The Battle of Wels (10/12Widukind of Corvey; Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach (eds.), ''Deeds of the Saxons'' (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2014), p. 91. August 943) was fought between a joint Bavarian– Carantanian army and a Hungarian force near

Wels Wels (; Central Bavarian: ''Wös'') is a city in Upper Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is the county seat of Wels-Land, and with a population of approximately 60,000, the List of cities and towns in Austria, eighth largest city in Aus ...

in the Traungau, on the plain of the Welser Heide, nowadays a part of Austria.

Background

The battle took place at the height of the

Hungarian invasions of Europe The Hungarian invasions of Europe (, ) occurred in the 9th and 10th centuries, during the period of transition in the history of Europe of the Early Middle Ages, when the territory of the former Carolingian Empire was threatened by invasion by th ...

. The Bavarians and Carantanians were victorious under the command of the Bavarian leader

Berthold Berthold may refer to: * Berthold (name), a Germanic given name and surname * Berthold Type Foundry, former German type foundry * Berthold, North Dakota, a place in the United States See also * Berthod, a surname * Berchtold Berchtold (also Bert ...

. The victory is mentioned widely in contemporary histories, in

Widukind of Corvey Widukind of Corvey (c. 925after 973; , in italian ''Vitichindo Sacco di Corvey'', in Latin VVITICHINDI SAXO) was a medieval Saxon chronicler. His three-volume '' Res gestae Saxonicae sive annalium libri tres'' is an important chronicle of 10th-cen ...

's ''Deeds of the Saxons'', in

Hermann of Reichenau Blessed Hermann of Reichenau or Herman the Cripple (18 July 1013– 24 September 1054), also known by other names, was an 11th-century Benedictine monk and scholar. He composed works on history, music theory, mathematics, and astronomy, a ...

's ''Chronicon'' and by

Adalbert of Weissenburg Adalbert of Magdeburg (c. 91020 June 981), sometimes incorrectly shortened to "Albert", known as the Apostle of the Slavs, was the first Archbishop of Magdeburg (from 968) and a successful missionary to the Polabian Slavs to the east of what was ...

in his continuation of the ''Chronicon'' of

Regino of Prüm Regino of Prüm or of Prum (, ; died 915 AD) was a Benedictine Order, Benedictine monk, who served as abbot of Prüm Abbey, Prüm (892–99) and later of St. Maximin's Abbey, Trier, Saint Martin's at Trier, and chronicler, whose ''Chronicon'' is ...

. It is also mentioned in the '' Annals of Saint Gall'', the '' Annals of Salzburg'' and the ''

Annals of Magdeburg Annals (, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between annals and histor ...

'', and in the necrology of Freising Cathedral.Charles R. Bowlus, ''The Battle of Lechfeld and its Aftermath, August 955: The End of the Age of Migrations in the Latin West'' (Ashgate, 2006), p. 145. The cause of the battle may have originated with the Bavarians, since under the previous duke,

Eberhard Eberhard is an old Germanic name meaning the strength or courage of a wild boar. People First name *Eberhard of Friuli (815–866), Duke and key figure in the Carolingian Empire *Eberhard of Béthune (died 1212), Flemish grammarian *Eberhard I, Du ...

, they had been on good relations with the Hungarians and poor relations with the

king of Germany This is a list of monarchs who ruled over East Francia, and the Kingdom of Germany (), from Treaty of Verdun, the division of the Francia, Frankish Empire in 843 and Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in ...

. Berthold, who was the brother of Eberhard's father, Duke

Arnulf Arnulf is a masculine German given name. It is composed of the Germanic elements ''arn'' "eagle" and ''ulf'' "wolf". The ''-ulf, -olf'' suffix was an extremely frequent element in Germanic onomastics and from an early time was perceived as a mere ...

, is said by Widukind to have been "administering" Bavaria on behalf of King

Otto I Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), known as Otto the Great ( ) or Otto of Saxony ( ), was East Francia, East Frankish (Kingdom of Germany, German) king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the eldest son o ...

after Eberhard's banishment in 938. The change in government in Bavaria may have precipitated the war. As recently as 937, Arnulf had allowed the Hungarians to pass peacefully through Bavaria to raid parts further west. Under Arnulf, Berthold had been duke of a region south of the Alps and attached to Bavaria, the old region of

Carantania Carantania, also known as Carentania (, , in Old Slavic '), was a Slavic principality that emerged in the second half of the 7th century, in the territory of present-day southern Austria and north-eastern Slovenia. Since the middle of the ...

, the future

Duchy of Carinthia The Duchy of Carinthia (; ; ) was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchies. Car ...

. After 938, the Bavarians and Carantanians were thus united under a single ruler,Bowlus (2006), p. 87. a factor Adalbert may have seen as critical to their success in 943.

Battle

While the sources do not provide details on the battle itself, the historian Charles Bowlus has suggested that the Hungarians may have been surprised by the Bavarians and Carantanians while returning from pasturing their horses on the steppe-like grasslands of the Welser Heide. There was a crossing of the

Enns river The Enns () is a southern tributary of the river Danube in Austria, joining northward at the city of Enns. It forms much of the border between the states of Lower Austria and Upper Austria. The Enns spans , in a flat-J-shape. It flows from its sou ...

at Ennsburg. At the time, Welser Heide lay on the Bavarian side of the border with Hungary, which was the Enns. Wels lies on the

Traun Traun () is an Austrian municipality located on the north bank of the Traun (river), river Traun and borders Linz, the capital of Upper Austria, to the east. The name ''Traun'' is derived from the Celtic word for river (). Traun is the fifth la ...

, and the site of the battle may have been a no-man's-land between the Enns and the Traun. It was essentially a border action and not deep within Bavaria, which the Hungarians had penetrated many times before.Karl J. Leyser, "The Battle at the Lech, 955: A Study in Tenth-Century Warfare", ''History'' 50 (1965), pp. 1–25, at 7.

Herwig Wolfram Herwig Wolfram (born 14 February 1934) is an Austrian historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Vienna and the former Director of the . He is a leading member of the Vienna Schoo ...

, on the other hand, believes that they were defeated at the outset of a new expedition before they had gotten much further than their own frontier.Herwig Wolfram, "Bavaria in the Tenth and Early Eleventh Centuries", in Timothy Reuter (ed.), ''The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, c. 900 – c. 1024'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 293–309, at 303–04. According to Widukind, Berthold was "renowned for this celebrated triumph". Adalbert, who identifies the place of the battle as Wels but places it in the year 944, states that the Hungarians were defeated "as they had never been defeated by our men before". The ''Annals of Salzburg'' add that "only a few Hungarians escaped", while those of Saint Gall that "their entire army was wiped out". These comments suggest that the victory of 943 was superior to that of King

Henry I Henry I or Henri I may refer to: :''In chronological order'' * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry ...

at the

Battle of Riade The Battle of Riade or Battle of Merseburg was fought between the troops of East Francia under King Henry the Fowler, Henry I and the Principality of Hungary, Magyars at an unidentified location in northern Thuringia along the river Unstrut on ...

(933) ten years earlier, although it would be superseded by Otto's victory at the Lechfeld in 955.

References

{{coord missing, Hungary 943 10th century in East Francia 10th century in Hungary Duchy of Bavaria

Wels 943 Battles involving the Holy Roman Empire Battles involving Bavaria Battles involving East Francia