First battle at Chlumec

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First battle at Chlumec
date September 22, 1040
place near Chlumec (Kulm), Eastern Ore Mountains
output Victory of the Bohemians
Parties to the conflict

Bohemia

Holy Roman Empire

Commander

Duke Břetislav I.

King Henry III

Troop strength
unknown unknown
losses

unknown

unknown

The First Battle of Chlumec was a clash between troops of the Roman-German King Henry III. and the Bohemian Duke Břetislav I on September 22, 1040 near Chlumec (Kulm) in northern Bohemia, in which Břetislav's forces were victorious.

Břetislav had undertaken a campaign to Poland in the summer of 1039 , plundered Kraków and other cities and captured Gniezno . There, in the presence of high Bohemian church princes, he opened the grave of Adalbert (Czech. Vojtěch , Polish. Wojciech ) and removed his bones in order to transfer them to Prague with those of his stepbrother Radim-Gaudentius , the first bishop of Gniezno . Although the campaign weakened Poland considerably through the occupation of Silesia , Gnesen and Moravia , the taking possession of these relics was probably the real reason for the campaign. With the help of the relics, Prague was to be upgraded to an independent Bohemian archbishopric and thus independent of Gniezno. Corresponding plans were pursued with an embassy to the Pope, but encountered bitter resistance from the Archbishop of Mainz , who held suzerainty over the diocese of Prague.

King Henry III shared the view of the Archbishop of Mainz. He also called for Břetislav to withdraw from Poland, which, like Bohemia, was a vassal principality of the Holy Roman Empire , as well as a high penalty , which Břetislav was not prepared to pay. Instead, sent it to prevent a campaign against the kingdom of Bohemia, his son Spytihněv as a hostage to the king. When Břetislav continued to refuse to pay tribute, Henry III broke. in August 1040 with two army columns to Bohemia. He himself marched over Taus with Bavarian troops , here it came first to the battle of Biwanka . Most of the warriors of the contingent died, the Fuldaer Totenannalen name numerous individual fates.

An offer to negotiate the following year was nevertheless answered by Heinrich with a demand for unconditional submission. The fighting resumed in August 1041. while Saxon troops invaded northern Bohemia under the command of Margrave Ekkehard II of Meissen . A battle broke out near Chlumec on September 22nd, as a result of which Heinrich's army had to withdraw. Only in the following year did he manage to subjugate Břetislav with a new army.

literature

  • M. Perlbach: The wars of Heinrich III. against Bohemia. 1039-1041. Dieterich'sche Buchhandlung, Göttingen 1870, PDF (1.63 MB) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ignaz Cornova, letters to a little lover of patriotic history etc. - Prague 1797, p. 67 Google book search online