Battle of the Sventana Field
In the battle on the Sventana field , the Schwentinefeld near Bornhöved , in 798 the Slavic Abodrites defeated the Saxons of northern Albingia with Franconian support .
prehistory
After Charlemagne had largely pacified the Saxon districts as far as the Elbe in the Saxon Wars , he sent Königsboten ( missi ) to the northern Albingian Saxons in the local districts of Stormarn , Dithmarschen and Holstein to enforce the conditions of surrender . At Easter 797, the Saxons captured the royal ambassadors, some of whom they slaughtered immediately, others withheld for ransom. While Karl was approaching northern Albingia with a large army from the south in 798, Drasco, at the instigation of the Franconian military advisor Eburis, assembled his army in Slavic Ostholstein to attack the Saxons from the northeast.
course
The Saxons had not escaped the marching-up movements on the Slavic side, and they confronted the Abodrites directly at the border on the plain of the Schwentinefeld, an unpopulated sand area . On the side of the Abodrites, Drasco led the contingent into battle. The Franconian Eburis commanded the right wing, possibly with Franconian auxiliaries. The fight was fought as an open field battle. There are different details about the process. According to the description in the Frankish Annales regni Francorum , 4,000 of the attacking Saxons fell, who had fled the battlefield in view of the looming defeat. Many of the refugees are said to have been seized and executed afterwards. In contrast, the Moissac Chronicle reports an attack by the Abodrites and 2901 Saxons killed. Abodritic or Saxon written certificates are not available.
aftermath
With the defeat of the North Elbian Saxons, the resistance against the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne in northern Albingia was broken. The Franks deported a significant number of Saxons to the south and left large parts of northern Albingia to the Abodrites. Charlemagne hoped that this settlement would protect the Franconian northern border against the Danes . This hope was already disappointed in 808, when the Danes under Göttrick defeated the Abodrites and made them subject to tribute. Thereupon the Franks occupied northern Albingia with loyal Saxon troops and built Esesfelth Castle in 809 as a border castle against the Danes. The deported Saxons were brought back and were supposed to take on the role originally intended for the Abodrites. To the east, the Franks delimited their political sphere of influence against the Abodrites through the Limes Saxoniae .