Guangzhou Massacre: The Chinese rebel leader Huang Chao besieges the seaport in Guangzhou, and slaughters many of its inhabitants and foreign merchants. According to sources, the death toll ranges from 120,000 to 200,000 foreigners.

Religion

 * Fourth Council of Constantinople: Emperor Basil I calls for a synod, and reinstates Photius I as patriarch of Constantinople.
 * June 7 – Pope John VIII recognizes the Duchy of Croatia, under Duke (knyaz) Branimir, as an independent state.
 * Wilfred the Hairy, count of Barcelona, founds the Benedictine monastery at Ripoll, in Catalonia (Spain).

Births

 * September 17 – Charles the Simple, king of the West Frankish Kingdom (d. 929)
 * October 19 – Yingtian, empress of the Khitan Liao Dynasty (d. 953)

Deaths

 * April 10 – Louis the Stammerer, king of the West Frankish Kingdom (b. 846)
 * April 18 – Seishi, empress of Japan (b. 810)
 * June 5 – Ya'qub ibn al-Layth, founder of the Saffarid Dynasty (b. 840)
 * Abi'l-Saj Devdad, Sogdian prince
 * Áed Findliath, high king of Ireland
 * Ahmad ibn al-Khasib al-Jarjara'i, Muslim vizier
 * Ansegisus, archbishop of Sens (or 883)
 * Baldwin I, margrave of Flanders
 * Ceolwulf II, king of Mercia (approximate date)
 * Cormac mac Ciaran, Irish abbot
 * Gebhard, Frankish nobleman
 * Gérard II, Frankish nobleman (or 877)
 * Hincmar, Frankish bishop
 * Landulf II, bishop and count of Capua
 * Li Wei, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
 * Rurik, prince of Novgorod
 * Sulayman ibn Abdallah, Muslim governor
 * Suppo II, duke of Spoleto (approximate date)
 * Zdeslav, duke (knyaz) of Croatia

title: 879


text:
1370s

The 1370s was a decade of the Julian Calendar which began on January 1, 1370, and ended on December 31, 1379.

title: 1370s


text:
1340s

The 1340s was a decade that began on 1 January 1340 and ended on 31 December 1349. It was in the midst of a period in human history often referred to as the Late Middle Ages in the Old World and the pre-Columbian era in the New World.

In Asia, the Mongol Empire and its breakaway states were in a state of gradual decline. The Ilkhanate had already fragmented into several political territories and factions struggling to place their puppet leaders over the shell of an old state; the Chagatai Khanate was undermined by religious unrest and fell to rebellion. The Black Plague swept through the Kipchak Khanate in 1346, and also affected the Genoese colonies under Mongol siege, thence spreading into Europe. The Yuan dynasty in China was struck by a series of disasters, including frequent flooding, widespread banditry, fires in urban areas, declining grain harvest, increased civil unrest and local rebellion – the seeds of resistance that would lead to its downfall. Southeast Asia remained free from Mongol power; two major regional powers, the Tran dynasty and Majapahit thrived in the 1340s, after each defeated Mongol attacks in the 1280s and 1290s respectively.

In Europe, the decade continued the period of gradual economic decline, often mistitled the "depression" of the 1340s. This followed the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the start of the Little Ice Age in the 14th century, and affected most of Western Europe, with the exception of a few Italian city-states. The state increasingly interfered in the socio-economic status of its commoners in the decade. Europe entered a period which saw almost continuous war for the next century. The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) between France and England continued, and Edward III of England led an invasion resulting in notable victories at the Battles of Sluys and Crécy in 1340 and 1346 respectively. The medieval crusading spirit continued in Spain, with a Castilian victory at the Battle of Río Salado and the recommencement of the Reconquista in 1340; and in the Baltic, with Swedish King Magnus Eriksson's Northern Crusades against Novgorod in 1347–1348. In the east, the Byzantine Empire, then under the Palaiologoi, saw the disastrous Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347. Meanwhile, a crisis of confidence in the Florentine banks caused many of them to collapse between 1341 and 1346. The Black Plague which struck Europe in 1348 wiped out a full third of the population by the end of the decade.

In Africa, the two great empires were the Christian Ethiopian Empire in the east and the Muslim Mali Empire in the west. Amda Seyon I, who had brought Ethiopia to its height, was succeeded in 1344 by Newaya Krestos, who continued to foster trade in East Africa. Mansa Suleyman assumed office in the Mali Empire in 1341, and similarly took steep measures to reform Mali's finances. Songhai, which had emerged in this decade, was conquered by Mali for the time being. In the Americas, cities of the Mississippian culture such as Cahokia, Kincaid and Moundville went into an accelerated state of decline in this decade. Factors such as depletion of resources, climatic change, war, disease, social unrest and declining political and economic power have been suggested, although the sites were not fully abandoned until the 15th century. Central America saw the decayed Maya civilization ruled from their capital Mayapan in the Yucatán Peninsula, while the Mexicas from their capital city of Tenochtitlan were on the rise.

Mongol decline
In the Kipchak Khanate, Özbeg Khan of the Golden Horde died in 1341, ending what Muslim chroniclers considered a golden age. His elder son Tinibeg ruled for a year or two, before being dethroned and killed at the hands of his younger brother Janibeg in 1342. Janibeg's fifteen-year reign was notable for the appearance and rapid transmission of the Black Plague along the trade routes from inner Asia in this decade. The nation "struggled into new life" after the plague had passed in the following decade.

The Chagatai Khanate was being split by religious dissensions between the traditionalist Mongol adherents of the Yasa and the Mongol and Turkish converts to Islam. The eastern half of Chagatai seceded under the conservative Mongol element when Tughluk Temür seized power in Moghulistan around 1345. The Khanate continued in Transoxiana, but the Chatagai khans became the puppets of the now enthusiastically Muslim Turkish amirs, and the amir Kazghan overthrew the Khan Kazan in 1347.

In the Persian Ilkhanate, the Mongol House of Hülegü had been extinguished in the male line with the death of Il-Khan Abu Sa'id in 1335,. As JJ Saunders wrote, "A crowd of competitors for the vacant throne started up, but of some history has scarcely condescended to record their names, much less their actions, and an interval of more than thirty years was filled with confused political struggles". Numerous claimants were set up in the 1330s; by 1339, the two rivals were Jahan Temür set up by Shaik Hasan-i Buzurg, and Suleiman Khan supported by Shaik Hasan-i Kuchak. In June 1340, the two Hasans and their rival khans met in battle on the Jaghatu; "Hasan-i Buzurg was defeated and fled to Baghdad, where he deposed Jahan-Temür and himself assumed sovereignty as the founder of the Jalayir dynasty". The deposition of Jahan-Temür can be regarded as the final dissolution of the Ilkhanate. Although his rival retained nominal power among the Chobanids for another year or two, he in turn was deposed by Hasan-i Kuchak's brother and similarly disappears into obscurity. "So insignificant had these figureheads become", according to JA Boyle, "that we are not even informed as to the time and manner of their death". Suleiman was replaced as puppet by Anushirvan, "in whose name his Chobanid masters continued to strike coin until 1353".

China
In China, the Mongol Yuan dynasty was in a gradual state of decline, due to complex and longstanding problems such as the "endemic tensions among its ruling elites". Toghon Temür had been installed as emperor at age thirteen in 1333, and was to reign as the last Yuan emperor until 1368. In March 1340, the Yuan chancellor, Bayan of the Merkid, was removed in a carefully orchestrated coup, and replaced by his nephew Toqto'a. In Bayan's overthrow by the younger generation, the movement to restore the status quo from reign of Kublai Khan effectively died. Bayan's purges were called off; his supporters dismissed; positions he had closed to the Chinese were reopened; the meritocratic system of examinations for official service was restored. By this time, Temür had just begun to participate in the formal functions of state, and assisted in the "anti-Bayan coup": he issued a posthumous denunciation of his uncle Tugh Temür; he exiled the grand empress dowager Budashiri and his cousin El Tegüs; and entrusted the upbringing of his infant son Ayushiridara to Toghto's household.

Toghto's first term exhibited a fresh new spirit which took a predominantly centralist approach to political solutions. He directed an unsuccessful project to connect the imperial capital to the sea and the Shanxi foothills by water; he was more successful in his attempt to organise funds for the completion of the official histories of the Liao, Qin and Song dynasties. In June 1344, however, he tendered his resignation following a series of local rebellions that had broken out against the Yuan in scattered areas of China.

Toghto's replacement as chancellor was Berke Bukha, an effective provincial administrator who took the opposite, decentralised approach to Toghto. Bukha had learned firsthand from the great Hangzhou fire of 1341 that central regulations had to be violated to provide immediate and effective relief. Accordingly, he promoted able men to local positions and gave them discretionary authority to handle relief and other problems. Similarly, he granted local military garrisons blanket authorisation to prevent the spread of banditry. In 1345, Bukha's administration sent out twelve investigation teams to visit each part of China, correct abuses, and "create benefits and remove harms" for the people.

Bukha's approach failed to arrest the mounting troubles of Yuan China in the 1340s, however. The central government was faced with chronic revenue shortfalls. Maritime grain shipments — vital for the inhabitants of the imperial capital — had seriously declined from a peak of 3.34 million bushels in 1329 to 2.6 million in 1342. From 1348 on, they continued only when permitted by a major piratical operation led by Fang Kuo-chen and his brothers, which the authorities were unable to suppress. Additionally, the Yellow River was repeatedly swelled by long rains, breaching its dykes and flooding the surrounding areas. When the river finally began shifting its course, it caused "widespread havoc and ruin". In 1349, the emperor recalled Toghto to office for a second term. With high enthusiasm and strong belief from his partisans that the problems were soluble, he began a radical process of recentralisation and heavy restriction of regional and local initiative in the following decade.

India
The 1340s saw the founding of the Bahmani Kingdom in central India. Wars between the Muslims of the north and the southern Hindus of the Vijayanagara Empire occurred in this period. In 1341, the Sultan of Delhi chose Ibn Battuta to lead a diplomatic mission to China.

Culture, religion and philosophy
Pope Benedict XII had despatched the Italian Franciscan John of Marignolli in 1339, who travelled safely through the Yuan territories of Kipchak and Chagatai Khanate during the Pax Mongolica and reached the imperial capital of Ta-tu in 1342. He was received in an audience with Toghon Temür, to whom he presented some large European horses — their bulk, according to JJ Saunders, "surprised Chinese and Mongols alike, accustomed as they were to the small, wiry animals of the steppes". Marignolli stayed in China for five years, departing by ship in 1347 and returning to Avignon in 1353.

Military technology

 * The poet Zhang Xian wrote the Iron Cannon Affair in 1341, detailing the destructive use of gunpowder and the cannon.

War and decline in Western Europe
In Europe, the decade continued the period of gradual economic decline, which followed the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the start of the Little Ice Age in the 1300s. This secular decline, often mistitled a "depression", affected most of Western Europe, with the exception of a few Italian city-states. It was the result of factors which had begun earlier in the century, the main cause being the breaking of the balance between Church and state. The more dominant state increasingly interfered in the social and economic life of late medieval Europe, imposing detrimental taxation and regulation. King Edward III of England faced a brief standoff with some dissident barons in 1341 — one of only two such isolated standoffs in his popular reign. Meanwhile, the role of the Parliament of England became more defined, with the House of Commons regularly petitioning Edward from about 1343 onward.

Europe entered a period which saw almost continuous war for the next century. Fighting took place in the Duchy of Brittany, "a country well suited to guerilla warfare", from 1342 to 1365 in the Breton War of Succession. The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) between France and England continued, and Edward III led an invasion resulting in a number of victories. One of the earlier English victories was at the naval Battle of Sluys in 1340, which annihilated the French fleet and gave the English control of the English Channel for several years. The initial campaigns were frustrating and expensive, so Edward altered his strategy to use English armies that were lightly supported but prepared to forage off the land. It successfully established English control over Brittany in 1342. Further armies were sent to Brittany and Gascony in 1345, and Edward himself crossed the Channel in 1346 with 10,000 men — an enormous army by contemporary standards. They plundered Caen, an important town in Normandy, and eventually began moving back toward the Channel.

In 1346, the Battle of Crecy became the first great land battle of the Hundred Years' War, and the most stunning victory of Edward's career. English longbowmen crippled the French knights for many years to come, allowing Edward to take the key Channel port of Calais in 1347. Meanwhile, public discontent caused the town of Lyon to riot in 1347. Importantly, the English campaign of the 1340s "brought the hegemony of high medieval France to a decisive close."

Central Europe
In the Holy Roman Empire, Ludwig the Bavarian was in conflict with the Avignon Papacy. Pope Clement VI influenced the German Prince-electors to elect Charles of Moravia as rival king to Ludwig. He was crowned in 1346 in Bonn. After the death of Emperor Ludwig in September 1347, Charles IV was recognised as King of Germany by all of the German princes.

In 1341, Margarete Maultasch, Countess of County of Tyrol, had expelled her husband John Henry of Bohemia. She then married Louis of Bavaria, a son of Ludwig, without an annulment of her previous marriage. The result was the excommunication of the couple.

Northern Europe
In 1340, a German law-code was drawn up by the Teutonic Knights for their long-settled Prussian district of Pomesania. The code defined two categories of people: the unfree, who came under peasant law (Gebauersrecht) and were consigned to the jurisdiction of their lords; and the freedmen. The latter group included peasants who had the right to demand trial by the written code and could not be sentenced to death in private courts. However, an appendix to the law-code also made it clear that the Old Prussian peasant converts were discriminated against by the Teutonic Knights, and were allowed remain "semi-pagan, uncouth and lawless". Such treatment shocked contemporary commentators such as Saint Bridget of Sweden.

The Danish monarchy had disintegrated in the 1330s, but was restored in 1340 by Valdemar IV after a long interregnum. In the Danish crusader state of Estonia, some 80% of the indigenous population was subject to immigrant lords, to whom they owed tithe and military duty. When the lords reacted to falling grain-prices by increasing the level of tithe, which led to the St. George's Night Uprising in 1343. On 23 April, the Estonians rose up and killed their masters — German sources give a figure of 18,000 dead as a result of the uprising, although this total is unlikely. The Danish government in Estonia was overthrown when a major group of vassals in Tallinn handed over castles to the Teutonic Order in 1344–1345. Beset by pressing problems at home and unable to break the monopoly of the Hanseatic League at sea, Valdemar decided to sell the territory to the master of the Teutonic Order for 10,000 marks. The final sale was approved by the king's Danish counsellors, and the shift of sovereignty took place on 1 November 1346.

In Sweden, the court was continually reminded of its religious duties by Bridget of Sweden, who was the king's cousin and beginning to win fame as a prophetess. Her primary aim was to reform and purify the upper class, and her posthumously complied Revelations contain thoughts on the Northern Crusades which must have been expressed in the 1344–1348 period. After King Magnus Eriksson had tried and failed to take possession of Denmark in the early 1340s, she advised him not to offend his people by raising taxes to fund wars against their co-religionists, but instead to raise taxes only for self-defence or in crusading against unbelievers. Therefore, after Magnus had at least temporarily resolved difficulties at home, he prepared for a crusade against the Russian Orthodox Novgorod. Envoys were sent to the Russians in 1347, and an army was assembled that included Danish and German auxiliaries, and the support of Henry of Rendsburg. The army set sail for the campaign in 1348.

Accordingly, there were political divisions in the Russian states in this decade. The southern territories of Novgorod had been subjugated by Prince Algirdas of Lithuania in 1346, and Simeon of Moscow had failed to intervene. The city was divided between competing boyar factions, and the lack of unity between Novgorod and her allies allowed for the success of Magnus' campaign of 1348. Pskov officially broke away from Novgorod that year; and Simeon was again delayed in helping against the Swedes, this time by business with his overlord, the Khan of the Golden Horde. Orekhov was taken by the Swedes, although it was to fall in 1349.

Eastern Europe

 * Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 within the Byzantine Empire
 * John III Comnenus becomes emperor of Trebizond (1342)
 * Guy de Lusignan becomes King Gosdantin II of Armenia (1342)
 * The Patriarchate of Antioch is transferred to Damascus under Ignatius II (1342)
 * Serbian expansion
 * In 1342, Louis I became King of Hungary.

Southern Europe
In Rome, the general despair brought on by the Plague and the absence of the Pope have been cited as possible causes for the rise of the Roman notary Cola di Rienzo: in 1347, he assumed the title of censor and claimed to restore the Roman Republic. He utilised popular rhetoric, and invited the men of Trastevere to sack the palaces of the fleeing Roman nobility. Cola tried to establish direct government with elections in the rione of the city, but he lacked the means to take the Castel Sant'Angelo and he was cut down by the Roman aristocracy in 1354.

There were several rulers of the Kingdoms of Spain in the 1340s. Alfonso XI the Just ruled until the end of the decade as King of Castile and León. Castile and León surrounded Granada by land, and Alfonso advanced the Christian Reconquista. In 1340, at the Battle of Río Salado, he won the first Castilian victory over the Moors for over a century, and crossed the straits to Algeciras. In 1345, he attacked Gibraltar, but was unable to conquer it.

By 1343, Aragon had acquired the Balearic Islands, and in 1344 Peter deposed James III of Majorca to become King of Majorca himself. Navarre was ruled by Philip III until 1343, his Capetian wife Joanna II until 1349, and finally Charles II the Bad ruled into the late 14th century. The Kingdom of Portugal was meanwhile ruled by Afonso IV, from 1325 until his death in 1357.

In 1341, Saluzzo sacked by Manfred V of Saluzzo. In 1342, Louis "the Child" became King of Sicily and Duke of Athens. An earthquake and tsunami of 1343 devastated the Maritime Republic of Amalfi.

Economic collapse and crisis
To finance the continuing wars of the 1340s, Edward III of England granted to a small group of merchants a monopoly on the export of wool. In return, they agreed to collect the "poundage", or wool tax, on his behalf. This included a tariff on the import of woolen cloth, which put out of business the Italian and foreign merchants that had dominated the wool export trade. The monopoly merchants went bankrupt in the following decade.

Edward also introduced three new gold coins in 1344: the florin, leopard, and helm. However, the gold content of these coins did not match their respective value of 6 shillings, 3 shillings, and 1 shilling and sixpence, so they had to be withdrawn and mostly melted down by August of that year.

In France, the king's personal expenditure on dowries, gratuities, the upkeep of the palace, his travels and his wardrobe, consumed the entirety of the royal income. Therefore, a monopoly on salt, an essential commodity, was established in 1341; monopolies in salt had already been established in Kingdom of Castile and Venice in the 1330s. The French salt tax or gabelle itself never amounted to more than 2%. Fouages were also levied in 1342 and 1349.

The Italian city states were booming at the start of the decade. In 1340, Francesco Balducci Pegolotti wrote his Practica della mercatura. Meanwhile, rulers such as the Neapolitan princes had begun withdrawing massive funds from Florentine banks. England found itself unable to repay its debts, and both factors resulted in a crisis of confidence in the Florentine banks The family-based banks and mercantile associations of Florence and Genoa generally kept only 25–30% of their capital in liquid assets, and between 1341 and 1346, many of the most important of the Florentine banks collapsed. — an "avalanche of bankruptcies", in the words of Robert Fossier. These were owned by the following banking families: the Acciaiuolis, the Bonaccorsis, the Cocchis, the Antellesis, the Corsinis, the Uzzanos, the Perendolis, the Peruzzis and the Bardis.

Social unrest
The situation in the towns remained delicate: while on one hand the trades were dominant, and Villani counted no fewer than 200 textile workshops in Florence around 1340, working conditions and entry restrictions imposed by the guilds created tensions with the unemployed and unskilled labourers. Strikes or grèves occurred in Ghent in 1337–1345 and in Florence in 1346. In 1349–1350, the fullers and weavers of Ghent and Liège massacred each other. The failures in the food supply in the regions of Provence and Lyon, in 1340 and 1348 respectively, affected contemporaries particularly harshly. This was not just because these generations were unused to them, but because they were accompanied by war and followed by epidemic in this decade.

The Black Plague
In 1340, the total population of Europe was 54 million; by 1450, it would be 37 million, a 31% drop in only a century. In addition to the earlier social and economic decline, the Black Plague is identified as the superficial cause, which struck Europe and wiped out a full third of the population in short space of 1348–1350. It has been described as "a pandemic of plagues such as the world had not seen since the sixth century and was not destined to see again till the 1890s." It was actually three related diseases: bubonic plague and septicaemic plague, carried by fleas hosted by the black rat, and pneumonic plague, the especially fast and lethal airborne variant. The few areas that escaped included Poland, Hungary, Rouergue in France, Liège in Belgium, and the county of Béarn in the Pyrenees. It has been suggested that these areas were spared due to the predominance of O-Blood type, which had only recently taken root in the heartlands of Europe, although this hypothesis has yet to be proven.

The pandemic, which began in central Asia, was first reported in Europe in the summer of 1346. The Genoese colony of Caffa in the Crimea was besieged by the Tartars, who catapulted plague-ridden corpses into the city. The defenders carried the disease back to Italy; in October 1347 it reached Messina in Sicily, in December a ship carried the plague into Marseille, and by January 1348 it was in Genoa. The plague then moved northward through France. According to the French monk Guillaume de Nangis:

"Victims were only ill for two or three days and died suddenly, their bodies almost sound… They had swellings in the armpits and groin, and the appearance of these swellings was an unmistakable sign of death… Soon, in many places, of every twenty inhabitants only two remained alive. The mortality was so great at the hospital of Paris that for a long time more than 500 bodies were carried off on wagons each day, to be buried at the cemetery of the Holy Innocents."The reasons for the plague's success are not yet entirely understood. Urban overcrowding, declining sanitary conditions and the "lively European trade in (rat-infested) grain" have been cited as causes of the plague's rapid transmission; while favourable climatic conditions and the summer months may also have aided its spread. In the summer of 1348 it reached England, arriving first at Melcombe Regis in Dorset. It had spread through the southwestern shires to London by winter. It peaked in the summer of 1349, when it was passed on into Germany and Austria, and in winter it was in Scotland, Scandinavia and Spain.

In general, towns were hit more severely than rural areas, the poor more than the rich, and the young and fit more than the old and infirm. Norman Davies generalises that "No pope, no kings were stricken." Hundreds died in each parish, although some figures may have been exaggerated. Norwich, a city that did not exceed 17,000, was reported as having lost 57,000. The Italian humanist Giovanni Boccaccio records a loss of 100,000 in Florence, exceeding the total population of the city. The figure was probably closer to 50,000. Regardless, modern studies make it clear that the plague's toll in this decade was heavy.

Heaviest hit were the clergy, who were brought into direct contact with plague victims. Guillaume de Nangis records that "some monks and friars, being braver, administered the sacraments", and that the sisters at the hospital of Paris, "fearless of death, carried out their task to the end with the most perfect gentleness and humility. These sisters were all wiped out by death…" In the dioceses of York and Lincoln, about 44% of the clergy perished, while nearly 50% died in the Exeter, Winchester, Norwich and Ely. In all, half of the English clergy may have died. In 14th century England, the Black Plague "served as a somber backdrop to a deepening economic crisis… and growing social tensions and religious restlessness." Villages were deserted, herds were untended, wool and grain markets were crippled and land values plummeted. The plague would strike periodically in subsequent decades. However, it is also suggested that in Europe in general, the Black Plague solved the economic recession, in that the reduction in population returned the supply of cash credit and money per capita to its pre-crisis level, laying the foundation for recovery. Wages rose, and the peasantry benefited from a more open, fluid society. [Note 1] At the end of the decade, the economic effects of the Black Plague "may well have been more purgative than toxic."

Architecture
A number of European building projects were completed in the 1340s, mainly consisting of cathedrals and universities. In 's-Hertogenbosch, construction was finished on the Romanesque church begun in 1220, which was later rebuilt as the 16th century St. John's Cathedral. In the German city of Mainz, work was completed on the Collegiate Church of St. Stephan, begun in 1267. In Naples, three decades of work were finished on the monastery of Santa Chiara.

The High Gothic choir of St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, was consecrated in 1340. Mecheln Cathedral, then a collegiate church, was started with the choir in 1342. In 1344, Prague was made an archbishopric, and the foundation stone was laid on the new St. Vitus Cathedral. Cathedrals completed in this decade, excluding later alterations, include Notre Dame de Paris and the Cathedral of the Theotokos, Vilnius, completed around 1345 and 1346 respectively. In Ely Cathedral, the last part of the repairs to the structure was finished with the richly decorated Lady Chapel in 1345.

In Venice, the Venetian Gothic Palazzo Ducale, or Doge's Palace, was erected on top of older buildings in 1340. In Switzerland, the walls of the Old City of Berne were extended up to the Christoffelturm, from 1344 to 1346. Berne's Käfigturm was erected from 1256 to 1344 as the second western city gate. In Siena, the Torre della Mangia of the Palazzo Pubblico was completed in 1348. That same year, land in the English town of Charing held by the Archbishop of Canterbury was redeveloped as an episcopal palace.

The Scuola della Carità, one of the six Scuole Grandi of Venice, was built in 1343. Two medieval universities were established in the 1340s: the University of Pisa (1343) and the University of Prague (1347). The University of Valladolid was also granted a licentia ubique docendi by Pope Clement VI in 1347, during the reign of Alfonso XI. Queen's College, Oxford, was founded by the chaplain Robert de Eglesfield in 1341, and Queen Philippa secured the lands of a small hospital in Southampton for the college in 1343. Meanwhile, Bablake School was founded in Coventry in 1344 by the Queen Mother, Isabella of France, while Pembroke College, Cambridge, was completed in 1347.

Art
In religious art, a series of stained glass windows were completed for the choir clerestory of Évreux Cathedral in Normandy c. 1340. Stained glass was also completed for the former Königsfelden Abbey in Switzerland, around the same time.

The possibilities of Giotto's art were developed further in this decade by his pupils Maso di Banco and Bernardo Daddi. Significant of their works is Pope Sylvester Tames the Dragon, painted in 1340 by di Banco for the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. An illustration by the artist Domenico Lenzi, the City Scene of 1340 from the Il Biadaiolo codex, shows just how much the Florentine artists were influenced by Giotto.

In 1340, toward the end of his life, the painter Simone Martini was called to Avignon to work for the papal court. His frescos in the portico of Avignon Cathedral have been lost, but the frescoes in the papal palace, painted by his pupils or colleagues around 1340, survive. Another notable religious artist was the Pisan painter Francesco Traini, who painted the Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas as part of an Italian altarpiece "which reflects the divine order of the cosmos".

In sculpture, the main artist was Andrea Pisano, who maintained a workshop in Pisa with his son Nino Pisano from 1343 to 1347. They are noted for the famous sculpture Maria lactans, and their work on Orvieto Cathedral.

Literature
In 1341, Petrarch was crowned poet laureate in Rome, the first man since antiquity to be given this honor.
 * Codex Manesse, completed 1340
 * Michael of Northgate (Ayenbite of Inwyt, 1340)
 * Giovanni Boccaccio (works)
 * Petrarch (Africa, 1343)
 * Geoffrey Chaucer (born 1343)
 * Perceforest, completed 1344

Military technology
It was around this decade that medieval cannon began to be used more widely in Europe, appearing in small numbers in several European states by the 1340s. "Thunder jar" weaponry utilizing gunpowder and other firearm technology spread to Spain in 1342 and to the city of Aachen in Northern Germany in 1346. "Ribaldis" were first mentioned in the English Privy Wardrobe accounts between 1345 and 1346, during preparations for the campaign in France. The effectiveness of these cannon was limited, as they are believed to have only shot large arrows and simple grapeshot, but they were so valuable that they were directly controlled by the Royal Wardrobe. Contemporary chroniclers such as the French Jean Froissart and the Florentine Giovanni Villani record their destructiveness on the field at the Battle of Crecy in 1346.

Philosophy and religion

In the 1340s, Catholic Church was governed under the Avignon Papacy. Pope Benedict XII died on 25 April 1342, and was buried in a mausoleum in Avignon Cathedral. Thirteen days later, the cardinals elected Benedictine cardinal and theologian Pierre Roger de Beaufort as Pope Clement VI. He reigned as pope until 1352.

In 1340s, the controversial Franciscan friar and Scholastic philosopher William of Ockham was at Munich under the protection of the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis of Bavaria, since 1330. During this time, he wrote exclusively on political matters, as an advocate of secular absolutism against papal authority, for which he had previously been excommunicated. Among the followers of Ockhamism — condensed as the omnipotence of God and Occam's Razor — were John of Mirecourt (fl. c. 1345) and Nicholas of Autrecourt (fl. c. 1347), both of whom taught at the University of Paris. Ockham, Mirecourt and Autrecourt all agreed on the principle of noncontradiction and experience as bases of certainty.

On November 21, 1340, Autrecourt too was summoned him to Avignon to respond to allegations of false teaching. The trial, under Pope Benedict XII and his successor Clement VI, lasted until his conviction in 1346. Autrecourt was charged with 66 erroneous teachings or "articles", which he publicly recanted before the papal court. He recanted them in public again, in Paris in 1347. Although Ockham also expressed willingness to resubmit to the Church and Franciscan Order, there is no evidence of a formal reconciliation. Ockham is sometimes said to have died in 1349, but it is more likely to have been 1347, possibly of the Black Plague.

In 1343, Clement VI issued the papal bull Unigenitus. The bull defined the doctrine of "The Treasury of Merits" or "The Treasury of the Church" as the basis for the issuance of indulgences by the Catholic Church.

Africa
In Egypt, the Mameluk sultans were constantly changing. In 1347, the Blue Mosque was completed in Cairo.

In the Horn of Africa, the 1340s were part of the century and a half (1314–1468) that comprised "the crowning era of medieval Ethiopia", which began with the reign of Amda Seyon I. The crusading spirit of Amda's conquests in the previous decades had established an effective Ethiopian hegemony over his divided Muslim neighbours, but the chief concern of his conquests had been above all to maintain trade for both Muslims and Christians. On Amda's death in 1344, the size of his Christian Empire was double what it had been in 1314. Trade flourished in ivory and other animal products from the western and southwestern border regions, while food products were exported from the highlands to the eastern lowlands and coastal ports. He was succeeded as emperor by his eldest son Newaya Krestos, who followed his father's policies toward the Mulisms in the east, most of whom continued to be tributaries of Ethiopia.

In the Mali Empire of West Africa, Mansa Souleyman, who had assumed office in 1341, took steep measures to put Mali back into financial shape, developing a reputation for miserliness. However, he proved to be a good and strong ruler despite numerous challenges. It is during his reign that Fula raids on Takrur began. There was also a palace conspiracy to overthrow him hatched by the Qasa (Manding term meaning Queen) and several army commanders. Mansa Souleyman's generals successfully fought off the military incursions, and the senior wife behind the plot was imprisoned. Mali was at this time the dominant empire of West Africa, having conquered Songhai Empire. The Songhai Empire would not regain independence for another three decades.

Americas
Very little is known of the Americas in this period, save what can be determined from archaeology. In North America, the Mississippian culture was in a continued state of decline. The city of Cahokia had experienced gradual decline since the 1200s, possibly due to contributory factors such as depletion of resources, climatic change, war, disease, social unrest and declining political and economic power. The final abandonment of the city may have taken place some time between this decade and 1400. Radiocarbon dating of wash material from Mound 55 give a date of around 1350, which can be taken as the time the mound was last used.

Other Mississippian sites which went into decline after this decade, from about 1350 on, include the Kincaid Mounds and the Moundville site. In the case of the latter, the decline was marked by a loss of the appearance of a town and a decrease in the importation of goods. Although the site retained its ceremonial and political functions, some of the mounds were abandoned while others lost their religious importance altogether.

In Central America, the Mayans, who centuries earlier had suffered a serious decline, were ruled from a capital in the Yucatan Peninsula called Mayapan. Other pre-Columbian civilisations, however, were on the rise. The precursors to the Aztecs, the Mexicas, had recently founded their capital city of Tenochtitlan. They also had occasional skirmishes with the nearby Mixtec civilization.

title: 1340s


text:
1330s

The 1330s was a decade of the Julian Calendar which began on January 1, 1330, and ended on December 31, 1339.

title: 1330s


text:
950

Year 950 (CML) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * Arab–Byzantine War: A Hamdanid army (30,000 men) led by Sayf al-Dawla raids into Byzantine theme Anatolia. He defeats Bardas Phokas, but is then ambushed on his return and heavily defeated by Leo Phokas.

Europe

 * November 22 – King Lothair II dies at Turin (possibly poisoned by Berengar of Ivrea). Berengar is crowned king of Italy and imprisons Lothair's now 19-year-old widow, Adelaide for four months at Como.
 * Boleslav I, duke of Bohemia, signs a peace treaty with King Otto I of the East Frankish Kingdom. He becomes his ally, but he probably wasn't forced to resume the payment of tribute.
 * Henry I, duke of Bavaria, attacks Western Hungary, taking captives and plunder. He enlarges his duchy in the wars with the Hungarians.

Wales

 * King Hywel Dda ("the Good") dies after an 8-year reign in which he has established codified laws. His three sons Owain ap Hywel Dda, Rhodri ap Hywel, and Edwin ap Hywel divide Wales amongst themselves.

Oceania

 * The Tu'i Tonga Empire starts to expand in the Pacific Ocean. The Tu'i Tonga kings establish the capital at Mu'a on the island of Tongatapu (approximate date).

North America

 * The Mount Edziza volcanic complex in British Columbia, Canada, produces an explosive eruption that deposits the Sheep Track Member.

Africa

 * City of Mogadishu is Established

Religion

 * Page with Joshua Leading the Israelites, from the Joshua Roll, is made in Constantinople. It is now kept at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome (approximate date).

Births

 * June 12 – Reizei, Japanese emperor (d. 1011)
 * Bernard I, German nobleman (approximate date)
 * Dedo I, German nobleman (approximate date)
 * Egbert, archbishop of Trier (approximate date)
 * Emma of Blois, duchess of Aquitaine (d. 1003)
 * Erik the Red, Norse Viking explorer (d. 1003)
 * Guy of Anderlecht, Christian saint (d. 1012)
 * Herbert III, Frankish nobleman (d. 995)
 * Ibn Yunus, Fatamid astronomer (d. 1009)
 * Lady Finella, Scottish noblewoman (d. 995)
 * Lambert I, French nobleman (approximate date)
 * Lothair Udo I, German nobleman (d. 994)
 * Masako, Japanese empress consort (d. 1000)
 * Moninho Viegas, French knight (d. 1022)
 * Notker III, German Benedictine monk (d. 1022)
 * Odo I (or Eudes), French nobleman (d. 996)
 * Otto I, duke of Carinthia (approximate date)
 * Reginar IV, French nobleman (approximate date)
 * Sarolt, Grand Princess of Hungary (d. 1008)
 * Soběslav, Bohemian nobleman (d. 1004)
 * William I, French nobleman (approximate date)
 * Wolbodo, bishop of Liège (approximate date)

Deaths

 * January 15 – Wang Jingchong, Chinese general
 * October 7 – Li, Chinese empress consort
 * October – Al-Qahir, Abbasid caliph (b. 899)
 * November 22 – Lothair II, king of Italy
 * December 24
 * Shi Hongzhao, Chinese general
 * Wang Zhang, Chinese official
 * Yang Bin, Chinese chancellor
 * Ælfric, bishop of Ramsbury (approximate date)
 * Al-Farabi, Muslim philosopher (or 951)
 * Hywel Dda ("the Good"), king of Wales
 * Li Jinquan, Chinese general (approximate date)
 * Ricfried, Frankish nobleman (b. 845)
 * Sunyer, count of Barcelona, Girona and Ausona
 * Zoltán, Grand Prince of Hungary (approximate date)
 * Dharma Mahadevi, Indian Queen Regnant

title: 950


text:
959

Year 959 (CMLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * April - May – The Byzantines refuse to pay the yearly tribute. A Hungarian army, led by Apor, invades Macedonia and Thrace. He plunders its territories until reaching Constantinople. On his way back, Apor is defeated during a night attack by Byzantine forces.
 * November 9 – Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos ("born in the purple") dies at Constantinople after a 46-year reign. He is succeeded by his 21-year-old son Romanos II as ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
 * Winter – Romanos II appoints Leo Phokas (the Younger) to be commander of the Byzantine field army (Domestic of the Schools) in the West. The Phokas clan becomes one of the leading families in Constantinople.

Europe

 * Bruno I, archbishop and duke (archduke) of Lotharingia resigns. His brother, King Otto I divides the duchy in two parts – Upper Lorraine and Lower Lorraine. He appoints Frederick I and Godfrey I as margraves (vice-duke).
 * Pietro III Candiano, doge of Venice, dies after a 17-year reign. He is succeeded by his son Pietro IV Candiano, who breaks off his campaign in Spoleto on behalf of King Berengar II of Italy and returns to Venice.
 * Pietro IV Candiano divorces his wife Joanna for political reasons and banishes her as a nun to the monastery of San Zaccaria.

England

 * October 1 – King Eadwig dies after a 4-year reign. He is succeeded by his 16-year-old brother Edgar I (the Peaceful), who effectively completes the unification of England, when Northumbria submits to his rule.

Religion

 * Dunstan, bishop of Worcester and London, is appointed by Edgar I as archbishop of Canterbury and becomes his chief adviser.

Births

 * April 12 – En'yū, emperor of Japan (d. 991)
 * Yeshe-Ö, Tibetan lama-king (approximate date)
 * Zhao Defang, prince of the Song Dynasty (d. 981)

Deaths

 * July 27 – Chai Rong, emperor of Later Zhou (b. 921)
 * October 1 – Eadwig (the All Fair), king of England
 * October 3 – Gérard of Brogne, Frankish abbot
 * November 9 – Constantine VII, Byzantine emperor (b. 905)
 * Ælfsige (or Aelfsige), archbishop of Canterbury
 * Chen Jue, Chinese official and chief of staff
 * Donnchadh mac Urchadh, king of Maigh Seóla (Ireland)
 * Han Yanhui, Chinese Khitan chancellor (b. 882)
 * Pietro III Candiano, doge of Venice
 * Song Qiqiu, Chinese chief strategist (b. 887)

title: 959


text:
984

Year 984 (CMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Spring – German boy-king Otto III (4 years old) is seized by the deposed Henry II, Duke of Bavaria ("the Wrangler"), who has recovered his duchy and claims the regency as a member of the Ottonian Dynasty. But Henry is forced to hand over Otto to his mother, empress consort Theophanu.
 * King Ramiro III of León loses his throne to Bermudo II (the rival king of Galicia), who also becomes ruler of the entire Kingdom of León (modern-day Spain).

Japan

 * Fall – Emperor En'yū abdicates the throne in favor of his 16-year-old son Kazan after a 15-year reign. En'yū retires and becomes a Buddhist priest.

Technology

 * Qiao Weiyue, a Chinese engineer, innovates the first known use of the double-gated canal pound lock during the Song dynasty, for adjusting different water levels in segments of the Grand Canal in China.

Religion

 * August 20 – Pope John XIV dies a prisoner in the Castel Sant'Angelo at Rome after a 1-year reign, having either been murdered or starved to death.
 * Anti-Pope Boniface VII returns from Constantinople and gains support from the powerful Roman Crescentii family. He takes hold of the papal throne.

Births

 * Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Abbad, founder of the Abbadid dynasty (d. 1042)
 * Choe Chung, Korean Confucian scholar and poet (d. 1068)
 * Emma of Normandy, noblewoman, queen consort of England (twice), Denmark and Norway (d. 1052; approximate date)

Deaths

 * July 7 – Crescentius the Elder, Roman politician and aristocrat
 * July 18 – Dietrich I, bishop of Metz
 * August 1 – Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester
 * August 20 – John XIV, pope of the Catholic Church
 * September 9 – Warin, archbishop of Cologne
 * Buluggin ibn Ziri, ruler (emir) of the Zirid Dynasty
 * Domnall Claen, king of Leinster (Ireland)
 * Edith of Wilton, English princess and abbess
 * Eochaid Ua Floinn, Irish poet (approximate date)
 * Gerberga, Frankish queen (approximate date)
 * Jordan, bishop of Poland (or 982)
 * Miró III, count of Cerdanya and Besalú (b. 920)
 * Ragnhild Eriksdotter, Norse Viking noblewoman
 * Shi Shouxin, Chinese general (b. 928)

title: 984


text:
968

Year 968 (CMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * Emperor Nikephoros II receives a Bulgarian embassy led by Prince Boris (the son of Tsar Peter I of Bulgaria), with a plea for help against the invading Kievan Rus'. Nikephoros, occupied in the East, is unable to support him. Instead he sends envoys to summon the Pechenegs to aid Boris. They besiege Kiev, but Grand Prince Sviatoslav I (on campaign in Bulgaria) returns with a Kievan relief force, and defeats the Pechenegs. He drives them out into the Steppe, and sets up viceroys to rule his Rus' territory.

Europe

 * Spring – Emperor Otto I (the Great) travels to Capua to meet there with ambassadors of Nikephoros II, who again reiterate their friendship, but refuse to consent to his dowry demands (see 967). Otto invades the Byzantine Theme of Langobardia with a Lombard expeditionary force. With the assistance of Benevento-Capua and naval support from Pisa, Otto attempts to take Bari by assault, but Byzantine resistance is stiff, and Otto withdraws back to Ravenna.
 * Battle of Silistra: A Kievan army (60,000 men) led by Sviatoslav I crosses the Lower Danube and defeats the Bulgarians at Silistra. He occupies most of the Dobruja by seizing 80 fortresses in northeastern Bulgaria. They are looted and destroyed but not permanently occupied. During the winter, Sviatoslav transfers the capital from Kiev to Pereyaslavets.
 * Pandulf I (Ironhead), a Lombard prince, takes over the territory of Benevento and Capua after the death of his brother Landulf III. He appoints his son Landulf IV as co-prince of Benevento, and disinherits Pandulf II (a son of Landulf III) as lord of Sant'Agata (located northeast of Naples).

Ireland

 * Battle of Sulcoit: The Irish of the Dál gCais led by Brian Boru defeats the Viking forces of Limerick. After the battle the Dál gCais seize and burn the Viking stronghold of Limerick. Ending of Norse expansion in Ireland.

Religion

 * Otto I founds the Archbishopric of Magdeburg at the synod of Ravenna. He appoints Adalbert as the archbishop of Magdeburg. The archbishopric under Adalbert includes the bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelberg — as well as the newly erected sees of Meissen, Merseburg and Naumburg-Zeitz.
 * Mieszko I, duke and prince of Poland, constructs Poznań Cathedral within the fortified stronghold (gord) of Poznań. The settlement becomes a bishopric, Mieszko appoints Jordan as the first bishop.

Births

 * November 29 – Kazan, emperor of Japan (d. 1008)
 * December 21 – Minamoto no Yorinobu, Japanese samurai (d. 1048)
 * December 23 – Zhen Zong, emperor of the Song Dynasty (d. 1022)
 * Gisela, French princess and daughter of Hugh Capet (d. 1002)
 * Pan, Chinese princess and wife of Zhen Zong (d. 989)
 * Romanos III, emperor of the Byzantine Empire (d. 1034)

Deaths

 * March 2 – William, archbishop of Mainz (b. 929)
 * March 14 – Matilda of Ringelheim, Frankish queen
 * March 19 – Emma of Paris, duchess of Normandy (b. 943)
 * April 2 – Yuan Dezhao, Chinese chancellor (b. 891)
 * April 4 – Abu Firas al-Hamdani, Arab prince and poet (b. 932)
 * Abu al-Misk Kafur, Ikhshidid vizier of Egypt (b. 905)
 * Aldred, bishop of Lindisfarne (approximate date)
 * Al-Muttaqi, Abbasid caliph (b. 908)
 * Ananias I, catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church
 * Bardas Phokas (the Elder), Byzantine general
 * Eadgifu, wife of Edward the Elder (approximate date)
 * John III, duke of Naples (approximate date)
 * Landulf III, prince of Benevento (or 969)
 * Liu Jun, emperor of Northern Han (b. 926)
 * Mord Fiddle, Icelandic farmer and law expert
 * Mumadona Dias, countess of Portugal
 * Rajendravarman II, ruler of the Khmer Empire
 * Robert of Vermandois, Frankish nobleman (or 967)
 * Sun Guangxian, Chinese chief strategist
 * Sunifred II, Frankish nobleman (b. 915)

title: 968


text:
986

Year 986 (CMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * August 17 – Battle of the Gates of Trajan: Emperor Basil II leads a Byzantine expeditionary force (30,000 men) against the Bulgarians to capture the fortress city of Sredets. After a siege of 20 days, Basil is forced to retreat from the Sofia Valley towards the town of Ihtiman (through a passage known as the Gate of Trajan). The Bulgarians under Tsar Samuel ambush and defeat the Byzantine forces. Only the elite Varangian Guard escapes with heavy casualties and leads Basil to safety through secondary routes.

Europe

 * March 2 – King Lothair III (or Lothair IV) dies after a 32-year reign at Laon. He is succeeded by his 19-year-old son Louis V as ruler of the West Frankish Kingdom.
 * Summer: Al-Mansur, the de facto ruler of Al-Andalus, continues his effort in the north of the Iberian Peninsula and plunders the city of Coimbra (modern Portugal).
 * Empress Theophanu, accompanied by the 6-year-old King Otto III and Henry II of Bavaria, leads a campaign against Bohemia and the Slavs on the Elbe frontier.
 * Mieszko I, duke (de facto) ruler of Poland, pledges his allegiance to Otto III and the Holy Roman Empire. He promises assistance in Otto's war against the Slavs.
 * Battle of Hjörungavágr: The Earls of Lade under Haakon Sigurdsson (the Powerful) defeat a Danish invasion force led by the Jomsvikings in western Norway.
 * Winter – King Harald II (Bluetooth) dies after a 28-year reign (driven into exile). He is succeeded by his son Sweyn Forkbeard as ruler of Denmark and Norway.

Arabian Empire

 * Winter – Sabuktigin, emir of the Ghaznavid Dynasty, invades India. He expands the emirate between the Kabul Valley and the Indus River after defeating King Jayapala.

Asia

 * Emperor Kazan abdicates the throne after a political struggle from the Fujiwara family. He is succeeded by his 6-year-old cousin Ichijō as the 66th emperor (tennō) of Japan.
 * Summer – Chi Go Pass Campaign: The Song Dynasty sends armies on three fronts against the Liao Dynasty in the Sixteen Prefectures, but they are defeated on all fronts.

Exploration

 * Bjarni Herjólfsson, a Norse-Icelandic merchant captain and explorer, becomes the first inhabitant of the Old World to discover the mainland of the Americas.

Literature

 * One of the Four Great Books of Song, the Chinese encyclopedia Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature is finished, with a total of 1,000 volumes.

Births

 * Al-Qushayri, Persian Sufi scholar and theologian (d. 1072)
 * Æthelstan Ætheling, son of Æthelred II (the Unready) (d. 1014)
 * Bezprym (or Besfrim), duke of Poland (approximate date)
 * Constance of Arles, French queen (approximate date)
 * Lê Long Đĩnh, emperor of the Lê Dynasty (d. 1009)
 * Poppo, archbishop of Trier (approximate date)
 * Reginald I, count palatine of Burgundy (d. 1057)

Deaths

 * March 2 – Lothair III, king of the West Frankish Kingdom (b. 941)
 * May 25 – Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, Persian astronomer (b. 903)
 * August – Yang Ye, Chinese general and governor (jiedushi)
 * August 15 – Minnborinus, Irish missionary and abbot
 * unknown date
 * Bahram ibn Ardashir al-Majusi, Buyid official and general
 * Cadwallon ab Ieuaf, king of Gwynedd (Wales)
 * probable
 * Æthelstan Mannessune, English landowner
 * Bobo, Frankish warrior and pilgrim

title: 986


text:
980

Year 980 (CMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Peace is concluded between Emperor Otto II (the Red) and King Lothair III (or Lothair IV) at Margut, ending the Franco-German war of 978–980. Lothair renounces his claim on Lower Lorraine, while Otto promises to recognize Lothair's son Louis V as the rightful heir of the West Frankish Kingdom.
 * June 11 – Vladimir I (the Great), grand prince of Kiev, consolidates the Kievan realm from modern Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. Vladimir is proclaimed ruler (knyaz) of all Kievan Rus'.
 * Fall – Otto II sets off on his first expedition to Italy. He leaves the government in the hands of Archchancellor Willigis. Otto is accompanied by his wife, Empress Theophanu.
 * Winter – Otto II celebrates Christmas with his family at Ravenna. He receives the Iron Crown of Lombardy as the King of Italy.
 * King Harald Bluetooth orders the construction of the Viking ring fortress of Trelleborg (modern Denmark).

England

 * Viking raids from Scandinavia threaten the southern English coast after a pause of 25 years. Hampshire and the Isle of Thanet are ravaged.

Arabian Empire

 * The Dari dialect (which will become the major language of Persia) is developed in the royal courts of the Samanid Empire in Central Asia.

Africa

 * The Kilwa Sultanate, centered at Kilwa (an island off modern Tanzania), is founded by Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi, Persian prince of Shiraz.

Religion

 * Notker (or Notger), Frankish Benedictine monk and bishop, founds the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (modern Belgium) which will remain an independent state inside the Holy Roman Empire for more than 800 years.

Births

 * July 5 – Mokjong, king of Goryeo (Korea) (d. 1009)
 * July 15 – Ichijō, emperor of Japan (d. 1011)
 * Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi, Persian scholar (d. 1037)
 * Abu 'Ubayd al-Juzjani, Persian physician (d. 1070)
 * Adalbero, German nobleman (approximate date)
 * Avicenna, Persian polymath (approximate date)
 * Baldwin IV (the Bearded), French nobleman (d. 1035)
 * Bardo, German abbot and archbishop (approximate date)
 * Benedict VIII, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1024)
 * Einar Thambarskelfir, Norwegian nobleman (d. 1050)
 * Ekkehard IV, Swiss chronicler (approximate date)
 * Farrukhi Sistani, Persian poet (approximate date)
 * Geoffrey I, French nobleman (d. 1008)
 * Herman I, German nobleman (approximate date)
 * Humbert I, founder of the House of Savoy (approximate date)
 * Pope Nicholas II, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1061)
 * Olof Skötkonung, king of Sweden (approximate date)
 * Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1002)
 * Sviatopolk I, Grand Prince of Kiev (approximate date)
 * Tancred of Hauteville, Norman nobleman (d. 1041)
 * Theodora Porphyrogenita, Byzantine empress (d. 1056)
 * Xuedou Chongxian, Chinese Buddhist monk (d. 1052)

Deaths

 * February 15 – Berthold, German nobleman (approximate date)
 * September 28 – Minamoto no Hiromasa, Japanese nobleman (b. 918)
 * Dado (or Dodon), Italian nobleman (approximate date)
 * Domnall ua Néill (or Donal O'Neill), High King of Ireland
 * Eoghan Ua Cathain, abbot of Clonfert (Ireland)
 * Gunnhild, Norwegian Viking queen (approximate date)
 * Ibn Khalawayh, Persian scholar and grammar (or 981)
 * Liu Chang, emperor of Southern Han (b. 942)
 * Yaropolk I, Grand Prince of Kiev (approximate date)

title: 980


text:
976

Year 976 (CMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * January 10 – Emperor John I Tzimiskes dies at Constantinople, after returning from a second campaign against the Abbasids in Syria. He is buried in the Church of Christ Chalkites, and succeeded by his 18-year-old nephew Basil II, who becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. The administration remains in the hands of Basil Lekapenos (an illegitimate son of the late Emperor Romanos I).

Europe

 * June – Emir Abu'l-Qasim launches a raiding expedition into Byzantine Italy from Sicily. He imposes a tribute on the cities of Cosenza and Cellere. Meanwhile, a Fatimid fleet assaults the Apulian coast and raids the surrounding countryside. Abu'l-Qasim sends an army to Otranto and besieges Gravina, before returning to Sicily – bringing home hundreds of captives and slaves.
 * July – Emperor Otto II (the Red) occupies Regensburg, forcing his rebellious cousin Henry II (the Wrangler) (who claims rulership over the Holy Roman Empire) to flee to Bohemia. Henry is deposed and Bavaria is handed over to Otto I of Swabia (a grandson of the late Emperor Otto I). He sets up the new "Grand Duchy of Carinthia" covering modern-day Austria.
 * Summer – Otto II appoints Leopold I (the Illustrious), a member of the House of Babenberg, as margrave of the Marcha Orientalis (the later Archduchy of Austria). In order to maintain his possession in Southern Italy, Otto strengthens his army with 2,100 mailed horsemen (heavy cavalry) from Germany, of which around 1,500 are to be provided by the Churches.
 * Summer – Pietro IV Candiano, doge of Venice, demands Venetian assistance to put down a revolt in his personal fiefs around Ferrara. The Venetians also revolt against Candiano and assault the doge's palace. Repelled by mercenary forces, they burn the neighborhood – bringing the palace down with it. Candiano and his family escape, but are killed by the mob.
 * October 16 – Caliph Al-Hakam II dies after a 15-year reign in which he has ended the Fatimid Caliphate in Morocco and made the University of Córdoba the greatest institution in the world. Al-Hakam is succeeded by his 10-year-old son Hisham II as ruler of the Caliphate of Córdoba. His widow Subh becomes regent together with Almanzor the de facto rulers.

China

 * November 14 – Emperor Taizu (Zhao Kuangyin) dies at Kaifeng after a 16-year reign. He is succeeded by his brother Tai Zong as ruler of the Song Dynasty. During his rule the Yuelu Academy (located in Hunan Province) is founded, which becomes one of the renowned academies (Shūyuàn).
 * Zhang Sixun, a Chinese astronomer and engineer, employs the use of liquid mercury, in order that the escapement mechanism of his astronomical clock can function, and metal parts will not rust by using hydraulics (water), or freeze in winter.

Births

 * February 5 – Sanjō, emperor of Japan (d. 1017)
 * Izumi Shikibu, Japanese poet (approximate date)

Deaths

 * January 10 – John I Tzimiskes, Byzantine emperor
 * May 11 – Henry I (the Bald), German nobleman
 * June 13 – Mansur I, emir of the Samanid Empire
 * June 14
 * Aron, Bulgarian nobleman
 * David, Bulgarian nobleman
 * Moses, Bulgarian nobleman
 * June 29 – Gero, archbishop of Cologne
 * October 8 – Helen of Zadar, queen of Croatia
 * October 16 – Al-Hakam II, Umayyad caliph (b. 915)
 * November 14 – Taizu, Chinese emperor (b. 927)
 * Al-Mansur Yahya, Zaidi scholar and imam
 * Isarn, bishop of Grenoble (approximate date)
 * Kvirike II, Georgian prince and chorbishop
 * Madame Huarui, Chinese concubine and poet
 * Mathgamain mac Cennétig, king of Munster
 * Pietro IV Candiano, doge of Venice
 * Rukn al-Dawla, Buyid general and emir
 * Sun Taizhen, queen of Wuyue (Ten Kingdoms)
 * Theodoric I, German nobleman (approximate date)
 * Ali ibn Muhammad al-Iyadi, Arabic poet.
 * Phạm Thị Trân, Vietnamese opera singer and Mandarin (b. 926)

title: 976


text:
1220s

The 1220s was a decade of the Julian Calendar which began on January 1, 1220, and ended on December 31, 1229.

Significant people

 * Abu Muhammad al-Wahid, Almohad Caliph of Morocco
 * Abu Zakariya, first Sultan of the Hafsid Dynasty of Ifriqiya
 * Adolf IV, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein
 * Alfonso IX, King of León and Galicia
 * Andrew II, King of Hungary and Croatia
 * Baldwin II, Latin Emperor of Constantinople
 * Konrad I, Duke of Masovia and Kujawy and High Duke of Poland
 * Conrad IV, King of Jerusalem
 * Chiconquiauhtzin, Tlatoani of Azcapotzalco
 * Chūkyō, Emperor of Japan
 * Dōgen, founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism in Japan
 * Erik XI, King of Sweden
 * Ferdinand III, King of Castile and Toledo
 * Saint Francis of Assisi, Roman Catholic saint
 * Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
 * Genghis Khan, first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire
 * Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan
 * Emperor Go-Toba of Japan
 * Pope Gregory IX
 * Henry III, King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine
 * Pope Honorius III
 * Iltutmish, first Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate
 * Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, final Sultan of the Khwarezmian Empire
 * James I, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona
 * Jochi, Mongol army commander and eldest son of Genghis Khan
 * John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem and Latin Emperor of Constantinople
 * John I, King of Sweden
 * John III Doukas Vatatzes, Emperor of Nicaea
 * Emperor Juntoku of Japan
 * Al-Kamil, Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt
 * Knut II, King of Sweden
 * Leszek I the White, Duke of Sandomierz and High Duke of Poland
 * Louis VIII, King of France
 * Louis IX, King of France
 * Lý Chiêu Hoàng, Empress of Vietnam
 * Lý Huệ Tông, Emperor of Vietnam
 * Manqu Qhapaq, first Emperor of the Inca Empire
 * Ögedei Khan, second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, third son of Genghis Khan
 * Olaf the Black, King of the Isles
 * Ottokar I, King of Bohemia
 * Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence and Count of Forcalquier
 * Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles
 * Rujing, Caodong Buddhist monk and Zen master
 * Sancho II, King of Portugal
 * Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury
 * Subutai, Mongol commander and primary military strategist of the Mongol Empire
 * Sukaphaa, first King of Ahom
 * Theodore Komnenos Doukas, Despot of Epirus and Emperor of Thessalonika
 * Tolui, Mongol commander and regent of the Mongol Empire, fourth son of Genghis Khan
 * Trần Thái Tông, Emperor of Vietnam
 * Trần Thủ Độ, military commander and regent of the Empire of Vietnam
 * Valdemar II, King of Denmark
 * Yuri II, Grand Prince of Vladimir
 * Yaroslav, Prince of Novgorod
 * Yusuf II al-Mustansir, Almohad Caliph of Morocco

title: 1220s


text:
1230s

The 1230s was a decade of the Julian Calendar which began on January 1, 1230, and ended on December 31, 1239.

title: 1230s


text:
1240s

The 1240s was a decade of the Julian Calendar which began on January 1, 1240, and ended on December 31, 1249.

Significant people
Fibonacci. Fibonacci sequence and Liber Abbaci

title: 1240s


text:
1260s

The 1260s is the decade starting January 1, 1260 and ending December 31, 1269.

Significant people

 * Berke Khan
 * Kublai Khan
 * Hulagu Khan
 * Baibars
 * Louis IX of France
 * Qutuz

title: 1260s


text:
1270s

The 1270s is the decade starting January 1, 1270, and ending December 31, 1279.

title: 1270s


text:
1280s

The 1280s is the decade starting January 1, 1280 and ending December 31, 1289.

title: 1280s


text:
1290s

The 1290s was a decade of the Julian Calendar which began on January 1, 1290, and ended on December 31, 1299.

title: 1290s