The Western Chaos, Part Two: The Death of a King
Childebert and Clotaire marched north to face the Saxon’s, who were rapidly approaching Colonia Agrippina. The Frankish Kings took with them a retinue of roughly 15,000 each, making their armies in total being 30,000 or so in number. After several years of hard campaigning and fighting, most of the infantry of this force were not trained to any degree. The cavalry was somewhat better, being the bread and butter of the Frankish armies. When the Franks reached Colonia Agrippina, they were joined by some 2,500 other soldiers from the garrison there before they marched to confront the Saxons, who themselves were roughly a day or so to the north by this point.
The Saxons, under the command of a war-chieftain named Adelmar, numbered around 28,000. Most of the members of this war band were fairly experienced in the intertribal conflicts that ravaged their homeland. The Saxons were entirely infantrymen, lacking the supporting cavalry of the Frankish troops. The Saxon troops were mostly armed with spears, javelins, and their namesake seax. The Saxon’s were hoping to catch the Franks off guard, and their scouts were surprised when they were apprised of the Frankish counter advance. Adelmar, instead of retreating, decided that he was going to stand against the Franks. This battle would pit traditional Germanic tactics against the more modern tactics of the Franks.
The day of battle dawned with both sides drawing up their lines around mid-morning. Both sides occupied a forest, with a clearing between them; neither side wanted to be the first to move into the clearing, for that would expose them to direct missile fire from the other side. The Franks had little to worry from that, however- the Saxons, aside from a few younger members deemed too inexperienced to participate in the shield wall, were not armed with bows, instead, most of them possessed javelins with a max range of 50 feet. The Franks had a more significant number of missile weapons, with a contingent of their army armed exclusively with bows. The Saxons organized themselves into a shield wall, with their more experienced warriors towards the front. The Franks, on the other hand, organized themselves into a main infantry line, with cavalry on the flanks.
The Saxons were the first to enter the clearing, doing so with their shields up and prepared. The advance was slow, as they were erring on the side of caution. The Franks in the meantime prepared to fire their arrows at them at the Saxon shield wall, but found the going much more difficult than they expected. When the arrows began to fly out at the Saxons from the forest, they stopped and gathered together with their shields raised. Some fell; but most of the arrows simply stuck into the shields of the Saxons without connecting with flesh. The Franks tried a few more volleys of arrows, but it soon became clear that the Saxon barbarians would not melt and flee under their weight of their superior archery.
While the Frankish Kings discussed their next move, the Saxons halted their advance and began to catcall and taunt the Franks in the woods. Few, if any, of the Franks present spoke Saxon, so the character of the insults didn’t really affect them. What did, however, was the harsh sound of the enemies language- Frankish had already adopted several characteristics of Latin, and many of the peasant levies present on the field were Gallo-Roman ethnically. The barbaric Saxon tongue, bellowed out by these bearded, wild men made many within the Frankish lines shake in their boots and send some quick but fearful prayers to the Blessed Virgin and Her Son. The Frankish Kings moved up to quiet the fears of their men, but they realized that they would have to act soon in order to keep their levies from losing their effectiveness out of fear.
The Frankish Kings decided to use another advantage that they had over the Saxons- cavalry. The Frankish King Clotaire, the more warlike and cunning of the two brothers, endeavored to lead a charge against the Saxon left, not trusting his brother to the task (remembering his mistake that cost the Franks, at least in Clotaire’s mind, victory at Carcasum). Rallying his cavalry to him, Clotaire rode out in the front of them with trumpets blaring and banners waving, preparing to cleave through the Saxon lines.
He rode directly into a javelin. The Saxons, upon spotting the Frankish cavalry line approach, were struck with fear and shock- but not enough to prevent them from action. One raider, in a knee-jerk reaction, raised his javelin and hurled it at the first rider he saw- who turned out to be the King himself. Clotaire took the javelin straight in the abdomen; he fell off of his horse and was trampled by his men as they surged around him. It is unsure if the javelin killed him, or the hooves of his charging cavalry.
The Frankish horsemen collided heavily with the Saxon shieldwall, the death of their King happening so quickly that many probably didn’t even realize he was dead. At first forced back by the sheer weight of the charge, the Saxons pressed back, pushing against horseflesh with shield and spear. The cavalry and the shieldwall contended with each other for a while, with the horsemen making no real gains beyond their initial contact. Slowly, however, it dawned on the Franks that they were not receiving orders from their King- panic began to spread as they looked through the melee and didn’t find their ruler. The cavalry began to peel off after this, Clotaire’s retinue at first, raising up the cry that the King was dead.
This was the nail in the coffin for the Frankish infantry line. Several of the levies that had been called up from that particular Frankish Kingdom dropped their spears and ran back towards Colona Agrippina. Childebert did his best to return them to the field, but he was soon hard pressed as the Saxon shieldwall pushed forward against the disordered Frankish line. Some pockets of the Franks put up good resistance, but the Saxons rolled over them in relatively short order due to the difference in troop morale and training. The Franks were routed, at a relatively low cost for the Saxons. Within a few months, Colonia Agrippina would be in Saxon hands- and the Franks would be forever forced off of the East Bank of the Rhine.
More immediate worries spread through the Frankish camp, however. Clotaire had three sons- Gunthar, Childeric, and Charibert. Under Frankish law, the realm would now be divided between these three. This was to prove a problem- Charibert, who had been the negotiator at Carcasum, was present in the theater fighting against the pressing numbers of Alamans, Thuringians, and Saxons, while the other two were back at home. Charibert would be forced to withdraw in order to meet with his brothers to determine which portion of the Kingdom went to who, resulting in a loss of numbers for the Franks holding the line.
This would prove cataclysmic for the Franks; but it would prove a boon to the barbarians…