Battle of Mellrichstadt
| date | August 7, 1078 |
|---|---|
| place | between Mellrichstadt and Oberstreu , Lower Franconia |
| output | Victory of Rudolf von Rheinfelden |
The battle of Mellrichstadt took place on Tuesday, August 7th, 1078 on the Grafenberg between Mellrichstadt and Oberstreu in Lower Franconia at the foot of the Rhön and was the first military clash between King Heinrich IV and the rival king Rudolf von Rheinfelden . Rudolf's side emerged victorious from the battle.
prehistory
In February 1076 had Pope Gregory VII. The excommunication on King Henry IV issued., The prince on the Assembly to Trebur followed in October the decision that Henry was deposed if he does not solve this spell within a year. The trip to Canossa in January 1077 brought the desired result, but did not prevent Heinrich's opponent from electing Rudolf von Rheinfelden as king on March 15 and having him anointed on March 26 . In June Heinrich imposed an imperial ban on his opponent and began to campaign against him.
The course of the battle
Both King Heinrich IV and the anti-king Rudolf sought the strategic initiative and collided on the border between Thuringia and Franconia near Mellrichstadt when Heinrich tried to prevent the unification of Saxon and Swabian armies.
On both sides pure knights fought with great bravery, but without leadership. The battle took place in mass individual fights with the result that part of the army in each party was victorious and part of the battlefield fled. Among those who fled were both Rudolf, who withdrew to Saxony , and Heinrich, who, pursued by Otto von Northeim , fled to Würzburg . The losses, especially on Heinrich's side, were high, the chronicler Berthold von Reichenau reports there of five thousand lesser and thirty noble ones, including Diepold II von Vohburg , Margrave of the Bavarian Nordgau , Heinrich Graf von Lechsgemünd , Poppo I. Graf von Henneberg and Eberhard the Bearded, a royal councilor. According to Berthold, only eighty minor complaints were made on Rudolf's side, and Werner von Steusslingen , Archbishop of Magdeburg , was one of the noblemen. The latter fled the battlefield and was apparently murdered by looters.
Ultimately, Count Palatine Friedrich von Sommerschenburg, who fought for Rudolf, claimed the battlefield with his knights and thus achieved a strategically useless victory.
The further events
Soon after, Heinrich IV and his army turned to Swabia, Rudolf's home country. There he is said to have destroyed around one hundred churches and devastated several cemeteries on All Saints Day , November 1st 1078.
On January 27, 1080 Heinrich and Rudolf met for a second time in the Battle of Flarchheim and on October 15, 1080 in the Battle of Hohenmölsen for a third time. These meetings all worked out in favor of Rudolf, who was so seriously injured in the final battle that he died of them.
literature
- Sources on the history of Emperor Heinrich IV . (Selected sources on the German history of the Middle Ages. Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe, Vol. 12), Wissenschaftliche Buchgemeinschaft, Darmstadt 1968. Contains u. a .: Bruno von Merseburg: Brunonis Saxonicum bellum. Brunos Sachsenkrieg (translated by Franz-Josef Schmale , pp. 191–405, on Mellrichstadt in particular pp. 341–347) and Carmen de bello saxonico . The song from the Saxon war (translated by Franz-Josef Schmale, pp. 142–189).
- Berthold and Bernold's chronicles . (Selected sources on German history in the Middle Ages. Freiherr vom Stein memorial edition, vol. 14). Wissenschaftliche Buchgemeinschaft, Darmstadt 2002. Contains u. a .: Bertholdchronik (Second version, pp. 35–277, on Mellrichstadt in particular p. 221).