the Saracens, who, after plundering the
country, lay siege to Gaeta.

Spain afflicted by a great drought and swarms of locusts.

847. A violent storm drives the Saracens from the siege of Gaeta. The
distress in Spain is relieved by Abderrahman, who remits the taxes and
constructs aqueducts and fountains.

848. Louis, King of Italy, drives the Saracens out of Beneventum.

Bordeaux is assailed by the Northmen, but they are vigorously repulsed.
See "DECAY OF THE FRANKISH EMPIRE," v, 22.

Pope Leo IV adds a new quarter to the city of Rome by surrounding the
Vatican with walls.

849. Birth of Alfred the Great. See "CAREER OF ALFRED THE GREAT," v, 49.

Gottschalk, a German bishop who preached the doctrine of twofold
predestination, sentenced by the Council of Quincy to be flogged and
suffer perpetual imprisonment.

The Saracens range at will through the Mediterranean; they are defeated
at the mouth of the Tiber by the combined fleets of Naples, Gaeta, and
Amalphi.

On Gallic soil the _benificium_ and practice of commendation is
specially fostered. See "FEUDALISM: ITS FRANKISH BIRTH AND ENGLISH
DEVELOPMENT," v, 1.

850. Roric, a nephew of Harold, collects a piratical armament in
Friesland and attacks adjacent coasts; Lothair grants Durstadt to him to
secure his own lands.

Pepin strengthens himself in Aquitaine by leagues with the Northmen. See
"DECAY OF THE FRANKISH EMPIRE," v, 22.

851. Danes ascend the Rhine with 252 ships and plunder Ghent, Cologne,
Treves, and Aix-la-Chapelle.

Roric, with 350 sail, proceeds up the Thames and pillages Canterbury and
London, after defeating the King of Mercia; he is at last defeated by
Ethelwulf, with great slaughter, at Ockley.

852. A revolt against the Moslems in Armenia.

853. Hastings' (the Danish chief) ruse at Tuscany. See "DECAY OF THE
FRANKISH EMPIRE," v, 22.

855. Death of Lothair, Emperor of the Franks; civil war between his
sons.

A band of Danes keep the Isle of Sheppey through the winter; their first
foothold in England.

860. Iceland discovered by the Northmen.

862. Rurik, the Varangian chief, conquers Novgorod and Kiov and lays the
foundation of the Russian empire.

863. Cyril and Methodius, the "apostles of the Slavs," undertake the
conversion of the Moravians.

Pope Nicholas deposes Photius and declares Ignatius to be the patriarch
of Constantinople; Photius in turn excommunicates the Pope.

Charles the Bald founds the County of Flanders.