Battle of Dorestad

Last updated
Battle of Dorestad
Part of the Frisian–Frankish wars
DateAround 695 [1]
Location
Result Frankish victory
Belligerents
Franks Frisians
Commanders and leaders
Pepin of Herstal
Mayor of the palace
King Redbad

The Battle of Dorestad was a 7th-century battle between the Franks and the Frisians. The battle took place around 695 by the capital city of the Frisians close to the Rhine. The Franks were victorious in the battle under the Austrasian mayor of the palace, Pepin of Herstal. [2] Though not all the consequences of the battle are clear, Dorestad became Frankish again as did the castles of Utrecht and Fechten. It is presumed that the influence of the Franks then reached from south of the Oude Rijn to the coast, but this is not entirely clear because the influence of the Frisians over the central river area was not entirely lost.

Contents

Citations

  1. Rogers, p. 543.
  2. Blok, pp. 32-34.

Related Research Articles

Friesland Province of the Netherlands

Friesland, historically known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the northern part of the country. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, and south of the Wadden Sea. As of January 2020, the province had a population of 649,944 and a total area of 5,749 km2 (2,220 sq mi).

History of the Netherlands Aspect of history

The history of the Netherlands is a history of seafaring people thriving on a lowland river delta on the North Sea in northwestern Europe. Records begin with the four centuries during which the region formed a militarized border zone of the Roman Empire. This came under increasing pressure from Germanic peoples moving westwards. As Roman power collapsed and the Middle Ages began, three dominant Germanic peoples coalesced in the area, Frisians in the north and coastal areas, Low Saxons in the northeast, and the Franks in the south.

689 Calendar year

Year 689 (DCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 689 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Woerden City and Municipality in Utrecht, Netherlands

Woerden is a city and a municipality in central Netherlands. Due to its central location between Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht, and the fact that it has rail and road connections to those cities, it is a popular town for commuters who work in those cities.

Dorestad Medieval emporium in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands

Dorestad was an early medieval emporium, located in the southeast of the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands, close to the modern-day town of Wijk bij Duurstede. It flourished during the 8th to early 9th centuries, as an important port on the northeastern shipping routes due to its proximity to the fork in the Rhine, with access to Germany via the Nederrijn, to the southern Netherlands, northern France, and England, and to the northern Netherlands, northern Germany, and Scandinavia.

Hook and Cod wars 140-year period of civil war in medieval Holland

The Hook and Cod wars comprise a series of wars and battles in the County of Holland between 1350 and 1490. Most of these wars were fought over the title of count of Holland, but some have argued that the underlying reason was because of the power struggle of the bourgeois in the cities against the ruling nobility.

Redbad, King of the Frisians King (or Duke) of Frisia

Redbad was the king of Frisia from c. 680 until his death. He is often considered the last independent ruler of Frisia before Frankish domination. He defeated Charles Martel at Cologne. Eventually, Charles prevailed and compelled the Frisians to submit. Redbad died in 719, but for some years his successors struggled against the Frankish power.

West Frisian language West Germanic language spoken in Friesland

West Frisian, or simply Frisian, is a West Germanic language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, mostly by those of Frisian ancestry. It is the most widely spoken of the Frisian languages.

County of Holland Former State of the Holy Roman Empire and part of the Habsburg Netherlands

The County of Holland was a State of the Holy Roman Empire and from 1433 part of the Burgundian Netherlands, from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 onward the leading province of the Dutch Republic, of which it remained a part until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. The territory of the County of Holland corresponds roughly with the current provinces of North Holland and South Holland in the Netherlands.

Old Dutch Set of Franconian dialects

In linguistics, Old Dutch or Old Low Franconian is the set of Franconian dialects spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 5th to the 12th century. Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French.

The Drenther Crusade was a military campaign launched against the inhabitants of Drenthe with the approval of the Papacy in 1228 and lasting until 1232. It was led by Willibrand, Bishop of Utrecht, commanding an army composed mostly of Frisian crusaders.

David van Goorle

David van Goorle was a Dutch philosopher and theologian, and one of the first modern atomists.

Bubo, also spelled Bobbo, Poppo or Popo, was the pagan duke (dux) of the Frisians in the early eighth century. He is the first ruler whose name is known after Radbod. He did not recognise Frankish supremacy, and his territory probably only encompassed the north of Radbod's Frisia. He was defeated in a short war by the forces of Charles Martel, the duke of the Franks, in the Battle of the Boorne. The Frankish chroniclers, such as the Continuations of Fredegar, Vita Willibroridi of Alcuin and the Annales Mettenses priores, depict Bubo as a rebel and the Frankish invasion as a just war.

Frisian freedom c. 800 – 1523 absence of feudalism and serfdom in Frisia

Friese Freedom or Freedom of the Frisians was the absence of feudalism and serfdom in Frisia, the area that was originally inhabited by the Frisians. Historical Frisia included the modern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, and the area of West Friesland, in the Netherlands, and East Friesland in Germany. During the period of Frisian freedom the area did not have a sovereign lord who owned and administered the land. The freedom of the Frisians developed in the context of ongoing disputes over the rights of local nobility.

Frisian history

Frisia has changed dramatically over time, both through floods and through a change in identity. It is part of the Nordwestblock which is a hypothetical historic region linked by language and culture.

Dutch language West Germanic language

Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million people as a second language, constituting most of the population of the Netherlands and about 60% of the population of Belgium. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives English and German.

Frisian–Frankish wars

The Frisian–Frankish wars were a series of conflicts between the Frankish Empire and the Frisian kingdom in the 7th and 8th centuries.

Frisian Kingdom c. 600–734 realm in northwestern Europe

The Frisian Kingdom, also known as Magna Frisia, is a modern name for the post-Roman Frisian realm in Western Europe in the period when it was at its largest (650–734). This dominion was ruled by kings and emerged in the mid-7th century and probably ended with the Battle of the Boarn in 734 when the Frisians were defeated by the Frankish Empire. It lay mainly in what is now the Netherlands and – according to some 19th century authors – extended from the Zwin near Bruges in Belgium to the Weser in Germany. The center of power was the city of Utrecht.

References

Further reading