History Trivia

July 17, 924 King Edward the Elder of England died. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex. He captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917 and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of Æthelflæd, his sister. He was the second king of the Anglo-Saxons as this title was created by his father. 1203 The Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople by assault. The Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus fled from his capital into exile. 1453 The French defeated the English at the Battle of Castillon, in the last clash of the Hundred Years War. 1586 A meeting took place at Lüneburg between several some evangelical Princes and Electors, and representatives of the King of Navarre, the King of Denmark and the Queen of England in order to discuss the formation of an evangelical league of defense, called the Confederatio Militiae Evangelicae, against the Catholic League.