Battle of Lüneburg Heath

The Battle of Lüneburg Heath (also called the Battle of Ebstorf) was a conflict between the army of King Louis the Younger and the Norse Great Heathen Army fought on 2 February 880  CE, at Lüneburg Heath in today's Lower Saxony.

Lüneburg Heath

Following defeat by Alfred the Great at the Battle of Edington, ^[1] the Norse Great Heathen Army moved from England to pillage the Duchy of Saxony. ^[2] The army of Louis met the Norsemen at Lüneburg Heath. The Saxons were routed in a snowstorm, with the army being destroyed or captured.^{[ citation needed ]}

Known combatants include Marquard of Hildesheim, Theodoric of Minden, ^[3] Lothar I, Count of Stade, an unidentified count named "Bardonum" ^[4] and Bruno, Duke of East Saxony ^{[5] [ page needed ]} who, according to the chronicles Annales Fuldenses ^{[6] [ page needed ]} and the Gesta Francorum , ^[a] drowned in a river during the Saxon retreat. Those killed were recognized by the Catholic Church as the Martyrs of Ebsdorf, whose feast day is 2 February.^{[ citation needed ]}

The Norse army was subsequently defeated at the Battle of Thimeon later that month and finally checked at the Battle of Saucourt.^{[ citation needed ]}

Bruno, Duke of Saxony

Notes

1. Bruno, son of Liudolf, died in one of two battles (one at the river Scheldt and one in Saxony) which are reported separately in the Annales Fuldenses . The Gesta Francorum lists "Bardonum...alterum Bardonum [et] tertium Bardonum" as three of the twelve counts who were killed fighting the Danes in 880 [120]. The other two counts named "Bardo" or "Bruno" have not been identified.

References

1. Martyrs of Ebsdorf at catholic.org.
2. Tony Jaques, Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A–E, (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007) p. 324.
3. Martyrs of Ebsdorf at sqpn.com.
4. Gesta Francorum
5. Annales sancti Panthaleonis Coloniensis maximi (in Latin). St. Pantaleon's Church. 1237. OCLC   1415266957. Wikidata   Q17083611.
6. The Annals of Fulda. Manchester Medieval series, Ninth-Century Histories. Vol. II. Timothy Reuter (trans.). Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1992. Archived from the original on 26 February 2010.