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)