The 950s decade ran from January 1, 950, to December 31, 959.
Year 956 (CMLVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Charles III, also known as Charles the Fat, was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 888. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne. He was the last Carolingian emperor of legitimate birth and the last to rule a united kingdom of the Franks.
Pope John X was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from March 914 to his death. A candidate of the counts of Tusculum, he attempted to unify Italy under the leadership of Berengar of Friuli, and was instrumental in the defeat of the Saracens at the Battle of Garigliano. He eventually fell out with Marozia, who had him deposed, imprisoned, and finally murdered. John’s pontificate occurred during the period known as the Saeculum obscurum.
Otto-William was count of Mâcon, Nevers, and Burgundy.
The County of Hainaut, sometimes spelled Hainault, was a territorial lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire that straddled what is now the border of Belgium and France. Its most important towns included Mons, now in Belgium, and Valenciennes, now in France.
Robert of Clermont was a French prince du sang who was created Count of Clermont in 1268. He was the sixth and last son of King Louis IX and Margaret of Provence.
Guy of Dampierre was the Count of Flanders (1251–1305) and Marquis of Namur (1264–1305). He was a prisoner of the French when his Flemings defeated the latter at the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302.
Hugh, known as Hugh of Arles or Hugh of Provence, was the king of Italy from 926 until his death. He belonged to the Bosonid family. During his reign, he empowered his relatives at the expense of the aristocracy and tried to establish a relationship with the Byzantine Empire. He had success in defending the realm from external enemies, but his domestic habits and policies created many internal foes and he was removed from power before his death.
Albert I was the son of Robert I, Count of Lomme. He became Count of Namur in 981.
Godfrey I, called the Bearded, the Courageous, or the Great, was the Landgrave of Brabant, Count of Brussels and Leuven (Louvain) from 1095 to his death and Duke of Lower Lorraine from 1106 to 1129. He was also Margrave of Antwerp from 1106 to his death.
Adalbert was the king of Italy from 950 until 961, ruling jointly with his father, Berengar II. After their deposition, Adalbert continued to claim the Italian kingdom until his defeat in battle by the forces of Otto I in 965. Since he was the second Adalbert in his family, the Anscarids, he is sometimes numbered Adalbert II. His name is occasionally, especially in older works, shortened to Albert.
The Anscarids or the House of Ivrea were a medieval dynasty of Frankish origin which rose to prominence in Northern Italy in the tenth century, even briefly holding the Italian throne. The main branch ruled the County of Burgundy from the eleventh to fourteenth centuries and it was one of their members who first declared himself a count palatine. The cadet Castilian branch of Ivrea ruled the Kingdom of Galicia from 1111 and the Kingdoms of Castile and León from 1126 until 1369. The House of Trastámara, which ruled in Castile, Aragon, Naples, and Navarre at various points between the late 14th and early 16th centuries, was an illegitimate cadet branch of that family.
Reginar Longneck or Reginar I, Latin: Rainerus or Ragenerus Longicollus, was a leading nobleman in the kingdom of Lotharingia, variously described in contemporary sources with the titles of count, margrave, missus dominicus and duke. He stands at the head of a Lotharingian dynasty known to modern scholarship as the Reginarids, because of their frequent use of the name "Reginar".
Otto I, traditionally known as Otto the Great, was East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the oldest son of Henry the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim.
Margaret of Bourbon or Marguerite de Bourbon may refer to:
The pagus or gau of Hasbania was a large early medieval territory in what is now eastern Belgium. It is now approximated by the modern French- and Dutch-speaking region called Hesbaye in French, or Haspengouw in Dutch — both being terms derived from the medieval one. Unlike many smaller pagi of the period, Hasbania apparently never corresponded to a single county. It already contained several in the 9th century. It is therefore described as a "Groẞgau", like the Pagus of Brabant, by modern German historians such as Ulrich Nonn.
Count Emmo, Immo or Immon, was the name of at least one important Lotharingian nobleman in the 10th century, described by medieval annalists as a cunning strategist. Various life events of a nobleman of this name were recorded, although historians differ about exactly which records refer to the same person or people. The first record claimed for him shows him as a young noble granting land to a new vassal in the Condroz region in 934, a member of the entourage of Duke Gilbert of Lotharingia. During the revolt of Gilbert which ended at the Battle of Andernach in 939, he switched sides. After the revolt he was personally associated with the fort at Chèvremont, near Liège. It becomes difficult later in Immo's life to be sure that all records mentioning a count of this name are referring to the same person.
The house of Namur is a family of the Lotharingian nobility, coming from Berenger count of Lommegau. He later became count of Namur, when the county of Lammegau was renamed to county of Namur. He married a sister of Giselbert duke of Lotharingia, from the House of Reginar.
The Lomme gau or pagus, often referred to using Latin, Pagus Lomacensis, or German Lommegau, was an early Austrasian Frankish territorial division. The oldest Latin spellings were Laumensis or Lomensis. It included the city of Namur, and the region where the County of Namur later came to form in the 10th century.
