Year 985 (CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.

Events

<onlyinclude>

By place

Europe

• Summer Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theophanu and her mother-in-law Adelaide at an Hoftag assembly in Rohr (Thuringia). King Otto III (5-years old) remains under the regency of the two empresses in the Holy Roman Empire and in the Kingdom of Italy.

• Battle of Fýrisvellir: King Eric the Victorious defeats a Swedish Viking army under Styrbjörn the Strong (his nephew) near Uppsala.

• July 6 The city of Barcelona is sacked by Moorish troops under Al-Mansur, the de facto ruler of Al-Andalus (modern-day Spain).

England

• Lady Wulfrun, an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, is granted land by King Æthelred II (the Unready). She founds Heantune that later becomes the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.

Asia

• Raja Raja Chola I (considered by many as the greatest emperor of the Chola Empire) becomes ruler of the Chola Dynasty. During his reign he expands his domains beyond South India.

By topic

Exploration

• Greenland is colonized by the Icelandic Viking Erik the Red (according to legend, but has been established as approximately correct – see History of Greenland).

Religion

• July 20 Anti-Pope Boniface VII dies under suspicious circumstances at Rome. He is succeeded by John XV as the 137th pope of the Catholic Church.

• Amalfitan Benedictines found the only Latin Christian monastery on Mount Athos with the support of John the Iberian. The monastery will last until 1287.

</onlyinclude>

Births

• August 13 Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph (d. 1021)

• Adalbert, margrave of Austria (approximate date)

• Boniface III, margrave of Tuscany (approximate date)

• Gilbert Buatère, Norman nobleman (approximate date)

• Gisela (or Gizella), queen of Hungary (d. 1065)

• John Gualbert, Italian monk and abbot (d. 1073)

• Hamza ibn 'Ali ibn-Ahmad, founding leader of the Druze

• Maria of Amalfi, Lombard duchess and regent

• Osmond Drengot, Norman nobleman (approximate date)

• Pilgrim, archbishop of Cologne (approximate date)

• Radbot, German nobleman (approximate date)

• Rodulfus Glaber, French monk and chronicler (d. 1047)

• Theobald II, French nobleman (approximate date)

• Wazo, bishop of Liège (approximate date)

• Zhao Yuanyan, prince of the Song Dynasty (d. 1044)

Deaths

• January 31 Ryōgen, Japanese monk and abbot (b. 912)

• June 26 Ramiro III, king of León (Spain) (b. 961)

• July 20 Boniface VII, antipope of the Catholic Church

• August 25 Dietrich of Haldensleben, German margrave

• Basil Lekapenos, Byzantine chief minister (b. 925)

• Chen Hongjin, Chinese warlord and general (b. 914)

• Herbert III (the Old), Frankish nobleman (b. 910)

• Hywel ap Ieuaf, king of Gwynedd (Wales)

• Judith, duchess regent of Bavaria (b. 925)

• Kishi Joō, Japanese female waka poet (b. 929)

• Marzuban ibn Muhammad, Shaddadid emir

• Muirgus mac Domnaill, king of Uí Maine (Ireland)

• Rikdag, margrave of Meissen (Germany)

• Tornike Eristavi, Georgian general and monk

• Harold II (Bluetooth), king of Denmark and Norway

References