1035
Death of Cnut the Great
The Danish king of England, Norway, and much of Scandinavia died at Shaftesbury at about forty, leaving a North Sea empire that fell apart within seven years. His sons by two wives quarrelled; his English ministers defected; Norway broke free within months. The greatest Viking imperial achievement had been personal.
Rajendra Chola dies at the height of empire
The Tamil emperor who had marched to the Ganges and sent his fleet to Sumatra died after three decades of relentless expansion. His empire stretched from the Maldives to the Malay Peninsula, the largest maritime domain in South Asian history. His successors would struggle to hold what his extraordinary energy and ambition had built across two oceans.
Robert the Magnificent dies at Nicaea
The Duke of Normandy, returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, died suddenly in Bithynia, leaving his seven-year-old illegitimate son William as his designated heir. The boy, the product of a brief affair with a tanner's daughter, would survive assassination attempts for a decade to become the Conqueror. Norman nobles mocked his birth as base, a taunt that fueled a lifelong rage for legitimacy.
Death of Sancho III of Navarre
The Basque king who had assembled the largest Christian realm in Iberia since the Visigoths divided his territory among his four sons. From his partition emerged the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and a diminished Navarre. The Christian north of Spain was thus redrawn in a single testament, creating the rival kingdoms whose competition would drive the Reconquista forward over the next four centuries.