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The 1040s

259 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 11th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1040 CE37 entries

  • March 17 – King Harold Harefoot dies at Oxford at the age of 24. His illegitimate son Ælfwine Haroldsson is left in the care of his grandmother, Ælfgifu of Northampton.
  • May 23 – Battle of Dandanaqan: The Turkmen Seljuqs defeat the Ghaznavid forces (50,000 men) led by Sultan Masʽud I at Dandanaqan, a fortress city in the desert near Merv. Ghaznavid commanders Ali Daya and Begtoghdi are blamed for the defeat and executed.
  • August 22–23 – Battle at Brůdek: Duke Bretislav I of Bohemia defeats the German forces under King Henry III ("the Black") in the Bohemian Forest.

1041 CE25 entries

  • September – Peter, King of Hungary is deposed by a palace coup. The Hungarian magnates elect Samuel Aba as their king.
  • December 10 – Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian dies after a 6-year reign. His wife, Empress Zoë, elevates (on the advice of her lover John the Orphanotrophos) her adoptive son to the throne of the Byzantine Empire, as Michael V Kalaphates. Shortly after, Michael comes into conflict with his uncle John, and banishes him to a monastery.
  • Winter – Battle of Ostrovo: The Byzantines, with the help of the Varangian Guard, led by Harald Hardrada (future king of Norway), defeat the Bulgarian troops, near Lake Ostrovo in Greece.

1042 CE29 entries

  • January 25 – Abbad I dies after a 19-year reign as independent ruler of the Taifa of Seville in Al-Andalus (modern Spain). He is succeeded by his son Abbad II (until 1069).
  • April 19 – Emperor Michael V Kalaphates banishes his adoptive mother and co-ruler Zoë, for plotting to poison him, to the island of Principo. His announcement as sole emperor leads to a popular revolt.
  • June 11 – Zoë marries her third husband, a Byzantine bureaucrat who ascends as co-emperor Constantine IX at Constantinople. Theodora agrees to surrender her co-emperorship.

1043 CE24 entries

  • April 3 – Edward the Confessor is crowned king of England at Winchester Cathedral. He learns that his mother, Queen Emma of Normandy is plotting with Magnus the Good to take control of the English throne. Edward strips her land and treasure, but she is allowed to stay in England.
  • November 21 – King Henry III ("the Black") marries Agnes of Poitou (daughter of William V of Aquitaine) at the Imperial Palace at Ingelheim am Rhein. She is his second wife after the death of Gunhilda from malaria in 1038.
  • The Seljuqs under Tughril Beg expel the Oghuz Turks from Khorasan and conquer Qazvin (modern Iran). They become the new masters of the Ziyarid dynasty (approximate date).

1044 CE16 entries

  • July 6 – Battle of Ménfő: German troops under King Henry III ("the Black") defeat the Hungarian army, led by King Samuel Aba, who flees the field but is captured and killed. Peter Orseolo ("the Venetian") becomes (for the second time) king of Hungary, and a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire.
  • August 11 – King Anawrahta seizes the throne of the Pagan Empire at Bagan in Burma (modern Myanmar).
  • September – A second Roman uprising forces Pope Benedict IX out of Rome. He is succeeded by the new elected (anti)-Pope Sylvester III (until 1045).

1045 CE18 entries

  • January 23 – Edward the Confessor, King of England, marries Edith of Wessex (daughter of Earl Godwin) and she is crowned queen consort at Winchester. This year also in England, Edward begins construction of Westminster Abbey.
  • February 5 – Emperor Go-Reizei ascends the throne of Japan.
  • May 5 – Pope Gregory VI becomes the 148th pope, following the resignation of Pope Benedict IX in exchange for money. There are growing allegations that simony is taking place during Gregory VI's reign.

1046 CE31 entries

  • March 5 – Nasir Khusraw begins his 7-year Middle Eastern (19,000-kilometre) journey, which he later describes in the book Safarnāmé.
  • December 20 – Pope Gregory VI is accused of simony at the Council of Sutri, and abdicates as pope of the Catholic Church.
  • December 25 – Pope Clement II succeeds Gregory VI as the 149th pope, and crowns Henry III as Holy Roman Emperor.

1047 CE27 entries

  • August 10 – Battle of Val-ès-Dunes: Norman duke William I secures control over Normandy with assistance from King Henry I of France by defeating rebel Norman barons at Caen. Later in October, William promulgates the "Truce of God" throughout his duchy.
  • September 25–28 – Rebel general Leo Tornikios (a nephew of Emperor Constantine IX) proclaims himself emperor at Adrianople, and besieges Constantinople. Byzantine troops personally led by Constantine repel him, and re-occupy the walls. Tornikios is forced to withdraw, while his followers start to abandon him. Finally, he is captured at a church in Boulgarophygon (modern Turkey), and is publicly blinded.
  • October 9 – Pope Clement II dies suddenly after a 9-month pontificate. Benedict IX usurps the papal throne as the 150th pope of the Catholic Church (his third time in the office).

1048 CE32 entries

  • July 17 – Pope Damasus II succeeds Benedict IX as the 151st pope of the Catholic Church, but dies after 23 days.
  • September 18 – Battle of Kapetron: A combined Byzantine-Georgian army, under Byzantine generals Aaronios and Katakalon Kekaumenos (supported by the Georgian duke Liparit IV), confronts the invading Seljuk Turks, led by Ibrahim Inal (a half-brother of Sultan Tughril), at Kapetron (near modern-day Pasinler). The Byzantines defeat their opposing Turkish forces in the flanks, but in the centre Ibrahim Inal captures Liparit, and can safely withdraw from Byzantine territory, laden with spoils and captives, including Liparit.
  • December – Bruno von Egisheim-Dagsburg, bishop of Toul, is selected as the new pope by an assembly at Worms - after canonical election in Rome next February, he assumes the name Pope Leo IX.

1049 CE20 entries

  • January 13 – Theodwin, prince-bishop of Liège, defeats Count Dirk IV of West Frisia near Dordrecht and restores imperial authority in the Rhine Delta.
  • February 12 – Pope Leo IX succeeds Damasus II, as the 152nd pope of the Catholic Church. He goes on a one-year trip to promote the cause of the reformist program among the European prelates.
  • The Banu Hilal, a confederation of tribes of Arabia, begin their invasion in the Maghreb (North Africa). They are organized by the Egyptian Fatimid Caliphate to punish their former Zirid vassals.