Battle of Mellrichstadt

The Battle of Mellrichstadt took place on Tuesday, August 7, 1078, on the Grafenberg between Mellrichstadt and Oberstreu in Lower Franconia at the foot of the Rhön place and was the first military confrontation in the conflict between King Henry IV and the anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden. Rudolf's side emerged victorious from the battle.

Prehistory

In February 1076, Pope Gregory VII had pronounced excommunication on King Henry IV, followed on the assembly of princes to Trebur in October the conclusion that Henry was deposed, if he does not solve this spell within a year. The Walk to Canossa in January 1077 brought the desired result, but did not stop her from Henry's opponents, on 15 March Rudolf of Rheinfelden to choose king and let him on March 26, anoint too. In June, Heinrich took his opponent with the imperial ban and began to pull against him to battle.

The course of the battle

Both King Henry IV as well as anti-king Rudolf studied the strategic initiative and clashed on the border of Thuringia francs Mellrichstadt when Henry tried to prevent the junction of Saxon and Swabian armies.

On both sides fought with great bravery pure armies of knights, but without a guide. The battle took place in massive single combats with the result that any party is a part of the army was victorious and some fled from the battlefield. Among those who fled, were both Rudolf, who retired to Saxony, and Henry, followed by Otto II of Northeim, fled to Würzburg. The losses, in particular Henry side were high, the chronicler Berthold of Reichenau reported there of five thousand lesser and thirty nobler, including Diepoldsberg II of Vohburg, Margrave of the Bavarian Nordgau, Heinrich Graf von Lech Gemuend, Poppo I. Graf von Henneberg and Eberhard the Bearded, a royal council. On the side, according to Rudolf Berthold only eighty Lower and with Werner von Steußlingen, Archbishop of Magdeburg, a nobleman were complaining. The latter fled from the battlefield and was apparently murdered by looters.

Ultimately alleged Count Palatine Friedrich von Sommerschenburg who fought for Rudolf, with his knights the battlefield and so won a strategically useless victory.

The other events

Henry IV turned his army soon after, Schwaben, the ancestral land of Rudolph. There he is said to All Saints' Day, November 1, 1078 have destroyed the churches and devastated several hundred cemeteries.

On January 27, 1080 Heinrich and Rudolf met at the Battle of Flarchheim a second time on October 15, 1080 at the Battle of Hohenmolsen a third time to each other; these meetings were in favor of Rudolph, who, however, in the final battle drew upon such severe injuries that he died of them.

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