Year 848 (DCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.

Events

<onlyinclude>

By place

Europe

• Summer Bordeaux, capital of Aquitaine, falls into the hands of Viking raiders. King Charles the Bald sends a Frankish fleet to lift the siege. Despite destroying some Viking longships on the Dordogne River, they fail to save the city. The Abbey of Saint-Pierre in Brantôme is sacked.

• Emperor Lothair I, and his (half) brothers Louis the German and Charles the Bald, meet in Koblenz to continue the system of "con-fraternal government".

• Frankish forces under Count (comté) William of Septimania assume authority over the counties of Barcelona and Empúries (modern Spain).

• The Saracens conquer Ragusa (Sicily), after its Byzantine garrison is forced by severe famine to surrender. The city and its castle are razed to the ground.

• Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid, High King of Mide, defeats a Norse Viking army at Sciath Nechtain in Ireland (approximate date).

Britain

• The armies of Brycheiniog and Gwent clash in the battle of Ffinnant (Wales). King Ithel of Gwent is killed in the fighting (approximate date).

Asia

• The Medieval Cholas in Southern India start to rule (approximate date).

By topic

Religion

• Pope Leo IV builds (on the opposite of the Tiber River) the Leonine City, a fortified three-kilometre wall that encircles the Vatican Hill and Borgo, to defend Rome.

• The Roman Catholic church of Santa María del Naranco, on the slope of Monte Naranco (Northern Spain), is completed.

</onlyinclude>

Births

• Alfonso III, king of Asturias (approximate date)

• Carloman, Frankish abbot (d. 877)

• Charles the Child, king of Aquitaine (or 847)

• Lothair the Lame, Frankish abbot (d. 865)

• Onneca Fortúnez, Basque princess (or 850)

Deaths

• Cui Yuanshi, chancellor of the Tang dynasty

• Drest X, king of the Picts

• Guo, empress dowager of the Tang dynasty

• Ithel, king of Gwent (approximate date)

• Li Gongzuo, Chinese writer

• Malik ibn Kaydar, Muslim governor

• Rechtabhra, bishop of Clonfert

• Shi Xiong, Chinese general

• Sunifred, Frankish nobleman

• Sunyer I, Frankish nobleman

• William I, duke of Gascony

• Yahya al-Laithi, Muslim scholar

References