1061

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Pope Alexander II (r. 1061–1073)

Year 1061 (MLXI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Europe

• Spring – Robert de Grandmesnil, his nephew Berengar, half-sister Judith (future wife of Roger I), and eleven monks of the Abbey of Saint-Evroul, are banished by Duke William II ("the Bastard") of Normandy for violence, and travel to Southern Italy.
• Summer – Norman forces led by Duke Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger I invade Sicily. They land unseen during the night and surprise the Saracen army. Guiscard conquers Messina and marches into central Sicily.
• June 28 – Count Floris I is ambushed on a retreat from Zaltbommel and killed by German troops at Nederhemert. Most of West Frisia (later part of the County of Holland) is conquered and annexed by the Holy Roman Empire.
• Sosols (a tribe in Estonia) destroy the Kievan Rus' fortification of Yuryev in Tartu, and carry out a raid on Pskov.

Africa

• Abu Bakr ibn Umar of Almoravids, appoints Yusuf ibn Tashfin as steward of Sous and northern provinces, while campaigning in the southern provinces. Upon his return, daunted by Yusuf's new-found power, Abu Bakr sees any attempts at recapturing his post as politically unfeasible and returns to the fringes of the Sahara to settle the unrest of the southern frontier.

By topic

Religion

• July 27 – Pope Nicholas II dies after a 2-year pontificate at Florence. He is succeeded by Alexander II as the 156th pope of the Catholic Church in Rome.
• The Speyer Cathedral is consecrated in Speyer (modern Germany).

Births

• Al-Maziri, Zirid imam, jurist and scholar (d. 1141)
• Al-Tughrai, Persian poet and alchemist (d. 1121)
• Roger Borsa, duke of Apulia and Calabria (or 1060)
• Wuyashu, chieftain of the Wanyan tribe (d. 1113)

Deaths

• January 28 – Spytihněv II, duke of Bohemia (b. 1031)
• May 5 – Humbert of Moyenmoutier, French cardinal
• June 28 – Floris I, count of Friesland (west of the Vlie)
• July 13 – Beatrice I, German abbess of Quedlinburg (b. 1037)
• July 27 – Nicholas II, pope of the Catholic Church
• Adelmann, bishop of Brescia (approximate date)
• Ali ibn Ridwan, Arab physician and astronomer (approximate date)
• Burgheard, English nobleman
• Burkhard I, Lord of Zollern (or Burchardus), German nobleman, killed
• Conrad III, Duke of Carinthia (or Konrad), German nobleman
• Gardizi, Persian geographer and historian
• Henry I, Count Palatine of Lotharingia (or Heinrich), German nobleman
• Rajaraja Narendra, Indian ruler (b. 1022)
• Rúaidhri Ua Flaithbheartaigh, Irish king of Iar Connacht, killed
• Song Qi (Zijing), Chinese statesman and historian (b. 998)