The Battle of Lechfeld and Its Aftermath, August 955: The End of the Age of Migrations in the Latin West

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Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006 - 223 pages
In August 955, a battle took place that effectively ended the incursions of steppe nomads into Western Europe. The forces of Otto the Great annihilated a huge army of Hungarian mounted archers in an encounter that is generally known as the battle of Lechfeld, a broad plain near Augsburg in southern Germany. Since even after a defeat, these elusive warriors surely could have fled back to the Carpathian Basin to rebuild their strength and resume their raids, the total annihilation of the Hungarian army is mysterious. This book provides the first satisfactory explanation for the decisive nature of Otto's victory. Based on a detailed analysis of all contemporary, and often contradictory, sources, Bowlus provides a step-by-step reconstruction of the battle. This is preceded by chapters analysing the administrative and military reforms in tenth-century Germany, and the strengths and weaknesses of nomadic styles of warfare, in particular their archery, and setting out the historical context in which the battle occurred. factors, not only the limits they imposed on the expansion of the nomadic way of life into Europe, but also the impact the local environment had on the outcome of the battle.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Hungarian warfare
19
The reforms of Henry I in Saxony
45
Hungarians and the Latin West
73
The way to the Lechfeld
97
The way from the Lechfeld
131
Hungarian Defeat Ottonian Victory
163
Two battles according to Liudprand of Cremona
181
Index
215
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Page 198 - Das .Großmährische Reich' - Realität oder Fiktion? Eine Neuinterpretation der Quellen zur Geschichte des mittleren Donauraumes im 9. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart 1995 (Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters, Bd.

About the author (2006)

Charles R. Bowlus is professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA.

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