Battle of Varaville

date	August 1057
place	near Varaville, France
output	Victory of the Normans

Parties to the conflict
Normans	French people
Commander
William the bastard	King Heinrich I Gottfried II of Anjou
Troop strength
unknown	unknown
losses
unknown	Rearguard lost

The Battle of Varaville was a military clash in medieval France , in which the Norman Duke William the Bastard ( "the Conqueror" later) a victory against King Henry I won. It took place in August 1057 near Varaville (today in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region ).

background

With the help of King Henry I, the young Wilhelm once won rule in Normandy in a fight against his competitors ( Battle of Val-ès-Dunes , 1047). The French king hoped to strengthen the royal authority in the powerful Norman principality through his protégé Wilhelm, but in 1052 Wilhelm made a political turnaround by emancipating himself from the influence of the king in order to be able to rule in Normandy effectively from now on . In the victorious battle of Mortemer in 1054, he was able to successfully maintain the sovereignty he had won and repel the king.

In 1057, King Henry I tried again in league with Count Gottfried II Martel von Anjou , who was an arch opponent of the Normans, to restore his authority in Normandy by military means. The alliance was likely sealed in January 1057 at a meeting of the two in Tours and reaffirmed at another meeting in March of the same year in Angers .

The battle

In August 1057 the king penetrated with his army to Normandy and marched through the Hiémois pulling in the north to Bayeux to conquer. At the town of Varaville they reached the Dives river , which they had to cross in order to march on to Bayeux. Duke Wilhelm was at this time with his troops in Falaise , but was always informed about the movements of the enemy through his scout system, which he could follow so easily. At Varaville he finally caught up with the enemy who had just set his vanguard across the river and was now about to let the rear guard follow. Wilhelm immediately took the opportunity and went on the attack.

The following fight is denied the characterization as a "battle" in the general specialist literature, since according to the traditions it was more of a real massacre . Wilhelm attacked the enemy's rearguard, which was completely surprised and not prepared to fight, which had just concentrated on crossing the dives, but was now exposed to his attacks unprepared. The Normans knocked down the rearguard of the king, who was already standing on the opposite side of the river and could not do anything about it. His defeat was sealed, after which he fled from Normandy to his royal domain along the east bank of the Dives.

consequences

At the Battle of Varaville, King Henry I's last attempt to regain his authority over the Duke of Normandy, which had already been lost at Mortemer in 1054, failed. This principality slipped out of the king's sphere of influence for several generations. Henry I made no further attempts to change this situation, and died in 1060, after which it the immature Philip I succeeded. From the royal side, therefore, no further threat could arise for Wilhelm's unrestricted power in Normandy for several years. Instead he was able to consolidate his power and invade England undisturbed in 1066 , which made him a "conqueror".

The Battle of Varaville was and is not considered to be of great importance in historical research due to its short and unambiguous course, since the decisive turning point for Wilhelm's political future had already come with Mortemer and Varaville could no longer reverse it. In keeping with its importance, Varaville has only been handed down by two contemporary authors, Wilhelm von Jumièges and Wilhelm von Poitiers . Later she only mentioned William of Malmesbury in his Chronicle and Wace in his poetry Roman de Rou . It was not mentioned by other important authors of the time, such as Ordericus Vitalis .

literature

David Charles Douglas: William the Conqueror: the norman impact upon England (1977), 72-73

swell

Wilhelm von Jumièges, Gesta Normannorum Ducum , ed. by Jean Marx (1914), p. 131
Wilhelm von Poitiers, Gesta Guillelmi Ducis Normannorum et regis Anglorum , ed. by Raymonde Foreville (1952), pp. 80-82
William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regnum Anglorum II , ed. by William Stubbs (1889), p. 291
The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, Vol. II , ed. by Elisabeth MC van Houts (1995), Book VII, pp. 150-153

see also: List of battles