Battle_of_Saucourt-en-Vimeu

Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu

Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu

881 battle during the Viking invasions of West Francia

The Battle of Saucourt was part of the Viking invasions of West Francia and occurred between forces of Vikings and the troops of Kings of West Francia, Louis III of France and his brother Carloman II, on 3 August 881 at Saucourt-en-Vimeu.[1]

Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu, as depicted by Jean-Joseph Dassy

Background

Following the Battle of Thimeon near Charleroi where the Vikings were defeated by Louis the Younger, King of East Francia, they resumed their raids on the West Frankish kingdom. After taking Kortrijk in November 880, they raided Arras and Cambrai in December.[2] Later in 881, they sacked Amiens and Corbie.

Battle

Louis and Carloman were victorious, in what must have been a rare pitched battle, against the northern raiders in which some 9,000 Vikings were slain according to the Annals of Fulda.[3] The battle is celebrated in the Old High German poem Ludwigslied.[4]

Despite winning the battle, Louis was unable to take advantage of this victory since he would die in an accident in 882.[3] The battle of Saucourt did nothing to stop Viking raids, who switched to raiding Lotharingia.[3]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    McKitterick 1999, p. 235.
  2. [2]
    Verhulst 1999, p. 59.
  3. [3]
    Gillmor 2010, p. 224.
  4. [4]
    Augustana 1992.

Sources

  • Augustana (1992). "bibliotheca Augustana". Hs-augsburg.de. Retrieved 2012-11-27.
  • Gillmor, C.M. (2010). "Saucourt, Battle of". In Rogers, Clifford J. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Oxford University Press. pp. 223–224.
  • McKitterick, Rosamond (1999). The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians. Pearson Education Limited.
  • Verhulst, Adriaan (1999). The Rise of Cities in North-West Europe. Cambridge University Press.

50.1042°N 1.6158°E / 50.1042; 1.6158


Stub icon

This article about a battle in French history is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Battle_of_Saucourt-en-Vimeu, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.