839

By place

Europe

• Prince Sicard of Benevento is assassinated by a conspiracy among the nobility. He is succeeded by Radelchis I, chief army officer and treasurer of Sicard, who proclaims himself ruler of Benevento. He imprisons Siconulf, heir and brother of Sicard, in Taranto. But Amalfitan merchants, led by Landulf I, the gastald of Capua, and with the support of Guaifer, rescue him from prison. Siconulf is proclaimed prince of Salerno, and a civil war erupts, which splits the Lombard principality in Southern Italy.
• Third Civil War: King Louis the German, grandson of Charlemagne, invades Swabia. His nephew, Pepin II of Aquitaine, and his Gascon subjects, conquer territory all the way to the Loire.
• May 20 — Thirteen months before his death, Louis the Pious, successor to his father Charlemagne, consents to the division of Charlemagne's empire among his sons in a declaration at Worms. Upon Louis I's death in 840, Lothair is devised Middle Francia that includes Switzerland and northern Italy; Louis the German, age 36, receives Eastern Francia that includes much of Germany; and Charles the Bald gets West Francia that incorporates most of France.
• The Hungarians who until then have lived east to the Carpathians, raid the Lower Danube at the request of the Bulgarian Empire against the Byzantine insurgents.
• Approximate date - Danish Vikings return to ravage the Frisian coast.

  Britain

• King Egbert of Wessex dies after a 37-year reign, and is succeeded by his son Æthelwulf as ruler of Wessex. Æthelwulf's eldest son, Æthelstan, is made sub-king of Kent, Essex, Surrey and Sussex, under his father.
• Eóganan mac Óengusa, King of the Picts, his brother Bran, Áed mac Boanta, King of Dál Riata, "and others almost innumerable" are killed in a battle fought by the men of Fortriu in Scotland against Vikings. Alpín mac Echdach apparently succeeds Áed.

  By topic

Religion

• The first official mention of Andorra is recorded, in the manuscripts of the cathedral at La Seu d'Urgell.