Directory

897 CE

Al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya enters Sa'dah and founds the Zaydi Imamate of Yemen. Stephen VI is removed from office, imprisoned and strangled in his cell. He is succeeded by Romanus as the 114th pope of the Catholic Church. Romanus is deposed and succeeded by Theodore II as the 115th pope of Rome, who dies twenty days later.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • Emperor Uda abdicates the throne after a ten year reign. He is succeeded by his 12-year-old son Daigo, as the 60th emperor of Japan.source

Religion & Belief

  • January – The Cadaver Synod: Lambert II orders Stephen VI to exhume the nine-month-old cadaver of former pope Formosus, to redress him in papal robes, and have him put on trial while seated in a chair at St. Peter's. Formosus is 'convicted' of several crimes, his fingers of consecration are cut off, and the body is stripped of his vestments.source
  • 15 March – Al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya enters Sa'dah and founds the Zaydi Imamate of Yemen.source
  • August – Stephen VI is removed from office, imprisoned and strangled in his cell. He is succeeded by Romanus as the 114th pope of the Catholic Church.source
  • Caliph al-Mu'tadid recovers control of the Cilician Thughur (southeastern Anatolia) and of northern Syria, during the turmoil in the Tulunid government (approximate date).source

Crime & Justice

  • Spring – King Lambert II travels to Rome with his mother, Queen Ageltrude and brother Guy IV, Lombard duke of Spoleto, to meet Pope Stephen VI to receive reconfirmation of his imperial title. Guy is murdered on the Tiber by agents of Alberic I, a Frankish nobleman with political interests. He seizes Spoleto (possibly at the instigation of King Berengar I) and sets himself up as duke.source

Births

  • Yang Longyan, king of Wu (d. 920)source
  • Gyeongsun, king of Silla (Korea) (d. 978)source
  • Balderic, bishop of Utrecht (d. 975)source
  • Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Arab historian (d. 967)source

Deaths

  • November 16 – Gu Yanhui, Chinese warlordsource
  • December – Romanus is deposed and succeeded by Theodore II as the 115th pope of Rome, who dies twenty days later.source
  • Mashdotz I, Armenian monk and catholicos (or 898)source
  • Jinseong, queen of Silla (Korea)source
  • Zhu Xuan, Chinese warlord and governor (jiedushi)source
  • Ali ibn Ahmad al-Madhara'i, Muslim viziersource
  • Ya'qubi, Muslim geographer (or 898)source
  • Theodore II, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 840)source
  • Ermengard of Italy, queen and regent of Provencesource
  • Stephen VI, pope of the Catholic Churchsource
  • Zhaozhou, Chinese Zen Buddhist master (b. 778)source
  • Li Zi ('Prince of Tong'), prince of the Tang Dynastysource
  • Minamoto no Yoshiari, Japanese official (b. 845)source
  • Wilfred the Hairy, Frankish noblemansource