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Year 856 (DCCCLVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
- March 15 – Emperor Michael III overthrows the regency of his mother Theodora. He appoints his uncle Bardas as the de facto regent and co-ruler of the Byzantine Empire.[1]
Europe
- King Charles the Bald cedes the county of Maine to Erispoe, ruler (duke) of Brittany—this in return for an alliance against the Vikings.
- King Ordoño I of Asturias is said to have begun the repopulation of the town of León in the northwest of Spain (approximate date).
Britain
- October 1 – King Æthelwulf of Wessex marries the 12- or 13-year-old Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, at Verberie (Northern France). She is crowned queen and anointed by Hincmar, archbishop of Reims. The marriage is a diplomatic alliance between Wessex and the West Frankish Kingdom.[2]
- Winter – Æthelwulf returns to Wessex to face a revolt by his eldest son Æthelbald, who usurps the throne. Æthelwulf agrees to give up the western part of his kingdom, in order to avoid a civil war. He keeps control over Sussex, Surrey, Essex and Kent, over which Prince Æthelberht has presided.[3]
By topic
Geology
- November (approximate date) – An earthquake in Corinth, Greece kills an estimated 45,000 people.
- December 3 – Another earthquake strikes the Abbasid Caliphate (modern-day Tunisia), also killing an estimated 45,000 people.
- December 22 – Another earthquake strikes Damghan (modern-day Iran), killing an estimated 200,000 people.
Births
- October 24 – Li Keyong, Shatuo governor (jiedushi) (d. 908)
- Li Maozhen, Chinese warlord and king (d. 924)
Deaths
- January 7 – Aldric, bishop of Le Mans
- February 4 – Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mainz
- August 6 – Fujiwara no Nagara, Japanese statesman (b. 802)
- August 16 – Theutbald I, bishop of Langres
- Florinus of Remüs, Frankish priest and martyr
- Godfrid Haraldsson, Viking chieftain (approximate date)
- Guerin, Frankish nobleman (or 845)
- Ilyas ibn Asad, Muslim emir (approximate date)
- Muhammad I Abu 'l-Abbas, Muslim emir
References
- ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 450–451.
- ^ Paul Hill (2009). The Viking Wars of Alfred the Great, p. 18. ISBN 978-1-59416-087-5.
- ^ Keynes 1998, p. 7; Abels 2002, p. 89.
Sources
- Abels, Richard (2002). Morillo, Stephen (ed.). "Royal Succession and the Growth of Political Stability in Ninth-Century Wessex". The Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval History. 12. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell & Brewer: 83–97. doi:10.1515/9781846150852-007 (inactive November 1, 2024). ISBN 1-84383-008-6. JSTOR 10.7722/j.ctt81qkc.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link) - Keynes, Simon (1998). "King Alfred and the Mercians". In Blackburn, Mark A. S.; Dumville, David N. (eds.). Kings, Currency and Alliances: History and Coinage of Southern England in the Ninth Century. Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press. pp. 1–45. ISBN 0-85115-598-7.
- Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2.