Battle of Riyadh

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In the Battle of Riyadh on March 15, 933, a contingent under the command of King Henry I fought against a large army of Magyars ( Hungary ). The battle is transmitted primarily through a report by the Saxon historian Widukind von Corvey .

prehistory

At the beginning of the 10th century, the East Franconian Empire was hit several times by forays of the Hungarian horsemen . The Hungarians did not want to conquer - they invaded the country in a flash, robbed and pillaged and then disappeared again. Some undertakings took them deep into southern Germany, northern Italy and even Lorraine .

The Saxon duchy , which extended over the areas of what is now Lower Saxony , Schleswig-Holstein , Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, as well as northern Hesse , was also affected . In 926 an unnamed Hungarian prince was captured near the royal palace Werla . In return for his release, the King and Saxon Duke Heinrich I negotiated a nine-year armistice, but the Hungarians also had to pay an annual tribute . Heinrich used the period of the armistice to carry out an army reform that was not entirely clear in its significance, to build new fortifications and to resume the campaigns against the Slavic tribes east of the Elbe and Saale, which had already begun in 906. He succeeded in subjugating the Abodrites , Wilzen , Heveller , Daleminzier , Bohemia and Redarians and making them pay tribute to the empire.

Heinrich had secured their support through his clever, cautious domestic policy, which assured the other tribal dukes of extensive independence. When an embassy of the Hungarians wanted to receive the due tribute in 932, he is said to have thrown a dead dog at their feet instead. This shameful treatment marked the end of the armistice that had been used in preparation for the coming fighting.

Place of battle

The exact location of the battle near a castle of Wido that cannot be located is no longer known today. He is wanted in the area of ​​the Helme-Unstrut lowlands or in the area around Merseburg . The Heinrichs - Riade camp site - is still sought without resounding success. Michael Gockel suspects Riade in the Kalbsriether district of Ritteburg at the confluence of the Helme in the Unstrut and equates it with the places mentioned in the documents Reot , Rieda and Riede . Mühlpfordt wants to localize the battle near Radewell im Ried at the confluence of the Elster and Saale rivers, without addressing Gockel's concerns, which make a localization of the battle in the Merseburg area unlikely. Likewise, the battlefield around Riethgen (also Riedchen) near Weißensee / Thuringia is set, whereby one refers to the field names in the Hunne or Hunnenfeld , allegedly named after the so popular Hungarians . Heinrich is said to have commanded his troops there from the so-called Kainsberg or Königsberg.

Course of the battle

The Magyar army consisted of light cavalry. They were excellent archers whose tactics consisted of charging at the enemy in small groups, shooting deadly arrows, and then disappearing just as quickly. So far, this Magyar tactic has always been successful.

According to Widukind, Heinrich used a tactic developed in the previous Hungarian wars : lightly armed warriors ( cum raro milite armato ) were supposed to challenge the enemy army to attack through supposed defenselessness ( inermes ). The Magyars actually attacked the Thuringians who had been sent ahead, but turned to retreat as soon as they saw the fully equipped army ( exercitum armatum ). The only thing left for Henry's army to do was plunder the enemy camp and free the prisoners made by the Magyars. Liudprand also describes a desperate escape by the Magyars.

Aftermath

During Henry I's lifetime, the defeated Hungarians no longer undertook raids into German territory; their incursion in 938 was quickly repulsed. Only in 954 did the Hungarians threaten the empire again. The battle on the Lechfeld on August 10, 955 permanently ended the Hungarian threat. According to Thietmar von Merseburg's testimony, before the Battle of Lechfeld, Otto vowed to erect a diocese in his honor in the event of a victory for the day saint Laurentius in his Palatinate Merseburg.

swell

  • Liudprand von Cremona : Works , in: Sources for the history of the Saxon imperial era, translated by Albert Bauer, Reinhold Rau (Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe 8), 5th compared to the 4th extended edition, Darmstadt 2002, p. 233– 589.
  • Widukind von Corvey : Die Sachsengeschichte des Widukind von Corvey , in: Sources for the history of the Saxon imperial era, translated by Albert Bauer, Reinhold Rau (Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe 8), 5th compared to the 4th with an additional supplement, Darmstadt 2002 , Pp. 1-183.

literature

  • Michael Gockel, Art. Ritteburg , in: Ders. (Arr.), The German Royal Palaces. Repertory of the Palatinate, royal courts and other places of residence of kings in the German Middle Ages , vol. 2, Göttingen 1991, pp. 402–419, especially pp. 409f.
  • Martin Lintzel : The battle of Riyadh and the beginnings of the German state . In: Saxony and Anhalt. Vol. 9, (1933), ISSN  0945-2842 , pp. 27-51.
  • Christian Lübke : Riade . In: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Vol. 7 (1995), Col. 801-802.
  • Günter Mühlpfordt: Riddle Riyadh . The Battle of Hungary in 933 and Germany's unification. Mitteldeutscher, Halle 2009, ISBN 978-3-89812-617-5 .

Web links

Commons : Battle of Riyadh  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Thietmar II, 10.