city had been invested for some six weeks, Liudolf and the citizens obtained a truce, pending a settlement to be arranged at a diet to be held at Fritzlar. Liudolf made a last attempt to rally his cause in Swabia; failing in this, he sought and gained his father's forgiveness. But neither he nor Conrad recovered their dukedoms. As a result of the civil war there were many new appointments to be made. For this purpose a diet was held at Arnstadt on 7 December. The dukedom of Swabia was given to Burchard, probably the son of the old Duke of Swabia of that name and so a first cousin to Queen Adelaide. Lorraine had already been granted to the king's brother Bruno, who in the previous year had succeeded Archbishop Wikfried in the metropolitan see of Cologne. The see of Mayence was also vacant, since the turbulent Archbishop Frederick had died a few weeks before the meeting of the diet. His place was filled by William, Otto's natural son. Bavaria held out until the spring; but Henry was victorious over Herold, the rebellious Archbishop of Salzburg, and the burghers of Ratisbon, again reduced to the extremities of famine, submitted themselves to Otto. So by the end of the spring of 955 Otto was able to return in peace to his native Saxony.
The Hungarians, encouraged by their successful raid of the previous year, made another inroad early in the year 955. It was checked, and Otto received in Saxony what purported to be an Hungarian embassy; in fact its intention was nothing more nor less than to spy out the land, and immediately afterwards Duke Henry sent word that the barbarians had crossed the frontier. Their main body was encamped on the banks of the Lech near Augsburg. The city was defended by its Bishop St Ulric, whose contemporary biographer speaks of the desperate straits to which he was reduced; the city walls were dilapidated and unprovided with towers; it seemed impossible to withstand an assault from an enemy whose numbers are said to have amounted to one hundred thousand horsemen. Yet one the bishop, arrayed in his pontifical robes, sallied forth, himself unarmed, into the ranks of the enemy and threw them into confusion. On the following day, the feast of St Lawrence (10 August), as the bishop quietly awaited the inevitable counter-attack, he heard the welcome news of Otto's approach. When the news of the invasion reached him Otto had hurried southward with a small band of Saxons. On his march, other troops collected and he reached the neighbourhood of Augsburg with a vast army drawn from all parts of Germany. The host was formed up in eight divisions: three from Bavaria, two from Swabia, and one each from Saxony, Lorraine and Bohemia. The battle was fought in the Lechfeld to the south of the city on the left bank of the river[1].
- ↑ The exact site on which the battle was fought is much disputed. Schäfer in the Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin), XXVII. 1905, opposed the old view asserted by Bresslau in Historische Zeitschrift, 1897, Der Ort der Ungarnschlacht, that the battle was fought in the Lechfeld south of the city on the left bank of the river, and supposes the place to have been on the left bank but north-west of
