Battle of Pressburg
| Battle of Pozsony | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Hungarian Conquest | |||||||
|
|||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| East Francia | Hungarian tribes | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Louis the Child Luitpold, Margrave of Bavaria † |
Árpád, Grand Prince | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| c. 100,000 | c. 35,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy, among other losses: Archbishop Theotmar, 3 bishops and 35 counts | Not significant | ||||||
Battle of Pressburg[1] (German: Schlacht von Pressburg) or Battle of Bratislava (Slovak: Bitka pri Bratislave) or Battle of Pozsony (Hungarian: Pozsonyi csata) refers to a battle fought on 4 July 907, during which a Bavarian army led by Margrave Luitpold was defeated by Hungarian forces under Grand Prince Árpád.[1] In consequence, the Kingdom of East Francia lost control over the Carolingian March of Pannonia including the territory of the later marchia orientalis, which was not regained until the Battle of Lechfeld in 955.
Contents |
Prelude [edit]
In 901 the East Frankish king Louis the Child had concluded a peace agreement with Mojmir II, the last known ruler of the disintegrating Great Moravian realm. While the Magyars invaded the Moravian core territory, they had to face continuous threat by the forces of Margrave Luitpold operating at the frontier of the Pannonian march. During negotiations in 904 the Bavarians killed the Hungarian prince Kurszán—which ultimatively strengthened Árpád's position, who became sole chieftain of the Magyar tribes.
Encouraged by several minor military victories over retiring Hungarian forces, Luitpold in 907 called for concentrating a large Bavarian army (Heerbann) around Enns Castle in order to score a decisive victory against the Hungarians, who already formed an important principality in the Pannonian Basin. The margrave at least intended to secure the eastern border of the his lands, if not to extend the East Frankish (German) sphere of control.
Battle [edit]
The order of the events is scarcely documented and has been reshaped several times during centuries-long historiography as by Johannes Aventinus (1477–1534). The Bavarian army supposedly included more than 100,000 soldiers[citation needed], which is almost certainly an exaggeration typical of the time. Árpád's army was only around 30-35,000.[citation needed] Few medieval armies are known to have exceeded 10,000.
Though better equipped, Luitpold's forces consisting of three battle groups succumbed to the Eurasian nomad tactics of the mounted Magyar soldiers. In a storm of arrows, a large part of the Bavarian army was kettled in, crushed and destroyed. The German casualties included Margrave Luitpold himself, the Salzburg archbishop Theotmar, Bishop Utto of Freising, Bishop Zechariah of Säben-Brixen and 35 Bavarian counts.[2]
Location [edit]
The precise location of this battle is not known.[3] The only contemporary source mentioning a location of the battle are the Annales iuvavenses maximi (Annals of Salzburg); however, the reliability of these annals is questionable, as they survive only in fragments copied in the 12th century.[4] They state that the battle took place in the vicinity of Brezalauspurc, the castle of the late Pannonian prince Braslav, located west of Lake Balaton.[5] Some interpretations equal Brezalauspurc with modern-day Bratislava or east of Vienna[6] while others claim that it was Urbs Paludarum - Braslav's fortress at Zalavár (Mosapurc) near Lake Balaton in Pannonia.[7]
Aftermath [edit]
After the Battle, the Hungarians occupied the former March of Pannonia from Lake Balaton up the Enns River in the west and began pillaging the surrounding regions. Germans could not attack Hungary for more than 100 years.[8] Though Duke Arnulf of Bavaria was able to repulse a further Magyar incursion in 913, the Hungarian threat to the emerging German kingdom persisted for decades. The mounted forces attacked Swabia up to Alsace, moved into Thuringia and even reached the Duchy of Saxony in the north. In 926 King Henry the Fowler could arrange a truce, which brought internal stability to German lands.
Seven years later, a united German army under Henry prevailed against the Hungarian forces at the 933 Battle of Riade. Upon the accession of Henry's son, King Otto I, the Magyars took the occasion of a revolt by Duke Eberhard of Franconia in 938 to invade the Saxon lands. Upon the insurrection by Duke Liudolf of Swabia in 953, they again pillaged Bavaria until in 955 they met with Otto's forces in an open battle at Lechfeld near Augsburg, where the Hungarian army was completely routed.
Notes and references [edit]
- ^ a b "Bavaria". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
- ^ Eurasian studies yearbook, Volume 78, Volume 78, Eurolingua, 2006, p. 27
- ^ Burghardt, Andrew Frank (1962). Borderland: a historical and geographical study of Burgenland, Austria. University of Wisconsin Press, original from the University of California. p. 60.
- ^ Timothy Reuter, Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056 (New York: Longman, 1991), 138–139.
- ^ Bowlus, Charles R. (2006). The battle of Lechfeld and its aftermath, August 955: the end of the age of .... p. 83.
- ^ Bowlus, Charles R. (2006). The battle of Lechfeld and its aftermath, August 955: the end of the age of migrations in the Latin West. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-7546-5470-4.
- ^ Bowlus, Charles R. (1995). Franks, Moravians, and Magyars: The Struggle for the Middle Danube, 788-907. pp. 258-9.
- ^ Peter F. Sugar,Péter Hanák [1] A History of Hungary, Indiana University Press, 1994, pp 12-17
External links [edit]
