Battle of Fontenoy (841)

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Battle of Fontenoy (841)
Late medieval depiction of the Battle of Fontenoy
Late medieval depiction of the Battle of Fontenoy
date June 25, 841
place Fontenoy, Yonne department
output Victory of Charles the Bald and Louis the German

The Battle of Fontenoy took place on June 25, 841 and was the culmination of a whole series of disputes and battles that had been fought between the descendants of Charlemagne since 830 . Fontenoy is located in Burgundy, southwest of Auxerre in what is now the Yonne department .

Course of the battle

The warring parties were Emperor Lothar , eldest son of Emperor Ludwig the Pious (whose death a year earlier was the cause of renewed disputes), and Pippin II , a grandson of Louis the Pious, on the one hand and, on the other hand, the younger sons of Louis the Pious, Ludwig the German and Charles the Bald. The latter emerged victorious from this battle.

In the vicinity of the battlefield, Bernhard von Septimanien had stayed and waited for the result. He then sent his son Wilhelm of Septimania to Charles the Bald to pay homage to his and his father Bernhard and to convey his father Bernhard's promise that he would urge Pippin II of Aquitaine to resign - a promise that Bernhard never intended to meet.

Thousands of tank riders and around 150,000 foot soldiers on both sides are said to have participated in the battle, 40,000 of whom lost their lives. One of the fighters on the side of Charlemagne was Nithard (chronicler and also a grandson of Charlemagne, albeit illegitimate), who gives brief and concise information about the battle in the second book of his "Four Books of History" ( Historiarum Libri IIII ).

meaning

With the Battle of Fontenoy and the first Treaty of Verdun , concluded two years later , the unity of the Frankish Empire , which was previously a multi-ethnic empire , split into several spheres of power. These became the basis of two powerful European nations. The majority of historians therefore see this battle as the turning point that led to the emergence of the German Nation in Eastern France (the later Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation ) on the one hand and the emergence of the French Nation in Western France (later the Kingdom of France ) on the other. In France it is therefore also called the "First European Battle".

memorial

Fontenoy, obelisk commemorating the Battle of Fontenoy (841)

In 1860, a 5.5 m high obelisk was erected on the battlefield to commemorate it .

See also

Web links