King Childeric II is murdered by a band of dissatisfied Neustrians, along with his wife Bilichild and 5-year-old son Dagobert, while hunting in the forest of Livry (modern-day Lognes) near Chelles.
March 16 – Emperor Tenmu decrees the end of serfdom. He also orders an end to granting lands to Princes of the Blood, to Princes and to Ministers and Temples.
May 8 – Tenmu issues a decree to distribute the tax-rice for peasants in poverty, as well as a decree regulating fishing and hunting, and ordering a halt to eating the flesh of cattle, horses, dogs, monkeys and barn-yard fowl, a prohibition which lasts until 1872.
Some Japanese ministers who oppose Tenmu are banished to an isolated island. A man climbs the hill east of the Palace, curses the emperor and kills himself.