Year 1061 (MLXI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
January – Robert de Grantmesnil, his nephew Berengar, half-sister Judith (future wife of Roger I of Sicily), and eleven monks of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche are forced to leave Normandy and head to the Mezzogiorno. October 1 – Pope Alexander II replaces Pope Nicholas II as the 156th pope. The Normans take over Messina in Sicily. Construction of the Speyer Cathedral in Speyer, Germany, begins. Vratislav II becomes duke of Bohemia. Most of West Frisia (later part of the county of Holland) is taken over by imperial German armies and given to the Bishop of Utrecht. Estonians destroy the castle of Yuryev in Tartu and carry out raids in the Pskov region in Russia.
Africa
Yusuf ben Tashfin succeeds to the throne of Morocco, following the Almoravid conquest.
Deaths
January 28 – Duke Spytihněv II of Bohemia (b. 1031) July 18 or July 27 – Pope Nicholas II