The Battle of Cologne ( French bataille de Cologne ) - a battle held in March 716 near Cologne , in which the Frisian army, led by King Radbod, defeated the Franks army under the command of Mayor of Autrasia Karl Martell . One of the events of the in the Frankish state of 714-719.
| The Battle of Cologne | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Conflict: Civil War in the Frankish State (714–719) | |||
 Frankish state in 714 | |||
| date | March 716 | ||
| A place | Koln | ||
| Cause | power struggle in the Frankish state | ||
| Total | victory of the friezes | ||
| Opponents | |||
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| Commanders | |||
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Sources
The battle of Cologne has been reported in a number of medieval historical sources . The most detailed evidence is contained in the Frankish annals , such as the Book of the History of the Franks , the chronicle of the Continuers of Fredegar , the Early Metz Annals , the Tilian Annals , the Annals of Petau , the Annals of Saint Amand , the Lorsch Annals , and The Acts of the Abbots Fontenel » [1] [2] [3] . The participation of the Frisians in the battle is also mentioned in the “Martyrdom of Agilulf” ( lat. Passio Agilolfi ), an hagiographic composition of the XI century [4] .
Background
After the death of Mayordom Pipin Geristalsky in December 714, a struggle for power began between representatives of various groups of the Frankish nobility. The nobility of Australia wanted to see the six-year-old grandson Pipin Theodoald as the new mayor, while the nobles and Burgundy persuaded King Dagobert III to appoint Ragenfred, the new mayor of his circle [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] .
Soon after the death of Pepin Geristalsky between the supporters of Theodoald and Ragenfred, armed clashes began, which in the same year grew into a civil war, known as the Third Civil War in the Frankish State [10] . As an ally of Ragenfred, the ruler of the Frisians, Radbod, a long-standing enemy of the deceased mayordom, was involved in the war. Probably, one of the conditions of the union agreement between Ragenfred and Radbod was the return to the Frisians of all the lands (including Utrecht ) conquered by Pepin Geristalsky in the 680s – 690s [5] [6] . Presumably, in accordance with this agreement, the Frisians at the beginning of 716 made a trip to the Austrian left bank of the Rhine , during which they established their control over Maastricht and Dorestad . The conquest was accompanied by repression against local Christians and the clergy [8] [11] [12] [13] .
The first battle of the Frankish feud was the battle of Compiegne (September 715), in which the army of Ragenfred defeated the army of Theodoald. He took refuge in Cologne with his grandmother Plectruda . Immediately after the battle of Compiegne, Karl Martell, son of Pepin of Geristalsky and the rivalry of Alpaida, announced his claims to the post of mayordom. At the command of Plectruda, who was in custody in Cologne, he managed to escape from prison, enlisted the support of the Austrian nobility and took command of the remnants of Theodoald’s troops [5] [6] [9] [10] .
Battle
In 716, the Neustrian army under the command of Ragenfred, re-approved as mayordom by the new Franks king Chilperic II , invaded Australia. His goal was Cologne, where Plectrud and Theodoald took refuge. At the same time, the Frieze army [K 1] also moved along the Rhine on ships. Probably not considering his army large enough to attack the combined army of Ragenfred and Radbod, Karl Martell decided to defeat his enemies one by one. His first goal was the Frisian army, which had already approached Cologne. Near this city, the Australians attacked the Frisians, however, the citizens of Radbod won the battle. It is assumed that the reason for the defeat of the army of Karl Martell was the unpreparedness of the attack on the Frisians. Having suffered heavy losses, the remnants of the Austrian army retreated from the battlefield, hiding in the inaccessible Eifel Mountains [5] [6] [8] [14] .
Having ravaged the Australian villages lying on their way, the armies of Ragenfred and Radbod united near Cologne and besieged the city. Not having enough warriors to resist her enemies, Plektruda had to agree to the appointment of Ragenfred as the mayor of the entire Frankish state, and also to hand over to him most of the treasury of Pepin Geristalsky. After this, the armies of Ragenfred and Radbod retreated from Cologne and headed to Maastricht, near which were the possessions of the Alpaida family, the mother of Karl Martell [5] [6] [8] [14] .
Consequences
The battle of Cologne is the first battle in which the Franks fought under the command of Karl Martell. Despite the defeat, in the same year, Karl defeated the combined Franco-Frisian army in a battle on the River Amblev [5] [15] . This allowed him to regain control of Australia. The consolidation of the Australians around Karl Martell was also facilitated by the sudden death of Theodoald in 717 [K 2] [6] .
In the years 717-719, Karl Martell inflicted two more defeats on Ragenfred, defeating the army of the Neustrian mayordom in the battles of Vinci and Suasson . Thus, the Third Civil War in the Frankish state ended with the complete victory of Karl Martell [5] [6] [10] .
Comments
- ↑ Modern historians call Radbod’s campaign in Australia “a prelude” to the later Viking campaigns [14] .
- ↑ According to other sources, Theodoald died much later, possibly in 723 or even in 741 [7] .
Notes
- ↑ Book of the History of Franks (chapter 52); Continuators of Fredegar (chapter 9); The Early Metz Annals (year 716); Lorsch Annals (year 716).
- ↑ Wood, 1994 , p. 267.
- ↑ Holland & Frisia . Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Date accessed August 26, 2017.
- ↑ Halbertsma H. Frieslands oudheid: het rijk van de Friese koningen, opkomst en ondergang . - Utrecht: Matrijs, 2000 .-- S. 87. - 406 p. - ISBN 978-9-0534-5167-0 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lebek S. Origin of the Franks. V — IX centuries. - M .: Scarab, 1993 .-- S. 214–217. - ISBN 5-86507-022-3 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Devioss J., Rua J.-A. Battle of Poitiers (October 733). - SPb. : Eurasia , 2003 .-- S. 127-140. - ISBN 5-8071-0132-4 .
- ↑ 1 2 Theudoald // Lexikon des Mittelalters . - München und Zürich: LexMA-Verlag München, 1997. - Bd. Viii. - ISBN 3-89659-908-9 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Bachrach BS Early Carolingian Warfare: Prelude to Empire . - Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. - P. 19-20. - ISBN 0-8122-3533-9 .
- ↑ 1 2 Costambeys M., Innes M., MacLean S. The Carolingian World . - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press , 2011 .-- P. 43.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Philips Ch., Axelrod A. Encyclopedia of Wars. - New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. - Vol. 1. - P. 470-471. - ISBN 0-8160-2852-4 .
- ↑ Blok PJ Radbod // Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. - Leiden: AW Sijthoff, 1924 .-- T. 6 . - P. 1158-1159.
- ↑ Halbertsma H. Frieslands oudheid . - Groningen: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1982. - P. 791-798. Archived on November 3, 2014.
- ↑ Wood, 1994 , p. 297.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Gubanov I. B. Culture and Society of the Scandinavians of the Viking Age. - SPb. : Publishing house of St. Petersburg University , 2004. - S. 70. - ISBN 5-288-03418-4 .
- ↑ Jaques T. Dictionary of Battles and Sieges. - Westport, Connecticut - London: Greenwood Press , 2007 .-- P. 44. - ISBN 978-0-313-33536-5 .
Literature
- Alfan L. Barbara. From the Great Migration to the Turkic Conquests of the 11th Century. - SPb. : Eurasia, 2003 .-- S. 155-156. - ISBN 5-8071-0135-9 .
- Semmler J. Zur pippinidisch-karolingischen Sukzessionskrise 714-723 // Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters . - 1977. - Bd. 33. - S. 1-36.
- Wood I. The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450–751 . - London & New York: Longman , 1994 .-- 396 p. - ISBN 0-582-49372-2 .