1285

Events

• January 6 - Archbishop Jakub Świnka orders all priests subject to his bishopry in Poland to deliver sermons in Polish rather than German, thus further unifying the Catholic Church in Poland and fostering a national identity.
• April 2 - Pope Honorius IV succeeds Pope Martin IV as the 190th pope.
• April 25 - Mamluk sultan Qalawun begins a siege of the Crusader fortress of Margat (in present-day Syria), a major stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller thought to be impregnable; he captures the fortress a month later.
• September 4 - Roger of Lauria defeats King Philip III of France in a naval battle off of Barcelona.
• The writ Circumspecte Agatis, issued by King Edward I of England, defines the jurisdictions of church and state in England, thereby limiting the church's judicial powers to ecclesiastical cases only.
• The Second Statute of Westminster is passed in England, reforming various laws; it includes the famous clause de donis conditionalibus, considered one of the fundamental institutes of medieval law in England.
• The English romantic poem The Lay of Havelok the Dane is written (approximate date).
• Tran Hung Dao leads Vietnamese forces in victory over an invading Yuan dynasty Mongol army.
• Mansa Sakura usurps the throne of the Mali Empire

Births

• March 9 - Emperor Go-Nijo of Japan (d. 1308)
• May 1 - Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, English politician (d. 1326)
• December 6 - King Ferdinand IV of Castile (d. 1312)
• Al-Nasr Muhammad, sultan of Egypt (d. 1341)
• Ziauddin Barani, historian and political thinker of the Delhi Sultanate (d. 1357)
• Patrick Dunbar, 9th Earl of Dunbar (d. 1369)

Deaths

• March 24 - Daumantas, Grand Prince of Lithuania
• March 28 - Pope Martin IV
• May 13 - Robert de Ros, 1st Baron de Ros
• May 20 - John II of Jerusalem, King of Cyprus (b. 1259)
• October 5 - King Philip III of France (b. 1245)
• November 11 - King Peter III of Aragon (b. 1239)
• Tile Kolup, German imposter
• Philip I of Savoy (b. 1207)
• Rutebeuf, French troubadour
• King Charles I of Sicily (b. 1227)