Battle of Jengland – wikipedia

The jengly’s battle (also called Jengland-besil , Besle , O Fourth ) took place on 22 August 851, between the Franco di Carlo’s army the Calvo and the Breton army of Erispoë, Duke of Brittany. The Bretons obtained the victory and in September 851 they signed the Angers treaty ensuring Breton independence.

In 845 Nominoë, Duke of Britain, had defeated Carlo the bald in the battle of Ballon. After a truce, in 849 nominoë resumed his offensive against the Franks. He tried to establish full personal control over his Duchy and to extend his territory. In 851, the francs left in the previous year to Rennes and Nantes capitulated for Nominoë, who raided east, devastating the attic. Nominoë then decided to advance to Chartres, but suddenly died near Vendôme. His successor, his son Erispoë, took the command of the Breton force and continued his offensive in the alliance with Lamberto II of Nantes, a renegade Franco dirty from Carlo the Calvo. Faced with the threat, Carlo sought the support of his brother Ludovico the Germanic and obtained a contingent of Sassoni to increase the size of his army. He headed to face Erispoë, who retired again to the borders of Brittany. Both leaders probably led small armies, with Charles under the command of about 4,000 troops and Erispoë of about 1,000.

In August 851, Carlo had moved away from Maine to enter Britain from the Roman road that goes from Nantes to Corseul. The king had organized his troops in two lines: in the back there were the francs; In front were Sassoni mercenaries, whose role was to stop the assault of the Breton cavalry, known for his mobility and tenacity.

In the initial phase, an assault with the javelin had forced the Sassons to withdraw behind the line of francs defended by armor. The francs had been taken by surprise. Rather than engaged in a fray, the Bretons had harassed the francs, heavily armed, from a certain distance, in a similar way to the tactics of the parts, but with javelin rather than with archers. Furious, fake and sudden retreats alternate, bringing out the francs and surrounding the troops.

Two days after this type of combat, the francs had lost men and horses that had been mounted at catastrophic levels, while the Bretons had suffered few victims. With his disintegration force, Carlo had decided to retire from the field overnight. When, the following morning, they had noticed his disappearance, the panic had reached the Franchi soldiers. The Bretons had quickly raided the field, taking the booty and weapons and killing the greatest number of fugitives they could.

The battle had redefined the relationship between Franks and Bretons. Carlo the Calvo had agreed to meet Erispoë in Angers, on the outskirts of the extensive territory of Brittany. In September 851 Erispoë was subjected to Charles as an emperor, while in return he received the title of king.

According to the Annals of Saint-Bertin, “Erispoë, son of Nominoë by Charles, had been presented in the city of Angers and had received a gift in the symbol of the monarchy that had come from his father, also adding Rennais, Nantais and Pays de Retz. ”

From the Treaty, Erispoë remained in principle subject to Charles Il Calvo, but now he could also identify himself in the role of Carlo, able to use the title of ” rex “Carlo had recognized the authority of the Breton rulers on the areas around Rennes, Nantes and Pays de Retz, who previously formed the French” Breton Mars “, a border area. Erispoë, at the same time, had absorbed a population Not Breton of Gallo-Roman language and Franco-Roman peoples.

Angers’s Treaty had delimited the boundaries of the medieval duchy of Brittany and the subsequent French province of Brittany. He had also marked a turning point in the relationships between the western and late francs, the Breton dukes had been able to further extend their territory, but had not been able to keep them for a long time. Angers’s Treaty had defined the limits of historic Brittany. The peace created by the regularization of Franco-Bretoni relationships had also given Bretons the stability to reject future Viking attacks.

1. Smith, Julia M. H. Province and Empire: Brittany and the Carolingians . Cambridge University Press: 1992.
2. Guy Halsall, Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West , Routledge, 2003. P. 101.
3. Annals of Saint-Bertin quoted in History of Brittany . Tome 1, From megaliths to cathedrals , collective, Skol Vreizh editions.