Battle of Andernach (876)

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Battle of Andernach
Charles the Bald and Louis from BL Royal 16 G VI, f. 231v.jpeg
Miniature of the battle of Andernach between Charles the Bald and Louis, his nephew. Image taken from f. 231v of Chroniques de France ou de St Denis.
Date8 October 876
Location
Kettig southeast of Andernach
50°26′21.102″N7°24′22.158″E / 50.43919500°N 7.40615500°E / 50.43919500; 7.40615500
Result Charles' complete defeat
Territorial
changes
Empire carolingien 870.svg
Belligerents
West Francia East Francia
Commanders and leaders
Charles the Bald Louis the Younger
Rhineland-Palatinate location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Rhineland-Palatinate
Europe blank laea location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Battle of Andernach (876) (Europe)
Empire carolingien 870.svg

The First Battle of Andernach between the West Frankish king Charles the Bald and the East Frankish king Louis the Younger took place on 8 October 876 near Kettig southeast of Andernach and resulted in Charles' complete defeat.

Contents

Prelude

Louis III (the Younger) was a son of the East Frankish king Louis the German, who divided the East Frankish realm among his sons in 865. Louis the Younger received the largest part of East Francia, while his brothers received Bavaria and Northern Italy. In the Treaty of Meersen, he additionally gained the eastern part of Middle Francia. Charles the Bald, king of West Francia, tried to occupy whole Middle Francia before and only agreed to the treaty due to military pressure. After Louis the German died, Charles again tried to extend West Francia to the east until the river Rhine. To achieve that, he met his nephew Louis the Younger in Sinzig, but Louis did not agree to Charles' plans.

Battle

Charles then tried to conquer the territory on the left bank of the river Rhine. On 8 October 876, this campaign culminated in the battle on a plain near Andernach which resulted in a decisive victory for Louis and stopped all further efforts of Charles to conquer Middle Francia. Charles had to flee to Italy and died almost exactly a year after the battle in Avrieux, Savoy. Among the casualties of the battle were Counts Jerome and Raganar (Reginar) slain, and, as captives, Count Adalard, Count Bernard "Hairypaws", and Gauzlin, Bishop of Paris. [1]

As a result of the battle, Andernach and the Rhineland remained part of East Francia and the Holy Roman Empire into which East Francia later evolved. The border remained almost unchanged until the late Middle Ages. In the Treaty of Ribemont, concluded by Louis the Younger and Charles' grandsons Louis III of France and Carloman of France in 880, East Francia also gained the western part of Middle Francia, including the mouths of the rivers Rhine, Maas and Scheldt and the cities Metz, Sedan, Strasbourg, Toul, Verdun, Cambrai and Antwerp.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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Year 876 (DCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis the German</span> King of East Francia from 843 to 876

Louis the German, also known as Louis II of Germany, was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 843 to 876 AD. Grandson of emperor Charlemagne and the third son of Louis the Pious, emperor of Francia, and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye, he received the appellation Germanicus shortly after his death, when East Francia became known as the kingdom of Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles the Bald</span> King of West Francia from 843 to 877 and Holy Roman Emperor from 875 to 877

Charles the Bald, also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious, Charles succeeded, by the Treaty of Verdun (843), in acquiring the western third of the empire. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lotharingia</span> 9th- and 10th-century kingdom in Western Europe

Lotharingia was a medieval successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire. It comprised present-day Lorraine (France), Luxembourg, Saarland (Germany), Netherlands, and the eastern half of Belgium, along with parts of today's North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany) and Nord (France). It was named after King Lothair II, who received this territory after the Kingdom of Middle Francia of his father, Lothair I, had been divided among his three sons in 855.

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Charles III, also known as Charles the Fat, was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 887. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne. He was the last Carolingian emperor of legitimate birth and the last to rule a united kingdom of the Franks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Meerssen</span> 870 treaty partitioning Lotharingia

The Treaty of Mersen or Meerssen, concluded on 8 August 870, was a treaty to partition the realm of Lothair II, known as Lotharingia, by his uncles Louis the German of East Francia and Charles the Bald of West Francia, the two surviving sons of Emperor Louis I the Pious. The treaty followed an earlier treaty of Prüm which had split Middle Francia between Lothair I's sons after his death in 855.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alamannia</span> Former territory inhabited by the Germanic Alemanni peoples

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ermengarde of Hesbaye</span> Carolingian Empress from 813 to 818

Ermengardeof Hesbaye, probably a member of the Robertian dynasty, was Carolingian empress from 813 and Queen of the Franks from 814 until her death as the wife of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duchy of Bavaria</span> Former duchy in Germany

The Duchy of Bavaria was a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom from the sixth through the eighth century. It was settled by Bavarian tribes and ruled by dukes (duces) under Frankish overlordship. A new duchy was created from this area during the decline of the Carolingian Empire in the late ninth century. It became one of the stem duchies of the East Frankish realm which evolved as the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.

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East Francia or the Kingdom of the East Franks was a successor state of Charlemagne's empire ruled by the Carolingian dynasty until 911. It was created through the Treaty of Verdun (843) which divided the former empire into three kingdoms.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Francia</span> State in Western Europe from 843 to 987; predecessor to the Kingdom of France

In medieval historiography, West Francia or the Kingdom of the West Franks constitutes the initial stage of the Kingdom of France and extends from the year 843, from the Treaty of Verdun, to 987, the beginning of the Capetian dynasty. It was created from the division of the Carolingian Empire following the death of Louis the Pious, with its neighbor East Francia eventually evolving into the Kingdom of Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Francia</span> State in Western Europe from 843 to 855

Middle Francia was a short-lived Frankish kingdom which was created in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun after an intermittent civil war between the grandsons of Charlemagne resulted in division of the united empire. Middle Francia was allocated to emperor Lothair I, the eldest son and successor of emperor Louis the Pious. His realm contained the imperial cities of Aachen and Pavia, but lacked any geographic or cultural cohesion, which prevented it from surviving and forming a nucleus of a larger state, as was the case with West Francia and East Francia.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis the Younger</span> King of Saxony

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Prüm</span> 855 treaty partitioning the Carolingian Empire

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References

  1. Nelson, Janet L. (1992). Charles the Bald. London: Longman Publishing Company. p. 246.