Timeline 850-875 (Interference)

851-855
ca. 850-ca.870

Northern Europe:

The Norwegian kingdom of Hålogaland is under the sway of the Danish rulers of Sjælland before being absorbed into Vestfold/Norway

851-858

Caucasus:

The Abbasid army conquers the Armenian kingdom of Taron, but after a few years Ashot I Bagratuni expels the Arabs

852

British Isles:

Danish Vikings settel at the Thames’ mouth and enterprise the methodical plunder (and later conquest) of England

Central-Eastern Europe:

Louis II the German’s Eastern Franks invade Greater Moravia and dethrone Mojmir in favor of his son Rastislav.

Southern Europe:

King Louis of Italy retakes Gaeta and Naples from the Idrisids

Western Europe:

Pepin II, the rebel sub-king of Aquitaine, is captured and confined in a monastery at Soissons by Charles the Bald. Visigothic Spain enforces suzerainty over the Celts of Gallastria (Galicia and Asturias)

853

Western Europe:

The Vikings mount an invasion of the Loire valley in western France.

British Isles:

Ketil Flatnose Bjarnarsson, former ruler of Svithjod in Norway, takes the power as king in the Isle of Man

854

Southern Europe:

The Venetian fleet is defeated by the Idrisids at Gallipoli (Puglia).

British Isles:

King Rhodri Mawr of Gwynedd seizes Powys, enforcing his rule over most of Wales.

Middle East:

The Abbasid army finally subdues Tabaristan and enforces conversion to Islam, but the Tabaristanis who comply turn to Zaydi Shiism instead of Sunnism

855

Western Europe:

Upon the death of HRCEW Lothar his possessions are again divided among his three sons: Louis, king of Italy, gets the imperial crown as Louis II, while Burgundy and Provence make Charles IV’s domain and Lotharingia (from Lorrain north to all of Rhineland and the Low Countries) goes to Lothar II. The HRCEW is thus divided among no less then five rulers

Byzantine Empire:

A campaign against the Paulicians founders due to the fierce rivalry among the two sons of basileus Eustace, Constantine and Belisarius, popularly known as “the two Cains”.

Caucasus:

Ashot IV Bagratuni ascends the throne of Armenia as king Ashot I

India:

Avantivarman founds the Utpala dynasty of Kashmir, which replaces its predecessors, the Karkotas. The Abbasid governor Umar Hibari gains independence for Sindh, establishing its first Muslim dynasty.

855-857

Central-Eastern Europe:

Greater Moravia resists Eastern Frankish encroachments

856-860
856

Byzantine Empire:

An unholy Omayyad-Byzantine alliance wrests Cyprus from the Abbasid Caliphate, sharing the island as a co-dominium; the Byzantine fleet also takes and burns the Syrian port of Latakia.

Western Europe:

After escaping from his confinement in a monastery, Pepin II of Aquitaine allies with the marauding Vikings, setting ablaze the town of Poitiers.

British Isles:

A major invasion of Wales by the Dublin Vikings is routed by Rhodri Mawr, who kills the Norse king Gorm; the Dublin Vikings then recognize as their next king Olaf I of the Norwegian Yngling royal clan

857

Northern Europe:

Rurik of Frisia conquers Haithabu/Hedeby,a rich sea-trading town on the Baltic between Denmark and Saxony

858

North Africa:

Solomon Bar Yehuda founds the Judeo-Christian Berber kingdom of Cabilia in the mountains of central northern Numidia (*OTL Algeria), a bulwark against Idrisid encroachment

858-859 Western Europe:

Supported of Charles IV of Burgundy and Provence and of Pepin II of Aquitaine, Louis the German, king of East Francia/Germany, invades West Francia and overthrows his deeply unpopular half-brother Charles the Bald; Pepin II is enthroned in France despite objections from the Church. The emperor Louis II “Murus Ecclesiae” (the Church’s Wall), concentrated on retaking the south of Italy from the Idrisids, doesn’t act at all

858-863 

Western Europe:

King Tiago III of Gallastria (Galicia and Asturias) allies with the Irish Vikings, who unleash a pirate campaigns against Visigothic Spain; many Spanish cities, notably Sevilla, are fiercely set on fire by the Vikings, who also flock to serve as mercenaries in Gallastria, which in turn regains freedom from Spain

859 

Central-Eastern Europe:

The Khazars defeat the Black Bulgarians of the Khanate of Rus at the battle of Baltavar/Poltava; afterwards they entrust Kiev to the Varangians (Swedish Vikings).

Southern Europe:

Emperor Louis II retakes Salerno from the Idrisids after a long siege

Western Europe:

Rurik of Frisia plunders Bremen

860 

Byzantine Empire:

A Russo-Varangian army and fleet suddenly appears under the walls of Constantinople; the city holds, but the shock is great. The Byzantines suffer a new defeat in Crete at the hands of the local Arabs.

Southern Europe:

The Idrisids, having gained de facto domination of the Adriatic Sea, sack Grado. Khan Boris I of Bulgaria suffers a setback against the Serbs.

British Isles:

Wessex annexes Kent.

Northern Europe:

Viking seafarers discover Iceland (already inhabited by small Irish monastic communities). The Norwegian kingdom of Sogn, ruled by Harald the Young of the Yngling clan, becomes a vassal of Vestfold, ruled by Harald’s father Halfdan III the Black

Western Europe:

Rurik is deprived of his Frisian possessions by king Louis II the German of East Francia/Germany

ca. 860 

Southern Europe:

The Bulgarians enforce their supremacy over inner Albania; the coast remains in Byzantine hands. The town of Pisa, with the favor of HRCEW Louis II, becomes the main Christian sea power of the Western Mediterranean

Northern Europe:

Alvheim is annexed by Vestfold/Norway SE Asia:

The kingdom of Mataram ousts Srivijayan forces from Java.

861-865
861

Central-Eastern Europe:

Historic religious debate at the Khazar court at Itil (near Astrakhan) between the Byzantines Cyril and Methodius, the Jewish Rabbi Yitzhak HaSangari and the Islamic Sunni clerk Farabi ibn Kora.

Caucasus:

Northern Azerbaijan secedes from the Abbasid Caliphate establishing the Shirvan emirate under the Yazidids.

Central Asia:

Abu Yusuf Ya’qub al-Saffar founds the Saffarid dynasty in Seistan (eastern Persia/Iran)

861-871

Middle East:

The death of Caliph al-Mutawakkil is followed by a time of rapid changes on the Abbasid Caliphal throne in Baghdad. The Caliphal Turkish guard becomes the paramount power in the Abbasid Caliphate from its base in Samarra, undermining the power of the Tahirid clan; meantime the Sunni Council of the Ulema, ruled by Wali Abdurrahman I, becomes a strong religious power shadowing the Caliphs, de facto prisoners ibn Baghdad; the Egyptian Omayyads will never recognize the spiritual power of the Walis, opening the schism between the Waliist (or Eastern) and Caliphist (or Western) branches of Sunnism

862 

Southern Europe:

The Viking chieftain Hastings, after raiding Mediterranen Spain, fiercely plunders Luni (eastern Liguria), which begins to decline.

Western Europe:

Judith, daughter of the deposed king of West Francia/France Charles the Bald, marries the count of Flanders Baldwin Iron Arm, an illegitimate scion of the Carolingians (grandson of the late Bernard, rival of Louis the Pious); he gets the title of margrave (marquis) of Flanders by king Pepin II.

Central-Eastern Europe:

An alliance is sealed between Byzantium and Greater Moravia against both the HRCEW (Carolingian Empire) and Bulgaria. The Varangian-Slavic Rus’ state is born when Rurik of Frisia, once moved to the eastern Baltic, conquers Staraja Ladoga and Novgorod

863 

Byzantine Empire:

Basileus Eustace I the Great dies at 78 in his bed, the first Byzantine ruler to do so since Leo IV the Khazar; he is succeeded by his elder son Constantine VII, who as his first act blinds and mutilates his brother Belisarius, gaining the passionate hatred of the Patriarchate and the people. The Byzantine army gains a most great victory over the Abbasids, the Arabs of Melitene (*OTL Malatya) and the Paulicians in central Anatolia at the river Halys and at Martinopolis, weakening all these enemies.

Western Europe:

Charles IV of Burgundy and Provence dies without heirs, and his domains are carved between his relatives. Burgundy is annexed to Lothar II’s Lotharingia, Provence by emperor Louis II’s kingdom of Italy.

Central-Eastern Europe:

The Byzantine saints Cyril and Methodius, mixed-blood Graeco-Slavs of Thessalonica, convert Greater Moravia to Orthodox (Byzantine) christianity and invent the Glagolithic alphabet (ancestor to the simpler Cyrillic one): this marks the beginning of a close struggle between the Papacy in Rme and the Patriarchate of Constantinople to evangelize the Slavs. Khan Shilki of the Black Bulgarians restores the Rus Bulgarian Khanate in Poltava.

Northern Europe:

Harald I Fairhair, still a child, succeeds his father Halfdan III the Black on the throne of Vestfold; in later years he’ll quickly unifiy all of Norway

864

Western Europe:

Upon the death of Pepin II of West Francia/France and Aquitaine, Charles the Bald tries to regain the crown from his monastic exile in Soissons (the psame monastery he previously confined Pepin II in...) together with his son Louis the Stammerer, but the two are overcome and killed by Baldwin of Flanders at the battle of Nanterre near Paris. Thereafter Baldwin has himself anointed king of West Francia/France in Reims, founding the Baldovingian dynasty of France. Marquis Arnald of Vasconia/Navarra instead acknowledges the suzerainty of emperor Louis II to thwart Visigothic Spain’s ambitions

Southern Europe:

Emperor Louis II retakes Amalfi from the Idrisids, who preserve their hold on Calabria and Puglia

864-867

Byzantine Empire:

Basileus Constantine VII deposes and jails in a monastery the Patriarch of Constantinople Ignatius, its more bitter adversary, and replaces him with the more compliant Photius. Pope Nicholas I, from Rome, refuses this imperial appointment and a schism opens between Rome and Constantinople, already competing for religious influence in Bulgaria and Greater Moravia and divided by a doctrinal issue about the origin of the Holy Spirit

865 

Western Europe:

To acknowledge the most irregular accession to the throne of West Francia/France of Baldwin Iron Arm (who is an illegitimate scion of the Carolingians), HRCEW Louis II forces Baldwin to cede Aquitaine as an appanage for Lothar II’s son, Hugo of Els, in exchange for the detachment of Baldwin’s Flanders from Lotharingia and their attachment to West Francia/France.

Southern Europe:

The Venetian fleet thwarts a renewed Idrisid attack on Grado.

Central-Eastern Europe:

Khan Shilki of the Black Bulgarians of Rus inherits the throne of the Volga Bulgarians and proclaims conversion to Sunni (Waliist) Islam of the Khanate, changing his own name to Khan Gabdula/Abdullah; Bolgar is made the capital of the Volga Bulgarian Khanate.

865-867 

British Isles:

The Danish king Ragnar Lodbrok assaults Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, but is defeated in battle by king Aella, who throws him a pit full of poisonous snakes. Ragnar’s fourth son, Ivar the Boneless, thereafter invades Northumbia and avenges his father by killing Aella with the excruciating torment of the “blood eagle”

866-870
866

Southern Europe:

Upon the death of Caliph Yahya II, the Idrisid Shi’a Caliphate begins to fragment and decline; Sicily, Calabria, Bari and Taranto establish de facto independent Shi’a emirates

867

Byzantine Empire:

A coup in Constantinople, schemed by the [I]logothetes ton dromon[/I] (minister of the interiors) Symbatios, leads to the assassination of the hated Constantine VII, who is replaced with his maternal nephew Bardas II. Symbatios remains as the true emperor behind the scenes, and has Patriarch Photius replaced by Ignatius to compose the schism with Rome. A Byzantine fleet breaks the apparently endless siege the Idrisids had laid to Ragusa/Dubrovnik, retakes Dalmatia and conquers Otranto, the first (Eastern) Byzantine foothold in Italy in a century.

British Isles:

The Covenant of the Double Crown allows Picts and Scots to preserve each an independent kingdom (Alba and Scotland respectively) in personal union under the MacFergus royal clan. It is also affirmed that the crown will pass in a matrilineal succession, but that it will never stay on a woman’s head (the Alban law of succession)

868

Southern Europe:

The Sklavinian (*OTL Balkan) Bulgarian Khan (from now on Czar, that is Caesar) Boris I converts to Orthodox Byzantine christianity after four years of doubts because of Rome’s attempts to have its influence prevail in the area; Christianization will be enforced by Boris with great bloodshed.

North Africa:

Ahmad ibn Simba, vizir (prime minister) of Omayyad Egypt and son of a Swahili slave-soldier, despite being an eunuch, enforces his own power and his relatives’ upon the weak Omayyads, becoming Egypts’ strongman

869

British Isles:

The Danish Viking Guthrum assassinates king Edmund and makes East Anglia his own domain. Southern Europe:

Emperor Louis II defeats the Idrisid emirs of Puglia at the battle of Siponto

Central-Eastern Europe:

The Greater Moravian ruler Rastislav is captured and blinded by the eastern Franks/Germans in a coup plotted by his nephew Svätopluk.

Caucasus:

Hashim ibn Suraqa founds at Derbent the sultanate of Daghestan as a Muslim rival to Avaristan, still paramount in the inner mountains.

Central Hesperia (*OTL America):

Last date recording in Mutul/Tikal, afterwards this major Mayan city too is abandoned to the jungle, as happens to Caracol/Oxuitza; meantime Chichén Itzà, in the Yucatàn, ruled through an oligarchic republic (the “multepal”), has become the most important ceremonial center of the Mayan world

869-870 

Byzantine Empire:

The Fourth Council of Constantinople, the last recognized by both the local Patriarchate and Rome, settles the Photian schism. Photius, though no more the Patriarch and officially condemned, will remain a most influent man of letters and piety, leaving his strong mark on the Byzantine Church

869-871

Northern Europe:

Atli hinn Mjovi and his son Hesteinn try to free the Norwegian kingdom of Sogn from Vestfold’s/Norway’s hegemony, but are quickly defeated and their domain is annexed 869-883

Middle East:

The Great Rebellion of the Zanj (black slaves from eastern Africa), led by the Persian Alì ibn Muhammad, erupts in lower Iraq; though finally tamed, it stops the use of slavery in agriculture in the Islamic world

870 

Western Europe:

The Treaty of Mersen brings about a partition of Lotharingia after Lothar II’s death between Baldwin I of France and Louis the German: the former gains only Lorraine proper, while Louis, backed by his nephew, the emperor Louis II, Rhineland, Alsace, parts of Frisia.

Northern Europe:

Rurik, now ruler of “Russia” (from ruotsi, the Finnish name given to the Swedes) regains his possessions in Frisia.

British Isles:

The Vikings take and sack Dumbarton, capital of Strathclyde, and annex Dunbar and Galloway to their domains. Wessex annexes the remnants of Dumnonia/Devon, but the Cornish, in alliance with the Vikings, reconquer part of Devon.

Byzantine Empire:

Bardas II, despite lacking any military exprience, sets out for an expedition against the Paulician strongholds in Anatolia. Bardas proves lucky and able, and the campaign is a stunning success: the Paulician rebel state of Tephrike is annihilated in the battle of Bathiriacos, where the Paulician Heresiarch, the Chrisocheiros, is killed.

North Africa:

The kingdom of Tlemsen (western Numidia) is jointly overrun and annihilated by king David I of Mauretania, king Joshua of Cabilia and prince Solomon II of Tiaret/Tahert 

ca. 870 

Northern Europe:

Hålogaland, a Norwegian local kingdom formerly under Danish influence, is absorbed by Namdalen, actively resisting the Norwegian unification promoted by Harald Fairhair of Vestfold.

871-875
871 

Southern Europe:

The HRCEW and king of Italy Louis II “Murus Ecclesiae” campaigns in Puglia, wresting Bari from the local Muslim emirs; the Byzantines, meantime, take Leuca and Gallipoli  at the southern end of the “heel” of Italy. British Isles:

Caithness, the northernmost tip of Alba/Pictland, is conquered by the Vikings of the Orkneys. Rhodri Mawr of Gwynedd and Powys gets also the crown of Ceredigion/Cardigan/Seisyllwg, solidifying his primacy in Wales

872 

Central Asia:

The Samanid sultanate of Bokhara secedes from the Abbasid Caliphate and holds sway over Central Asia and northern Afghanistan

872-874

Byzantine Empire:

Basileus Bardas II leads ruthless campaigns against the Arab emirate of Melitene (*OTL Malatya) and the Abbasid forces; with Armenian help a decisive victory is gained at Samosata and Melitene falls back on Byzantine hands

873

Central Asia:

The Saffarids overthrow Tahirid power in Afghanistan and Khorasan, exerting a theoretical overlordship even upon the Samanids of Bokhara

874 

North Africa:

The Battle of the Bagradas (*OTL Medjerda) river between a Cabilian/Numidian coalition and Arab forces marks the end of Idrisid encroachments westwards: the Shi’a Caliphate is indeed put on the defensive.

Northern Europe:

The Norwegian Vikings settle Iceland, bringing with them many Irish and Pictish slaves; the few Irish monks living there are killed, enslaved or put on a quick flight.

British Isles:

Danish Vikings overrun and conquer weakened Mercia. The central English kingdom is partly annexed, divided into the “Five Boroughs” of Lincoln (the seat of the former kingdom of Lindsey), Nottingham, Stamford, Leicester, Derby, which form the “Danelaw” (Danish domain); another part is left as a rump state under the Anglo-Saxon puppet king Ceolwulf II. Rognvald Eysteinsson founds the powerful Viking Jarldom of the Orkneys.

Central-Eastern Europe:

Greater Moravia accepts to pay tribute to the Eastern Franks of Germany; it also conquers the Duchy of Lesser Poland (Cracow and the upper Vistula)

874-877 

Western Europe:

King Solomon III of Brittany is murdered by his son-in-law Pasquitan of Vannes, but soon the Vikings shatter the kingdom. King Baldwin I of West Francia/France regains Anjou from Brittany

875 

British Isles:

The Danish Vikings take York from Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, renaming it Jorvik, and establish there an own heathen kingdom under Halfdan I, holding sway from Strathclyde to the Danelaw and most of England.

Far East:

The great rebellion led by Huang Chao erupts in the central Chinese region of Henan.

Southern Europe:

The Venetians crush a fleet of Dalmatian Slavic pirates (the Narentans, leftover of the Idalskans) at Grado; in sign of gratitude, basileus Bardas II allows free trade with Dalmatia for Venice, which by now has completely shaken off any sign of subjection to the HRCEW apart from words and occasional gifts to the emperor

ca. 875 

Central Asia:

Khorezm regains independence from the Abbasid Caliphate.

Northern Europe:

Harald I Fairhair completes the process of national unification of Norway by absorbing Sondmor, Agder and Hedmark. Many rebels and dissidents emigrate to the British Isles and Iceland.