Guido of Arezzo, possibly born in France…

Tamil inscriptions under the reign of Rajendra Chola I state that Srivijaya had been completely taken in 1025 by Chola's naval strength, but the succeeding king of Srivijaya manages to send tribute to the Chinese Northern Song court in 1028.

Norway had been divided during the ninth century among several local kings controlling their own fiefdoms.

King Harald Fairhair had managed, mainly due to the military superiority gained by his alliance with Sigurd Ladejarl of Nidaros, to subjugate these mini–kingdoms, and by the end of the century he had created the first unified Norwegian state.

This alliance had come apart after Harald's death.

The jarls of Lade and various descendants of Harald Fairhair had spent the tenth century interlocked in feuds over power.

As well as power politics, religion also plays a part in these conflicts, as two of the descendants of Harald Fairhair, Hakon the Good and Olaf Tryggvason attempted to convert the then heathen Norwegians to Christianity.

Svein (Old Norse: Sveinn) and Erik (Old Norse: Eiríkr) of Lade had in the year 1000 taken control of Norway, being supported by the Danish King Svein.

Olaf Haraldsson, representing the descendants of Harald Fairhair, had in 1015 returned from one of his Viking trips and was immediately elected as King of Norway.

He had won the Battle at Nesjar in June 1016 against the Jarls of Lade.

Olaf Haraldsson's success in becoming King of Norway had been helped by the Danes being kept occupied with the ongoing fighting in England.

Olaf II had extended his power throughout Norway while Jarl Erik was with Cnut in England.

Cnut's enmity with him extends further back: Æthelred had returned to England in a fleet provided by Olaf.

Cnut had offered in 1024 to let Olaf govern Norway as his vassal, but after Helgeå, he had set about undermining his unpopular rule with bribes, and in 1028 sets out with fifty ships to subjugate Norway.

A large contingent of Danish ships joins him, and Olaf withdraws into the Oslo Fjord while Cnut sails along the coast, landing at various points and receiving oaths of allegiance from the local chieftains.

Finally at Nidaros, now Trondheim, he is acclaimed king at the Eyrathing, and in a few months Olaf, whose hard-line imposition of Christianity has created powerful enemies within Norway, flees to Novgorod.

Mieszko, probably prompted by family connections of his in Germany who oppose Emperor Conrad II, successfully wages war against the Holy Roman Empire Beginning in 1028.

Mieszko is able to repel its invading army, and later even invades Saxony.

He allies Poland with Hungary, resulting in a temporary Hungarian occupation of Vienna.

Conrad's son Henry had been crowned king in 1028.

Around this time, due to Henry's and Gisela's requests, Ernest had been set free, although he was not restored to his full powers as duke.

Ernest is offered these powers at the Diet of Easter 1030, if he will crack down on the enemies of Conrad.

Ernest's refusal to do so, especially against his friend Werner von Kyburg, results in his final downfall.

He is stripped of his title as duke.

Only a few months later, while battling the people of the Bishop of Constance, both Ernest and Werner are killed.

Ernest is buried in Constance.

The Duchy of Swabia passes to his younger brother Herman, who at this time is still a minor.

Aribert negotiates a decision of the precedence of the archdiocese of Milan over that of Ravenna at a synod at the Lateran in 1028.

Alfonso V of León’s Final Campaign and Death at Viseu (1028 CE)

After losing Castile to Sancho III of Pamplona in 1026, King Alfonso V of León shifts his focus toward the southern frontier, seeking to expand his kingdom at the expense of the weakened Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba.

In the final years of his reign, Alfonso V launches a reconquest campaign to recover Portuguese territories lost during the devastating campaigns of Almanzor. His efforts mark the beginning of León’s renewed expansion into Gharb al-Andalus.

The Siege of Viseu and Alfonso V’s Death (1028 CE)

In 1028, Alfonso V lays siege to Viseu, a strategic stronghold in modern Portugal, but during the assault, he is struck by an arrow from the city walls and killed.

His death brings an abrupt end to his reconquest efforts, but his campaigns set the stage for further Christian advancesinto Muslim-controlled Iberia in the coming decades.

Cnut, who had arrived in Denmark with a fleet in 1027, had forgiven Harthacnut his insubordination in view of his youth but had had Ulf murdered.

After driving the invaders out of Denmark and establishing his authority over Norway, he returns to England in 1028 and leaves Denmark to be ruled by Harthacnut.

Constantine VIII, having no male heir, has attempted to arrange the marriage of his daughter Theodora to the heir presumptive, Romanus Argyrus, the son of an unnamed member of the Argyros family and a great-grandson of Romanos I Lekapenos.

His sister Maria Argyre had married Giovanni Orseolo, a Venetian lord in Dalmatia.

He also has a brother, Basil Argyros.

Theodora, possessed of a strong and austere character, refuses.

Under Basil II, Romanos had served as judge, and under Constantine VIII he became urban prefect of Constantinople.

Romanos had attracted the attention of Constantine VIII, who forces him to divorce his wife (sending her into a monastery) and to marry the emperor's daughter Zoe Porphyrogenita, a woman in her fiftieth year.

The marriage takes place on November 12, 1028, and three days later Constantine VIII dies, leaving Romanos III as emperor.

The Macedonian line is continued in his two daughters.

Abu Kalijar has built up his power in Fars, although the first several years of his reign are marked by the oversight of his tutor, a eunuch named Sandal.

When Sultan al-Dawla became the senior amir of the Buyids in 1012, he had appointed his brother Abu'l-Fawaris (thereafter known as Qawam al-Dawla, "Foundation of the State") as governor of Kerman.

When Sultan al-Dawla left Fars for Iraq in around 1017, Qawam al-Dawla decided to attack.

With the support of the Ghaznavids, he had invaded and occupied Fars.

A counterattack had expelled him from that province, but he had managed to retain his hold on Kerman.

Eventually, Qawam al-Dawla and Abu Kalijar had engaged in hostilities against each other; the fighting ceases only when Qawam al-Dawla dies, from poison, in late 1028.

Abu Kalijar takes over Kerman.

Constantine VIII, shortly after Bagrat's ascension to the Georgian throne, sends in an army to take over the key city-fortress of Artanuji (modern Ardanuç, Turkey) on behalf of the Georgian Bagratid prince Demetre, son of Gurgen of Klarjeti, who had been dispossessed by Bagrat IV's grandfather, Bagrat III, of his patrimonial fief at Artanuji early in the 1010s.

Several Georgians nobles defect to the Empire, but Bagrat's loyal subjects put up a stubborn fight.

Constantine's death in 1028 renders the invasion abortive.