Battle of Zehden
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The Battle of Zehden took place on June 24, 972 between Duke Mieszko I of Poland and the Margrave Hodo I of the Lausitz region, appointed by Emperor Otto I. The location of the battle is controversial among historians; Cedynia and Zehdenick are most commonly suspected.
background
Since under Charlemagne († 814) the claim to power of the Franconian-Roman Empire had been extended to the Elbe as part of Christianization , Elbe Slavic sovereigns were viewed as paying tribute to the emperor. They also appeared at the Reichstag . In the 10th century , Margrave Hodo was responsible for collecting the tribute that Emperor Otto I was able to demand from Mieszko I and the various Slavic tribes east of the Elbe. After the division of the large Saxon Ostmark , which only came into being after the conquest of the Elbe Slavic area by Margrave Gero in 937, the area between the Elbe and Oder was split up into individual smaller border marks from 966 onwards.
The exact background for the outbreak of the feud and the actual cause of Hodo's campaign against Mieszko I are not known. Speculation is that Mieszko wanted to take advantage of the weakness of the Saxons on their eastern flank and intended to conquer the economically important area around the Oder to Pomerania with the then important trade center Wolin and thus gain access to the Baltic Sea . The chronicler Thietmar von Merseburg saw one of the main reasons for the outbreak of the dispute in the fact that Mieszko I wanted to gain more personal respect for the margraves, as they treated him with arrogance at the Reichstag: Mieszko did not dare to go in his fur To appear to Margrave Hodo or to sit down when he was standing.
In the fight against the Polans , Siegfried , Count zu Walbeck and in Möckerngau , supported the Margrave Hodo militarily.
course
Contemporary news of the causes and course of the battle have not survived. In his chronicle from around 1018, Thietmar von Merseburg reports that Hodo attacked Mieszko, although this Emperor Otto II paid tributes for the area up to the Vurta - possibly the Warta . The attack was said to have taken place "with army power". Hodo received support exclusively from Thietmar's father, Count Siegfried von Walbeck, and his men. On June 24th there was a battle near Cidini , in which Hodo and Siegfried first gained the upper hand before an army of the Piasts led by Mieszko's brother Cidebur killed the best fighters of Hodos and Siegfried. Allegedly only these two should have escaped. When the emperor learned of the conflict, he threatened Hodo and Mieszko with the withdrawal of his mercy if they should continue their fighting and summoned them.
On the orders of the emperor, Mieszko had to appear at the Reichstag in Quedlinburg in 973 . There the emperor made peace between the warring parties. However, Mieszko had his son Bolesław as a hostage to make to secure peace.
Around the year 1115, the chronicler Gallus Anonymus also reports in his chronicle of the battle of Zehden. He wants to show the contemporaries of the 12th century what wonderful deeds the Piasts have done.
Reference to the present
After the city of Zehden (accepted as Cidini ) was conquered by the Red Army in 1945 , the Polish administration renamed the place Cedynia . In 1972, on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the battle, a memorial was erected to commemorate the Battle of Zehden.
Web links
- Cedynia, Polish site with the previous name of the city
- Battle of Zehden, by Thietmar, Polish language
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Richard Roepell : History of Poland . Volume 1, Hamburg 1840, p. 98.