Battle of Lechfeld

Over three days in August 955, on the floodplain of the river Lech near Augsburg in southern Germany, King Otto I of Germany defeated a large Hungarian raiding army. The fighting on 10 August was hard and close to a draw, but in the following two days Otto's forces hunted down the retreating Hungarians and captured their leaders. The victory ended decades of Hungarian raids into western Europe and greatly strengthened Otto, who was crowned emperor seven years later.

For almost a century the Hungarians, or Magyars, had been feared across Europe for their mounted raids, typically sweeping through German lands and escaping home by a long loop through Lotharingia, France and Italy. Otto had his own troubles: in 953 his son Liudolf and son-in-law Conrad, Duke of Lorraine, rebelled against him, and in 954 the rebels called in the Hungarians, who plundered the Rhineland. Otto spent the first half of 955 putting down rebels in Bavaria, but in early summer news arrived that the Hungarians had invaded Bavaria in force.

The Hungarians, perhaps 8,000 to 10,000 strong and mostly mounted archers, ravaged the country between the Lech and the Iller and then besieged Augsburg, a border town of Swabia defended by its bishop, Ulrich. On 8 August they attacked the eastern gate, but Ulrich led his soldiers out and drove them back; the Hungarians lost a commander in the fighting. The next day, as they prepared a full assault with siege engines, they learned that Otto's army was close, and broke off the siege to face it.

According to the chronicler Widukind of Corvey, Otto led eight divisions, or legions: three from Bavaria, two from Swabia, one of Franconians under Conrad, now reconciled with the king, one from Bohemia, and a larger royal legion of Saxons, Thuringians and the king's guard. Historians estimate the total at perhaps 7,000 to 9,000 men, most of them heavily armoured horsemen. To cut off the usual escape routes, Otto ordered his brother Bruno to hold the Lotharingian forces in the west.

On 10 August the German army advanced towards Augsburg through woodland. A Hungarian detachment crossed the river and fell on the rear of the column, routing the Bohemians and badly mauling the two Swabian legions. When the raiders stopped to plunder the baggage, Conrad's cavalry counter-attacked and scattered them. Otto then led his army against the main Hungarian force. Widukind's account of this phase is brief, but the Germans appear to have forced close combat, where their armour and weapons gave them the advantage. The Hungarians withdrew across the Lech in good order. Otto, whose own losses were heavy, did not pursue far and spent the night in Augsburg. Conrad was among the dead, killed by an arrow in the throat after loosening his armour in the heat.

On 11 August Otto ordered all river crossings to be held. Heavy rain and flooding slowed the retreating Hungarians, and German troops operating from fortifications built under Otto's father, Henry I, killed most of them over the next two days. The Hungarian leaders Bulcsú, Lél and Súr were captured and hanged, and other prisoners were reportedly sent home mutilated.

The Hungarians never again raided the west. Their ruler Fajsz was replaced by Taksony, and the shift towards a settled life helped lay the foundations of the Kingdom of Hungary. After the battle Otto's troops acclaimed him emperor, and in 962 Pope John XII crowned him in Rome as emperor of what became known as the Holy Roman Empire. His prestige earned him the name Otto the Great. The battle is often seen as a symbolic triumph of armoured western cavalry over the light horsemen of the steppe.

Our 900 map shows East Francia, the future German kingdom, with the Magyars to the east, and the 1000 map shows the Holy Roman Empire that Otto founded beside the Hungarian lands.