Year 1040 (MXL) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Contents
Events
By place
Spring – Nikephoros Dokeianos, Byzantine governor of the Catepanate of Italy, is murdered by Lombard rebels at Ascoli. He is replaced by Michael Dokeianos, who arrives in November with a Varangian army.
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.
Peter Delyan leads a rebellion against the Byzantine Empire and is proclaimed by the Bulgarian nobles as emperor (tsar) Peter II in Belgrade.
The Emirate of Sicily is divided and fragmented into small fiefdoms. The Arab nobles of Palermo restore the regime of the Kalbids (approximate date).
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.
June 17 – Harthacnut lands at Sandwich and reclaims the throne of England which had been taken by Harald Harefoot in 1035.
August 14 – King Duncan is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth, who succeeds him as king of Scotland.
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.
By topic
Weihenstephan Abbey (Kloster Weihenstephan) in Germany, founds the oldest operating brewery.
The Shalu Monastery is founded by the Buddhist monk Chetsun Sherab Jungnay in Tibet.
Births
February 22 – Rashi, French rabbi and writer (d. 1105)
July 12 – Yun Kwan, Korean general (d. 1111)
Adelaide of Hungary, duchess of Bohemia (d. 1062)
Alan Rufus, Norman nobleman (approximate date)
Alfonso VI, king of León and Castile (approximate date)
Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, Abbadid emir of Seville (d. 1095) (approximate date)
Arnold of Soissons, French bishop (approximate date)
Blessed Gerard, founder of the Knights Hospitaller (d. 1120) (approximate date)
Bonfilius, bishop of Foligno (approximate date)
Conrad I, count of Luxembourg (approximate date)
Ernulf, French Benedictine monk and bishop (d. 1124)
Gebhard III, bishop of Constance (approximate date)
Geoffrey III of Anjou, French nobleman (approximate date)
Géza I (Magnus), king of Hungary (approximate date)
Guérin of Aumale, Founder of House of Aumale (d. 1100)
Guglielmo Embriaco, Genoese merchant (d. 1102) (approximate date)
Haziga of Diessen, German countess (approximate date)
Deaths
January 17 – Masʽud I, Ghaznavid sultan (b. 998)
March 3 – Cunigunde, Holy Roman Empress
March 17 – Harold Harefoot, king of England
May 29 – Renauld I, French nobleman
June 21 – Fulk III of Anjou, French nobleman (b. 970)
August 14 – Duncan I, king of Scotland
October 1 – Alan III, duke of Brittany (b. 997)
Abu Hashim al-Hasan, Zaidi imam and ruler of Jemen
Abu Nasr Mushkan, Persian statesman (or 1039)
Ali Daya, Ghaznavid commander-in-chief, executed
Begtoghdi, Ghaznavid commander-in-chief, executed
Bertha of Milan, Lombard duchess (approximate date)
Dietrich I, bishop of Meissen (approximate date)
Gilbert, Count of Brionne, Norman nobleman (approximate date)
Helias of Cologne, Irish abbot and musician
Hugh, Italian nobleman (approximate date)
Hugh I, count of Empúries and Peralada
Ibn al-Haytham, Arab astronomer (approximate date)
John V, duke of Gaeta (approximate date)