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| 1068 by topic |
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Year 1068 (MLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
- January 1 – Empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa, wife of the late Emperor Constantine X, marries General Romanos Diogenes (a member of a prominent Cappadocian family) – who is proclaimed co-emperor as Romanos IV of the Byzantine Empire.[1]
- Autumn – Romanos IV begins a campaign against the Seljuk Turks, leading a Byzantine expeditionary force (which is in poor condition). He is successful in recapturing the fortress city of Hieropolis (modern-day Manbij) near Aleppo in northern Syria.[2]
- Winter – Romanos IV leaves a portion of his army as a rearguard at Melitene. The Byzantine garrison fails to check a Seljuk raid that manages to sack Amorium (penetrating deep in Byzantine territory). Romanos winters near Aleppo before returning to Constantinople.[3]
Europe
- Norman conquest of southern Italy: Norman forces under Robert Guiscard (duke of Apulia and Calabria) lay siege to the Byzantine city of Bari.
- Battle of the Alta River: The Cumans defeat the Kievan Rus’ forces of Grand Prince Iziaslav I, and his brothers Sviatoslav II and Vsevolod I.
- Kiev Uprising: The city of Kiev rebels against Iziaslav I, in the aftermath of the Kievan Rus’ defeat against the Cumans.
- Rethra destruction: In the Annals of Augsburg, the Slavic city is mentioned for the last time under the year 1068. It is captured by bishop Burchard, who destroys their temple and abducts the sacred white horse living there.[4]
- Norman forces under Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger I invade Sicily. Muslim ruler Ayyub ibn Tamim‘s forces oppose them. The Normans and the Muslim army meet at the Battle of Misilmeri. The Norman forces defeat the Muslim army. Ayyub ibn Tamim flees from Sicily. The Norman conquest of the island continues to expand.
England
- Siege of Exeter: Norman forces under King William I (the Conqueror) take the city of Exeter after a siege of 18-days.
- William I begins a campaign in the East Midlands to put down the rebellions at Nottingham, Stafford, Lincoln and York.
- Edgar the Ætheling takes refuge with King Malcolm III of Scotland along with Edgar’s sister Margaret, who marries King Malcolm.
- May 11 – William I brings his wife Matilda of Flanders to England. She is crowned queen in Westminster Abbey.
Africa
- September – Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah marries Abu Bakr ibn Umar, leader of the Almoravids, and becomes his queen and co-regent.
Asia
The Imperial Cholas Empire under the reign of Virarajendra Chola on his 7th year of reign helps the shrivijaya civil war to end and the chola army helps reconquering the Kedah Tua (Kedah modern day Malaysia).
By topic
Geology
- March 18 – An earthquake affects the Near East, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shock has a magnitude greater than 7, and leaves about 20,000 people dead.
Births
- August 1 – Taizu (Aguda), emperor of the Jin Dynasty (d. 1123)
- Abu al-Salt, Moorish astronomer and polymath (approximate date)
- Ermengarde of Anjou, duchess of Aquitaine and Brittany (d. 1146)
- Haakon Magnusson (Toresfostre), king of Norway (d. 1095)
- Henry I, king of England (approximate date) (d. 1135)
- Peter I, king of Aragon (approximate date)
- Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl Derby (d. 1139)
Deaths
- January 11 – Egbert I, margrave of Meissen
- May 22 – Go-Reizei, emperor of Japan (b. 1025)
- November 10 – Agnes of Burgundy, duchess of Aquitaine
- Abulchares, Byzantine general and catepan
- Ali ibn Yusuf al-Ilaqi, Persian physician
- Argyrus, Lombard nobleman and general
- Böritigin, ruler of Transoxiana (Kara-Khanid Khanate)
- Choe Chung, Korean Confucian scholar (b. 984)
- Eadnoth the Constable, English landowner
- Ralph the Staller, English nobleman
- William IV (or Guillem), French nobleman
- William of Montreuil, Italo-Norman duke
- Yi Zong, emperor of Western Xia (b. 1047)
- Vijayaditya VI, king of the Eastern Chalukyas (unconfirmed)
References
- ^ John Julius Norwich (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee – The Choice of Emperor, p. 344. ISBN 0-394-53779-3.
- ^ Brian Todd Carey (2012). Road to Manzikert – Byzantine and Islamic Warfare (527–1071), p. 133. ISBN 978-1-84884-215-1.
- ^ George Finlay (1854). History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires from 1057–1453, p. 34. William Blackwood & Sons.
- ^ Schmidt, Roderich (2009). Das historische Pommern. Personen, Orte, Ereignisse. Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Pommern. Böhlau. pp. 75–76. ISBN 978-3-412-20436-5.