Yaroslav commissions Russkaya Pravda ('Russian truth'), a code of Russia's laws

In a battle near Elgin Macbeth kills his cousin Duncan, a rival claimant to the Scottish throne

Edward the Confessor, the rightful heir in the Anglo-Saxon royal line, becomes king of England

A Russian chronicle makes the first mention of the marauding Polovtsy, who persistently raid Russian cities from the steppes

Duncan's son, Malcolm, kills Macbeth in battle at Lumphanan - and in the following year is himself crowned at Scone

On his death bed in Westminster, Edward the Confessor designates Harold - foremost among England's barons - as his successor

Halley's comet, appearing in the Normans' annus mirabilis, is later depicted in the Bayeux tapestry

Harold defeats at Stamford Bridge the joint army of his brother Tostig and of the Norwegian king, Harald Hardraade

The Normans, as seen in the Bayeux tapestry, invade England in Viking longships with fortified platforms for archers

Harold, hurrying south to confront the Normans after his victory at Stamford Bridge, is defeated and killed at Hastings

William the Conqueror (William I) is crowned on Christmas Day at Westminster - giving the new abbey church two coronations and a royal funeral in its first year

Pope Gregory VII decrees that only the church may make ecclesiastical appointments, thus initiating the investiture controversy between pope and emperor

The emperor Henry IV stands as a penitent outside the pope's castle at Canossa, so as to be released from excommunication.

Anselm includes in his Proslogion his famous 'ontological proof' of the existence of God

Work begins on the story of the Norman conquest, narrated in embroidery in the Bayeux tapestry

Norman earls are given territories on the marches of Wales, with the specific task of raiding their neighbours

Venice acquires valuable trading privileges from Constantinople, her merchants being excused all dues and customs in the Byzantine empire

St Bruno and six companions retire to Chartreuse, in the French Alps, and establish the Carthusian order

Toledo is captured from the Muslims by Alfonso VI of Castile, who continues the city's traditions of religious tolerance

On the death of his father, William the Conqueror, William II becomes king of England

The Domesday Book provides the Normans with an inventory of England

Roger I, the first Norman count of Sicily, completes the conquest of the island from the Muslims

Rodrigo Diaz, known as El Cid, drives out the Muslims and wins Valencia

Peter the Hermit, an old monk on a donkey, leads the largest of the popular groups from Germany on the first crusade

The German crusade begins with a massacre of Jews in many of the region's cities