Battle of Pleichfeld, in 1086, was the last major battle of the

Great Saxon Revolt The Great Saxon Revolt was a civil war fought between 1077 and 1088, early in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. The revolt was led by a group of opportunistic German princes who elected as their figurehead the duke of Swabia, Rudolf of Rh ...

(1077–1088), a nobles' rebellion against the emperor Henry IV in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

. The battle was a victory for the rebel forces.Nikola Gažević, Vojna enciklopedija (knjiga 6), Vojnoizdavački zavod, Beograd (1973), p.699

Prelude

In their rebellion against the central imperial authority, Herman of Luxembourg and Duke Welf I of Bavaria laid siege to the imperial city of

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...

in summer of 1086. In an effort to destroy the center of rebellion and to maintain the unity of the empire, emperor Henry IV attempted to lift the siege.

Battle

Imperial army, numbering about 20,000 (according to unverifiable contemporary accounts), was largely composed of armed peasants and town militia, while rebel forces, numbering some 10,000, had a larger proportion of mounted knights. Armies met on 11 August 1086 at Pleichfeld, a village north of

. Rebel

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

s dismounted, and charged the enemy on foot. Loyalist army, composed mostly of untrained peasants and armed citizens, broke and fled after the first charge. Their swift defeat was attributed by chroniclers to treason amongst the emperor's own knights, who accepted a bribery and changed sides in the thick of battle.

References

{{coord missing, Bavaria Pleichfeld Pleichfeld Pleichfeld 1086 in Europe Pleichfeld Great Saxon Revolt