Directory

840 CE

Chinese Tang dynasty Emperor Wenzong (Li Ang) dies after a 13-year reign. Through the intervention of his powerful palace eunuchs, he is succeeded by his brother Wuzong. Louis the Pious, Emperor of the Romans and King of the Franks, falls ill and dies at his hunting lodge, on an island in the Rhine, near the Ingelheim Imperial Palace in Francia, while suppressing a revolt. He proclaims his eldest son Lothair I as his successor as Emperor. Lothair tries to seize all the territories of his late grandfather Charlemagne. Louis' son by his second wife, Charles, 17, becomes King of the Franks, and joins with his half-brother Louis the German in resisting Lothair. The Yenisei Kirghiz settle along the Yenisei River, and sack with a force of around 80,000 horsemen the Uyghur capital, Ordu-Baliq (driving the Uyghurs out of Mongolia). This ends the Uyghur Khaganate.

Conflict & Security

  • The Yenisei Kirghiz settle along the Yenisei River, and sack with a force of around 80,000 horsemen the Uyghur capital, Ordu-Baliq (driving the Uyghurs out of Mongolia). This ends the Uyghur Khaganate.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • Vikings from Norway capture Dublin and establish a Norse kingdom in Ireland, and also at about this date make their first overwintering at Lough Neagh in the north of Ireland.source

Religion & Belief

  • Nobis becomes bishop of St. David's, in the Welsh Kingdom of Dyfed (approximate date).source

Crime & Justice

  • King Wigstan of Mercia in England, grandson of former ruler Wiglaf (d. 839), declines his kingship in preference of the religious life. He asks his widowed mother, Princess Ælfflæd, to act as regent. A nobleman of the line of the late king Beornred, named Berhtric, wishes to marry her but, as he is a relative, Wigstan refuses the match, and is murdered by followers of Berhtric at Wistow, Leicestershire. He is buried at Repton Abbey, and later revered as a saint. The Mercian throne is seized by Berhtric's father, Beorhtwulf.source

Climate & Environment

  • June – The 840 Erzurum earthquake takes place in the city of Qaliqala (modern-day Erzurum in Turkey) (probable date).source

Culture & Society

  • Completion in Japan of the Nihon Kōki, third book of the Rikkokushi. This includes the earliest record of cherry blossom at the Imperial Court in Kyoto (in 812) and of tea brought from China and served to the Emperor (in 815).source

Births

  • January – Michael III, Byzantine emperor (d. 867) (most probable date: 839 is also possible)source
  • October 25 – Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar, founder of the Saffarid dynasty (d. 879)source
  • Hucbald, Frankish music theorist (or 850)source
  • Notker the Stammerer, Swiss Benedictine monk and scholar (approximate date)source
  • Theodard, archbishop of Narbonne (approximate date)source
  • Eudokia Ingerina, Byzantine empress (approximate date)source
  • Abu al-Hassan al-Nuri, Muslim Sufi (approximate date)source
  • Clement of Ohrid, Bulgarian scholar (approximate date)source
  • Theodore II, Roman pope of the Catholic Church for 20 days (d. 897)source
  • Berengaudus, Benedictine monk (d. 892)source
  • Sunyer II, Count of Empúries, Frankish nobleman (approximate date)source
  • Adalhard of Metz, Frankish nobleman (approximate date)source
  • Richardis, Frankish empress (approximate date)source
  • Unruoch III, margrave of Friuli (approximate date)source

Deaths

  • February 10 – Emperor Wenzong of Tang, Chinese ruler (b. 809)source
  • February 10 – Chinese Tang dynasty Emperor Wenzong (Li Ang) dies after a 13-year reign. Through the intervention of his powerful palace eunuchs, he is succeeded by his brother Wuzong.source
  • March 14 – Einhard, Frankish scholarsource
  • June 1 – Wigstan, king of Mercia, murdered (probable date)source
  • June 11 – Emperor Junna, ruler of Japan (b. 785)source
  • June 16 or 839 – Rorgon I, Frankish noblemansource
  • June 20 – Louis the Pious, Emperor of the Romans and King of the Franks, falls ill and dies at his hunting lodge, on an island in the Rhine, near the Ingelheim Imperial Palace in Francia, while suppressing a revolt. He proclaims his eldest son Lothair I as his successor as Emperor. Lothair tries to seize all the territories of his late grandfather Charlemagne. Louis' son by his second wife, Charles, 17, becomes King of the Franks, and joins with his half-brother Louis the German in resisting Lothair.source
  • June 20 – Louis the Pious, ruler of the Carolingian Empire (b. 778)source
  • Yang, consort and concubine of Chinese Emperor Wenzong, forced suicidesource
  • He Jintao, Chinese general of the Tang dynastysource
  • Agobard, archbishop of Lyon (b. 779)source
  • Muhammad at-Taqi, Muslim 9th Ismā'īlī imam (or 839)source
  • Czimislav, king of the Sorbs (approximate date)source
  • Ansovinus, archbishop of Camerinosource