The Battle of Leuven (891): Arnulf of…

The imperial treasury is being drained with the defeat against Li Keyong, and the campaign against Chen in a stalemate—the imperial army had put Xichuan's capital Chengdu under siege and caused a terrible famine within the city, but has not been able to capture it— and Emperor Zhaozong decides to end the Xichuan campaign as well.

He pardons Chen and recalls Wei, while ordering Gu and Wang (for whom he had created a Yongping Circuit out of parts of Xichuan territory) back to their circuits.

Wang is unwilling to accept this result, however, and he intimidates Wei into returning to Chang'an by himself, while Wang continues the siege of Chengdu.

Chen and Tian surrender to Wang in autumn 891, and Wang takes over Xichuan Circuit.

Raids by the Cretan Saracens had resumed in about 884, during which time the Cretans have been joined by North African and Syrian fleets.

The Peloponnese in particular suffer considerably from their raids, but also Euboea and the Cyclades: the island of Patmos comes under Cretan control; Naxos, probably along with the neighboring islands of Paros and Ios, is forced to pay them tribute; and Elafonisos and Cythera off the southern coast of the Peloponnese are also occupied.

As the Muslim presence leaves generally few material or literary traces, the list of islands at one time controlled or occupied by them could well be longer.

The impact of this new wave of Arab raids is nevertheless felt across the Aegean, where some islands are deserted altogether, and elsewhere coastal sites are abandoned for better protected inland locations.

After ibn Hafsun is defeated near the castle of Polei in 891 and loses several cities, Abdullah massacres all the Christians, while the Muslims of the conquered cities are pardoned.

Ibn Hafsun moves his headquarters back to Bobastro in 891 after his defeat by the forces of Abdallah ibn Muhammad at the Battle of Poley.

The Iron Crown of Lombardy is being fought over between Guy III of Spoleto and Berengar of Friuli.

Berengar had been crowned king in 887, but Guy had in his turn been crowned in 889.

While Pope Stephen V supports Guy, crowning him Roman Emperor in 891, Arnulf has thrown his support behind Berengar.

Pope Stephen dies in autumn 891; Formosus succeeds him.

Born at Ostia, he had become Cardinal Bishop of Portus in 864.

He had undertaken diplomatic missions to Bulgaria (866) and France (869 and 872), and he had persuaded Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, to be crowned as emperor by the Pope in 875.

He had been a candidate for the papacy as early as 872, but due to political complications he had left Rome and the court of Pope John VIII that year.

John had convened a synod, and Formosus had been ordered to return or be excommunicated on charges that he had aspired to the Bulgarian Archbishopric and the Holy See; had opposed the emperor and had deserted his diocese without papal permission; had despoiled the cloisters in Rome; and had performed the divine service in spite of the interdict.

The condemnation of Formosus and others was announced in July 872.

In 878, the sentence of excommunication was withdrawn after he promised never to return to Rome or exercise his priestly functions.

In 883, John's successor Marinus I had restored Formosus to his suburbicarian diocese of Portus.

Formosus is elected Pope on 6 October 891.

According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, the vote for Formosus was unanimous.

Shortly after Formosus' election, he is asked to intervene in Constantinople, where the Patriarch Photius has been ejected and Stephen, the son of Emperor Basil I, has taken the office.

Formosus refuses to reinstate those who had been ordained by Photius, as his predecessor, Stephen V, had nullified all of Photius' ordinations.

However, the eastern Bishops determine to recognize Photius' ordinations nonetheless.

Formosus also immediately immerses himself in the dispute between Odo, Count of Paris, and Charles the Simple for the French crown; the Pope sides with Charles, and zealously exhorted Odo (at this time holding the crown) to abdicate on Charles' behalf, to no avail.

Pietro Tribuno, immediately after his succession, had begun negotiations with the successors of Charles the Fat.

In 888, he had negotiated a treaty with Arnulf of Carinthia and again in 891.

The first treaty had secured for the duchy the jurisdiction over Venetian citizens abroad.

The intent of this clause was to increase Venetian trade in the Carolingian Empire by extending to such merchants who did so trade the protection of their own laws.

The economic benefits are immediate and the 890s will see growth in Venice's relatively new iron industry.

Meanwhile, land reclamation continues apace.

Alfred, a learned layman, encourages learning, employs court scholars, and begins personally translating several books into English.

These include Pope Gregory I's Pastoral Care, Saint Augustine's Soliloquies, Orosius's Seven Books of History against the Pagans, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, and (possibly) the Ecclesiastical History of the Venerable Bede, adding to each of these (except Soliloquies) his own commentary.

In his efforts to ensure that his countrymen have the opportunity to become literate, Alfred relies upon the bishops of the Anglo-Saxon church both to teach and to seek out students.

Between the restoration of London and the resumption of large scale Danish attacks in the early 890s, Alfred's reign is rather uneventful.

The relative peace of the late 880s had been marred by the death of Alfred's sister, Æthelswith, who died in 888 en route to Rome.

In the same year, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Æthelred, had also passed away.

Guthrum, or Athelstan by his baptismal name, Alfred's former enemy and king of East Anglia, died one year later and was buried in Hadleigh, Suffolk.

Guthrum's passing marks a change in the political sphere Alfred deals with, creating a power vacuum that in the following years will stir up other power–hungry warlords eager to take his place.

The quiet years of Alfred's life are coming to a close, and war is on the horizon.

The half-century-long colonization of some of the Hawaiian Islands by Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands and Tahiti is complete by 900.

The Hawaiian Islanders have established an economy based on “ahupuaa,” land units that extend from mountaintop to the sea.

Hawaiian religion, developed by at least 900, is based on a belief in gods existing in all forces and objects; a taboo, or “kapu,” system provides rules for maintaining the political and social order.

The Hawaiian Islanders’ hereditary ruling class, called the “alii nui,” reigns over the common people, who are primarily fishermen and farmers.