Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and his son Yoshiie had come to the Abe clan's northern province of Mutsu to restore power over the province to the Governor; Abe no Yoritoki, Sadato's father, had been acting beyond his station.

As a result, the two clans have fought for roughly nine years, with some truces, over the course of the past eleven years, in the conflict known as the Zenkunen War, (later known in English as the Former Nine Years’ War).

Yoritoki had been killed in 1057, and so Sadato had become head of the Abe clan and head of the military effort against the Minamoto.

He had fought them in the battle of Kawasaki, in a snowstorm, defeated them and pursued them through the blizzard for a short time.

Other battles have followed, during which Sadato's attacks, along with the harsh weather and terrain, have weakened his enemies.

The Minamoto clan, supported by the Japanese government, has recovered from the disaster at Kawasaki to resume the war, returning to face Abe Sadato with a fresh army and ten thousand additional men from the Kiyohara clan in nearby Dewa province.

The second Abe son soon surrenders to the Minamotos and is exiled, but Sadato fights on.

Abe Sadato, defeated in two battles, makes a stand at his base in Kuriyagawa in 1062.

Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, along with his son, leads an assault.

They divert the water supply, storm the earthworks and stockade, and set the fortress aflame.

After two days of fighting, Sadato surrenders.

The Minamoto will return to Kyoto the following year, carrying Sadato’s head to the emperor.

King Harald Hardrada of Norway, unable to conquer Denmark despite his raids, wants a decisive victory over Sweyn.

He eventually sets out from Norway with a great army and a fleet of around three hundred ships.

Sweyn has also prepared for the battle, which has been preassigned a time and place.

Sweyn does not appear at the agreed time, and Harald thus sends home his nonprofessional soldiers (bóndaherrin), which had made up half of his forces.

When the dismissed ships are out of reach, Sweyn's fleet finally appear, possibly also with three hundred ships.

The battle at Niså, fought on August 9, 1062, at Nissan river, Halland, Denmark (modern-day Sweden), results in great bloodshed as Harald defeats the Danes (seventy Danish ships are reportedly left "empty"), but many ships and men manage to escape, including Sweyn.

Harald, like most others in the early phase of the battle, actively uses his bow as an archer.

Constantine has lost most of imperial Italy to the Normans under Robert Guiscard, except for the territory around Bari, though a resurgence of interest in retaining Apulia occurs under his reign, and he appoints at least four catepans of Italy: Miriarch, Maruli, Sirianus, and Mabrica.

Duke Gisulf II of Salerno, now twenty-two, goes to Constantinople to negotiate with Emperor, naively trying to bring about an imperial counteroffensive against Robert, but the pro-Norman rebellion of his uncle Guy of Sorrento puts an end to the project.

Thimal, whose second reign lasts little more than a year, leads several successful expeditions against imperial positions to the west, between Antioch and Aleppo, before dying at the end of 1062.

He had named his brother 'Atiyya as his successor, but Mahmud contests this, causing more strife between the Mirdasids.

Eleven monks of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche had been banished from Normandy in January 1061 as a result of several quarrels between the barons of Duke William I of Normandy, Robert de Grantmesnil, his nephew Berengar, half-sister Judith (future wife of Roger I of Sicily).

They had headed to the Mezzogiorno, where all had been well received by Pope Alexander II, who had just succeeded Pope Nicholas II, and who, after hearing of their troubles in Normandy, had given Robert and his monks the temporary use of the church of Saint-Paul the Apostle in Rome.

To find a more permanent situation Robert had sought help from his cousin, William of Montreuil, at this time in the service of Pope Alexander II, who had given Robert and his monks half the town of Aquino.

He also sought help from Richard I of Capua, Prince of Capua who, as it turned out, made Robert many empty promises.

In disgust, Robert had turned to Robert Guiscard, who had treated the abbot with great respect and invited him and his monks to settle in his Duchy of Calabria.

Robert founds the abbey of Sant'Eufemia Lamezia in Calabria in about 1061 or 1062, and Guiscard also grants him the abbey of Venosa in 1062.

The Guiscard brothers, in a treaty of 1062, divide the conquest so that each is to have half of every castle and town in Calabria.

Ferdinand, with al-Muqtadir sidelined as a threat, turns his attention to Yahya ibn Ismail al-Mamun, emir of Toledo.

It is probable that Ferdinand already maintains close relations with the Toledan court, and is perhaps protector of the Mozarabic Christian community in Toledo.

The last known Mozarabic bishop of Toledo, Pascual, had been consecrated in León in 1058.

Ferdinand invades the east of al-Mamun's taifa, taking Talamanca and …

…besieging Alcalá de Henares.

The territory of the taifa of Toledo includes what are now the provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, the northern part of that of Albacete, Cáceres, Guadalajara (up to the frontier with the taifa of Zaragoza in Medinaceli), and that of Madrid (up to the Sierra de Guadarrama).

Ismail al-Zahir had held the throne until 1043, fighting for his independence against Córdoba.

He had been succeeded by al-Mamun, who had asked Ferdinand for assistance against Al-Mustain I of the taifa of Zaragoza; twenty years later when Toledo is attacked by Ferdinand himself, al-Mamun is forced to pay tribute to escape the menace.

Antipope Honorius II proceeds to march on Rome, defeating Alexander II and taking control of St. Peter's Basilica and its environs on April 14, 1062.

The intervention of Godfrey III persuades Honorius II and Alexander II to retire to Parma and Lucca respectively, awaiting mediation between Godfrey III and the Imperial court.

However, Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne, has engineered a coup d'état against the empress regent.

As regent, Anno had convened the Council of Augsburg (October 1062) and sent Burchard II, Bishop of Halberstadt as an envoy to Rome.

Burchard clears Alexander II of charges of simony and recognizes him as the new pontiff.