The Battle of Cassel (February 2, 1071)…

Pagan consolidates its hold of Upper Burma during the eleventh century, and establishes its authority over Lower Burma.

The emergence of the Pagan Empire is to have a lasting impact on Burmese history as well as the history of mainland Southeast Asia.

The conquest of Lower Burma checks the Khmer Empire's encroachment into the Tenasserim coast, secures control of the peninsular ports, which are transit points between the Indian Ocean and China, and facilitates growing cultural exchange with the external world: the Mons of Lower Burma, India and Ceylon.

Equally important is Anawrahta's conversion to Theravada Buddhism from his native Ari Buddhism.

The Burmese king provides the Buddhist school, which had been in retreat elsewhere in South Asia and Southeast Asia, a much needed reprieve and a safe shelter.

By the 1070s, Pagan has emerged as the main Theravada stronghold.

In 1071, it helps to restart the Theravada Buddhism in Ceylon, whose Buddhist clergy had been wiped out by the Cholas.

Another key development according to traditional scholarship was the emergence of the Burmese script, believed to have been derived from the Mon script in 1058, one year after the conquest of Thaton.

However recent research, though not yet settled, suggests that the Burmese script may have been derived in the tenth century from the Pyu script instead.

Sima Guang is a leader of the conservative faction at the Song court, resolutely opposed to the reformist policies of Chancellor Wang Anshi.

Sima has presented increasingly critical memorials to the throne until 1070, when he refused further appointment and withdrew from court.

In 1071, he takes up residence in Luoyang, where he will remain with an official sinecure, providing sufficient time and resources to continue compilation.

Indeed, though the historian and the emperor continued to disagree on policies, Sima's enforced retirement proves essential for him to fully complete his chronological history.

Sima Guang is also a lexicographer (who perhaps edited the Jiyun), and spent decades compiling his 1066 Leipian ("Classified Chapters", cf.

the Yupian) dictionary.

Based on the Shuowen Jiezi, it includes 31,319 Chinese characters, many of which were coined in the Song and Tang Dynasty.

Vseslav, after several years of complicated struggle with Iziaslav of Kiev, finally secures Polotsk in 1071.

Magnus, the eldest son and successor of Ordulf and Wulfhild of Norway, is the last member of the House of Billung.

In 1070, he had joined Otto in rebellion against Henry IV.

Otto obtains no support in Bavaria, but raises an army among the Saxons and carries on a campaign of plunder against Henry until 1071, when he submits.

Magnus is captured and imprisoned in the castle of Harzburg, the imposing imperial fortress which so inflames the Saxon freemen.

Boleslaw II attacks Bohemia again in 1071.

As he refuses any attempt of arbitration by King Henry IV, the question is settled by an armistice between the two belligerents.

Pecheneg troops pillage Syrmia (now in Serbia) in 1071.

King Solomon and Duke Géza, suspecting that the soldiers of the imperial garrison at Belgrade had incited the marauders against Hungary, decide to attack the fortress.

The Hungarian army crosses the river Sava, although the defenders "blew sulphurous fires by means of machines" against their boats.

The Hungarians take Belgrade after a siege of three months.

However, the imperial commander, Niketas, surrenders the fortress to Duke Géza instead of the king; he knows that Solomon "was a hard man and that in all things he listened to the vile counsels of Count Vid, who was detestable in the eyes both of God and men", according to the Illuminated Chronicle.

The division of the war booty causes a new conflict between Solomon and his cousin, because the king only grants a quarter of the booty to the duke, who claims its third part.

Hereafter the duke negotiates with the Emperor's envoys and sets all the imperial captives free without the king's consent.

The conflict is further sharpened by Count Vid: the Illuminated Chronicle narrates how he incited the young monarch against his cousins by saying that as "two sharp swords cannot be kept in the same scabbard", so the king and the duke "cannot reign together in the same kingdom".

Romanus leads his fifty thousand troops into parts of Turkish-held Armenia in the spring of 1071, entering Armenia along the southern branch of the Upper Euphrates River.

Near the town of Manzikert (present Malazgirt, Turkey), north of Lake Van, Romanus divides his army, which is mainly composed of mercenaries-a sign of the times-that include a contingent of Turkmen, sending some ahead to secure the fortress of Akhlât on nearby Lake Van and taking others with him into the Armenian village of Manzikert.

Alp-Arslan, quickly retracing his steps, hastens to Manzikert, where on August 26 he confronts the superior forces of the imperial army, which is powerful in numbers but weak in morale.

Romanus abandons Manzikert in an attempt to reunite his forces with the group besieging Akhlât.

Trapped in a valley on the Akhlât road, he neglects to send out scouts to assess the enemy's position, and the Turks fall upon him.

The Emperor fights valiantly, but his position has been weakened by treachery within his ranks; his Turkmen troops had gone over to the enemy the night before the battle.

One of Romanus' generals, Andronicus Ducas, perceiving that the cause is lost, flees with his men.

By evening, Romanus’ army is destroyed, and the emperor is taken prisoner.

For the first time in history, a Christian emperor has become the prisoner of a Muslim sovereign.

Alp-Arslan's goal is not to destroy the Empire: he is content with the rectification of boundaries, the promise of tribute, and an alliance.

Nevertheless, the Battle of Manzikert opens Asia Minor to Turkmen conquest.

With the frontier completely shattered, the Turkmens are able to range over most of Anatolia virtually at will.

Following their stunning victory at Manzikert, and subsequent raiding into Georgia, they overrun much of Anatolia, killing many people in the process.

Seljuq ruler Alp-Arslan had judged himself sufficiently protected on the Greek side to undertake, at the request of Egyptian rebels, the great anti-Fatimid expedition that had been asked for by the orthodox 'Abbasid caliphate.

Increasingly intolerant of Christians and Jews, he takes Jerusalem from the Fatimids in 1071.

Taranto is finally conquered by the Normans: the sons of Petron elect the first Norman archbishop, Drogo, in 1071, and prepare a fleet to conquer Durazzo.