Battle of Recknitz

The Battle of Recknitz (German: Schlacht an der Raxa, literally "Battle on the Raxa (Recknitz) river") was fought on 16 October 955 between the forces of Otto I of Germany allied with the Rani tribe on one side, and the Obotrite federation under Nako and his brother Stoinegin^[1] with their allied and tributary Slav neighbours on the other in the region of present-day Mecklenburg. The battlefield was probably near Pantlitz in Ribnitz-Damgarten. The German victory over the Slavs followed up on the August victory at the Lechfeld over the Magyars and marked the high point of Otto's reign. A thirty-year peace followed, only ending with the Slavic revolt in 983 pushed by Emperor Otto's II defeat at the Battle of Stilo.

Background

While King Otto was distracted by his campaigns against the Magyars, his contemptuous vassals Wichmann the Younger and his brother Egbert the One-Eyed instigated a Slav revolt in the Billung March. The Obotrites invaded Saxony and sacked Cocarescemier, killing the men of arms-bearing age and carrying off the women and children into slavery. According to Widukind of Corvey, in the aftermath of Lechfeld, Otto pressed hard into Slav territory, where Wichmann and Egbert had sought refuge. Otto razed the Slav population centres and soon had encircled them; he offered to spare his enemies if they would surrender. A Slav embassy came to an assembly Otto held in Saxony and offered to pay annual tribute in return for being allowed self-government; "otherwise," they said, they would "fight for their liberty."^[2] Reuter argues that this is indicative of a change in German governing practice: a change from overlordship, which the Slavs were willing to accept, to lordship, which the Slavs protested.

Battle

The army of the day was drawn from every regnum (duchy) of the German kingdom, even Bohemia.^[3] Otto's German army included approximately 7,000 Saxon cavalry and 1,000 Frisian infantry. Stoinegin's Slavic force had 8,000 infantry and 1,000 light cavalry. During the battle, Stoinegin was chased into a wood, run down and killed by a soldier named Hosed, who was handsomely rewarded after presenting Otto with the Slav's severed head.^[4]

Results

Approximately 1,100 Saxons lay dead and 2,000 wounded on the field. The Slav side lost 4,500 dead and 2,000 wounded. After the battle, Stoinegin's head was raised on a pole and hundreds of captured Slavs were executed before sundown.^[5] Stoinegin's counsellors also had their tongues cut out.

Sources

• Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. New York: Longman, 1991.
• Thompson, James Westfall. Feudal Germany. 2 vol. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1928.
• Leyser, Karl. "Henry I and the Beginnings of the Saxon Empire." The English Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 326. (Jan., 1968), pp 1–32.

Notes