865 - Definition and Overview

Events

• Ethelred succeeds as king of Wessex (or 866).
• Ragnar Lodbrok invades England, but is defeated by king Ella of Northumbria
• A Russian expedition for the first time threatens Constantinople.
• Louis the German divides his kingdom among his sons.
• Lothair, threatened with excommunication, takes back his first wife,
• Harald Harfagre (850-933) becomes king of Norway, the first king to rule over most of (but not all of) Norway
• Bulgaria under Boris I converts to Orthodox Christianity.

Births

• Robert I, king of France (approximate date)

Deaths

• February 3 - Saint Ansgar
• Ragnar Lodbrok, King of Denmark and Sweden
• Ethelbert, king of Wessex (or 866)