Battle of Hundsfeld

Battle of Hundsfeld
Woodcut from Kronika Polska by Marcin Bielski, 1597
Date August 24, 1109 Location Hundsfeld (Psie Pole) near Wrocław in Silesia, Poland Result Polish victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Poland	Holy Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Bolesław III Wrymouth	Henry V of Germany

The Battle of Hundsfeld or Battle of Psie Pole was allegedly fought on 24 August 1109 near the Silesian capital Wrocław between the Holy Roman Empire in aid of the claims of the exiled Piast duke Zbigniew against his ruling stepbrother, Bolesław III Wrymouth of Poland. The Imperial forces were led by King Henry V of Germany, who had started a campaign to Poland after Bolesław had invaded the Bohemian territory of Duke Svatopluk in the year before. The result was a victory of the Polish forces led by Bolesław, whereafter King Henry withdrew from Poland.

Because of the many corpses left by the battle, Bishop Wincenty Kadłubek of Kraków in his Chronica seu originale regum et principum Poloniae about 1200 remarked that the "dogs which, devouring so many corpses [of the fallen], fell into a mad ferocity, so that no one dared venture there." The battlefield became known as "dogs' field" (German: Hundsfeld, Polish: Psie Pole). Kadłubek's relation is however unsubstantiated; present-day historians claim this "great battle" was rather an unimportant skirmish, and Kadłubek's chronicle (written almost hundred years after this incident) in this topic is not reliable.

The site is now part of the Psie Pole district of modern Wrocław.

See also

• Battle of Głogów