Fall – King
Otto I crosses the
Brenner Pass and takes his army into Italy. He is accompanied by his brothers,
Henry I (duke of
Bavaria),
Bruno I, and
Conrad the Red (duke of
Lotharingia). Otto faces no opposition and they arrive in Pavia. Berengar II has departed the day before and entrenched himself in
San Marino. Otto receives the homage of the Italian
nobility, marries Adelaide, and declares himself King of the Lombards.
Otto I dispatches an embassy to
Rome to apply for an imperial coronation with Pope
Agapetus II – but Prince
Alberic II makes it clear that this is not possible (afraid of Otto's growing power), and opposes the request.[3]
February 13 –
Guo Wei, a court official, leads a military coup and declares himself emperor of the new
Later Zhou. The 19-year-old Emperor
Liu Chengyou is killed after a 3-year reign, ending the short-lived
Later Han.
Emperor
Shi Zong successfully repels a Chinese advance from the south. In October he is killed by a rebellious nephew after a three year reign. Shi Zong is succeeded by his uncle
Mu Zong as ruler of the Liao Dynasty.
November 16 – Emperor
Li Jing sends a
Southern Tang expeditionary force (10,000 men) under
Bian Hao to conquer
Chu. Li Jing removes the ruling family to his own capital in
Nanjing, ending the Chu Kingdom.
Abd ar-Rahman III signs a peace in 951 with the new king of León,
Ordoño III, in order to have a free hand against the
Fatimids, whose ships are harassing the caliphal fleet in the Mediterranean and had even launched an assault against
Almeria.
Abd ar-Rahman's force, led by prime minister Ahmad ibn Said, besieges the Fatimid port of Tunis, which purchases its safety through a huge sum.
Battle of Marash: Emir
Sayf al-Dawla marches north into the
Byzantine Empire and ravages the countryside of
Malatya (modern
Turkey). On his way back, he crosses the
Euphrates and intercepts a Byzantine army led by
Bardas Phokas (the Elder), near
Marash. The Byzantines are defeated; Bardas himself barely escapes through the intervention of his attendants. His son
Constantine Phokas, governor of
Seleucia, is captured and held prisoner in
Aleppo, until his death from an illness some time later.[6]
Europe
Summer –
Liudolf, duke of
Swabia, and his brother-in-law
Conrad the Red rebel against King
Otto I. Otto and his army fail to capture the cities of
Mainz and
Augsburg. He declares Liudolf and Conrad as outlaws in absentia. His brother
Bruno I, archbishop of
Cologne, restores royal authority in
Lorraine, but some of the rebellious dukes receive support from the
Hungarians. They seize the opportunity to invade
Bavaria.
April 6–
10 – The Hungarians besiege
Cambrai and burn its suburbs, but they are unable to conquer the city. One of Bulcsú's relatives is killed by the defenders, who refuse to pass his body over to the Hungarians. As a revenge, they kill all their captives.
Winter – At the
Reichstag in
Auerstedt assembled by Otto I, his son
Liudolf (duke of
Swabia) and Conrad the Red submit to Otto's rule. They are stripped of their duchies, but several rebel nobles continue to resist.[10]
King
Malcolm I is killed in battle against the Northmen after an 11-year reign. He is succeeded by
Indulf, the son of the late King
Constantine II, as ruler of
Alba (
Scotland).
By topic
Religion
Duke
Alberic II,
princeps and ruler of
Rome, dies after a 22-year reign. On his deathbed he nominates his son
Octavianus as his successor.
Liudolf, the eldest son of King
Otto I (the Great), reconciles with his father and asks again for installation as duke of
Swabia. Otto refuses, but at the instigation of his uncle
Bruno I (duke of
Lotharingia) allows Liudolf to lead an expedition to
Italy to bring the vassal
Berengar of Ivrea to heel.
Berengar of Ivrea dispatches a
Lombard army under his son
Adalbert II to counter Liudolf, while he guards
Pavia himself. In two battles Liudolf defeats the Lombard forces and enters Pavia, there to receive the
homage of the Italian nobles and
clergy on behalf of Otto I.
September 6 –
Liudolf, the eldest son of King
Otto I, dies of a violent
fever near
Pombia (it is rumored from a latent poison administered somehow by Berengar II's agents). The German armies return home, leaving
Berengar of Ivrea in control of
Italy. Liudolf is succeeded by his 3-year-old son
Otto, who will be adopted and raised by his grandfather Otto, as the later duke of
Swabia and
Bavaria.
Mercia and
Northumbria rebel against King
Eadwig and switch their allegiance to his brother
Edgar. The English nobles (in support of the church) agree to divide the kingdom along the
Thames River, with Eadwig keeping
Wessex and
Kent in the south and Edgar ruling in the north.[18] Edgar's advisers recall
Dunstan from
Flanders (see
956).
957 Caspian Sea earthquake. It took place in the
Caspian Sea and its vicinity. The earthquake is mentioned by several
Arab and
Syriacchronicle writers, who claimed that it mainly affected the region of
Persian Iraq. The initial shocks lasted 40 days, but ceased for a while. The main earthquake then occurred, damaging the cities of
Ray,
Talikan, and
Hulwan. A reported number of 150 villages were supposedly destroyed by the earthquake. [19]
April -
May – The Byzantines refuse to pay the yearly
tribute. A
Hungarian army, led by
Apor, invades
Macedonia and
Thrace. He plunders its territories until reaching
Constantinople. On his way back, Apor is defeated during a night attack by Byzantine forces.[22]
Winter – Romanos II appoints
Leo Phokas (the Younger) to be commander of the Byzantine field army (Domestic of the Schools) in the West. The
Phokas clan becomes one of the leading families in Constantinople.
Pietro IV Candiano divorces his wife
Joanna for political reasons and banishes her as a
nun to the monastery of
San Zaccaria.
England
October 1 – King
Eadwig dies after a 4-year reign. He is succeeded by his 16-year-old brother
Edgar I (the Peaceful), who effectively completes the unification of
England, when
Northumbria submits to his rule.
^Bóna, István (2000). The Hungarians and Europe in the 9th-10th centuries. Budapest: Historia - MTA Történettudományi Intézete, p. 27.
ISBN963-8312-67-X.
^Timothy Reuter (1999). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume III, p. 250.
ISBN978-0-521-36447-8.
^Timothy Reuter (1999). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume III, p. 247.
ISBN978-0-521-36447-8.
^Early Sources, p. 451. The corresponding entry in the
Annals of the Four Masters, 950, states that the Northmen were the victors, which would suggest that it should be associated with
Eric Bloodaxe.
^Vasiliev, A.A. (1968). Byzance et les Arabes, Tome II, 1ére partie: Les relations politiques de Byzance et des Arabes à L'époque de la dynastie macédonienne (867–959). Brussels: Éditions de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales.
^Bóna, István (2000). The Hungarians and Europe in the 9th-10th centuries. Budapest: Historia - MTA Történettudományi Intézete, pp. 51-52.
ISBN963-8312-67-X.
^Ballan, Mohammad (2010). Fraxinetum: An Islamic Frontier State in Tenth-Century Provence. Comitatus: A journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Volume 41, 2010, p. 31.
^The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916–966, eds & trans. Steven Fanning: Bernard S. Bachrach (New York; Ontario, Can: University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. 60.
^Timothy Reuter (1999). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume III, p. 247.
ISBN978-0-521-36447-8.
^Bóna, István (2000). The Hungarians and Europe in the 9th-10th centuries. Budapest: Historia - MTA Történettudományi Intézete, p. 54.
ISBN963-8312-67-X.
^Timothy Reuter (1999). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume III, p. 248.
ISBN978-0-521-36447-8.
^Gilbert Meynier (2010). L'Algérie cœur du Maghreb classique. De l'ouverture islamo-arabe au repli (658-1518). Paris: La Découverte; p.28.
^Timothy Reuter (1999). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume III, p. 591.
ISBN978-0-521-36447-8.
^Timothy Reuter (1999). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume III, p. 386.
ISBN978-0-521-36447-8.
^Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Dunstan" Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Dunstan" Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^Shepard, Jonathan (2010). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume 3, pp.151–152. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0-19-533403-6.
^Gilbert Meynier (2010) L'Algérie cœur du Maghreb classique. De l'ouverture islamo-arabe au repli (658-1518). Paris: La Découverte; p. 42.
^Bóna, Istvá (2000). The Hungarians and Europe in the 9th-10th centuries. Budapest: Historia - MTA Történettudományi Intézete, p. 33.
ISBN963-8312-67-X.