870s

This is a list of events occurring in the 870s, ordered by year.

870

By place

Europe

• Prague Castle is founded.
• The Great Summer Army invades England led by Bagsecg and conquers East Anglia; the buildings destroyed by the Danish invaders include the abbey of Ely and the monastery of Peterborough.
• August 8 – Treaty of Meerssen: Charles the Bald and Louis the German divide Lotharingia among themselves.
• December 31 – The Danes are defeated by a Saxon army at Englefield, Berkshire. It is the first of a series of battles between Wessex and the Danes.
• Malta is conquered by Arabs from Sicily.
• Borivoj becomes duke of Bohemia.
• Charles the Bald marries Richilde.

By topic

Religion

• Michael II succeeds Michael I as Patriarch of Alexandria.
• The Autonomous Bulgarian Archbishopric is established.
• February 28 – The Fourth Council of Constantinople ends.

871

By place

Europe

• Nine battles are fought between the Danes and Wessex. Of two of them the place and date are not recorded, the others are:
  • December 31, 870 – Englefield
  • January 4 – Reading
  • January 8 – Ashdown
  • January 22 – Basing
  • March 22 – Merton
  • May – Wilton
• Alfred the Great succeeds as king of Wessex after Ethelred's death.
• Reading, England is occupied by the Norse.
• After the battle at Wilton, peace is made, with the Danes and Alfred each governing part of England.
• Rhodri Mawr ('the Great') of Gwynedd inherits Seisyllwig, thus uniting most of Wales under his rule.
• Louis II captures Bari, the headquarters of the Saracens.
• Alfred makes Winchester his capital.
• An incomplete marriage contract, dated to October 6 of this year, is the earliest dated document in the Cairo Geniza.
• Tønsberg, the oldest surviving town in the Nordic countries, is founded.
• Svatopluk I becomes king of Great Moravia.

872

By place

Europe

• Battle of Hafrsfjord: Harald Fairhair becomes the first king of Norway.
• Gascony becomes an independent kingdom, with Sancho I Mitarra as its first king.
• Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor is crowned for the second time.
• Al-Andalus: uprising of the city of Toledo against the Umayyad ruler due to ethnic tensions between recent converts, the muwalladun, and the Arab elite .^[1]

Africa

• Establishment of the first hospital of the Muslim world, in Cairo, by the Abbasid governor, Ahmad ibn Tulun.^[2]

By topic

Religion

• December 14 – Pope John VIII succeeds Pope Adrian II as the 107th pope.

873

By place

Europe

• The Vikings raid Dorestad.
• Al-Andalus: Second uprising of Toledo due to ethnic tensions in two years.

Asia

• A widespread failure of the agricultural harvest in Tang Dynasty China leads to a widespread famine; in the previous century the central government was able to curb famine with large grain stores, but this time the central government is already in decline and too weak to properly face the disaster.

874

By place

Europe

• Ingólfur Arnarson arrives as the first permanent Viking settler in Iceland, settling in Reykjavík (probable date).
• The Danes invade Mercia.
• The territory of the Vistulans is conquered by King Svatopluk I of Great Moravia.
• November – Frost begins in Scotland and lasts until April 875.^[3]

Asia

• The rebellion of Huang Chao in China begins, weakening the strength of the already declining Tang Dynasty.

By topic

Religion

• March 13 – The bones of Saint Nicephorus are interred in the Church of the Apostles, Constantinople.

875

By place

Europe

• December 29 – Charles the Bald, king of West Francia, is crowned emperor.
• The Danes capture Lindisfarne and arrive in Cambridge.
• Harald Fairhair subdues the rovers on Orkney and Shetland and adds them to his kingdom.

Asia

• In Champa, in the central region of what is now Vietnam, King Indravarman II founds a new dynasty at Indrapura (Quang Nam) and initiates a building program featuring the Dong Duong Style of Cham art.

Africa

• The construction of Mosque of Uqba, Kairouan, Tunisia, is ended.

876

877

By place

Asia

• Indravarman II succeeds Jayavarman III as ruler of the Khmer Empire.

Europe

• The Danes take Exeter, England.
• A flotilla of 120 Danish ships is lost in a storm off Swanage.^[4]
• Áed Whitefoot succeeds Constantine I of Scotland.
• Pope John VIII requests the help of Charles the Bald, King of West Francia, against attacks by the Saracens in Italy.
• June – Charles sets out for Italy, accompanied by his wife Richilda and only a small number of his chief vassals. Orders are issued for an army to be assembled to join him a little later. Pope John VIII receives Charles at Vercelli. But at the same time Carloman, king of Bavaria and the East Mark, has also crossed the Alps into eastern Lombardy at the head of a powerful army. Charles hurries on the coronation of Richilda as Empress and sends her back to Gaul with orders for the reinforcements to hurry. However, the Frankish aristocracy is more concerned with the attacks by the Northmen in their country than the war with the Saracens in southern Italy. When the reinforcements do not arrive, Charles the Bald is compelled to return to West Francia. But on the road he dies in a poor hovel. It is said that he was poisoned by his Jewish doctor Zedekiah. Carloman of Bavaria, forced by an epidemic which broke out in his army, returns to Germany. When Louis the Stammerer receives news of the death of his father, Charles the Bald, he makes plans to go into West Francia to receive the oath of fidelity from his new subjects. On his way he learns that the magnates are refusing him obedience by rallying around Boso and the Abbot Hugh. The rebels are supported by his stepmother, the widowed Empress Richilda, and, as a sign of their displeasure, ravage the country. Boso is the brother of Richilda and duke of Provence. Hugh had been given the Abbey of Saint-Bertin by Louis’ father. Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, intercedes and the rebels agree to a settlement. The magnates, whose rights the king promises to recognize, all make their submissions.
• December 8 – Hincmar crowns Louis the Stammerer King of the West Franks in the church of Compiegne.

878

By place

Europe

• Between May 6 and May 12 – Battle of Ethandun (probably either at Edington, Somerset, or Edington, Wiltshire): Alfred the Great of Wessex defeats the Danes of the Danelaw under Guthrum.
• May 21 – After a siege of eight months, Syracuse is captured by the Aghlabids of Ifriqiya.
• The Treaty of Wedmore divides England between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes.
• Rhodri, the first King of Wales to be known as "the Great", is killed in battle.
• Alfonso III of Leon conquers Coimbra from the Umayyads.^[5]
• The city of Belgrade is first mentioned.
• Eochu MacRunn and Girig MacDungal jointly succeed Aed I of Scotland.

By topic

Religion

• The excommunication of the later Pope Formosus is lifted.

879

By place

Europe

• Pope John VIII recognizes the Duchy of Croatia as an independent state.
• Louis the Stammerer, king of West Francia dies, and is succeeded by his sons Louis III and Carloman II.

Asia

• The Chinese rebel Huang Chao besieges the southern Chinese seaport at Guangzhou and slaughters much of its inhabitants of native Chinese and foreigners from around the world. His rebellion is suppressed by 884.

By topic

Religion

• A synod convened at Constantinople (often considered by Eastern churches as the Fourth Council of Constantinople) reinstates Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople.
• Wilfred the Hairy, Count of Barcelona, founds the Benedictine monastery at Ripoll.

Significant people

• Alfred the Great
• Harald I of Norway
• Rhodri Mawr (the Great)
• Charles the Bald
• Rurik

Births

Deaths

References