Criminal History, 185
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Killing ‘with God’s help’ and being defeated without it
For almost two decades, tribute payments by Charles the Bald had limited the attacks of the invaders. From 878-879, however, the raids increased again. At the time, the English king Alfred ‘the Great’, who supported the church with donations, monastery foundations and money sent annually to Rome, later known as ‘St Peter’s pence’, had at least halted the constant Viking attacks for the time being by reforming the army, establishing bases, castles and large ships. However, under pressure from the Anglo-Saxons, a new wave of Normans, the ‘Great Army’, swept across the sea from Britain and devastated the Morin city of Therouanne ‘with fire and sword, finding no resistance. And when they saw how well they had succeeded in the beginning, they ravaged the whole country of the Menapians with fire and sword. Then they invaded the Scheldt and destroyed all of Brabant with fire and sword.’ The rich monastery of St Omer was also burnt to the ground. The East Franconian king Louis III the Younger, the victor of Andernach, drove them out; indeed, he killed many ‘with God’s help’ (Annales Bertiniani), ‘by God’s hand the greater part’ (Reginonis chronica), ‘more than 5000’ (Annales Fuldenses). But Hugh, an illegitimate son of the king, also perished—otherwise ‘he would have won a marvellous victory over them’ (Annales Vedastini).
However, they were far too seldom chased away ‘and killed’, as the Fulda Yearbooks so beautifully put it in Christian terms, ‘by God forgiving them what they had earned’. In fact, on 2 February 880 near Hamburg, the Normans annihilated the army under Duke Bruno of Saxony. He, the queen’s brother, fell, as did Bishop Theoderic of Minden, Bishop Markward of Hildesheim, eleven counts, eighteen royal satellites, and all their men.
At the end of the year 880, a group of Normans, who advanced up the Rhine as far as the region of Xanten, burned down the magnificent palace built by Charlemagne in Nijmegen. On 28 December, the Northmen burnt the monastery of St. Vaast in Arras, burnt the town and all the farms in the area, killed, expelled, crossed the country as far as the Somme, dragged away people, cattle and horses, destroyed Cambrai, devastated all the monasteries on the Hisscar, all the monasteries and towns by the sea, raided Amiens, Corbie, reappeared in Arras ‘and killed everyone they found; and after ravaging all the surrounding country with fire and sword, they returned unharmed to their camp’ (Annales Vedastini). On 3 August 881, however, the young West Franconian Louis III (the eldest son of the stammerer from his first marriage to Ansgard) defeated the robbers at Saucourt-en-Vimeu (near Abbeville) at the mouth of the river Sommers, and an Old High German song of praise, the Ludwigslied, made him ‘immortal’. Written in the Rhine-Franconian dialect, it is the first free German rhyming poem and the oldest surviving historical song in our literature.
Of course, the unknown, presumably spiritual pen-hero blurs the story, overhyping everything in Christian terms. There heidine man fights godes holdon, the Franks, the lord’s chosen fighters. They battle with Kyrieleison [Medieval Latin: alternative form of Kyrie eleison or 'Lord, have mercy'—Ed.]
, Louis himself as the Lord’s representative, full of godes strength, noble love of enemies and, of course, mercy. ‘Suman thuruhskluog her, Suman thruhstah her’ (some he smashed in half, some he stabbed through). Yes, he who trusts God, he who lashes out bravely… He is said to have ‘killed 9000 horsemen’ (Annales Fuldenses). ‘Uuolar abur Hluduig, Kuning unser sälig!’ (Hail to thee, Louis, our blessed king!)
But now ‘the heathen’ under their princes Gottfried and Siegfried came to the defence. With a fleet and a land army reinforced by cavalry, they advanced far into the East Franconian kingdom, ravaging not only Maastricht, Tongern and Liège but also Cologne and Bonn ‘with churches and buildings’ (Annales Fuldenses) as well as the fortresses of Zülpich, Jülich and Neuss. In Aachen, they turned St Mary’s Church, the burial place of Charlemagne, into a stable and set fire to the magnificent palace. They also set fire to the monasteries of Inden (Cornelimünster), Stablo, Malmedy and Prüm. They mowed down the rising rural population ‘like stupid cattle’ (Regino von Prüm) and the streams of refugees poured into Mainz.