Battle of the Hare

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Battle of the Hare
Part of: Saxon Wars
date Late summer 783
place Near Osnabrück
output Franconian victory
Parties to the conflict

Tribal Duchy of Saxony

Frankish Empire

Commander

Widukind

Charlemagne

Troop strength
unknown unknown
losses

unknown

unknown

The Battle of the Hase (also known as the Great Battle of the Hase ) took place in the late summer of 783 between Saxony under Duke Widukind and Franconia under King Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars near today's Osnabrück an der Hase .

prehistory

→ Main article: Charlemagne's Saxon Wars .

In 783, Charlemagne and Widukind had previously disputed at Detmold ( Theotmalli ) and Paderborn . Karl then stopped in Paderborn to integrate the reinforcements he had previously ordered from the Franconian Empire into his army. With the reinforced army, Karl then wanted to march into eastern Saxony in order to restore his rule there and to pacify the country by force. However, since the Saxons gathered at the Hase northwest of Paderborn, Karl was forced to move back to Westphalia if he did not want a Saxon army behind him when he marched into Saxony.

Course of the battle

Duke Widukind had succeeded for the first time in uniting all Saxon tribes into a large army at the Hase in order to again offer resistance to the Franks. In the meantime, King Karl had called in reinforcements and met the Saxon army near today's Osnabrück and inflicted a heavy defeat on them in a three-day battle on the Hase. Part of the Saxon army was wiped out, the other captured.

consequences

Widukind had to flee from the battlefield and withdrew to his Wittekindsburg near Rulle . Allegedly this is said to have been besieged by the Franks a little later . Widukind is said to have managed to escape from there, but the siege is probably a late legend and does not reflect the historical events.

As a result of the devastating Saxon defeat, the entire country between the Weser and Elbe was devastated by the Franks under Charlemagne.

literature

  • Franz Georg Friedrich von Kausler : Dictionary of battles, sieges and meetings of all peoples, From the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the beginning of the Crusades. 3rd volume, Verlag der Stettinschen Buchhandlung, Ulm 1829, pp. 272-273.
  • Sigurd Abel : Yearbooks of the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne. Volume I: 768-788. Duncker & Humblot , 1866, pp. 372-374.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Abel: Yearbooks of the Franconian Empire ... Volume I, 1866, p. 372.
  2. ↑ a b c von Kausler: Dictionary of battles ... 3rd volume, Ulm 1829, pp. 272–273.
  3. ↑ Founding of a diocese and becoming a town ( memento of March 13, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Abel: Yearbooks of the Franconian Empire ... Volume I, 1866, pp. 372–374.
  5. ↑ von Kausler: Dictionary of battles ... Volume 3, 1829, p. 274.