The Battle of Droizy (

593 __NOTOC__ Year 593 ( DXCIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 593 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...

CE), fought outside of

Soissons Soissons () is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France. Located on the river Aisne, about northeast of Paris, it is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital o ...

, was an action in the ongoing rivalry between the two

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

queens,

Brunhilda of Austrasia Brunhilda (c. 543–613) was queen consort of Austrasia, part of Francia, by marriage to the Merovingian king Sigebert I of Austrasia, and regent for her son, grandson and great-grandson. In her long and complicated career she ruled the eastern ...

and

Fredegund Fredegund or Fredegunda (Latin: ''Fredegundis''; French: ''Frédégonde''; died 8 December 597) was the Queen consort of Chilperic I, the Merovingian Frankish king of Soissons. Fredegund served as regent during the minority of her son Chlot ...

. In the battle, Fredegund deploys her inferior forces against Brunhilda using Roman military tactics: she chooses the field of battle; and she uses subterfuge. Outnumbered, Fredegund bade her men to carry tree branches to camouflage each other, and to fasten bells to their horses so the opponent would think they were their own grazing horses. Fredegund's forces prevailed, and Brunhilda's army was slaughtered. The battle is the earliest documentation of 'moving woods' going to battle, which possibly inspired both

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's '' Macbeth'' and the Ent race of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT: Merovingian dynasty Medieval France 593 6th century in Europe Battles