Battle of Andernach (876)

The First Battle of Andernach between the West Frankish king Charles II the Bald and the East Frankish King Ludwig III. the younger ones on October 8, 876 southeast of Andernach on the Rhine near Kettig place and ended with a crushing defeat of Charles the Bald.

Prehistory

Ludwig III. was a son of the East Frankish king Louis II the German. In the division of the kingdom among his sons in 865, he was awarded the largest part of the Reich. It consisted of the East Frankish Francia (Franconia), Saxony and Thuringia. By the Treaty of Mersen 870 nor was added the eastern Lotharingia. King Charles II the Bald, King of the West Frankish kingdom, previously tried to take the whole of Lotharingia and could only be under military pressure reluctantly to the Treaty. After the death of Louis the German 876 he first tried again to reach a negotiated his goal to extend the West Frankish kingdom eastwards to the Rhine. To this end, Charles the Bald met with the King of the Eastern Empire, his nephew Ludwig III. In Sinzig on the Rhine. But he failed to Louis rejection.

Battle

Charles II now demanded by Ludwig III. the surrender of the left bank of the Rhine and began their military conquest. It came to the battle of Andernach, which was received later than the First Battle of Andernach in history. On October 8, 876 Louis III suggested. the West Frankish king Charles II the Bald, his uncle, crushing at the level at Andernach near Kettig and thus ended all attempts at expansion of Charles II to Lorraine and the Rhine. This means that the membership of Andernach and the Rhineland was secured to the Eastern Empire, from which later developed into the Holy Roman Empire. The border ran hardly changed until the late Middle Ages. 877 Charles the Bald died on the flight to Italy in Avrieux, Savoy, almost to the day exactly one year after the battle. 880 it came with the grandsons of Charles the Bald, Louis III. of France and Charles Mann to the Treaty of Ribemont, by Ludwig III. the Younger, the domination was over western Lotharingia. Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt estuary now belonged to the Eastern Empire, Metz, Sedan, Strasbourg, Toul, Verdun and Cambrai and Antwerp, today cities in France and Belgium, were the East Frankish.