The Battle of Brissart ( fr. Bataille de Brissarthe ) - a battle held in 866 near the village of , in which the army of the Vikings and Bretons , led by Hasting, defeated the army of the Western Franks under the command of Margrave Neustria Robert the Strong and the Duke of Aquitaine Raman . According to various sources, the battle took place on July 2 [1] [2] or September 15 [3] [4] .
| The Battle of Brissart | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The main conflict: the expansion of the Vikings | |||
| date | 866 | ||
| A place | Brissart | ||
| Cause | Viking invasion of the West Frankish kingdom | ||
| Total | viking victory | ||
| Opponents | |||
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| Commanders | |||
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Content
Historical Sources
The battle of Brissart is reported in several early medieval historical sources : in the Bertin Annals , in the Xanten Annals , in the Fulda Annals and in the Regino Prumsky chronicles [5] . The most detail about it is narrated in the work of Regino Prjumsky [3] [6] [7] [8] .
Background
In the 9th century, the West Frankish state was subjected to repeated attacks by the Vikings. One of the goals of their raids was Neustria . In the early 860s, the Bretons began to invade it, whose king Salomon intended to increase his possessions at the expense of the Frankish lands. The presence of a common enemy - the Franks - led to the conclusion of an alliance between the Vikings and the Bretons. To protect Neustria from further raids, King Charles II the Bald in 862 appointed her ruler of Robert the Strong. He soon inflicted two major defeats on the joint Breton-Viking army, forcing Salomon in 863 to conclude the Antram Treaty with Karl Lysy. However, peaceful relations between the Franks and Salomon lasted only until the end of 865, when the army of the Bretons and Vikings captured and plundered Le Mans [4] [6] [9] .
Battle
At the beginning of 866, the Vikings (about four hundred warriors) and the Bretons made a new attack on the neustrian possessions of Charles II the Bald, destroying Anjou , Maine and Touraine . Le Mans was sacked again. However, this time the Franks managed to gather a large army from the inhabitants of Anjou, Poitou and Gascony , who were led by more than once inflicting defeat on the Breton and Viking Margrave of Neustria Robert the Strong, the Duke of Aquitaine Ramnulf I, Count of Maine Gozfried and his son Herve [3] [ 4] [6] [9] [10] .
The Frankish commanders managed to intercept the army that had plundered Le Mans under the command of Hasting near the village of Brissart, preventing the enemies from reaching their ships on the Loire . In the battle that took place, the army of the Franks won: almost all the Bretons and most of the Vikings died, and the rest took refuge in the nearby stone church. Unable to storm the building, the Western Franks besieged the Normans, awaiting the arrival of wall guns the next day. However, in the evening, the Vikings made an unexpected outing for the battle-weary Franks. Robert the Strong, already removed his armor, led the rebuff to the attack. The Franks managed to repulse the attack, but the Neustrian Margrave chasing the retreating enemies died at the door of the church. His body was captured by the Normans and carried away inside the building. Soon, an arrow fired by one of the Vikings through a church window was badly wounded by Ramnulf I: he was taken away to a safe place by his servants three days later. Earl Gozfried was also seriously wounded in the fray. Deprived of almost all of their warlords, the Franks on the same day lifted the siege and retreated. The Vikings, with all the booty captured in the campaign, unimpededly loaded onto their ships [1] [3] [4] [9] [10] [11] .
Consequences
The victory in the battle of Brissart allowed the Vikings to further ravage the West Frankish kingdom: in the same year they ravaged Clermont-Ferrand , the following year they plundered Bourges , and in 868 Orleans . They even broke the alliance with the Bretons and began to raid their lands. The hardships of the simultaneous war against the Vikings and Franks led in August 867 to the conclusion of the Compiegne Treaty between Salomon and Charles II Lysy, according to which Cotantin , , part of Anjou and Channel Islands [6] [12] were annexed to Brittany.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Stringolm A. Viking Campaigns. - M .: LLC "Publishing house AST", 2002. - S. 63-64. - 736 p. - ISBN 5-17-011581-4 .
- ↑ France, Capetian Kings . Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Date of treatment May 28, 2017.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 The annals of St-Bertin, 1991 , p. 134-135.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Cassard J.-Ch. Les Bretons de Nominoë . - Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2003 .-- P. 59-85. - ISBN 978-2-8684-7776-7 .
- ↑ Bertin Annals (year 866); Xanten Annals (year 867); Fulda Annals (year 867); Regino Prumsky . Chronicle (year 867).
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Smith JMH Province and Empire: Brittany and the Carolingians . - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. - P. 106-107. - ISBN 0-521-38285-8 .
- ↑ Robert der Tapfere (German) . Genealogie Mittelalter. Date of treatment May 28, 2017.
- ↑ Robert "le Fort" . The Henry Project. Date of treatment May 28, 2017.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Favre E. Ed, Count of Paris and King of France (882–898). - SPb. : Eurasia , 2016 .-- S. 29-30. - ISBN 978-5-91852-154-0 .
- ↑ 1 2 Dillange M. Les comtes de Poitou, ducs d'Aquitaine: 778-1204 . - Mougon: Geste éditions, 1995 .-- P. 63–69. - 303 p. - ISBN 2-910919-09-9 .
- ↑ Arkhangolts F. History of the sea robbers of the Mediterranean Sea and the Ocean. - M .: Novella, 1990 .-- S. 316-317.
- ↑ The annals of St-Bertin, 1991 , p. 139-140.
Literature
- Affectionate G. Vikings. - Minsk: UE “Minsk factory of color printing”, 2004. - S. 56-57. - ISBN 985-454-218-1 .
- The annals of St-Bertin / Nelson JL - Manchester: Manchester University Press ND, 1991 .-- 267 p. - ISBN 978-0-7190-3425-1 .