The Reign and Marriages of William VIII,…

Emperor Zhezong’s government, run by Siam Quang and Dowager Empress Gao, nationalizes agricultural production and distribution in 1086.

A decline in food production, the growth of the population, and competition for resources among the great families all led to the gradual decline of Fujiwara power and gave rise to military disturbances in the mid-tenth and eleventh centuries.

Members of the Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto families—all of whom have descended from the imperial family—attack one another, claim control over vast tracts of conquered land, set up rival regimes, and generally upset the peace.

The Fujiwara had controlled the throne until the reign of Emperor Go-Sanjō (1068-1073), the first emperor not born of a Fujiwara mother since the ninth century.

Go-Sanjo, determined to restore imperial control through strong personal rule, had implemented reforms to curb Fujiwara influence.

H had also established an office to compile and validate estate records with the aim of reasserting central control.

Many shōen were not properly certified, and large landholders, like the Fujiwara, feel threatened with the loss of their lands.

Go-Sanjo had also established the Incho, or Office of the Cloistered Emperor, which will be held by a succession of emperors who abdicate to devote themselves to behind-the-scenes governance, or insei.

The Incho has filled the void left by the decline of Fujiwara power.

Rather than being banished, the Fujiwara have mostly been retained in their old positions of civil dictator and minister of the center while being bypassed in decision making.

In time, many of the Fujiwara will be replaced, mostly by members of the rising Minamoto family.

While the Fujiwara fall into disputes among themselves and formed northern and southern factions, the insei system allows the paternal line of the imperial family to gain influence over the throne.

The period from 1086 to 1156 is the age of supremacy of the Incho and of the rise of the military class throughout the country.

Military might rather than civil authority dominates the government.

Minamoto no Yoshiie, named governor of Japan’s northern province of Mutsu in 1083, had taken it upon himself, without orders from the Imperial Court, to bring some peace and order to the region.

A series of disputes between Kiyohara no Masahira, Narihira, and Iehira over leadership of Mutsu’s Kiyowara cla had turned to violence.

Yoshiie intervenes in 1086 to stop the constant fighting between the leaders of the many Kiyohara branches, unsuccessfully besieging the fort where Iyehira and his Kiyowara rebels have withdrawn for the winter.

Intense cold and hunger decimates Yoshiie’s forces, forcing the survivors to retreat.

Emperor Huizong of Western Xia had moved to assume control of the Tangut government when he turned sixteen, but the Dowager continues to dominate until her son’s early death at twenty-six.

When his three-year-old son becomes Emperor Chongzong in 1086, his grandmother (Huizong's mother) becomes regent again and launches an invasion of the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty.

Again, both campaigns end in defeat.

The last years of Vratislaus, are, sadly, occupied by dynastic quarreling.

When his brother Otto dies in 1086, he gives Olomouc to Boleslaus, his son by Swatawa of Poland, a daughter of Casimir I of Poland.

This act is seen to be against the interests of his brother Conrad.

Vratislaus raises an army against Conrad and sends it out under Bretislaus, his son by Adelaide, daughter of Andrew I of Hungary, who had died in 1061.

Bretislaus then turns on father.

Vratislaus, in keeping with Bohemian custom, designates an heir: Conrad.

Thus reconciled, the two attack Bretislaus, who flees to Hungary.

Alexios next has to deal with disturbances in Thrace, where the heretical sects of the Bogomils and the Paulicians have revolted and make common cause with the Pechenegs from beyond the Danube.

Paulician soldiers in imperial service had likewise deserted during Alexios' battles with the Normans.

As soon as the Norman threat had passed, Alexios had set out to punish the rebels and deserters, confiscating their lands.

This leads to a further revolt near Philippopolis, and the commander of the field army in the west, Gregory Pakourianos, charging so vigorously he crashes into a tree, is defeated and killed in the ensuing battle.

The Imām 'Alī Holy Shrine, also known as Masjid Ali or the Mosque of 'Alī, located in Najaf, Iraq, is the third holiest site for some of the followers of the Shia branch of Islam.

'Alī ibn Abī Tālib, the cousin of Muhammad, the first Imam (according to Shia belief) is buried here, and the fourth caliph.

According to Shi'a belief, buried next to Ali within this mosque are the remains of Adam and Noah.

The shrine was first built by the Buyid shahanshah 'Adud al-Dawla in 977 over the tomb of Ali.

After being destroyed by fire, it is rebuilt by the Seljuq ruler Malik-Shah I in 1086.

Suleiman is killed near Antioch in 1086 by Tutush I, the Seljuq ruler of Syria.

Suleyman's son, Kilij Arslan I, is captured, and Malik Shah transfers him to Isfahan as a hostage.

It is uncertain whether Tutush had killed Suleiman out of loyalty to Malik-Shah I or simply for personal gain.

Abu'l Qasim declares himself sultan after the death of Suleiman.

His authority, however, is limited to his own domain in Bithynia and Cappadocia, where his brother rules; most of the Anatolian Seljuq realm fractures into independent or semi-independent emirates like the one led by Tzachas of Smyrna.

Using his control of the Anatolian shore of the Marmara Sea, Abu'l Qasim decides to build a navy at Kios and challenge the imperial navy.

The emperor Alexios I Komnenos sends two of his generals, Manuel Boutoumites and Tatikios, against him.

Abu'l Qasim's army is defeated, his fleet destroyed, and he himself is forced to retreat to Nicaea, whence he concludes a truce with the emperor.

The site of modern-day Madrid has been occupied since prehistoric times, and there are archaeological remains of Carpetani settlement, Roman villas, a Visigoth basilica near the church of Santa María de la Almudena and three Visigoth necropolises near Casa de Campo, Tetúan and Vicálvaro.

However, the first historical document about the existence of an established settlement in Madrid dates from the Muslim age.

At the second half of the ninth century, Emir Muhammad I of Córdoba built a fortress on a headland near the river Manzanares, a small tributary of the Tagus, as one of the many fortress he ordered to be built on the border between Al-Andalus and the kingdoms of León and Castile, with the objective of protecting Toledo from the Christian invasions and also as a starting point for Muslim offensives.

After the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Madrid, as Majrit, had been integrated in the Taifa of Toledo.

Alfonso VI now invites French knights to settle the central plateau of Spain.

Berenguer Ramon II, born in 1053 or 1054, had succeeded his father Ramon Berenguer I the Old in 1075 to co-rule with his twin brother Ramon Berenguer II.

The twins had failed to agree and divided their possessions between them, against the will of their late father.

Ramon Berenguer II had been killed while hunting in the woods on December 5, 1082.

Berenguer Ramon II, who became the sole ruler of Catalonia for the next four years, is credited by popular opinion with having orchestrated this murder.

This suspicion and other divisions of loyalty lead to a civil war.

Various parties assert ways to resolve this 'unjust and iniquitous murder', which lead to a moderate compromise in 1086 in which Berenguer Ramon II will rule Catalonia with his brother's four-year-old son Ramon Berenguer III for eleven years until he comes of age.