Battle of Pressburg 907 AD - Hungarian Invasion of Europe

 

After ruling East Francia for 13 years, King Arnulf died

 and was succeeded by his six year old son, Louis the Child.

 Advisors of the young king, led by his regent Hatto I, decided against renewing the weak alliance with the Hungarians, negotiated by the prior king.

 Consequently, in 900 AD the Hungarians swiftly occupied Pannonia,

 which ignited a war that would last for the next ten years… Following the conquest of Pannonia, Hungarian armies moved north, bringing most of Great Moravia under their control, with a belt of tributary states further expanding their sphere of influence.

 This interrupted Bavaria’s trade routes towards Northern and Eastern Europe, causing a severe economic blow which instilled a belief with the Frankish authorities that a campaign against the Hungarians was necessary.

 At this time, Luitpold, the Magrave of Bavaria, a loyal supporter of the Carolingian monarchs Arnulf and his son Louis, was entrusted with the important position of defending the eastern border.

 Unable to reconcile the loss of Pannonia, Moravia, and Bohemia on his watch, Luitpold began assembling a large Bavarian army.

 His resolve to start a campaign was strengthened after a couple of minor victories by his forces during the last series of Hungarian raids, as well as his successful plot to assassinate Kurszán, one of the dual rulers of the confederation of Hungarian tribes, by extending an invitation to negotiate a peace treaty and then killing him, along with his entourage, once they showed up at the meeting.

 Furthermore… rumours came from the east that the other dual ruler Arpad, believed to be the founder of the Hungarian nation, by now a man in his 60’s, had also died.

 If true, the tribal confederation would’ve been weakened by the loss of both of their leaders.

 This series of events convinced Luitpold that the Hungarians would not be able to defeat his forces in battle, and that the time was right to expel them from the lands that formerly belonged to Bavaria.

 But the Hungarians were in fact gathering intelligence on the activities of the Bavarian army for some time, and were well aware of the impending attack.

 The size of the Hungarian army is unknown, but it is possible to conclude from contemporary sources that, while the military strength of each tribe varied, when faced with a foreign attack all eight tribes could muster up to 20,000 troops to fight the enemy.

 It is possible that Arpad, along with  another commander, led the Hungarian army.

 If so, the name of the other commander is sadly lost to time.

 There is also no record about the size of the Bavarian army, but it is known that they had almost a 3:1 numerical advantage, with somewhere between 50 and 60,000 troops in their ranks.

 The army was divided into three parts.

 Luitpold commanded the main force along the northern bank of the Danube, while the host of Dietmar I, Archbishop of Salzburg, went along the southern bank, with each of the two wings more numerous than the entire Hungarian army.

 A fleet of ships with auxiliary forces on-board followed the two commanders to ensure steady communication between the two contingents, as well as transport of food and troops across the river in case of an attack.

 But as they marched east, the Bavarians were met with nothing but desolation.

 The Hungarians evacuated the towns and countryside, ordering the locals to bring all of their livestock with them and take as much food as they could carry.

 Anything left behind was destroyed, denying the enemy anything useful.

 But the ghostly silence was broken by the thundering hooves of Hungarian riders.

 Small groups of lightly armored horse archers attacked Bavarian lines of communication, killing the messengers of the two army groups and harassing the troops.

 This put Luitpold’s men under continuous pressure, forcing him to keep his troops in a persistent state of combat readiness, which caused fatigue and demoralisation.

 Elements of the Bavarian heavy cavalry repeatedly tried to chase after the quick lightly armored horse archers, with no success.

 The constant harassment slowed Luitpold’s marching columns down to a crawl, often forcing them to stop and defend themselves against an enemy that would come out of nowhere and then disappear as quickly as they came.

 So effective were the Hungarian riders that it took the Bavarian army 18 days to cover 246km from Ennsburg to Pressburg, an average of 14km per day.

 Most of the attacks were focused on Luitpold’s main body of the army, which slowed their advance even further.

 With their communications severely impacted by Hungarian attacks, Dietmar’s force on the southern bank eventually advanced some 12 hours ahead of the northern contingent, having faced much less resistance.

 On the 4th of July Dietmar stopped near the town of Pressburg to rest the men and re-establish contact with Luitpold… The clear morning offered a spectacular view over the Danube river, as it cut through the seemingly endless plain to the east.

 With the enemy nowhere in sight, Dietmar and his officers were busy with day-to-day routines and trying to locate Luitpold, while the troops were setting up the camp.

 Then, out of nowhere, spectres of horsemen seemingly rose from the ground… The Hungarian attack had begun!

 From behind the slopes of the undulating land and the river beds, came thousands of riders.

 Using the terrain to their advantage, they were hiding in plain sight, deploying their troops close to the Bavarians, without them ever noticing.

 Swooping in, they unleashed showers of arrows on the archbishop’s troops.

 Sensing that this was the main Hungarian force, Dietmar advanced forward to challenge them.

 He was confident that his 20,000 troops would make light work of some 7,000 horsemen enemy that they faced.

 The Bavarian heavy cavalry led the charge!

 But the Hungarians kept galloping past the Bavarian line,

 evading and shooting arrows at their pursuers.

 The riders would confuse the enemy by employing sudden attacks, before disappearing out of sight into the dips of the plain.

 In the center, several contingents of Hungarian riders

 were caught in a skirmish with the Bavarian heavy cavalry.

 Elsewhere along the line, Dietmar and his officers pressed forward in confusion, not knowing which Hungarian attack would be decisive, and which was just a bluff, while their infantry grew increasing tired under relentless Hungarian misleading attacks.

 But then, the Bavarian heavy cavalry broke through the enemy line.

 Waves of Hungarian lightly armored horsemen could not stop the onslaught of Dietmar’s  cavalry.

 Buckling under pressure, the Hungarians began fleeing.

 This was the moment to strike!

 Determined not to let the nimble riders sneak away this time,

 Dietmar urged his men on to finish off the enemy.

 His troops, though tired, surged forward, sensing that the tide of the battle had turned.

 Some of the Hungarian contingents would sporadically clash and shoot at the enemy from a distance, but the majority of them were retreating, their horses seemingly exhausted.

 Bavarian troops threw caution to the wind as they chased after the fleeing Hungarians.

 Their formations loosened and any semblance of command was lost, as individual contingents of infantry simply followed the mob.

 But… hiding in the woods to the east and west, some 13,000 riders waited for the Bavarians to come closer…

 Then, the fleeing Hungarian riders turned about to face the incoming Bavarians!

 The trap was set!

 Swarms of horse archers leapt forward from their hiding places onto the unsuspecting enemy.

 The Bavarian front line clashed with the Hungarian vanguard.

 Unable to hold off the attack, the lightly armored horsemen immediately gave ground, as they tried to

 slow down the enemy charge and lure more of Dietmar’s troops into charging forward.

 But what most in the Bavarian army failed to realize

 was that they were about to be encircled.

 Through perfect coordination and execution of complex maneuvers,

 the Hungarians outwitted the numerically superior Bavarian army.

 Unable to escape, Dietmar’s men fought where they stood.

 Exhausted and with their fighting spirit gone, they stood no chance.

 Over the next several hours, the entire Bavarian host of 20,000 troops was systematically annihilated, including the entire leadership, along with Dietmar himself.

 While the fields south of Pressburg were stained red with the blood of Bavarian soldiers, some 10km north-west, Luitpold was unaware of what had happened.

 He too was trying to locate Dietmar and as his host was settling in for the night, he was contemplating sending the fleet downstream in the morning, to search for the southern contingent.

 Little did he know that the attack was already coming…

 On the night of July 5th, Luitpold retired to his tent, confident that Hungarians would not dare attack his much superior force.

 Yet, just a few hours earlier, his entire southern contingent was wiped out.

 And now, in the darkness, Hungarian horsemen were crossing the Danube, heading for the main Bavarian camp.

 By using goat, sheep, and possibly cattle skin, they tied it up to form something similar to huge bota bags, filled with air and tied to the sides of their horses.

 This enabled the warriors and their horses to float, as they steered their way across the mighty Danube river.

 With only palisade towers manned by guards,

 Luitpold didn’t post scouting towers further from the camp to warn against possible attacks.

 This shows just how confident he was that the Hungarians would not dare to attack.

 And, just as most of the Bavarian army was sound asleep, a storm of flaming arrows and projectiles was unleashed on the camp!

 The attack took Luitpold’s troops completely by surprise.

 In a matter of minutes thousands lay dead, some struck down in their sleep.

 Uncontrollable panic gripped the Bavarians.

 The fortified camp was completely encircled, preventing Luitpold’s men from escaping or forming their battle formations.

 Those who managed to break out of the camp were soon caught and killed.

 The attack on the now defenceless Luitpold’s army continued throughout the night, until the last of his men fell to the relentless rain of arrows…

 The false sense of security had cost the northern Bavarian contingent dearly, but for the Hungarians

 the job was not done.

 On the next day the horsemen arrayed along the two riverbanks, unleashing volleys of flaming arrows onto the hapless Bavarian ships.

 In those days, the width of the Danube near Pressburg was between 180 and 300 meters, and the Hungarian arrows had no trouble reaching the ships from at least one or even both riverbanks.

 Those who didn’t perish on the ships, either drowned in the strong Danube currents or reached the shore, where they were killed by the waiting Hungarians.

 After three days of battle, the Bavarian army suffered an almost incredible number of casualties, with almost all of the troops and their commanders killed.

 The Swabian Annals wrote: “Unexpected war of the Bavarians with the Hungarians.

 "Duke Luitpold and his people’s superstitious haughtiness was crushed."

 "Just a few Christians escaped."

 "The majority of the bishops and counts were killed”.

 Immediately following the battle, the Hungarians launched a punitive expedition, plundering and burning countless towns, churches, and monasteries across Bavaria, taking tens of thousands of captives, men, women, and children, and selling them into slavery.

 As a final act of humiliation, the Bavarian capital was sacked and burned.

 The complete victory

 in the battle of Pressburg shifted the balance of power from East Francia to Hungary.

 It strengthened the position of the Hungarian Grand Duchy,

 pushing its’ borders west to the river Enns, saving its’ people from the ultimate objective of the East Francian Kingdom: to annihilate or expel all Hungarians from the Pannonian plain and the Carpathian basin, thereby creating the possibility for an independent Hungarian state.

 More than a hundred years would pass,

 before a Western army would dare enter Hungarian territory again...