Year 1068

Year 1068 (MLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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.

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

  • Spring – Emperor Yi Zong of the Western Xia (or Xi Xia) dies after a 19-year reign. He is succeeded by his 7-year-old son Hui Zong, who assumes the throne (until 1086).
  • May 22 – Emperor Go-Reizei dies after a 23-year reign, leaving no direct heirs to the throne. He is succeeded by his brother Go-Sanjō as the 71st emperor of Japan.

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
  • Ephraim ibn al-Za’faran, Jewish physician
  • 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)