The Battle of Soissons is a battle held in 486 near Soissons , in which the Franks of King Clovis I defeated the Gallo-Romans of the ruler of the Soisson region of Siagria . The first military campaign of Clovis I.
| The Battle of Soissons | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| date | 486 | ||
| A place | Soisson | ||
| Total | franc victory | ||
| Changes | the accession of the Soissons region to the Frankish state | ||
| Opponents | |||
| |||
| Commanders | |||
| |||
Content
Description
Historical Sources
The earliest of medieval historical sources that reported information about the Battle of Soissons was the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours . The historian Fredegar and the anonymous author of The Book of the History of the Francs , who wrote a little later, almost verbatim repeated the testimonies of the battle of their predecessor [1] . Some information missing from the works of Frankish historians is contained in hagiographic literature [2] .
Background
After the fall in 476 of the Western Roman Empire, the territory of Roman Gaul was divided between several state entities. The largest of them were the Soisson region, which was ruled by the former Roman governor Siagria, and the barbarian kingdoms of the Franks , Visigoths and Burgundians [3] [4] .
The possessions of the Franks, probably still at that time still in the position of Roman federates , were limited to the territory of the former Roman province of Belgium with the cities of Cambrai and Tournai . At first, under King Childeric I, the Franks and Gallo-Romans jointly successfully resisted the attempts of the Visigoth ruler Eirich to expand his kingdom north of the Loire River. However, shortly before his death in 481, Childeric I made several attempts to establish control over some areas of the Soissonskaya oblast. Including, he unsuccessfully tried to take over Paris . The final break in the allied relations between the Franks and Siagrius occurred after the death of their common enemy, King of the Visigoths Eirich , in 484, and the accession to the Visigothic throne of his young son Alaric II [5] .
Battle
The confrontation between the king of the Franks Clovis I and Siagrius, who wanted to annex the rich lands of the Soissons region to their possessions, led in the spring of 486 to a war between them. The Frankish army, under the command of Clovis and his relative Ragnahar, invaded the possession of Siagrius and freely reached Soissons. There was a battle between the Franks and the Gallo-Romans. Gregory of Tours very sparingly describes the circumstances of the battle, reporting only that, at the suggestion of Clovis, Siagrii himself chose the field for the battle and that after the defeat, the ruler of the Soisson region took refuge in Toulouse at the court of the Visigoth king Alaric II. Threatening him with war, Clovis forced the Visigoth ruler to give him Siagria, who was soon executed [2] [3] [5] .
Upon the capture of Soissons, the Franks got a lot of booty, as usual divided between all the soldiers who participated in the campaign. An incident was connected with one of the trophies, the so-called Soissons Cup , which became evidence of the customs of military democracy still prevailing among the Franks, as well as the rapprochement of Clovis I with the Christian clergy at that time [6] .
Summary
Despite the defeat of the Gallo-Roman army at the battle of Soissons, some large cities continued to resist the Franks. Historical sources report a stubborn struggle waged by the Franks to seize Verdun and Nantes . According to various sources, the people of Paris did not recognize their submission to the power of Clovis I for five or even ten years. Finally, the population of Northern Gaul reconciled with the power of the Franks only after the baptism of Clovis I in 496 [4] .
As a result of the Battle of Soissons, the last Roman state entity in Gaul was destroyed - the Soissons region. Its lands were annexed to the Frankish state, which almost doubled its territory. The southern border of the kingdom of the Franks began to pass along the Loire River. Thus, the possessions of Clovis I came into direct contact with the Kingdom of the Visigoths, which subsequently led to several Westgoth-Frankish military conflicts [5] [7] .
Notes
- ↑ Gregory of Tours. “History of the Franks” (Book II, chapters 18 and 27); Fredegar. The Chronicle (Book III, chapters 12 and 15); The Book of the History of the Franks (chapters 8 and 9).
- ↑ 1 2 Martindale JR Syagrius 2 // Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire / AM Jones , JR Martindale. - Cambridge University Press , 1980. - Vol. II: AD 395-527. - P. 1041-1042. - ISBN 0-521-20159-4 [2001 reprint].
- ↑ 1 2 Cloud D. History of the Visigoths. - SPb. : Eurasia , 2002. - S. 56-57. - ISBN 5-8071-0115-4 .
- ↑ 1 2 Sirotenko V.T. History of international relations in Europe in the second half of IV - beginning of VI centuries. . - Publishing house of Perm State University, 1975. - S. 221—223.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Lebek S. Origin of the Franks. V — IX centuries. - M .: Scarab, 1993 .-- S. 47-51. - ISBN 5-86507-022-3 .
- ↑ History of Europe. - M .: Nauka , 1992. - T. 2. - P. 112. - ISBN 5-02-009036-0 .
- ↑ Tsirkin Yu. B. Spain from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. - SPb. : Faculty of Philology, St. Petersburg State University; Nestor-Istoriya, 2010 .-- pp. 184-185. - ISBN 978-5-8465-1024-1 .
Literature
- Eggenberger D. An Encyclopedia of Battles. - New York: Dover Publication, Inc., 1985. - P. 404. - ISBN 0-486-24913-1 .
- Jaques T. Soissons, 486 // Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity through the Twenty-first Century, Vol. 1-3 (Eng.) / Forew. by DE Showalter . - Westport, Connecticut - London: Greenwood Publishing , 2007 .-- P. 955-956. - ISBN 978-0-313-33536-5 .