AD 666

Barking Abbey: curfew tower (east London)

Year 666 (DCLXVI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 666 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events

Emperor Constans II grants the request of Bishop Maurus of Ravenna, allowing the city to consecrate its bishop without approval from Rome (approximate date).

Duke Lupus of Friuli revolts against King Grimoald I, with allied Avars. Grimoald takes and devastates Friuli, tracks down Lupus's son Arnefrit (allied with the Slaves), and beats him and kills him in battle at the castle of Nimis. Grimoald appoints Wechtar as the new duke of Friuli.

Chinese Buddhist monks Zhi Yu and Zhi Yuo craft more south-pointing chariot vehicles (a non-magnetic, mechanical-driven directional-compass vehicle that incorporates the use of a Differential.

Wilfrid returns to Great Britain, but is shipwrecked in Sussex. When he finally reaches Northumbria, he finds he has been deposed and is forced to retire to Ripon.<ref name=Reassess34>John "Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England" pp. 34-35</ref>
Earconwald, Anglo-Saxon abbot, establishes the Benedictine abbeys, Chertsey Abbey (Surrey) for men<ref name=Kirby83>Kirby "Earliest English Kings" p. 83</ref> and Barking Abbey (now in east London) for women.<ref name=Courts250>Yorke "Adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon Royal Courts" Cross Goes North pp. 250-251</ref>

St Erkenwald, Saxon Prince, bishop and saint known as the "Light of London": founds two religious houses near London in this year