…Baghdad to the court of his friend,…

Having secured Polotsk, Vladimir marches on Novgorod, expels Yaropolk’s administrators, and by 979 has reasserted control over the city.

The Origins of Brussels: From Marshland Hamlet to Medieval Stronghold

The name Brussels is commonly believed to derive from the Old Dutch term Broeksel, meaning "home in the marsh"(broek meaning marsh, sel meaning dwelling). This etymology reflects the city's origins in the low-lying, waterlogged terrain of the Senne River valley.

Early Beginnings: The Chapel of Saint Gaugericus (c. 580)

The earliest recorded settlement in the Brussels area dates back to c. 580, when Saint Gaugericus, a Frankish bishop, constructed a chapel on an island in the Senne River. This island, strategically located along trade routes, would later serve as the nucleus of the city.

By 695, the settlement was known as Brosella, as recorded by Saint Vindicianus, the Bishop of Cambrai. At this point, it remained a modest hamlet, overshadowed by larger urban centers in Lower Lotharingia.

The Official Founding: Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia (979)

Brussels' emergence as a fortified town is traditionally traced to 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia made a decisive act of religious and political significance:

• He transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Chapel of Saint Gaugericus, elevating the settlement’s status as a religious center.
• Around the same time, Charles constructed the first permanent fortification on the Senne island, marking the beginnings of Brussels as a defensible urban center.

The Foundation for Growth

The establishment of a fortified nucleus in Brussels ensured its strategic importance in the evolving political landscape of Lotharingia. Over the coming centuries, its position along trade routes, combined with its religious and military significance, would lay the groundwork for Brussels’ rise as one of the most influential cities in the Low Countries.

Basil the Chamberlain calls on Bardas Phokas, earlier exiled for an attempted usurpation that had been stopped by Skleros for the late Emperor.

Phokas gathers forces at his family power center of Caesarea, forcing his rival to turn back from the capital in March, 979, when his army, aided by a large contingent of Georgian cavalry, defeats Skleros in single combat near Amorium in May 979, with Skleros cutting the right ear of Phokas' horse with his lance before sustaining a grave wound in the head.

Skleros flees to …

The Northern Han is a small kingdom located in Shanxi, which ad been a traditional base of power since the fading days of the Tang Dynasty in the late ninth century and early tenth century.

With its capital located at Taiyuan, Northern Han is wedged between the two major powers of the day, the Liao Dynasty to the north and the Song Dynasty to the south.

It also shares a border with the Tangut kingdom of Western Xia.

The existence of the Northern Han is one of the two major thorns in relations between the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, the other being the continued possession of the Sixteen Prefectures by the Liao Dynasty, under whom the Northern Han has placed itself in protection.

Emboldened by his success to the south, Emperor Taizong has decided to embark on a campaign to finally destroy the Northern Han.

Leading the army personally, he brings his forces to the Northern Han capital of Taiyuan, which is laid under siege in June.

An initial relief force sent by the Liao is easily defeated by the Song.

After a two-month siege of the capital, the leader of the Northern Han surrenders, and the kingdom is incorporated into the Song Dynasty.

The power of the Buyid dynasty, though it is to be subsequently fragmented among family members and provinces, is consolidated briefly during the reign of 'Adud ad-Dawlah, who by 977 had established himself as sole ruler, adding Oman, Tabaristan, and Jorjan to the original domains.

The Buyid state is now at its peak; it engages in public works, building hospitals and the Band-e amir (Emir's Dam) across the Kur River near Shiraz; it has relations with the Samanids, Hamdanids, Fatimids, and Constantinople; it patronizes artists, notably the poets al-Mutanabbi and Ferdowsi.

The Shi'i nature of the state is manifest in the inauguration of popular and passionate observance of Shi'i festivals and the encouragement of pilgrimages to the holy places of an-Najaf and Karbala' in Iraq.

'Adud al-Dawla becomes emir of Iraq while the capital, Baghdad is suffering from violence and instability owing to sectarian conflict.

In order to bring peace and stability to the city, he orders the banning of public demonstrations and polemics.

At the same time, he patronizes a number of Shi'a scholars such as al-Mufid, an eminent Twelver Shi'a theologian, and sponsors the renovation of a number of important Shi'a shrines.

The Hamdanids are driven out of Mosul in 979 by 'Adud ad-Dawlah, who is annexing Iraq to his Buyid domains, and Abu Taghlib is forced to seek refuge and help from the Fatimids, though without success.

'Adud ad-Dawlah later maintains two Hamdanids, Ibrahim and al-Husayn, as joint rulers of Mosul, but the dynasty's power has already shifted to Syria.

Zhao Kuangyin, after founding the Song Dynasty in 960, had sought to recapture the sixteen prefectures, a region in northern China stretching from present-day Beijing westward to Datong, which the Khitan Liao Dynasty had acquired in 936.

In most areas, it is approximately seventy to one hundred miles in width, covering a strategic area of modern Hebei and Shanxi that has become the focus of contention between the Khitan Liao Dynasty to the north and the Shatuo Turk Later Jin Dynasty (which had ceded the prefectures to the Liao in 937) and the Han Chinese Later Zhou Dynasty and the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Kuangyin’s brother and successor, Emperor Taizong, personally leads a military expedition that reaches Youzhou in 979, and lays siege to the city.

The city's walls, some 16 km in circumference, withstand the siege for three months.

Defenders are bolstered by Khitan reinforcements who are able burrow under the Song siege and into the city itself.

A large Liao reinforcement arrives and defeats the Song Army north of Youzhou, just west of Xizhimen, in present-day Beijing.

More than one hundred and sixty years after this defeat, the Song will briefly take control of modern day Beijing in 1123 when the Song-Jin Alliance defeats the Liao and the city is ceded by the Jin Dynasty to the Song.

However, two years later, the Jin will invade the Song lands and retake Yanshan.

Vladimir’s troops advance toward Kiev and capture Yaropolk, who surrenders the city without a battle.

Vladimir subsequently has his brother executed.

By 980, Vladimir has united Kiev and Novgorod as the Grand Duchy of Kiev, consolidating the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea, and has solidified his frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads.

Archbishop Egbert of Trier commissions the celebrated illuminated manuscript known as the “Codex Egberti,” around 980.

It contains fifty scenes from the life of Christ closely resembling an Early Christian model and, as is typical of most of the splendidly decorated manuscripts produced at various monasteries in Ottonian Germany, features a portrait of its ecclesiastical donor.

The expressive, firmly delineated figures, characterized by intense glances and gestures, are set against a brilliant gold ground.

The foliate initials employ highly burnished gold leaf. (The “Codex Egberti” belongs to a large and distinguished group of manuscripts—chiefly gospel lectionaries and sacramentaries used in church services—traditionally associated with the German Abbey of Reichenau.)