An enormous flood along the Grand Canal of China inundates large tracts of the North China Plain, killing tens of thousands of people and adding to the further decline of the Tang Dynasty.

Emperor Kammu, the fiftieth emperor of Japan, had abolished universal conscription in 792, just before the move to the Heiankyō, and local, private militias had soon come into being.

The Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto are among the most prominent families supported by the new military class.

As the Soga had taken control of the Japanese throne in the sixth century, the Fujiwara by the ninth century had intermarried with the imperial family, and one of their members had been the first head of the Emperor's Private Office.

By 858, when Fujiwara Yoshifusa has his infant grandson Korehito placed on the throne as Emperor Seiwa and makes himself regent, the Fujiwara family’s monopolization of the Imperial court and administrative offices has made them the virtual masters of Japan.

A skillful politician, Yoshifusa is the first regent in Japanese history who is not himself of imperial rank.

Bardas has quickly become the moving spirit in the new regime.

A university is organized in Constantinople.

Ignatios, who had supported Theodora, is arrested and imprisoned in 858, and upon refusing to resign his office is deposed.

On December 25, Michael elevates to the patriarchate a layman, Photius, after the latter’s receipt of the lesser orders in six days.

Photius, a relative of the Patriarchs Tarasios and John VII Grammatikos, had after completing his own education begun to teach grammar, rhetoric, divinity and philosophy.

Following the marriage of his brother Sergios to Irene, a sister of Theodora, and Theodora’s assumption of the regency, Photius had become a captain of the guard and subsequently chief imperial secretary.

At an uncertain date, Photius had participated in an embassy to the Arabs.

Tabriz suffers a severe earthquake in 858.

The division of the dominions of Emperor Lothair I, by which his eldest son Louis had obtained no territory outside Italy, had aroused his discontent, and in 857 he allies himself with his uncle Louis the German, king of East Francia, against his own brother Lothair II, King of Lotharingia, and his other uncle King Charles the Bald, king of West Francia.

Pope Benedict III, who had intervened in the conflict between the sons of Lothair I (the future Lothair II, Louis II and Charles the Bald) on the latter's death, has been active in other cases and adopted a firm position towards Constantinople.

During his reign, Æthelwulf of Wessex and his youngest son, the future Alfred the Great, have visited Rome.

At Benedict’s death on April 7, 858, Emperor Louis II, who is in the neighborhood of Rome, enters the city to exert his influence upon the election.

On April 24, a deacon named Nicholas, born to a distinguished family as the son of the Defensor Theodore, is elected pope, consecrated, and enthroned in St. Peter's in the presence of the emperor.

Three days later, he holds a farewell banquet for the emperor, and afterward, accompanied by the Roman nobility, visits him in his camp before the city, on which occasion the emperor comes to meet the pope and leads his horse for some distance.

Lothair II’s Divorce Crisis and Political Struggles (858)

By 858, Lothair II, ruler of Lotharingia, is deeply entangled in a controversial attempt to divorce his wife, Teutberga, in favor of his mistress, Waldrada, with whom he already has a son. His efforts to legitimize this relationship and secure an heir shape his political alliances and conflicts within the Carolingian world.

The Divorce Attempt and Its Political Implications

• Teutberga, Lothair's lawful wife, is the sister of Hucbert, Abbot of St. Maurice, a powerful noble with strong ecclesiastical and military influence.
• Lothair, lacking a legitimate male heir, seeks to marry Waldrada, ensuring that his son with her is recognized as his rightful successor.
• His relations with his uncles, Charles the Bald and Louis the German, become highly influenced by their stance on the divorce.
  • Louis the German supports the divorce, seeing it as an opportunity to gain influence in Lotharingia.
  • Charles the Bald opposes it, recognizing that if Lothair dies without an heir, his territory could be up for grabs.

The Role of Pope Nicholas I and Lothair’s Reconciliation with Louis the German

• In 858, Lothair’s younger brother, Louis II (King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor), secures the election of Pope Nicholas I.
• With the new pope in place, Louis the German reconciles with Lothair, offering military assistance in return for lands south of the Jura Mountains.
• Feeling emboldened, Lothair puts away Teutberga, dismissing her from the royal court in favor of Waldrada.

Teutberga’s Ordeal and Her Restoration (858)

• Hucbert, her brother, takes up arms in her defense, rallying secular and ecclesiastical support against Lothair.
• Teutberga is forced to undergo the ordeal of water to prove her innocence:
  • This was likely the ordeal of hot water, which involved plunging one’s arm into boiling water and later assessing whether the wounds healed miraculously.
  • The more dangerous ordeal of cold water, in which the accused was thrown into water to see if they sank (proof of innocence), had been abolished by Louis the Pious in 829.
• Teutberga successfully endures the ordeal, proving her innocence according to medieval custom.
• Lothair is compelled to restore her, as the Church and political rivals refuse to accept his marriage to Waldrada.

Impact of the 858 Crisis

• Lothair's failure to secure his divorce leaves his succession uncertain, fueling further tensions between Charles the Bald and Louis the German, both of whom anticipate his kingdom’s eventual partition.
• His conflict with the Papacy will escalate in the coming years, leading to direct intervention from Pope Nicholas I, reinforcing the Church’s growing role in dynastic disputes.
• The dynastic struggle over Lotharingia continues, setting the stage for future Franco-German conflicts over the region.

Though Lothair temporarily reconciles with Louis the German, his battle to legitimize Waldrada and her children is far from over, shaping the politics of the Carolingian world for the next decade.

…Æthelbald marries his stepmother, the widowed Judith.

Novgorod, first mentioned in written chronicles dating from 859, is at this time a settlement on a major north-south inland water trade route—the Volkhov River, just north of Lake Ilmen, in northwest European Russia—and a center of crafts industry and commerce.