Timeline 1020-1040 (Interference)

1026-1030
1026 

Southern Europe:

King William I of Burgundy/Provence dies, succeeded by his son Berenger I. Count Corrado of Canossa quells another anti-Papal revolt in Ravenna, then dies by malaria and his lands revert to his brother, margrave Bonifacio of Tuscany. King Pipino I of Lombardy (*OTL Ottone son of Arduin) tries a half-hearted invasion of Emilia to hamper the reunification of the Canossa domains, but is quickly repulsed; the Canossas, though not overtly rejecting Lombard suzerainty, keep on ruling their lands as sovereigns in all but word

1027

Northern Europe:

Conrad the Salian narrowly wins the bloody battle of Ochsenfurt against Frederick of Luxembourg, but the German succession war still drags on

Southern Europe:

Romancia (*OTL eastern Switzerland plus Vorarlberg and Valtellina) detaches herself from Germany during the succession war rampaging there, and hails as king Pipino I of Lombardy, who'll hold the two crowns in dynastical union. Ariberto of Intimiano, archbishop of Milan, clashes with king Pipino I of Lombardy over the appointment of the bishop of Lodi. He thereafter tries the heretic Cathars of Monforte (Piedmont) and has them burnt at the stake :mad: in Milan, but their faith will gain a foothold in the same city with the birth of the Pataria movement. The Pechenegs, routed by the Rus' of Kiev, head south across the Danube invading the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans), but are thwarted by the Byzantine general Constantine Diogenes. Central-Eastern Europe:

The king of Hungary Stephen I the Saint conquers Slovakia from the Poles, making it an appanage duchy for the heirs to the Hungarian throne. Caucasus:

A Zoroastrian uprising led by Manushir I of the Kesrani warrior clan overthrows the Yazidid dynasty in the emirate of Shirvan (Azerbaijan).

Central Hesperia (*OTL America):

In Yucatàn the decline of Uxmal is followed by the ascendancy of Chichén Itzà, resettled by the Tutul Xiu after an era of abandonment; the southern Maya lands (Guatemala, highlands), once rich and populated in the heyday of Classical Maya age, are now the ghost of their former self.

1028 

Northern Europe:

Olaf II “the Saint” of Norway is defeated and killed by the rebels in the service of Knut/Canute the Great, whose empire now stretches from England to the Baltic and from Schleswig to the Arctic Sea.

North Africa:

Viceroy John of Sicily and Ifrigia (later Punia, *OTL Tunisia) campaigns in Numidia, subduing several local states (notably Constantina) to Western Byzantine authority. Central Asia:

The Sunni Wali (*the Muslim ”Pope” in TTL) Abdallah VI relocates from Derbent to Samarkand, whence the Muslim Karakhanid rulers expel all unbelievers (Nestorians, Manichaeans, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Jews...) to make it a “pure” Islamic city, worthy of hosting the saintly Walis. Thus Samarkand becomes one of the foremost Muslim “holy cities”

Far East:

The XiXia Tangut kingdom conquers the Uygur khanate of Kan-chou.

1028-1030

Central-Eastern Europe:

King Stephen I of Hungary, allied with Frederick of Luxembourg, raids Austria and Carinthia.

1029

Southern Europe:

Marquard III of Eppenstein is given the castle and town of Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia) from his father-in-law, the Patriarch of Aquileia Wolfgang/Poppo von Treffen

Central Asia:

Mahmud of Ghazna takes Rayy from the last Justanids of Daylam and drives the Fatimids from central Persia/Iran; Tagh ad-Din I Nasr ibn Ahmad founds the Nasrid dyansty in Seistan as a Ghaznavid vassal.

1030

Northern Europe:

Conrad the Salian is killed by treason :mad: by his former supporter, duke Ernest of Swabia, thus ending the long German succession war with the final accession to the throne of Frederick and the establishment of the Luxemburg dynasty in Germany Southern Europe:

The Norman Rainulf Drengot, helped by Pisa, invades northern Sardinia, wresting the judicate (kingdom) of Torres from king Gonario, a client of Magonian the Black's Balearic pirates. Rainulf becomes the first Norman judge (king) of Sardinia, marking the start of Norman encroachments in the island

Black Africa:

Conversion to Islam of the Songhai kingdom under Kosoy Muslim Dam.

Middle East:

The Byzantine army suffers a grave defeat at the battle of Edessa (*OTL Urfa) against the Arab Fatimid-Numayrid army.

Central Asia:

Driven south by the raiding Kipchak/Cumans, who rule the steppes between the Don and the Irtyš rivers, the Seljuks invade and desolate Khorassan under the leadership of Chagri and Tughril Beg, two grandsons of Seljuk. After suffering defeat in battle at the hands of the Ghaznavids, the Seljuks resort to guerrilla and live off the land, migrating further west across the north of Persia. ca. 1030

Southern Europe:

The united fleets of the Tyrrenian sea trading towns, both Lombard and independent or imperial (Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi and Gaeta) expel the Balearic pirates from the waters of Sardinia; the islands' judicates-kingdoms accept a vague Pisan overlorship, but the real masters are the Normans in Torres and the southern native judicates, Arborea and Cagliari/Santa Igia.

Central Asia:

The Ghaznavids vassalize Tabaristan (which has reverted back to Shiism in the last decades).

Northern Hesperia (*OTL America):

The Norsemen of Vinlandria (*OTL Newfoundland) explore the coasts of northern Hesperia (*OTL America) from Helluland Sound (*OTL Baffin Bay) up to New Palestine (*OTL Massachussetts); the extent of their discoveries, though, goes completely unnoticed in Europe, where it feebly echoes as a Scandinavian saga no more credible than those on sea monsters of trolls:D.

Central Hesperia (*OTL America):

Prophet Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Snake, kills himself upon a burial stake after gaining a wide following among the Mayans too with the name of Cuculcàn.

1031-1035
1031 

Central-Eastern Europe:

Polish power declines following the usurpation of Bezprym against his younger step-brother Mieczisław/Mieszko II: the resurgent Germans wrest Lusatia from Polish influence, the duke of Bohemia Břetislav the Great reconquers Moravia, prince Jaroslav I of Kiev occupies Transcarpathian Ruthenia (east of the Carpathian range), king Canute/Knut II the Great of Denmark, Norway and England seizes Pomerania.

Southern Europe:

Civil war erupts in southern Italy between emperor Peter and his nephew John II, ruling over Sicily and Ifrigia (later Punia, *OTL Tunisia), who invades Calabria, taking Reggio and Crotone; the naval battle of Capo Palinuro, though, is won by the emperor's forces led by his son, Theophylactus II. The bishop of Trient (*OTL Trento), Ulrich II, is made the first prince-bishop of the town by king Frederick I of Germany.

1032 Western Europe:

Following a brief war over feudal rights, France wrests back Auvergne from Aquitainian possession. Poitou and Limoges are instead recognized to Aquitaine

Central-Eastern Europe:

Germany anew vassalizes Poland by restoring Mieczisław/Mieszko II on the throne (actually the country is carved between the king and two of his relatives).

Southern Europe:

John XV (*OTL John XIX) dies in Rome, succeeded as Pope and king of Italy-Spoleto by his unworthy :mad: nephew Benedict IX, a young puppet in the hands of emperor Peter. The Western Byzantine civil war sees the involvement of mercenaries (Normans from Corsica, Sardinia, Albania and Normandy proper, Numidians from Africa) and soon reduces to low-level fighting in southern Italy. In Gaeta local power is wrested from the Docibile family, who made the error of supporting John II of Sicily and Ifrigia:o ; the town becomes a Norman duchy, giving the French warriors their first stronghold in southern Italy. A Byzantine fleet helped by ships from Ragusa/Dubrovnik and Bari defeats the Cyrenaic pirates in the Ionian sea.

Byzantine Empire, Middle East:

General George Maniaces reaffirms Byzantine authority in Syria in a brilliant campaign aginst the Fatimids and Numayrids, climaxing in the capture of Edessa (*OTL Urfa). A few weeks later basileus-Czar John I Vladislav is murdered with his heir Constantine in a plot schemed by his second son Alusian, who then forces Patriarch Alexius Studites to crown him; but Alusian's two surviving brothers, Troianos and Gabriel, manage to escape to Anatolia and swear revenge over him.

Central Asia:

The Karakhanid Empire fragments into a western part with Samarkand (now the capital at the expense of the “infidel” Bukhara, still majority non–Muslim and inhabited by Jews, Nestorian and Zoroastrians) and an eastern half with Kashgar, Balasaghun (the ancient Uighur capital in Mongolia), the Tarim basin, Dzungaria and parts of Mongolia

1033

Western Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East:

To celebrate the millenary of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, the Catholic Church launches “God's Truce”: the feuding knights must not fight each other from Thursday to Monday; this norm will be applied “cum grano salis” :o. Always in the wake of the millennial celebrations, many rulers of Christian Europe go to pilgrimage to Jerusalem :) with thousands of their subjects, coming into contact with the cultures of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The wave of millenarism also causes massacres of Jews :eek: from France to Germany.

Western Europe:

Young king Frederick III of Lorraine dies at 13, leaving to rule the country her elder sister Beatrice under the patronage of her relative, king Henry II of Luxemburg. The county of Limburg is founded in eastern Belgium.

India:

A Ghaznavid army suffers a massive defeat in Awadh (region of Benares/Varanasi, India) at the hands of a Hindu alliance of local rulers; Muslim encroachment in India is put to an end

1033-1034

Western Europe:

Count Eudes I of Champagne invades Burgundy, citing the violation of his feudal rights in border areas; his campaign, though, founders after the failed siege of Geneva, which is thereafter made a county by king Berenger I of Burgundy; Humbert Blanchemain, the loyal conestable of Burgundy, is made count of Savoy. In the end the Champagne ruler is bought off with the cession of certain commercial rights and provileges

Southern Europe:

the Western Byzantine civil war grinds to an effective halt with John II in control of Sicily, Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia) and Calabria, Bari in control of much of central Puglia and the Normans in Gaeta. Emperor Peter sends his heir Theophylactus II in Naples to bolster local defenses

Byzantine Empire:

Fratricide war is waged between the usurper Alusian and his brothers Troianos and Gabriel, supported by most of the army under the leadership of George Maniaces and Constantine Diogenes. Alusian resists by barricading himself in Constantinople and keeping the loyalty of the fleet, till the clergy manages to stage a popular rebellion who end in the blinding :eek: and imprisonment of the usurper. Troianos and Gabriel are jointly crowned as co-emperors for Europe and Asia respectively; the Bulgarian crown, though, goes to Troianos only, as the elder heir

1034-1041

Central-Eastern Europe:

The last great pagan uprising happens in Poland; monasteries are burnt to ashes, the clergy massacred by the heathens. The rebellion is utterly crushed in the end, but Greater Poland is so completely devastated that the core of the Polish nation shifts south to Lesser Poland and Cracow

1034-1060

Central Asia:

The western half of the Karakhanid domains falls prey to a long and chaotic civil war who opens the road for Seljuk ascendancy in Central Asia

1035

Western Europe:

King Baldwin III of France dies, succeeded by his son Baldwin IV the Pilgrim (so called for his recent pilgrimage to Jerusalem)

Southern Europe:

The feudatories and the inhabitants of Lodi rebel against the abuses committed by the powerful archbishop of Milan, Ariberto of Intimiano; Lodisan and Milanese forces clash in the battle of Campomalo near San Colombano hill, only a few miles from king Pipino I's capital in Pavia:o. Then the king of Lombardy steps in to settle the affair, ensuring the hostily of the archbishop and of the Milanese at large. In the meantime the absentee marquis of Milan (a title by now devoid of any significance), Azzone II degli Obertenghi, settles down at Este (Veneto), whence his descendants will take the family name.

Northern Europe, British Isles:

Norway anew rejects the Danish yoke under the leadership of Magnus I the Good, a stepson of Olaf II “the Saint”. At the same time Canute/Knut II the Great dies and his Norse empire is carved among his sons:( : England is seized by the illegitimate Harold I, Denmark and (theoretically) Norway go to Harthacanute, born by the marriage between Canute and Emma, widow of the Anglo-Saxon king Ethelred the Unready.

1036-1040
1035-1040 Southern Europe:

Stefan Vojislav rebels against Byzantine overlordship in Duklja/Zeta/Melanoria (*OTL Montenegro); at first he is defeated and exiled to Smyrna, thereafter he manages to escape and wage a successful guerrilla war in his mountains

1036

British Isles:

Alfred the Ætheling, son of the former Anglo-Saxon king Ethelred the Unready, comes back to England from Hungary along with his brother Edward to restore the Cerdicingas on the English throne, but is caught and killed by the Viking ruler Harold I Harefoot; Edward saves his own life and flees to his young relative, duke William of Normandy:eek:

Central-Eastern Europe:

The Oghuz Turks (Ouzoi) invade Ukraine and push the fleeing Pechenegs towards the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans). The kingdom of Tmutarakan, already ruled by a Rurikid branch, is annexed by Kiev; on the contrary Volhynia splits from Kiev under Svjatoslav I, a nephew of its former ruler Vsevolod I

Far East:

The Tangut XiXia kingdom finally defeats the Uygurs; it gets control over the Gansu corridor between China and eastern Turkestan. 1037

Western Europe:

Count Eudes II of Champagne tries to enforce a marriage between queen Beatrice of Lorraine and his own son, Thibaut, but dies in battle against Luxemburgian forces at Bar.

Southern Europe:

King Pipino I of Lombardy is rejected by the Milanese populace after his alleged offenses to the archbishop of Milan, the powerful Ariberto of Intimiano. He puts the city under siege and extorts a tax from it :D before leaving to his capital in Pavia. Byzantine Empire, Middle East:

The Byzantines led by George Maniaces successfully reconquer the island of Cyprus from the Fatimids

1037-1042

Middle East:

The Fatimids temporarily recapture Aleppo thanks to Anushtegin's Turkic mercenaries; after a protracted struggle and repeated Byzantine campaigns the city comes back into Mirdasid hands. During this campaigns a Norwegian of royal Yngling ancestry, Harald Hardradi:eek:, proves his valor along with his Viking mercenaries

1038

Western Europe:

Beatrice, queen of Lorraine, marries her distant cousin Giselbert, count of Salm and Longwy and younger brother of king Henry II of Luxemburg.

Southern Europe:

The unworthy Pope and king of Italy/Spoleto Benedict IX is deposed:D after an infamous six years-rule by a council of bishops held in Rome and replaced with the more suitable John XVI. The council was summoned by Benedict's disgusted former patron, emperor Peter. John II of Sicily and Ifrigia (later Punia, *OTL Tunisia) catches the moment to resume the fight in southern Italy, claiming an act of violence has been performed against the Papacy:p. The Normans in Gaeta in turn switch side :rolleyes: passing with John: they defeat and kill emperor Peter's son, Theophylactus II, at the battle of Capua, thereafter extending their domain to most of Campania, except Naples, Salerno, Amalfi, Sorrento, who pledge obedience to John II.

Central-Eastern Europe:

King Stephen I the Saint of Hungary dies; he is succeeded by his nephew Pietro Orseolo, son of the former Doge of Venice, Otone

India:

Vajrahasta III of the Eastern Gangas becomes Lord of Trikalinga, marking the beginning of the dynasty's rule over Orissa

Far East:

Li Yuanhao, king of the Xixia Tanguts, proclaims himself emperor (Huangdi) and claims the lands held centuries before by the Toba/northern Wei empire.

1038-1040

Southern Europe:

Civil war rages in southern Italy till emperor Peter is ousted from Rome by a revolt led by the Tuscolo family, after which John XVI is deposed and mutilated :mad: and the unworthy Benedict IX reinstated :mad: :mad: as Pope and king of Italy/Spoleto (more and more a theoretical title). Emperor Peter flees to Sardinia, where he abdicates and retires to a monastery. His nephew John II, though taking for himself the Roman (Western Byzantine) imperial title, will never try to enter Rome due to his distrust of the Normans controlling the best lands of of southwestern Italy, and Rome's domination by the now anti-imperial Tuscolo family.

Central-Eastern Europe:

The duke of Bohemia, Břetislav the Great, conquers Silesia, Cracow and, taking advantage of the rampaging chaos, the entirety of Poland

1039

Southern Europe:

The Western Byzantine emperor John II crushes the revolt of Amalfi against his trade taxes; for the Campanian sea-trading powerhouse this marks the beginning of decline

1039-1041

British Isles:

Siward Bjornsson reunifies all of Northumbria under his rule

1040

British Isles:

Harthacanute lands in England just weeks afetr the death of his rival step-brother, Harold I, and gets the English crown in addition to the Danish one

Southern Europe:

Lombardy: king Pipino I makes peace with the Archbishop of Milan, Ariberto of Intimiano. He also concedes the heritability of minor fiefs to counter the power of the Lombard magnates (“capitanei”) and of the Milanese Church. The king of Germany, Frederick I, makes Histria a margraviate splitting it from Carinthia.

Byzantine Empire:

Basileus-Czar Troianos suddenly dies, leaving his brother Gabriel as the only heir to both Byzantium and Bulgaria.

Central Asia:

Massud, son and heir of the great Mahmud of Ghazna, is heavily defeated at the hands of the Seljuk Turks in the battle of Dandanqan and has to withdraw behind the Hindu Kush range; the Seljuks now master northern Persia/Iran and Khorassan, having also gained obedience from Tabaristan.

Arabia:

Aden (Yemen) secedes from the Fatimid Empire under Alì ibn Muhammad al-Sulayhi

ca. 1040

Southern Europe:

The (nominal) marquis of Milan, Azzone II degli Obertenghi, marries Kunigunde, sister of the duke of Carinthia Welf III; their descendants will form the Welf dynasty, destined to gain influence in Germany.

1041-1045
1040-1042

British Isles:

Harthacanute rules England with an iron fist and heavy taxation. Lady Godiva, wife of the earl of Mercia Leofric, rides naked :D through the streets of Coventry to protest against the taxes, gaining a tax cut for her people

Southern Europe:

When the new basileus-Czar, Gabriel, yields to pressures from the Patriarch of Constantinople, Alexius Studites, and abolishes the autonomous Bulgarian Patriarchate of Ohrid, a huge revolt explodes throughout the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans). The rebels, both Orthodox Christians and heretic Bogomils, come to be led by a distant relative of the Byzantine ruler, Demetrius Sclavenus. Despite the rapid fall of Ohrid and the atrocities inflicted upon the Bulgarian rebels by general George Maniaces:eek:, succeeded at the head of the Byzantine counteroffensive to Constantine Diogenes, and by his Norman-Albanian allies, the rebellion cannot be crushed easily and the insurgents manage to hold north of the Vlakorai (*OTL Balkan range proper) building a viable independent State along the lower Danube, where Demetrius proclaims himslef the only true Czar of the Bulgarians.

1041

Central-Eastern Europe:

The king of Germany, Frederick I, invades Bohemia, now become too strong a neighbour for his tastes, but his campaign soon founders due to the felony of most German dukes who withdraw their armies. Břetislav the Great, duke of Bohemia, can thus solidify his hold on Poland and proclaim himself king of both countries. His main ally are the still heathen Pomeranian Slavs

Central Asia:

The eastern branch of the Oghuz/Ouzoi Turks, the Turkmens, conquer Khorezm, which undergoes a deep Turkicization; the Seljuks prop up a client kingdom in Kerman (Persia/Iran).

1041-1044

Norhern Europe:

a new useless war is fought in Germany between Frederick I and his disloyal vassals; despite the intervention of Luxemburgian and Lorrainese forces the final settlement leaves the situation unchanged, and Frederick's power jeopardized

Southern Europe:

A harsh civil war, punctuated by brief truces brokered by the king of Lombardy, Pipino, divides the people and the higher feudatories of Milan and its neighbourhood; the final peace settlement brings along the birth of the Milanese Comune, leaving the local Archbishop, Ariberto of Intimiano, ousted from the city in the early phase of the war, as the only true loser :D. Central-Eastern Europe:

A last pagan reaction rages also in Hungary: Sàmuel Aba, brother-in-law of the deceased king Stephen I the Saint, takes the power but is later murdered, and Pietro Orseolo regains the Hungarian throne

1042 British Isles, Northern Europe:

Harthacanute dies, leaving the English throne to his half-brother Edward the Confessor (they shared the same mother, queen Emma of England). Viking power is thus curtailed in England, where the Anglo-Saxon Cerdicingas dynasty comes back to power. Denmark, instead, passes under the power of the king of Norway, Magnus I the Good.

Southern Europe:

George Maniaces ravages Macedonia and Raška/Kosovo with his Viking and Norman mercenaries, then his army suffers a serious setback at the battle of Tudjemili against prince Stefan Vojislav, who gains full independence from Byzantium for Duklja/Melanoria (*OTL Montenegro). The army of the Aquileia Patriarchate sacks nearby Grado, sealing its final decline as a Venetian outpost.

Central-Eastern Europe:

Casimir I, the Piast heir to the Polish throne (now held by the Bohemian Břetislav the Great), regains control of estern Poland minus Cracow with help from his Kievan Rus' allies

Central Asia:

The Seljuks conquer Rayy (central Persia/Iran).

SE Asia:

Upon his death, king Airlingga of Mataram/Kediri divides his kingdom between his two sons Rakai Halu and Anak Wungsu; the two branches of the family will fight long internecine wars

1043

Northern Europe:

King Magnus I of Denmark and Norway trounces once and for all the heathen Viking-Slavic pirate brotherhood of Wollin/Jomsborg (western Pomerania) by destoying its base, then annihilates a Wendic (Slavic) invading horde at Lyrskov Hede (Jutland)

Byzantine Empire:

George Maniaces, recalled from the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans), fearing for his life rebels against basileus-Czar Gabriel, defeating imperial forces and killing their leader, the Armenian general Leo Tornikios. He then sets up for a long siege of Constantinople, posing as a champion and restorer of the “Roman” (Greek) character of the empire against the “Bulgarian” Komitopouloi. 1044

Southern Europe:

Upon the death of Alberico III, strongmen of the counts of Tuscolo in Rome, his rival relatives of the Crescenzi family depose and murder Alberico's son, the infamous Pope-king Benedict IX, replacing him with John XVII (*OTL Silvester III). In response, the Normans of southern Italy, now led by William “Iron Arm” of Hauteville and his brothers, carve the principality of Boiano out of chaos-ridden Molise and Papal Abruzzo.

Byzantine Empire:

George Maniaces, with his Viking, Norman, Albaniana and Pecheneg troops massacres a loyalist army reinforced by Russians and Ouzoi at the great battle of Megalosfakion; his partisans then set up a revolt in Constantinople which topples the defeated basileus Gabriel, who is killed by the populace along with his heirs. Thus ends in blood the Komitopouloi dynasty, after only 49 years:(.

SE Asia:

The Dai Viet/Vietnamese fleet defeats the Chams and plunders the Champa kingdom, killing its ruler Jaya Sinhavarman II

1045 Northern Europe:

Harald Hardradi, come back after his famous Byzantine feats of arms, becomes the de facto ruler of Norway on behalf of king Magnus I the Good

Western Europe:

Gallastria (*OTL Galicia and Asturias), ruled by the strong Pedro I the Great, breaks free from Maurian Spain's suzerainty

North Africa:

Tripolitania secedes from the Cyrenaic emirate under the local paramaount tribe, the Beni Khazran.

Byzantine Empire:

George I Maniaces proclaims the annexation of Bulgaria into the empire; this only serves to further extend rebel activity in the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans)

SE Asia:

Srivijaya regains control over Malaya.

1046-1050
1046

Northern Europe:

The Duchy of “Slavia” (Schlawe, western Pomerania/Mecklenburg) is first named in historical records as a disloyal subject of Germany, a nest of paganism and a close ally of Bohemia.

Southern Europe:

Count Guido I of Pombia and Biandrate,a distant cousin of king Pipino I of Lombardy, marries Adelaide, countess of Turin and marquess of Susa, thus sealing the paramountry of the Biandrate clan north of the Po and west of the Ticino river; the king's domains consist instead of the ancestral lands of Canavese (Ivrea) and many holdings along the middle Po, from the boundaries of Montferrat to Cremona

Central-Eastern Europe:

The Arpadid male line regains the throne of Hungary with Àndras I the Catholic.

Caucasus:

King Gagik II of Armenia is jailed by treason :mad: in Constantinople and Byzantium gets the strategic fortress and capital of Armenia, Ani.

India:

The Thakuri dynasty succeeds to the Raghavadevas on the throne of Nepal

1046-1049

Southern Europe:

George I Maniaces wages a merciless campaign which uproots the Bulgarian rebellion up to the Danube, earning the nickname “the Bloody” :eek:. The last stages of the campaign see the Pechenegs stage fierce raids against the Bulgarian rebels and raze their capital, Preslav. Bulgaria is tamed and made into separate themes of the Byzantine empire, but at a very high cost in lives; the Bogomil heretics flee to Serbia and thence to Bosnia in the thousands

1047 

Northern Europe:

Harald Hardradi becomes king of Norway upon the death of Magnus I the Good, whereas Denmark comes to be ruled by Sven II, a nephew of Canute/Knut II the Great

Western Europe:

Upon the death of king Henry II of Luxemburg the county is de facto merged with Lorraine, where Henry's younger brother and heir Giselbert reigns with his wife and cousin, Beatrice

1047-1048 Southern Europe:

Emperor John II wages war against the Normans for control over Campania and Sardinia, and allegedly :rolleyes: to give back Abruzzo to the Papal kingdom of Italy/Spoleto. The outcome is almost nil in southern Italy, with the emperor recovering parts of inner Campania, and negative in Sardinia:D, where the local Normans vassalize the Sardinian judicates.

1048

Caucasus:

The Byzantine and Georgian armies thwart a first Seljuk raid into the Caucasus at the battle of Stragna.

Central Asia:

The Seljuks gain suzerainty over Nasrid Seistan. 1049

Byzantine Empire:

George I Maniaces breaks his tactical alliance with the Pechenegs and defeats them heavily at Stara Zagora.

Central-Eastern Europe:

Casimir I the Restorer frees western Poland and Cracow :) from the Bohemian yoke, thus reunifying the country; he is afterwards soundly defeated in Silesia, which remains a Bohemian holding

1049-1050

North Africa:

The Banu Suleiman and the Banu Hilal, savage Bedouin tribes :eek: from the Arabian desert, devastate Egypt opening the road for the swift Fatimid conquest :( of the already decayed Omayyad Caliphate. The two tribes then go on to overthrow the emirates of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania respectively, settling there as the new local masters of Mediterranean Lybia, which is fully Arabicized :(

1050 Northern Europe:

Harald Hardradi sacks and burns the Danish sea-trading town on the Baltic coast of Schleswig, Hedeby

Southern Europe:

The Patriarchate of Aquileia, from its see in Zividal (*OTL Cividale), has its paramountry over Friul officially sanctioned by king Frederick I of Germany, who also makes Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia) a county.

Byzantine Empire, Middle East:

Basileus George I Maniaces finally recaptures Antioch :) from the Fatimids

ca. 1050 British Isles:

In central Ireland the kingdom of O’Failghe/Offaly is established under the O’Connor clan, while the Viking stronghold of Waterford is conquered by Leinster

Western Europe:

Throughout continental Europe Roman law is restored over Germanic (Frankish, Lombard etc.) laws, marking the true end of the Dark Ages.

Southern Europe:

Albert I founds the dynasty of the counts of Tyrol (from his castle above Meran). In Dalmatia Zara emerges as the most powerful coastal town, often in revolt against Venetian suzerainty. In Sardinia the Norman judge (king) Robert I of Torres, is proclaimed overlord for the entire island, receiving the feudal homage of the Norman feudatories and the other three Sardinian judge-kings of Gallura, Arborea and Santa Igia/Cagliari. North Africa:

Islamization of the Zaghawa Berbers, dwelling between Lybia and Chad, in the heart of the Zenete Desert (*OTL Sahara); they are converted to Sunnism of the Caliphist (*maintaining there has to be a Caliph, not the Wali/”Pope” of Samarkand) branch.

Caucasus:

The Alans drive the Georgians from Avaristan (Daghestan). Black Africa:

The kingdom of Takrur (Senegal) converts to Christianity under king War Jabi thanks to missionary efforts from Ghana; black African Christian doctrine, though, is quite distant from standard Catholicism and influenced by Judaism and local traditional beliefs. Baramanda founds the kingdom of Mali

Southern Africa:

The century-long wave of Bantu migrations reaches South Africa, where Bantoid peoples establish several kingdoms among the local Khoisan/Bushmen natives.

India:

The philosopher-king Bhoja I brings the kingdom of Malwa (India central) to its political and cultural heyday.

SE Asia:

King Anawratha of Pagan makes his city the main powerhouse of Burma by conquering the narby kingdom of Pegu.

Far East:

In China the navigational compass is developed; its use will quickly spread, through the Indian, Persian and Arab world, to the Mediterranean and Europe.