854

File:The Boyhood of Alfred the Great (1913).jpg

Queen Osburh reading to her sons Alfred and Æthelred during their boyhood (1913)

Year 854 (DCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Europe

• Emperor Lothair I meets his (half) brothers (Louis the German and Charles the Bald) in Attigny, Ardennes for the third time, to continue the system of "con-fraternal government".
• Viking chieftains Rorik and Godfrid Haraldsson return to Denmark, to gain power after the death of King Horik I. During a civil war, they are forced to go back to Friesland.<ref>Norsemen in the Low Countries: Extracts from the Annales Bertiniani, 855 entry Template:Webarchive</ref>
• The German city of Ulm is first mentioned, in a document by Louis the German.<ref>Zeit.de: Das Alter der Städte</ref>
• Croatian–Bulgarian battle: Bulgarian Khan (later Knyaz) Boris I,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> attacks the Duchy of Littoral Croatia, ruled by Duke Trpimir I during the First Croatian-Bulgarian War. It is fought on the Croatian territory in the vicinity of the Croatian–Bulgarian border<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in present-day northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. None of the warring sides emerges victorious, Bulgarian forces retreat and finally both parties subsequently conclude a peace treaty.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Britain

• King Æthelwulf of Wessex sends his two youngest sons, Alfred and Æthelred, on a pilgrimage to Rome.<ref name=asc853>ASC 854 - English translation at Project Gutenberg</ref>
• King Æthelweard of East Anglia dies, and is succeeded by his 14-year-old son Edmund ("the Martyr").<ref>Kirby, The Earliest English Kings, p. 161.</ref>
• King Cyngen of Powys makes the first pilgrimage to Rome of a Welsh ruler.
• Viking chieftain Ubba winters in Milford Haven (Wales) with 23 ships.<ref>Milford Haven Town Council website History, Chronology of Events Template:Webarchive</ref>

By topic

Religion

• Eardulf becomes bishop of Lindisfarne, after the death of Eanbert.

Births

• Al-Mu'tadid, Muslim caliph (or 861)
• Cadell ap Rhodri, king of Seisyllwg (d. 909)
• Cui Yin, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty (d. 904)
• Theobald the Elder, Frankish nobleman (d. 942)

Deaths

• Abu Thawr, Muslim scholar (b. 764)
• Æthelweard, king of East Anglia
• Eanbert, bishop of Lindisfarne
• Horik I, Viking king of Denmark
• Liudger, bishop of Utrecht (approximate date)
• Osburh, queen of Wessex (approximate date)
• Sahnun ibn Sa'id, Muslim jurist (or 855)
• Túathal mac Máele-Brigte, king of Leinster
• Wang Yuankui, Chinese general (b. 812)
• Wigmund, archbishop of York