1085

By place

Europe

• May 25 - King Alfonso VI recaptures Toledo from the Moors and occupies other cities such as Madrid and Talavera. Alfonso moves his capital to Toledo and consolidates his power between Sistema Central and the Tagus River, from where he launches more attacks against the taifas of Córdoba, Seville, Badajoz and Granada.
• Summer - Robert Guiscard heads for the Ionian Islands despite epidemic among troops on Corfu. His son, Roger Borsa, lands on Cephalonia but Guiscard falls sick as his ship approaches the northernmost headland and is carried ashore, where he dies of fever.
• Emperor Henry IV declares the Peace of God in all the imperial territories of the Holy Roman Empire to quell any sedition.
• June 15 - Vratislaus II, a son of Duke Bretislav I, becomes the first king of Bohemia and is elevated 'for life' by Henry IV.
• Katedralskolan in Lund, the oldest school in Scandinavia, is founded by King Canute IV of Denmark.

  England

• The Domesday survey is commissioned by King William I, apparently prompted by the abortive invasion of Canute IV, to ensure proper taxation and levies.

  China

• April 1 - Emperor Zhe Zong ascends the throne at the age of 8 under the supervision of his grandmother, Grand Empress Dowager Gao. She cancels the reform policy of Chancellor Wang Anshi.
• The output of copper currency for the Chinese Song Dynasty reaches 6 billion coins a year, prompting the Chinese government to adopt the world's first paper-printed money later in the 1120s.