| Battle of Eisenach | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theHungarian invasions of Europe | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| East Francia |  Principality of Hungary | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Burchard, Duke of Thuringia † Egino, Duke of Thuringia † Rudolf I, Bishop of Würzburg † | Unknown Hungarian Commander | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy together with all the commanders | Unknown (probably light) | ||||||
TheBattle of Eisenach in 908,[1] was a crushing victory by aHungarian army over anEast Frankish army composed of troops fromFranconia,Saxony, andThuringia.
This battle is a part of the Hungarian - German war which started in 900, after the Hungarian conquest ofPannonia (Transdanubia), and lasted until 910, the battles ofAugsburg andRednitz, both ending in disastrous German defeats, which forced the German kingLouis the Child, and the German duchies to accept the territorial losses, and pay tribute to the Hungarians.[2]
After theBattle of Pressburg ended with a catastrophical defeat of the attackingEast Francian armies led byLuitpold prince of Bavaria, the Hungarians following the nomadic warfare philosophy: destroy your enemy completely or force him to submit to you, first forcedArnulf prince of Bavaria to pay them tribute, and let their armies cross the lands of the duchy to attack other German and Christian territories,[3] then started long range campaigns against the other East Francian duchies.
The first of these was the attack of one Hungarian army toThuringia andSaxony. However this was not the first attack of the Hungarians inSaxonia, because two years earlier two Hungarian armies devastated the duchy one after another, after being asked to come by the Slavic tribe of Dalamanci, which lived nearMeissen, which were threatened by the Saxons attacks and plunderings. In their campaign of 908, the Hungarians used again the Dalamancian territory to attackThuringia andSaxonia, coming fromBohemia orSilesia, where Slavic tribes lived, like they did in 906.[3] The Thuringian and Saxonian forces, under the lead ofBurchard, Duke of Thuringia met the Hungarians on the battlefield atEisenach. The number of the forces are unknown, and the leader of the Hungarian forces neither, although it is possible that it was the same commander who led the Hungarians to great victories in the battles ofPressburg in 907,Augsburg andRednitz in 910, because of the categorical outcome of those battles (annihilation of the enemy forces together with their leaders).
We do not know many details about this battle, but we know that it was a crushing defeat for the Germans, and the leader of the Christian army:Burchard, Duke of Thuringia was killed, along withEgino, Duke of Thuringia andRudolf I, Bishop of Würzburg, together with the most part of the German soldiers. The Hungarians then plunderedThuringia andSaxonia as far north asBremen,[4] returning home with many spoils.[5][6]
After this victory the Hungarian campaigns against the German duchies continued until 910, the battles ofAugsburg andRednitz, ended with disastrous German defeats, after which the German kingLouis the Child concluded peace with thePrincipality of Hungary, accepting to pay tribute to the latter, and recognizing the Hungarian territorial gains during the war.[2]