Timeline 800-825 (Interference)

801-805
I'll try to further simplify things by putting "territorial markers" before news for each year. But beware: events cannot be too neatly labeled that way.

801

Western Europe:

The Treaty of Weissenburg carves the HRCEW between Charles’s three “legitimate” sons: Charles II the German, the elder son, receives East Francia (Germany), Bavaria and the imperial title, Theodoric/Pepin obtains the lands from Frisia to Aquitaine and Louis the Pious Burgundy, Provence, Septimania. The three brothers then strike a deal to jointly attack Pepin the Hunchback “to free the Papacy and avenge our beloved father”

802

Western Europe:

When his half-brothers move against him appearing in Italy, Pepin II the Hunchback is lynched by a mob in Rome; Charles II, therafter, is crowned in St. Peter in the presence of his brothers, not before humiliating and deposing Pope Leo III for crowning his father’s assassin, and replacing him with the Irish St. Cassian of Hibernia, the most brilliant scholar of the Carolingian court, who takes the name of Patricius. Salerno and Taranto, now both reduced to Duchies, are entrusted to Frankish dukes loyal to Charles II. The Venet(ic)ians, led by their Doge John Galbaius, sack Grado and kill Patriarch John.

British Isles:

The Norwegian Vikings sack and destroy the great Irish abbey of Iona, in the Hebrides. Anglo-Saxon Wiccia (Hwicce) is finally annexed to Mercia.

Byzantine Empire:

The Byzantine general Bardanes the Turk, an important strategos (theme governor) in Anatolia, rebels in support of iconoclasm and against the “Syracusan Iconophile usurper” Marcianus II Bulla and actually deprives Byzantium of control over its main Asian stronghold.

SE Asia:

King Jayavarman II of upper Chenla, grown at the Srivijayan court, frees the Khmers and the Mekong delta region from Srivijaya and founds the new kingdom of Kambuja, holding sway over Laos, Siam, Cambodia and Cochinchina

803

Byzantine Empire: Marcianus II Bulla attacks Bardanes the Turk in Anatolia but is routed at the battle of Dadastana; hunted by the winner, Marcianus flees back first to Athens, thence to Syracuse, and the Byzantine Empire is anew divided.

Western Europe: Charles II and Liutpert of (northern) Lombardy make Friul a March and occupy Dalmatia taking advantage of Byzantine weakness.

Central-Eastern Europe: After wresting the region between the Tisza and Transylvania from the crumbling Avars, the fierce Krum, lord of the Pannonian Onogurs and a scion of the Dulo clan, ascends the throne of Bulgaria: his kingdom stretches from the middle Danube to the Black Sea.

India: Govinda III Rashtrakuta defeats and vassalizes an alliance of Pallava, Pandya, Chera and Ganga forces in SE Deccan; his younger brother Indra founds a second Rashtrakuta dynasty in Gujarat

804

Central-Eastern Europe: A joint action between Charles II the German and Khan Krum of Bulgaria crushes the Avars in Pannonia; the Bulgarians gain vast swathes of land in Dacia and Pannonia, the surviving Avar are vassals to the HRCEW.

Byzantine Empire: A new council summoned in Chalcedon by basileus Bardanes reimposes Iconoclasm, supported by most of the army, in the eastern Byzantine empire.

Caucasus: After long struggles Ashot I Bagratuni nicknamed the Carnivore, king of Iberia/Georgia, is able to take over also the throne of Armenia (as Ashot III); he rebels against Abbasid suzerainty with eastern Byzantine support, but cannot take Tbilisi (where a Caliphal emir rules) and break ties with Baghdad

805

Western Europe: King Godfred’s Danes repel a Frankish invasion led by HRCEW Charles II; in th campaign an Indian war elephant, a kind present of the Abassid Caliph Harun ar-Rashid, is used, but to no avail, then Godfred is killed by his men and order on the border is restored.

British Isles: The Celtic kingdom of Strathclyde annexes North Rheged through dynastical ties.

Central-Eastern Europe: The Avar Khan Zodan, vassal to the Franks, receives baptism with the name of Theodore.

Middle East: Harun ar-Rashid manages to newly subdue the rebellious Daylamites of N Persia.

Summary: western Byzantium crumbles, crushed between the Idrisids and the Carolingians. Eastern Byzantium continues to suffer from lack of an enduring competent leadership. The Holy Romna Catholic Empire of the West is, as usual, a nest of vipers

806-810
806

North Africa:

Marcianus II Bulla lands in Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia) to confront the marauding Idrisids from Tripolitania, but is trounced and killed by the Muslim invaders at St. Maximus oasis in the south; the Idrisids then assault, take and raze Carthage to the ground, while the Primate of Africa, archbishop Maximus IV, takes refuge in Sicily, where a succession war quickly begins. A massive flow of refugees flees to Numidia. Peter the Brigand, a Berber chieftain of the western Atlas, conquers Tlemsen (Numidia) from Mauretania with support from Visigothic mercenaries, and founds a kingdom centered on that city

806-808

Byzantine Empire:

Abbasid forces invade and overrun most of Anatolia, conquering key fortresses like Angora and Amorion and extracting renewed tribute from Byzantium

807

Southern Europe:

In Sicily the legitimists rally in Syracuse behind empress Euphemia and the five-years-old Constantia, while the pretenders Augustin of Malta and John Chrisostratos vie for supremacy in most of the island.

Byzantine Empire:

An Abbasid fleet plunders Rhodes. The Slavs of Peloponnesus/Morea besiege Patras, but are wholly defeated and subdued by eastern Byzantine forces

808

North Africa:

The Shiite Caliph of Tripolitania and Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia) Idris II founds Tunis near the ruins of Carthage.

Southern Europe:

Frankish and Lombard forces led by emperor Charles II take Calabria, land in Sicily and crush the two pretenders to the Western Byzantine crown, then force the submission of Syracuse. Sicily, deprived of Calabria attached to the Duchy of Salerno, of Corsica attached to the (nominally Lombard) Duchy of Tuscany and of Sardinia left to cope for herself, becomes a vassal kingdom of the HRCEW, where the eleven year old Leo, son of the defunct Constantine VI of Byzantium and nephew of Charles II, will reign by marrying little Constantia Bulla: the Western Byzantine empire doesn’t exist anymore. The Papacy assumes a theoretical suzerainty over Corsica and Sardinia; in the latter, the western Byzantines had organized the four “judicates” (local provinces) of Gallura, Torres, Cagliari and Arborea.

Byzantine Empire:

Paulician revolt led by Arsaviros between Anatolia and Armenia; basileus Bardanes crushes the rebels

809

Byzantine Empire:

The Bulgarian Khan, Krum, routs the Byzantine army on the Struma, killing basileus Bardanes (with whose skull he makes a cup) and conquers Serdica/Sofia, the last Byzantine stronghold in the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans); in Constantinople, after a brief struggle, general Leo V the Armenian (an Anatolic Mardaite, actually) has himself crowned

809-813

Middle East:

In the Abbasid Caliphate the death of Harun ar-Rashid is followed by a succession war between his sons al-Amin and al-Ma’mun: the latter, based at Marv (Khorasan), prevails

810

North Africa:

The Idrisid Arabs invade Numidia and subdue several towns and tribes in the country, despite a heavy resistance.

Western Europe:

Theodoric/Pipin dies, leaving his part of the HRCEW (from Frisia to northern France and Aquitaine) to the 13 year old son Bernard; the Bretons take the opportunity to break free from Frankish control, while the Danes invade and conquer most of Frisia; Charles II, ill, can’t intervene; Louis the Pious does nothing to help

ca. 810

Far East:

The Japanese complete the submission of the Ainus in northern Honshu.

Northern Europe:

The Norwegian Vikings conquer the Alban Isles (*TTL colective name for Shetlands, Orkneys, Hebrides).

Western Europe:

The work of Pope Patricius (St. Cassian of Hibernia), who’ll be hailed as the last great Father of the Catholic Church, encourages the use of local languages in the Christian liturgy; in the centuries, first the prayers, then the very holy texts will be translated. Foundation of the HRCEW march of Vasconia/Navarra under duke Adalric of Gascony

811-815
Summary: the HRCEW shows all the frailty of Frankish succession laws and feudalism, Byzantium regains a minimum of strength, the Abbasids vie for power

811

Western Europe:

HRCEW Charles II the German dies while his son Roland is still in his teens; in the Diet of Metz, Louis the Pious enforces the system of the Majorate for the governance of the Empire (the older member of the family is crowned as emperor, no matter who was the emperor before) and has himself crowned and anointed in Rome in the place of young Roland

812

Byzantine Empire:

Khan Krum’s Bulgarians are repelled by Leo V after a most heavy siege of Adrianople and the devastation of Thrace.

North Africa:

Helped by Fredegarius’ Visigoths, the Numidians led by Peter the Brigand decisively stem the Idrisid Arab invaders, then, on the site of the battle, they found Kabylonica (*OTL Algiers).

Western Europe:

Foundation of the Frankish county of the Razès/Rennes-le-Chateau (between Carcassonne and the Pyrenees), a former Visigothic border stronghold. Brittany is again reduced to obedience by the Frankish armies.

British Isles:

Essex is vassalized by Mercia, which in turn loses suzerainty over Sussex in favor of Wessex

813

Byzantine Empire:

Krum directly tries to assault Constantinople’s wall with a large horde of Slavs, Avars and Bulgarians, but fails miserably and withdraws home.

Western Europe:

Duke Bernard of Septimania, a Jew, converts to confirm his loyalty to Louis the Pious, who is an ardent Catholic

813-826

Middle East:

Revolt by Nasr in northern Syria and Cilicia; in the end he is captured and executed by the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun

814

Byzantine Empire:

Just after Krum’s death the Bulgarians are overrun by basileus Leo V at Burtudizos (Thrace).

Western Europe:

The Council of Tours, held under the auspices of Pope Patricius (St. Cassian of Hibernia), invites the Catholic clergy to preach in the vernacular languages of Europe and North Africa (“rusticam romanam linguam”) rather than in Latin. The Venet(ic)ians move their capital from Methamaucus to the lagoon islets of Rialto: in time, the city will be called Venice.

814-815

Middle East:

Great revolt led by Abu Saraya in Kufa and Basra; when it threatens Baghdad, general Harthama crushes the rebels

ca. 815

Northern Europe:

The Yngling clan (the ruling dynasty of Vestfold) ascends the throne of Sogn in central Norway with Harald Goldbeard.

Byzantine Empire:

The Iconoclastic issue again heats the climate in Constantinople, with the monk Theodore of Studium leading the Orthodox (icon-worshipping) front.

North Africa:

The Idrisids win the favor of the local Kharijite tribes and wrest Cyrenaica from Omayyad Egypt

816-820
816-838

Caucasus:

The great Zoroastrian uprising led by Babak in Azerbaigian shatters the kingdom of Caucasian Albania, a client of the Abbasids of Baghdad but still formally Christian; Babak creates an ephemeral but strong theocratic empire based on Mazdakism but also open to Manichaean and even Hinduist influences; its very existence fosters the rise of a militant Paulicianism in Cappadocia

817

Western Europe:

At the Diet of Aquisgrana/Aachen the HRCEW Louis the Pious determines that his eldest son, Lothar, being some weeks older than Roland, has to be his successor as emperor; he also entrusts Bavaria and Aquitaine respectively to his sons Louis II and Pipin III, both with royal title, setting the countdown for the feudal implosion of the HRCEW. Roland and Bernard refuse to accept this arrangement and prepare for the inevitable clash.

Middle East:

To quell the unrest among the Shiites, the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad al-Ma’mun appoints as successor the eighth Shi’a Imam, Alì al-Rida, who a few months thereafter dies, likely poisoned

817-819

Middle East:

The disturbances in the Abbasid Caliphate reach a new heighth with the usurpation by Ibrahim al-Mubarak (a mixed-blood son of an African slave girl) in Baghdad, then al-Ma’mun retakes power and finally moves to Baghdad from his former capital at Marv. The Egyptian Omayyads of Caliph al-Hakam I, though, take advantage to conquer Palestine with Jerusalem and obtain the submission of the Holy Places of Islam in the Hijaz (Mecca and Medina)

818-819

Western Europe:

Louis the Pious defeats his nephews Roland and Bernard one at a time, respectively in the battle on the Sieg river (Westfalia) and at Arlon (Belgium). Bernard flees to Wessex, while Roland takes refuge among the Pannonian Slavs; their ban (duke) Ljudevit Posavski, then tries to bring back Roland in Italy, annihilating Carantania/Koroška on his way; he also invades and ravages Friul. Roland tries to reach Rome and his allies in the south of Italy but is killed by the Lombards at Florence, leaving Louis only emperor of the Holy Roman Catholic Empire of the West. Meantime the marquis of Friul, Cadolaus, beats back Ljudevit’s horde beyond the Alps

818-821

Central-Eastern Europe:

The Sklavinian (*OTL Balkan) Bulgarians conquer southwestern Ukraine defeating Slavs and Magyars up to Kiev

819

Western Europe:

Oliba I, son of count Borrell/Bellon, founds the county of Carcassonne.

Arabia:

Zaydi Yemen gains de facto independence from the Abbasid Caliphate

819-823

Central-Eastern Europe:

Ljudevit Posavski puts up a gallant defence of Slavic Pannonia (Croatia and Hungary west of the Danube), but in the end he is defeated and flees through Serbia; his uncle, Borna, ban of the Slavs of Liburnia and Dalmatia, jails and kills him to please the Franks.

Western Europe:

After the Papacy mediates to avoid bloodshed in Italy, Louis the Pious has to pardon the two former Rolandist dukes of Salerno and Taranto, Adalgerius and Hermann. Roland’s and Bernard’s infant sons, Pepin and the illegitimate Odoacer, are held in Louis’ court at Aquisgrana/Aachen

820

North Africa:

After mustering a strong fleet, king Leo of Sicily sails to Africa, but fails in the siege of Tunis and withdraws.

Byzantine Empire:

Basileus Leo V the Armenian foils a plot to overthrow him and kills the rebel leader, general Michael of Amorion.

Hesperia (*OTL America):

The line of kings in Xukpi/Copàn comes to an end; this Mayan city-State crumbles and is abandoned in less than ten years

ca. 820

Byzantine Empire:

The Byzantines reassert their control over the inner mountain region east of Dyrrachium and Valona, where the resistance of the Illyrians to the Slavs is resulting in the birth of the Albanian people.

Western Europe:

In the HRCEW Louis the Pious bestows even greater power on the Roman Church and local abbeys

821-825
Summary: Carolingian consolidation in the West, Byzantium suffers a revolution, Wessex gains paramountry in England

820-835

Middle-East:

Southern Iraq is shaken by the long rebellion of the Zotts, a people partly deported by the Arabs from NW India, where they were known as Jats

British Isles:

Fierce Viking raids on Western Scotland and Alba force king Angus II of Dalriada and Alba to move his capital east from Argyll

821

Central Asia:

Tahir ibn al-Husayn, governor of Baghdad and strongman of the Abbasid Caliphate, de facto carves an own State in Khorasan and northern Afghanistan with capital at Nishapur and founds the Tahirid dynasts

821-823

Byzantine Empire:

A huge revolt based on ethnic, social and religious issues (contact with Babakist/Mazdakist rebels in Azerbaigian is proved) erupts in Anatolia, led by Thomas the Slav and heartily supported by both the peasantry and the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun; Constantinople suffers two long years of siege, then, when Bulgarian khan Omurtag too overtly sides with the rebels, the imperial fleet mutinies and kills basileus Leo V; Thomas is hailed as the new ruler and pays tribute to Bulgaria

822

Central Asia:

Abbasid (Tahirid) forces finally complete the conquest of Central Asia by vassalizing the kingdom of Usrushana in the Chach/Tashkent), where Islam begins to spread.

British Isles:

Bernard is killed in Wessex upon orders of king Egbert, eager to appease Louis the Pious

822-826

Western Europe:

After another long and bloody civil war (not without Maurian, Frankish, Gallastrian and even Viking encroachments) Roderic II, Fredegarius’ nephew, ascends the Visigothic throne of Spain in Toledo and ensures dynastical continuity to the kingdom, partially reforming it according to the feudal Frankish model

823

British Isles:

Cyngen ap Cadell of North Powys repel a major Mercian invasion of Wales at the battle of Powys Castle.

Southern Europe:

The town of Gaeta, on the border between the Papal lands and the Duchy of Salerno, gains de facto independence

824

Caucasus:

Ashot III Bagratuni the Carnivore, ruler of Armenia and Iberia/Georgia, dies. Armenia is divided between his sons Smbat III the Confessor, who gets most of the country, and Bagrat I, who gets the principality of Taron replacing the local Mamikonian rulers; after six years Bagrat I will also gain the Iberian/Georgian crown

North Africa:

The Idrisids of Tunis and Lybia conquer Malta, then stage an invasion of Omayyad Egypt which is utterly repulsed at el-Daba

825

British Isles:

King Egbert’s Wessex Saxons first suffer a defeat at Galford against the Cornish, then, in alliance with the Welsh kingdoms, gain a most great victory over Mercia at Ellandon and proceed to annex Essex and Kent.

SE Asia:

Thmala founds the Mon kingdom of Pegu (southern Burma)

ca. 825

Central-Eastern Europe:

the Magyars vassalize the Onoguro-Bulgarians of Taurida (*OTL Crimea). Rise of the Greater Moravian empire north of Slavic Pannonia.

North Africa:

The Idrisids gain an effective supremacy over eastern Numidia, but conversion to Islam still is a minoritary choice, and Berber resistance, with incessant raiding by the Zenetes from the south, persists.

British Isles:

East Anglia regains complete freedom from Mercia, whose power has been shaken by the rise of Wessex

Hesperia (*OTL America):

In central Mexico the Toltec kingdom takes shape around the city of Tula

826-830
Summary: a time of general consolidation.

826

Middle East:

Upon the final quashing of Nasr’s rebellion in northern Syria, Omayyad and Abbasid forces clash just outside Damascus: the latter prevail, but Omayyad Egypt gains control over coastal Lebanon, with the Christian Marada states to act as a buffer with Abbasid Syria

North Africa:

The Idrisids conquer Pantelleria

Central-Eastern Europe:

The pathetic remains of the Avar Khaganate cease to exist and are divided between Bulgaria and Greater Moravia

827

Byzantine Empire:

Thomas the Slav, a most ineffective ruler who humiliated Byzantium with his subservience to Bulgaria, is slain in a coup by that same drungarios (chief admiral) who took him in power, Eustace, now crowned in St.Sophia as the new basileus. Eustace is an Iconophile, but doesn’t press abolition of Iconoclasm to keep the army’s loyalty

Southern Europe:

King Leo of Sicily dies without issue fighting the Idrisid invasion at the Belice river battle: a war of succession at once erupts in the areas not under Arab rule. At the Synod of Mantua a major issue is authority over the bishoprics of Histria: it is thus decided to divide the peninsula between the Patrariarchates of Aquileia (eastern part) and Grado (west), which division will remain in the centuries between Venice and the HRCEW

827-848

Middle East:

In this years a cultural renaissance blooms in Baghdad, with the translation of ancient Classical philosophy and science into Arab. The Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun creates the Mihna (sort of Islamic Inquisition) to enforce his own religious views, based on Mutazilism (a rationalistic variant of Sunni Islam, with Hellenistic philosophical influences)

828-853

India:

Maharaja Rawal Khuman II of Mewar (northwestern India) fights 24 battles against the Abbasid armies, gaining the title of “Guardian of Hinduism”

828

Southern Europe:

King Liutpert of (northern Lombardy) dies after 52 years of reign and loyal allegiance to the HRCEW; emperor Louis the Pious installs on the throne of Pavia Liutpert’s nephew Adaloald II over the deceased king’s grandson, Babila. Louis the Pious also installs Hunroch II and his young son Eberhard as rulers in the march of Friul. The Venetian traders Rustico from Torcello and Bono from Methamaucs/Malamocco steal the corpse of St. Mark the Apostle from Alexandria and bring it to Rialto/Venezia, where a church will be built for him; actually the corpse stolen is not St. Mark, but Alexander the Great! (This will be discovered many, many centuries later). In Sicily the Idrisid invaders besiege and capture Palermo and sink the once powerful Syracusan fleet in the battle of Mazara

Central-Eastern Europe:

The Bulgarians conquer lower Pannonia and stage raids up to Histria; Pannonia east of the Danube becomes known as Honoguria, from the Onogur Bulgar tribe dwelling there

828-830

British Isles:

Mercia experiences a brief takeover by Wessex, then king Wiglaf frees the country

829

Western Europe:

In the Diet of Worms HRCEW Louis the Pious entrusts Swabia and parts of Burgundy to his last son, Charles (later known as the Bald), born from his second marriage; his half-brothers don’t enjoy the news

Southern Europe:

The Idrisids rout and kill in Castrogiovanni/Enna Leontius Tyndarenus, the stronger pretender to the Syracusan throne

830

Central-Eastern Europe:

With Byzantine help the Khazars build the fortress of Sarkel to control the mouths of the Don river. Aydar, Khan of the Volga Bulgarians, establishes the Khanate of the Black Bulgarians in the Ukraine. Greater Moravia conquers Bohemia and enforces its supremacy over Slovakia and Galicia/Ruthenia: a new powerful Slavic empire is thus born

ca. 830

India:

King Amoghavarsha I Rashtrakuta, the paramount ruler of western and southern India, converts to Mazdaism.

Central Asia:

The Kirghizes gain supremacy over the lands between southern Siberia and Dzungaria.

Caucasus:

Rise of the christian kingdom of Sheka in northwestern Azerbaijan

831-835
830-831

Southern Europe:

Suitgerus, son of duke Adalgerius of Salerno, lands in Sicily but is beaten back and barricades himself in Syracuse, which falls after a terrible siege: the Idrisids now control all of Sicily

830-855

Caucasus:

Long anti-Arab revolts drag on in Bagratid Armenia; Abbasid control over the region is severely weakened

831-832

Western Europe:

In the HRCEW Lothar dethrones his father Louis the Pious, discontent at the emperor’s decision to give an appanage taken from his heritage to young Charles; then, abandoned by his brothers Pepin II of Aquitaine and Louis II the German, Lothar is forced to reinstall his father and wait his time, but imperial authority, especially in Italy, is jeopardized

831-836

Middle East:

A semi-independent emirate forms in Melitene (*OTL Malatya) on the upper Euphrates. Omayyads and Abbasids vie for control of Hijaz and its Holy Cities (Mecca, Medina), with the former keeping it

832

SE Asia:

Nanzhao (Yunnan) swallows his western neighbour, the Burmese kingdom of Pyu.

Western Europe:

Foundation of the Visigothic county of Portugal around Oporto (known in Latin as Portus Cale, whence the name)

833

Southern Europe:

The Frankish duke of Salerno, Ademarus, vassalizes Gaeta.

Central-Eastern Europe:

Mojmir, ruler of Greater Moravia, conquers the principality of Nitra (western Slovakia); its prince, Pribina, takes refuge in Slavic Pannonia.

Western Europe:

The Frisian Gerulf founds on the west side of the Zuiderzee the county of Western Frisia or Kennemerland, known in later times as Holland. The Basque kingdom of Sobrarbre is peacefully absorbed by Vasconia/Navarra upon the death of its last ruler, Sancho Garcés

833-863

Western Europe:

Incessant Viking/Norse raiding and a shift of the lower Rhine’s course bring about the abandonment of the rich trade port of Dorestad (Holland); consequently, Frisian trade supremacy in the North Sea declines

ca. 835

SE Asia:

The Srivijayan ruler, Patapan Sailendra of Sanjaya, reestablishes Hindu hegemony over Buddhism in Java.

Middle East:

Daylam (south of the Caspian Sea) anew breaks free from the Abbasid Caliphate

836-840
835-838

Byzantine Empire:

In response to Abbasid raiding in Anatolia, basileus Eustace leads successful campaigns up to northern Syria and the Euphrates

836

British Isles:

The Norwegian Vikings, led by the mixed-blood Irish-Viking Godred MacFergus, conquer the Isle of Man, abandoned by king Mervyn the Freckled, who had gained the crown of Gwynedd in Wales.

India:

Mihir Bhoja conquers Kanauj (central northern India, along the Ganges) for the Gurjara-Pratiharas and moves his capital there

837

Southern Europe:

An Idrisid fleet sacks Naples.

Central-Eastern Europe:

The Magyars again cross the Dnieper to western Ukraine

838

Western Europe:

The Venetians from Rialto sack and destroy the rival town of Comacchio, gaining permanent supremacy in the Venetic Exarchate (whose ruler keeps, though, the title of Doge, Duke). On the death of his son Pepin I, Louis the Pious bestows Aquitaine on Charles the Bald, which fact reopens never healed wounds in the Carolingian dynasty.

Byzantine Empire:

The Abbasid army counterinvades Anatolia and inflicts a grave defeat upon the Byzantines at Guziliurta, then takes and razes Caesarea Esusebia in Cappadocia

British Isles:

Wessex invades Cornwall, but the latter gets reinforcements from Brittany and repels the invaders

838-842

Far East:

The power of Tibet is severely curtailed by the fierce civil war that puts Buddhists and followers of the traditional Bon religion one against the other

838-846

British Isles:

A massive Viking invasion of Ireland, led by Thorgest, shatters for some years the succession of the Irish High Kings

839

British Isles:

The Norwegian Vikings of the Orkneys, in alliance with the Scottish prince Kenneth MacAlpin, kill king Eoganan of the united house of Fergus, ruling both Dalriada and Alba; Kenneth’s father, Alpin, is enthroned in Dalriada, while Ferach mac Bargoch, a relative of Eoganan, manages to secure the Pictish throne of Alba. In England, Sussex is de facto annexed by Wessex.

Western Europe:

At Worms Louis the Pious, having recently died Pepin of Aquitaine, revises the future division of the HRCEW Empire between his sons: Charles the Bald will gain the whole territory west of the Rhône and Somme rivers, Lothar will receive the imperial crown of as Holy Roman Catholic Emperor of the West plus the central territories of Provence, Burgundy, Rhineland, Flanders (soon collectively known as Lotharingia, whence Lorraine) and suzerainty over Italy; the German territories east of the Rhnine will be Louis II’s domain. Ranulf I becomes count of Poitou, founding the dynasty of the same name

Southern Europe:

Idrisid pirates from Sicily leak into the Adriatic Sea, defeat the Venetians and sack Ancona. The Bulgarians expand in Macedonia and Serbia under khan Malomir (their first ruler to bear a Slavic name).

839-840

Central-Eastern Europe:

The dethroned prince of Nitra (Slovakia), Pribina, ascends the throne of the Slavic Duchy of Pannonia, by now known as Balaton, a vassal of the HRCEW

839-841

Central Asia:

The prince of Usrushana, Afshin Khaydar ibn Kawush, a general in the Abbasid army, rises in rebellion but is betrayed and deported to Samarra (Iraq), where he is starved to death in jail

840

Western Europe:

HRCEW Louis I the Pious is finally deposed by his sons and dies in a monastery a broken man. Aquitaine, who should go to Charles the Bald according to Louis I’s will, rebels under Pepin II, son of Pepin I, hailed as king by local feudatories

Southern Europe:

An Idrisid fleet takes Taranto, whose duke Roland had headed north to uphold his favoured candidate, Lothar, for the imperial succession; the Idrisids establish there a Muslim emirate. Idrisid fleets also sack the coastal cities of Dalmatia and extort tribute from the Sardinian judicates. Meantime Naples rebels against duke Fulmar of Salerno and chooses as its new duke Sergius from Cuma

Byzantine Empire:

General Melissinos gains a brilliant victory against the Arabs at Daranaseia and temporarily conquers Melitene (*OTL Malatya). Idrisid pirates from Cyrenaica first choose as their base the island of Chalki near Rhodes, then, expelled by the Byzantines, assault and conquer Heraklion in Crete making it a harbor for Muslim piracy with the name of al-Khandaq.

Far East:

The second Uygur Khanate in Mongolia is overthrown by Khakassians, Khirghizes and Qarluqs, who destroy the Uygur capital, Kara Balghasun.

Central-Eastern Europe:

The Khazars vassalize Kiev and install there the Magyars under voivoda (prince) Olom. The latter will call western Ukraine Lebedia, from their chieftain, Lebedias

ca. 840

Central Asia:

The Turks begin the process of Islamization. In western Kazakhstan dwell the Oghuz, while the Qarluqs are splitting into Kimaks (in southern Siberia) and Kipchaks (in the northern Central Asian steppes).

North Africa:

St. Cyprian of Constantina finally Christianizes the northern Zenete Berbers of the desert.

Middle East:

The Abbasid Caliph of Baghad al-Mu’tasim creates an army of Turkic slaves (the Ghulams, later known as Mamluks) to counterbalance the rival factions, and particularly the dubious loyalty of the powerful Daylamite mercenaries.

Central-Eastern Europe:

Piast the Wheelmaker, from the Slavic tirbe of the Polanians, founds the kingdom of Poland, centered in the Posen-Gniezno area.

841-845
Summary: Idrisid ascendancy in the Mediterranean, the Carolingians carve the empire after a civil war, the Lombards are finally tamed

840-847

Central Asia, Far East:

Pushed ahead by the victorious Khirghizes, the Uygurs migrate en masse in the Tarim basin area of eastern Turkestan, permanently destroting Tibetan supremacy in the area. In time many of them will convert to Buddhism, already followed by the local Indo-European Tocharians, who are finally absorbed and disappear as a distinct culture. The Chinese T’ang emperor Wuzong, an ardent Taoist, persecutes all other religions: Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Manichaeans and Nestorian Christians

841

Western Europe:

Fighting soon breaks out between Lothar and Pepin II of Aquitain on one side and Charles II the Bald and Louis II the German on the other: it’s the Carolingian war of succession. Lothar and Pepin’s forces are defeated at Fontenay (near Auxerre).

Southern Europe:

Lombardy falls in chaos when Babila kills king Grimoald III and rejects Frankish overlordship: some Frankish dukes support his bid for independence, others, notably duke Unroch II of Friul, do not and resist harshly.

Byzantine Empire:

The Council of Thessalonica finally condemns Iconoclasm and reimposes Nicene Catholicism at Byzantium

Southern Europe:

The Idrisid invaders of Puglia take Bari, where they set up another emirate

British Isles:

The Norwegian Vikings found Dublin, pillage and subdue a sizable chunk of eastern Ireland

841-843

Western Europe:

Taking adavantage of the Carolingian war of succession the Vikings mount a vast pirate attack against the Frankish kingdoms: they plunder Rouen and Nantes and forever destroy Quentovic (on the Channel’s coast just opposite Kent)

842

Western Europe:

The Oath of Strasbourg seals the alliance between Charles the Bald and Louis the German against Lothar and attests the birth of the French and German languages. The Visigoths of Spain, taking advantage of the Carolingian war of succession, reject Frankish overlorship and try to subdue Vasconia/Navarra but are heavily routed by marquis Siguin II

Southern Europe:

In Lombardy the independentist faction led by the usurper Babila overcomes the loyalist dukes at the battle of Corteolona, near Pavia

North Africa:

Constantina resists a long Idrisid siege; it preserves independence and Christianity, though at the price of vassalage to Tunis

843

Western Europe:

The Treaty of Verdun divides the HRCEW in three parts and, by an irony, confirms Louis the Pious’ will at the last Diet of Worms. Charles III the Bald gains Carolingia or West Francia (France proper) with Pepin II as sub-king in Aquitaine, Louis/Ludwig II gets East Francia/Germany, Lothar the imperial crown plus Lotharingia (Burgundy, the Netherlands, Provence, Rhineland), overlorship over Romancia and a pledge by his brothers to help him in the reconquest of Italy, to be made another Frankish kingdom for Lothar’s son Louis

844

Southern Europe:

The Frankish army, united for the last time, storms into Lombardy through allied Romancia (*OTL eastern Switzerland and Valtellina) and annihilates Babila’s army at the battle of Castelseprio, thus forever ending Lombard power in northern and central Italy; even duke Berengarius of formerly independent Spoleto, having supported Babila is forcibly deposed and replaced with the Frank Guido I. Lothar’s son, Louis, is crowned in Rome by Pope Sergius II as Louis I of Italy (and later Louis II as emperor). The Idrisids, now masters of the central Mediterranean, take the sea-trading towns of Gaeta and Amalfi, where they establish two local emirates; duke Fulmar of Salerno moves against them but is defeated and captured and will end his days as a slave

Western Europe:

Duke Bernard of Septimania is executed on orders of the king of West Francia Charles III the Bald (five years later his son William will meet the same fate); the Judeo-Christian Duchy thus reverts to the Eastern Frankish crown, but the region will remain a hotbed of unorthodox feeling and a world center of Jewry for centuries.

Byzantine Empire:

The Byzantine fleet briefly retakes Heraklion /al-Khandaq on Crete, but the Arabs rapidly oust the imperial forces

845

North Africa:

The Berghawata general Simon of Arzaya repels the last Visigothic attempt to conquer Mauretania by king Theodoric V, defeated and killed in the failed siege of Ulili, the Maurian capital.

Western Europe:

Duke Nominoë’s Bretons heavily defeat the Western Franks at Redon and regain full independence; meantime a Danish Viking fleet led by king Ragnar Lodbrok plunders northern France, conquers Paris itself and extorts rich tributes from Charles the Bald.

British Isles:

The Vikings conquer Limerick in Ireland and establish a local kingdom there.

Central-Eastern Europe:

Borivoi I becomes duke of Bohemia under Greater Moravian suzerainty, thus establishing the Premyslid dynasty.

846-850
846

Southern Europe:

The Idrisids conquer Naples, then fiercely sack Rome itself. St.Peter’s is set ablaze and Pope Sergius II is martyred on the spot, then Guido I of Spoleto with a crack force chases away the Arabs. All of southern Italy is now in Muslim hands

847

Southern Europe:

The new Pope Leo IV the Great and Louis, Lothar’s son and king of Italy, fortify Rome against further Muslim aggression, Louis turns them on the Idrisids retaking from them vast swathes of southern Italy, but is unable to retake the coastal cities, lacking a fleet on par with the Muslim one

British Isles:

Kenneth mac Alpin, king of Dalriada, tries to eliminate the Pictish royal family but is killed by Drust IX MacFergach of the MacFergus dynasty of Alba, which now comes to rule also the Scots; from now on Dalriada/Scotland and Alba will remain two distinct kingdoms in personal union under a single king.

Western Europe:

The Vikings sack Bordeaux, which gives herself from Aquitaine to Charles III the Bald’s Western Francia for protection

848

Middle East:

The Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil quits the Mihna (a sort of Islamic inquisition) and leaves the intepretation of the Q’uran to the Sunni Council of the Ulema, who proceed to elect a Wali, or supreme guardian of the faith; in time this figure will gain the prestige of a Sunni Islamic Pope. Meantime the Shiites are still persecuted and non-Muslims suffer strong discrimination.

British Isles:

The Irish defeat the Vikings at Cork, freeing the town.

Central Asia:

Balkh (northern Afghanistan) gains independence under the Bani Juris

850

Southern Europe:

A second Idrisid assault against Rome is routed at the battle of Ostia by Louis II, who is afterwards anointed as coemperor of his father Lothar by Pope Leo IV.

Central Asia:

Kol Bilge Kara Khan founds the Qarluq-Uygur Karakhanid clan in Transoxiana (Central Asia). Pan Tegin/Mangri establishes the Uygur kingdom of Turfan in eastern Turkestan.

Western Europe:

Rurik, son of the duke of the Abodrites (Slavs of northeastern Germany) Godoslav and maternal nephew of duke Gostomysl of Novgorod, but raised among the Danes in Frisia, conquers Dorestad, the capital of Frisia.

Northern Europe:

The Norwegians of Vestfold are ousted from Vendeyssel (the northern “tip” of Jutland)

British Isles:

Cornwall counter-invades Wessex with Viking help, but the Saxons win at Hingston Down

ca. 850

India:

The Gurjara-Pratiharas unify most of northern India under Mihir Bhoja, blocking the expansion of the Abbasid Caliphate and his successor states. Buddhism disappears frm northern India, surviving only east of Bihar and in southern Deccan.

Central-Eastern Europe:

the great župan (prince) Vlastimir of Raška/Kosovo rejects Bulgarian overlordship accepting, instead, that of Byzantium; this starts the Orthodox Christianization of the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans). The Slavic Duchy of Triballia emerges between Zahumlje (future Hercegovina) and Raška/Kosovo

SE Asia:

King Pyinbya founds Pagan as capital of his kingdom in central Burma. Buddhism begins to replace Hinduism in the kingdom of Champa (*OTL southern Vietnam).

Byzantine Empire:

The Paulicians, helped by the Arab emitrate of Melitene (*OTL Malatya), break free between Anatolia and Cappadocia under the leadership of Carbeas, rejecting Byzantine authority and building an own State centered at Tephrike (*OTL Divrigi)

Western Europe:

The Danes invade Zeeland, making it a base for their pirate raids

Northern Europe:

The Norwegian kingdom of Vestfold, in its way to national unification, conquers the petty kingdom of Svithjod, a former vassal to Sogn

British Isles:

The Norwegian Vikings conquer the Hebrides

Black Africa:

The kingdom of Bornu is founded north of Lake Chad

Central Hesperia (*OTL America):

The strong Mayan kingdom of Uxmal arises in northern Yucatàn.