Battle of Eisenach (908)

Battle of Eisenach
Part of the Hungarian invasions of Europe
Date 3 August, 908 Location Eisenach, Thuringia Result Crushing Hungarian victory
Belligerents
East Francia	Principality of Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Burchard, Duke of Thuringia † Egino, Duke of Thuringia † Rudolf I, Bishop of Würzburg †	Unknown
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Heavy together with all the commanders	Unknown (probably light)

The Battle of Eisenach in 908, was a crushing victory by a Hungarian army over a German army composed of troops from Franconia, Saxony and Thuringia.

Gesta Regum Francorum excerpta, ex originali ampliata.

This battle is a part of the Hungarian - German war which started in 900, after the Hungarian conquest of Pannonia (Transdanubia), and lasted until 910, the battles of Augsburg and Rednitz, both ending in disastrous German defeats, which forced the German king Louis the Child, and the German duchies to accept the territorial losses, and pay tribute to the Hungarians.

After the Battle of Pressburg ended with a catastrophical defeat of the attacking East Francian armies led by Luitpold prince of Bavaria, the Hungarians following the nomadic warfare philosophy: destroy your enemy completeley or force him to subdue to you, first forced Arnulf prince of Bavaria to pay them tribute, and let their armies to cross the lands of the duchy for attacking other German and Christian territories, than started long range campaigns against the other East Francian duchies. The first of these was the attack of one Hungarian army to Thuringia and Saxony. Howewer this was not the first attack of the Hungarians in Saxonia, because two years earlier two Hungarian armies devastated one after another the duchy, being asked to come by the Slavic tribe of Dalamanci, which lived near Meissen, which were threatened by the Saxons attacks and plunderings. In their campaign of 908, the Hungarians used again the Dalamancian territory to attack Thuringia and Saxonia, coming from Bohemia or Silesia, where Slavic tribes lived, like they did in 906. The Thuringian and Saxonian forces, under the lead of Burchard, Duke of Thuringia met the Hungarians on the battlefield at Eisenach. The number of the forces are unknown, and the leader of the Hungarian forces neither, although it is possible that it was the same commander who led the Hungarians to great victories in the battles of Pressburg in 907, Augsburg and Rednitz in 910, because the categorical outcome of those battles (annihilation of the enemy forces together with their leaders).

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