848



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

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.

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

Asia

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

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.

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