1038

By place

Europe

• Emperor Conrad II travels to Southern Italy and holds court in Troia. He orders Pandulf IV of Capua to restore the territories of Monte Cassino. Pandulf holes himself up in the fortress of Sant'Agata de' Goti, and dispatches tribute and his son as hostage to Troia as a token of peace. Conrad accepts his offer, but the son escapes. Conrad goes on the offensive and seizes Capua, and gives it to Guaimar IV of Salerno.
• Duke John II drives his brother Manso II and his mother Maria out of Amalfi. He has Manso blinded and exiled to the island of Sirenuse. John reconciles with Maria, and allows her to remain as co-ruler of Amalfi.
• The Banu Tujib clan is deposed by Al-Mustain I, who starts the Huddid Dynasty, which rules over the Taifa of Zaragoza for almost a century.
• The name of Versailles, at this time a small village, appears for the first time in a medieval charter in France.
• Duke Bretislav I of Bohemia invades Poland. He captures and destroys the cities of Gniezno and Poznań.
• August 15 - On the death of his uncle, Stephen I, Peter Orseolo becomes the second ruler of Hungary.
• August – A battle occurs near the town of Alfuente in Andalucia between the Taifa of Granada and the Taifa of Almeria, as described by the Jewish poet Samuel ibn Naghrela.

  Asia

• The Western Xia declare their independence from the Liao Dynasty in China.