Arnulf does not make peace with Svatopluk until late 885, by which time the Moravian is a man of the emperor.

Some scholars see this war as destroying Arnulf's hopes at succeeding Charles.

Methodius, who seems to have been in Svatopluk's train at Kaumberg, dies in 885.

In his last days he had indicated Gorazd, one of his Moravian disciples, as most worthy to succeed him.

Gorazd, however, does not or cannot immediately submit his candidature for ratification of the Holy See, because Bishop Witching of Nitra soon hurries to Rome.

He persuades Pope Stephen V that Methodius had ignored Pope John VIII's orders in the matter of Slavonic liturgy, thus upon his initiative the pope prohibits the Slavonic liturgy in Moravia.

The pope also sends a letter (Quia te zelo) to Svatopluk, urging him to accept the addition of filioque to the Creed and to give up such peculiar Greek practices as fasting on Saturday.

Witching having arrived back from Rome, Svatopluk summons Gorazd, Clement and Methodius's other disciples to submit to the papal directions.

When they refuses to do so, Svatopluk gives Witching a free hand to take action against them.

Some of them are first thrown into prison, and soon expelled from Moravia, while others, among them Naum, are sold as slaves.

The expulsion of Methodius's disciples from Moravia signals the end of the Slavonic liturgy in Central Europe.

The exiles, however, subsequently find refuge in the Bulgarian Empire where they are able to carry on their work.

Pratihara monarch Bhoja dies in 885 after a successful fifty-four-year reign, during which he has restored the Gurjara empire to the borders ruled by his grandfather.

His son Mahendrapala succeeds him.

Constantinople’s conquest of Calabria in 885 succeeds in driving the Saracens from southern Italy, which is organized into the provinces of Calabria and Langobardia, but …

…the imperial forces are unable to dislodge the Saracens from Sicily.

The fourteen-year war between the Empire and the Calphate ends, and …

…Taranto is made a refuge for Christians driven from Sicily by the Muslims.

Ibn Hafsun was born around 850 in the mountains near Parauta, in what is now Málaga province.

A wild youth, he had a very violent temper and was involved in a number of disputes, even a homicide around the year 879.

He had joined a group of brigands and was captured by the wali (governor) of Málaga, who had merely imposed a fine (having not been informed of the homicide).

The governor had subsequently lost his post.

Ibn Hafsun had fled, possibly to the Maghreb, but had soon returned to Andalusia, albeit as an outlaw, and joined the bandits who are in rebellion against the caliphate, wherein he had soon risen to a leadership position.

Originally he had settled in the ruins of the old Bobastro castle, rebuilding it and fortifying the nearby town of Ardales, Malaga.

He has allied disaffected muwallads and mozárabs to the cause, playing off resentment at the unfair, heavy taxation and humiliating treatment they have received at the hands of Abd ar-Rahman and his successors.

He has acquired castles and lands in a wide area, not only in Malaga, but including portions of the provinces of Cádiz, Granada known then as Elvira, Jaén, and Seville.

By 883, he had become the leader of the rebels in the provinces to the south and west of the Emirate of Cordoba.

The year before, in 882, he is said to have fought the Emir in a battle in which ally García Íñiguez of Pamplona was killed.

About 885, in order to be more centrally located and quicker to respond to external threats, ibn Hafsun moves his headquarters to the town of Poley, which is now known as Aguilar de la Frontera.

Charles, childless by his marriage to Richgard, tries to have his illegitimate son by an unknown concubine, Bernard, recognized as his heir in 885, but meets the opposition of several bishops.

He has the support of Pope Adrian III, whom he invites to an assembly in Worms in October 885, but who dies on the way, just after crossing the river Po.

Adrian was going to depose the obstructing bishops, as Charles doubted he could do this himself, and legitimize Bernard.

Based on the unfavoring attitude of the chronicler of the Mainz continuation of the Annales Fuldenses, the chief of Charles's opponents in the matter was probably Liutbert, Archbishop of Mainz.

Because Charles had called together the "bishops and counts of Gaul" as well as the pope to meet him at Worms, it seems likely that he planned to make Bernard King of Lotharingia.