1080s

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	10th century – 11th century – 12th century
Decades:	1050s 1060s 1070s – 1080s – 1090s 1100s 1110s
Years:	1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088 1089
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

1080s: events by year

Contents: 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088 1089

By place

Europe

• July 5 – Ísleifur Gissurarson, the first bishop in Iceland, dies while giving mass in Skálholt church.
• October 14 – The Battle on the Elster: between the armies of the two rival brothers-in-law kings of the German states, Henry IV and Rudolf of Rheinfelden met at the Weisse-Elster River in the Great Saxon Revolt civil war of the Holy Roman Empire.
• William I of England, in a letter, protests to the Pope that the King of England owes him no allegiance.
• King Alfonso VI of León and Castile establishes Latin liturgy in the Catholic Church in place of the Mozarabic Rite.
• Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, builds Devizes Castle.
• c. 1080–1100 – Christ Pantokrator, mosaic in the central dome, church of the Dormition, Daphni, Greece, is made.

Asia

• The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia gains independence after its founder, Prince Ruben, succeeds in establishing his authority in the mountainous regions of Cilicia (approximate date).
• The Song Dynasty Chinese polymath scientist and statesman Shen Kuo begins his defensive military campaign against the Tanguts of the Western Xia Kingdom, successfully defending the invasion route to Yan'an.

Africa

• The Almoravid emir, Yusuf ibn Tashfin, conquers Tanger, Badis and Hunayn.

1082

• The Rochester Cathedral is completed.
• The German Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor besieges Rome and gains entry; a synod is agreed upon by the Romans to rule on the dispute between Henry and Pope Gregory VII.
• Ottokar II succeeds his brother Adalbero (died 1086 or 1087) as margrave of Styria.
• The Korean printing of the entire Buddhist Tripitaka is completed.
• A military campaign advised by Shen Kuo fails.

By place

Europe

• Sancho I of Aragon conquers Graus.
• Alfonso VI of Castile conquers Talavera de la Reina.
• Bosnia is conquered by Duklja.
• June – Pope Gregory VII is besieged in Castel Sant'Angelo by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.

Africa

• Fall of Ceuta to the Almoravids after five years of siege.

1084

• Saint Bruno founds the Carthusian Order of monks.
• Kyanzittha begins his reign in Burma.
• Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is crowned Emperor by Antipope Clement III.
• Rome is besieged by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and is then sacked by the Normans of Robert Guiscard, who intended to restore papal authority over the city.
• Pope Gregory VII, who had been imprisoned by Henry IV at the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, is freed by Robert Guiscard.
• During the struggle for power in Sweden, King Halsten is killed and his brother Inge the Elder is deposed in Svealand, only ruling Gothenland for the next three years. The Svears take Blot-Sweyn as their king.
• Antioch is captured by the Seljuk Turks from the Byzantines.
• Chancellor Sima Guang and a group of scholars of the Chinese Song Dynasty complete the compilation of the Zizhi Tongjian, an enormous written universal history of China in 294 volumes of 3 million written Chinese characters.

1085

• April 2 – Emperor Zhezong becomes emperor of Song Dynasty. Empress Dowager Gao cancells all the reforms packages and dismisses pro-reform Wang Anshi.
• May 25 – Alfonso VI of Castile enters the Islamic city of Toledo, Spain, and invites French knights to settle the central plateau of Spain.
• The Domesday survey is commissioned by William I of England, apparently prompted by the abortive invasion of Canute IV of Denmark, to ensure proper taxation and levies.
• Henry IV extends the "Peace of God" over his entire empire.
• Katedralskolan, Lund, the oldest school in Scandinavia, is founded.
• Vratislav, Duke of Bohemia, is crowned King.
• By this year, the annual 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.

By area

Asia

• Emperor Shirakawa of Japan starts his cloistered rule.
• The Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf is rebuilt by the Seljuk Malik Shah I after being destroyed by fire.

Europe

• October 23 – Battle of az-Zallaqah: Alfonso VI of León and Castile is defeated by the Almoravids, who had been called into Spain by Abbad III of Sevilla.
• The Domesday Book is completed in England.
• Syracuse, the last Muslim stronghold in Sicily, is conquered by the Normans.

By topic

Religion

• May 24 – Pope Victor III succeeds Pope Gregory VII as the 158th pope, though he does not accept election until May 9, 1087.

By place

Africa

• Mahdia campaign: The navies of Genoa and Pisa take the capital of the Zirids and occupy it for a year. Subsequently both republics obtain trading privileges.

Asia

• Emperor Horikawa ascends to the throne of Japan.
• End of the formal reign of Emperor Shirakawa, but not of his cloistered rule

Europe

• May 9 – The remains of Saint Nicholas are brought to Bari, Italy by local sailors.
• September 9 – William II becomes King of England.
• Inge the Elder returns to Svealand, kills Blot-Sweyn and anew proclaims himself King of Sweden.
• A fire in London destroys St Paul's Cathedral.
• The Sharq al-Andalus falls under the domination of El Cid supported by the malik of Tortosa.

By topic

Religion

• May 9 – Pope Victor III formally accepts elevation as the 158th pope.

By area

Africa

• Mansur ibn Nasir succeeds Nasir ibn Alnas as ruler of the Hammadid Dynasty.

Europe

• The Rebellion of 1088 against William II of England is led by Odo of Bayeux.
• An earthquake affects Georgia and causes large damages.
• Almoravid campaign in al-Andalus. Yusuf ibn Tashfin besieges Aledo but is forced to retreat by the arrival on the scene of the troops of King Alfonso of Leon and Castile.
• The troops of the count of Barcelona reconquer the ancient archiepiscopal see of Tarragona (lost again in 1108). Berenguer de Lluçanés becomes the city's new archbishop

By topic

Arts and culture

• The Dream Pool Essays is published in this year by the polymath Chinese scientist and statesman Shen Kuo. His book represents the earliest known writing about the magnetic compass, movable type printing, experimentation with the camera obscura only decades after Ibn al-Haytham, and includes many different fields of study in essay and encyclopedic form, including geology, astronomy, botany, zoology, mineralogy, anatomy, pharmacology, geography, optics, economics, military strategy, philosophy, etc. Some of Shen's most advanced theories include geomorphology and gradual climate change, while he improves Chinese astronomy by fixing the position of the pole star and correcting the lunar error by plotting its orbital course every night for a continuum of five years. Shen's book is also the first to describe the drydock in China, and discusses the advantages of the relatively recent invention of the canal pound lock over the old flash lock.
• The Chinese polymath statesman and scientist Su Song has the successful pilot model for his astronomical clock tower constructed in Kaifeng, China. It features an escapement mechanism and the world's oldest known endless power-transmitting chain drive to operate the armillary sphere, opening doors, and mechanical-driven manikins that would rotate in shifts to announce the time on plaques.

Education

• The oldest extant university, the University of Bologna, is founded.

Religion

• March 12 – Pope Urban II succeeds Pope Victor III as the 159th pope.
• Work begins on the third and largest church at Cluny.

By area

Asia

• Rama Varma Kulashekhara is crowned in Kerala.
• Palmyra is destroyed by an earthquake.

Europe

• Northumbria is divided by the Normans into the counties of Northumberland, County Palatine of Durham, Yorkshire, Westmorland and Lancashire.
• August 11 – A powerful earthquake is recorded in Britain.
• June 22 – Gaston IV of Bearn and the Frankish crusaders take the Aragonese city of Monzón from the emir of Zaragoza.

By topic

Religion

• Cîteaux Abbey, the first Cistercian monastery, is founded in southern France.
• The Synod of Melfi under Pope Urban II imposes slavery on the wives of priests.