Ly Phật Ma (known to history by his posthumous title, as Ly Thái Tông) at the beginning of his reign over Dai Viet had relied mostly on the advisers of his late father, Emperor Ly Thái To, and together they had crushed a rebellion led by two of his brothers challenging his throne.

Later, he had personally led an army to defeat yet another unsatisfied brother.

As his rule became more secure, Thái Tông had started to demonstrate an unconventional style of governance, promoting one of his favorite concubines to royal status.

Rejected his officials’ advice, he plows the land himself during the spring plowing ceremony.

Thái Tông has a serious discussion in 1039, with his officials about whether good government is dependent upon strong personal leadership or upon a sophisticated institution.

In the end, he accepted his official’s opinion and began to reform the government.

One such reform is to reorganize the royal family and make it into a parallel of the government, which is a bureaucratic system.

Another significant reform is the publication of a new legal code to replace the old laws that were copied from China’s defunct Tang Dynasty.

Bruno, Bishop of Augsburg, had been the first tutor of the future Holy Roman Emperor Henry III.

On Bruno's death in 1029, Egilbert, Bishop of Freising, had been appointed to take his place.

Henry had come of age in 1033 at the age of sixteen and Egilbert had been compensated for his services.

Emperor Conrad II, Henry’s father, had in 1035 deposed Adalbero, Duke of Carinthia, but Egilbert had persuaded Henry to refuse this injustice and the princes of Germany, having legally elected Henry, would not recognize the deposition unless their king did also.

Henry, in accordance with his promise to Egilbert, had not consented to his father's act and Conrad, stupefied, fell unconscious after many attempts to turn Henry.

Upon recovering, Conrad knelt before his son and exacted the desired consent.

The emperor had penalized Egilbert dearly.

Henry had been married in 1036 o Gunhilda of Denmark, a daughter of Cnut the Great, King of Denmark, England, and Norway, by his wife Emma of Normandy.

Early on, Henry's father had arranged with Cnut to have him rule over some parts of northern Germany (Kiel) and in turn to have their children married.

The marriage had taken place in Nijmegen at the earliest legal age.

Henry had been called to aid his father in Italy in 1038, and Gunhilda had died on the Adriatic Coast during the return trip (from the same epidemic in which Herman IV of Swabia died).

His father in 1039 also dies, and Henry becomes sole ruler and imperator in spe.

Henry spends his first year in power on a tour of his domains.

He visits the Low Countries to receive the homage of Gothelo I, Duke of Upper and Lower Lorraine.

He is joined in Cologne by Herman II, Archbishop of Cologne, who accompanied him and his mother to Saxony, where hewill build the town of Goslar up from obscurity to stately imperial grandeur.

Duke Bretislaus invades Little and Great Poland in 1039, capturing Poznań and …

…sacking Gniezno, bringing the relics of St. Adalbert, Radim Gaudentius and the Five Brothers back with him.

On the way back, …

…Bretislaus conquers part of Silesia, including Wrocław.

His main goal is to set up an archbishopric in Prague and create a large state subject only to the Holy Roman Empire.

Bretislaus’s raid has an unintended enduring influence on Polish history, as the plundering and destruction of Gniezno will push the next Polish rulers to move their capital to Kraków, which is to retain this role for many centuries ahead.

Henry has an armed force when he enters Thuringia to meet with Eckard II, Margrave of Meissen, whose advice and counsel he desires on the recent successes of Duke Bretislaus I of Bohemia in Poland.

Only a Bohemian embassy bearing hostages appeases Henry; he disbands his army and continues his tour in the direction of Bavaria.

King Peter Urseolo of Hungary sends raiding parties into Swabia upon Henry’s departure from Bavaria.

Muhammad had begun constructing massive defensive walls around Isfahan, which later saves it from the Turkmen nomads who sack and plunder some places in west and central Iran in 1038/39, …

…including the city of Hamadan.