Symmachus had proceeded to call a synod,…

Tuoba Ke was born in 483, as the second son of Emperor Xiaowen.

His mother was Xiaowen's concubine Consort, Gao Zhaorong. (As he was born the same year as his older brother Tuoba Xun, he was probably born just briefly after Tuoba Xun, whose mother was Consort Lin.)

Little is known about his childhood, including whether he was raised by his mother Gao or not.

Xiaowen in 496 changed the name of the imperial clan from Tuoba to Yuan, and thereafter he would be known as Yuan Ke.

Yuan Xun, who was in autumn 496 crown prince, but who could not endure the hot weather of the capital Luoyang after Xiaowen moved the capital there from Pingcheng in 494, plotted to flee back to Pingcheng with his followers, but his plot was discovered.

Xiaowen deposed him, and in 497 created Yuan Ke crown prince to replace Yuan Xun. (The creation was in Luoyang, but it is unclear whether prior to his creation, Yuan Xun was at Luoyang or Pingcheng.)

Gao, who was in Pingcheng, traveled south later that year to rejoin her son in Luoyang, but she died on the way.

Historians generally believe that she was murdered by Xiaowen's wife, Empress Feng Run, who wanted to raise Yuan Ke herself.

Whether she was actually able to do so is unclear, but after she is discovered to have carried on an affair with her attendant Gao Pusa in 499, she is put under house arrest, and Xiaowen orders Yuan Ke to have no more contact with her.

Xiaowen, while on a campaign against rival Southern Qi later in 499,  grows ill and dies.

Xiaowen's brother Yuan Xie the Prince of Pengcheng is placed in command of the withdrawing army on an emergency basis, and Yuan Xie keeps Xiaowen's death a secret while summoning Yuan Ke to join the army.

Yuan Ke's attendants largely suspect Yuan Xie of wanting to take the throne himself, but Yuan Xie, once he meets Yuan Ke, shows great deference to his nephew, persuading Yuan Ke of his loyalty.

Yuan Ke, at age sixteen, now assumes the throne as Xuanwu at Luyang (in modern Pingdingshan, Henan), before the army can return to Luoyang.

Xuanwu initially wants to make Yuan Xie, who is popular and well-regarded, prime minister, but Yuan Xie refuses, and is made a provincial governor instead.

The governmental affairs are largely in the hands of six officials: Xiaowen's brothers Yuan Xi the Prince of Xianyang and Yuan Xiang the Prince of Beihai, Xiaowen's cousin Yuan Cheng the Prince of Rencheng, Xiaowen's distant uncle Yuan Jia the Prince of Guangyang, and the officials Wang Su and Song Bian, although Yuan Cheng was soon stripped of his post because he falsely arrested Wang on suspicion of treason.

Xuanwu, once he returns to Luoyang, posthumously honors his mother Gao as an empress, and he createdshis maternal uncles Gao Zhao and Gao Xian, as well as his cousin Gao Meng, none of whom he had previously met, dukes.

Gao Zhao, in particular, will become increasingly powerful during Xuanwu's reign.

Xuanwu recalls Yuan Xie by 500 to be prime minister.

With Southern Qi in disarray because of the tyrannical rule of its emperor Xiao Baojuan, Northern Wei annexes the important city of Shouyang (in modern Lu'an, Anhui) when the Southern Qi general Pei Shuye surrenders the city to Northern Wei in fear of adverse actions by Xiao Baojuan.

However, Northern Wei does not take further actions when Southern Qi is subsequently thrown into civil war during the rebellions of the generals Cui Huijing and Xiao Yan.

Xiao Baojuan is an arbitrary and violent ruler, and he often executes high level officials based on his perception of them as threats to his rule.

He executes his prime minister Xiao Yi in winter 500, and Xiao Yi's brother Xiao Yan, the governor of Yong Province (modern northwestern Hubei) declares a rebellion from the capital of Yong Province, Xiangyang (in modern Xiangfan, Hubei).

In response, Xiao Baojuan sends the general Liu Shanyang to Jing Province, ordering him to rendezvous with Xiao Yingzhou and then attack Xiangyang.

Xiao Yan, however, persuades Xiao Yingzhou that Liu's orders are to attack both Jing and Yong Provinces, and Xiao Yingzhou, after making Liu believe his good faith by executing Xiao Yan's messenger Wang Tianhu, surprises and kills Liu, seizing his forces.

He then openly declares rebellion and supports Xiao Baorong as nominal leader.

Xiao Yingzhou and Xiao Baorong remain at Jiangling (in modern Jingzhou, Hubei), the capital of Jing Province, which is then made into the provisional capital, while Xiao Yan advances east against Xiao Baojuan's forces.

Gundobad’s battle with his third brother, Godegisel, raged long according to Gregory of Tours.es

Unaware of the others actions, each call upon King Clovis trying to persuade him to join forces against the other.

Clovis sides with Godegisel, who had offered him his pleasure of tribute; Wood observes archly that Clovis' wife, Clotilde, whose father had been killed by Gundobad, "was not likely to encourage good relations between the Franks and the Burgundians."

Together they crush Gundobad's force.

Gundobad flees but Clovis pursues him to Avignon.

With Clovis's army at the gates, Gundobad fears the worst, but Aridius goes from Gundobad to Clovis and persuades him to spare Gundobad in return for a yearly tribute.

The chronicler Marius of Avenches dates this conflict to 500.

Thrasamund, king of the Vandals, marries Amalafrida, the widowed sister of Theodoric the Great.

She brings with her a very large dowry and an elite Gothic force of five thousand soldiers.

Irish king Fergus Mór mac Eirc, supposedly shipwrecked off the northeastern coast of Ireland, gives his name to a town on the north shore of Belfast Lough called Carrickfergus ("Rock of Fergus").

The historicity of Mór is doubtful.

Archaeological surveys show that Angles settled the lands north of the River Thames by the sixth century.

The name Mercia is Old English for "boundary folk", and the traditional interpretation is that the kingdom originated along the frontier between the native Welsh and the Anglo-Saxon invaders.

An alternative interpretation argued by P. Hunter Blair has them emerging along the frontier of Northumbria and the inhabitants of the Trent river valley.

Druidism apparently dies out around 500 in Ireland, its last stronghold.