TDIH - January 4 This Day in (Medieval) History: January 4 871 - A Danish Viking army led by Bagsecg and Halfdan Ragnarsson defeated a Wessex army led by King Aethelred and his brother Alfred (later known as King Alfred the Great) at Reading in Berkshire, England. 1357 - Earl Louis II of Flanders and his sister-in-law's husband Duke Wenceslaus I of Luxembourg signed the treaty known as the Peace of Ath, ending a war over the Duchy of Brabant fought between Louis and his sister-in-law Joanna, Duchess of Brabant. 1490 - Duchess Anne of Brittany declared that any persons supporting King Charles VIII of France would be charged with the crime of lèse-majesté. Charles VIII was waging a military campaign against her to force her to annul her marriage to Maximilian I of Austria. The following year she was forced to marry Charles VIII himself, as part of Charles' attempt to keep the strategic Duchy of Brittany within his control.