section_path: Early Middle Ages/New kingdoms and Byzantine revival
section_name: New kingdoms and Byzantine revival
paragraph_text: New kingdoms and Byzantine revival
  
  The Viking settlement in the British Isles led to the formation of new political entities, including the small (but militant) Kingdom of Dublin in Ireland. The Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great (r. 871–99) reached an agreement with Danish invaders in 879, acknowledging the existence of an independent Viking realm in Britain. By the middle of the 10th century, Alfred's successors had restored Anglo-Saxon control of the territory. In northern Britain, Kenneth MacAlpin (d. c. 860) united the Picts and the Scots into the Kingdom of Alba.
  
  The Ottonian dynasty established itself in Germany in the early 10th century, driving back the Magyars and fighting the disobedient dukes. After an appeal by the widowed Queen Adelaide of Italy (d. 999) for protection, Otto I (r. 936–73) crossed the Alps into Italy, married the young widow and had himself crowned king in Pavia in 951. His coronation as Holy Roman Emperor in Rome in 962 demonstrated his claim to Charlemagne's legacy. Otto's successors remained keenly interested in Italian affairs, but the absentee German kings were unable to assert permanent authority over the local aristocracy. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Basque fight for independence led to the formation of the Kingdom of Navarre and the counts of Barcelona gained autonomy in the Carolingian border province. Asturias expanded slowly south, and continued as the Kingdom of León.
  
  The Eastern European trade routes towards Asia were controlled by the Khazars. Their multi-ethnic empire resisted the Muslim expansion, and their leaders converted to Judaism. A new trade route developed at the end of the 9th century, bypassing Khazar territory and connecting Central Asia with Europe across Volga Bulgaria; the local inhabitants converted to Islam. Swedish traders and slave hunters ranged down the rivers of the East European Plain, captured Kyiv from the Khazars, and attempted to seize Constantinople in 860 and 907. Contacts with Francia paved the way for missionary efforts by Christian clergy in Scandinavia, and Christianisation was closely associated with the growth of centralised kingdoms in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Norse colonists settled in Iceland and created a political system that hindered the accumulation of power by ambitious chieftains.
  
  Byzantium revived under Emperor Basil I (r. 867–86) and his successors Leo VI (r. 886–912) and Constantine VII (r. 913–59), members of the Macedonian dynasty. The imperial court was the centre of a rebirth of classical learning known as the Macedonian Renaissance. The military was reorganised, which allowed the emperors John I (r. 969–76) and Basil II (r. 976–1025) to expand the empire's frontiers.
  
  Missionary efforts by Eastern and Western clergy resulted in the conversion of the Moravians, Danubian Bulgars, Czechs, Poles, Magyars, and the inhabitants of the Kievan Rus'. After Moravia fell due to Magyar invasions c. 900, dukes of the Czech Přemyslid dynasty consolidated authority in Bohemia. In Poland, the destruction of old power centres accompanied the formation of the state under the Piast dukes. In Hungary, the princes of the Árpád dynasty used extensive violence to crush opposition by rival Magyar chieftains. The Rurikid princes of Kievan Rus' emerged as the rulers of East Europe's vast forest zones after Rus' raiders sacked the Khazar capital, Atil, in 965. Bulgaria was annexed by the Byzantines between 971 and 1018.