1059 Explained

Year 1059 (MLIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Byzantine Empire

• November 22  - Emperor Isaac I Komnenos falls ill on a hunt and retires to a monastery after a 2-year reign. He abdicates the Byzantine throne and appoints Constantine X, a Paphlagonian nobleman, as his successor.^[1]
• Fall  - The Magyars cross the Danube River, together with several Pecheneg tribes, but are halted by Byzantine forces (approximate date).

Europe

• Peter Krešimir IV ("the Great") is crowned king of Croatia and Dalmatia. His coronation is recognised by the Byzantine Empire who confirm him as the supreme ruler of the Dalmatian cities, i.e. over the Theme of Dalmatia – excluding the theme of Ragusa and the Duchy of Durazzo.
• August 23  - Robert Guiscard, count of Apulia and Calabria, signs the Treaty of Melfi with Pope Nicholas II. Nicholas recognises the Norman conquest of southern Italy, and accepts the titles of Guiscard as duke of Sicily.^[2]

Seljuk Empire

• Alp Arslan succeeds his father Chaghri Beg as governor of Khorasan. He crosses with a Seljuk expeditionary force the upper Halys River and plunders the Theme of Sebasteia (modern Turkey).^[3]

By topic

Religion

• January 24  - Pope Nicholas II succeeds Stephen IX as the 155th pope of the Catholic Church. He is installed in Rome in opposition to Antipope Benedict X – the brother of the late Pope Benedict IX (deposed in 1048).
• April 13  - Nicholas II, with the agreement of the Lateran Council, issues the papal bull In nomine Domini, making the College of Cardinals the sole voters in the papal conclave for the election of popes.

Births

• At-Turtushi, Andalusian political philosopher (d. 1126)
• Fujiwara no Akinaka, Japanese nobleman (d. 1129)
• Fulcher of Chartres, French priest and chronicler (approximate date)
• Henry I, count of Limburg and Arlon (approximate date)
• Ngok Loden Sherab, Tibetan Buddhist monk (d. 1109)
• Raynald I, French nobleman and abbot (d. 1090)
• Robert of Burgundy, bishop of Langres (d. 1111)

Deaths

• January 21  - Michael I Cerularius, Byzantine patriarch
• April 4  - Farrukh-Zad, Ghaznavid sultan (b. 1025)
• June 29  - Bernard II, German nobleman
• July 7  - Abdallah ibn Yasin, Almoravid ruler
• August 14  - Giselbert, count of Luxembourg
• Cathal mac Tigernán, Irish king of Iar Connacht
• Eilika of Schweinfurt, German noblewoman (after December 10)
• Michael VI Bringas, Byzantine emperor
• Peter Orseolo ("the Venetian"), king of Hungary (possible date)
• Vyacheslav Yaroslavich, prince of Smolensk

Notes and References

1. John Julius Norwich (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee – The choice of a Successor, p. 336. .
2. The Normans in Europe, Ed. & Trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 2000), pp. 236–37.
3. Brian Todd Carey (2012). Road to Manzikert: Byzantine and Islamic Warfare (527–1071), p. 127. .