page_title: Battle of Fontenoy (841)
section_title: Angilbert's account
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Fontenoy (841) / Angilbert's account
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Fontenoy, Obelisk zum Gedenken an die Schlacht von Fontenoy (841) Français&#160;: Obélisque érigé au XIXe siècle, rappelant la Bataille de Fontenoy-en-Puisaye le 25 juin 841 entre les petits-fils de Charlemagne&#160;: Louis le Germanique et Charles le Chauve contre Lothaire.
context_page_description: The three-year Carolingian Civil War culminated in the decisive Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye, also called the Battle of Fontenoy, fought at Fontenoy, near Auxerre, on 25 June 841. The war was the contention over the territorial inheritances —the division of the unified lands of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire among his grandsons, the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious. Despite provisions by Louis the Pious, war broke out between his sons and nephews. The battle, although known to have been large in scale, was not well documented, therefore only modern estimates on the size of armies and number of casualties exist; the records on the battle are scant and many historical sources are believed to have been destroyed after the war.
  Defeat at Fontenoy has been described as a major one for the allied forces of Lothair I of Italy and Pepin II of Aquitaine and a victory for Charles the Bald and Louis the German. While hostilities continued for another two years into 843, the Treaty of Verdun ending the war shaped and influences history in Europe even to this late modern date.
context_section_description: Verses by Angilbert, who fought the battle on the side of Lothar are cited by historian Eleanor Shipley Duckett as the "Most striking of all these Latin records of the battle".
  The verses in English are...
  Fontenoy they call its fountain, manor to the peasant known,
  
  There the slaughter, there the ruin, of the blood of Frankish race;
  
  Plains and forest shiver, shudder; horror wakes the silent marsh.
  
  Neither dew nor shower nor rainfall yields its freshness to that field,
  
  Where they fell, the strong men fighting, shrewdest in the battle's skill,
  
  Father, mother, sister, brother, friends, the dead with tears have wept.
  
  And this deed of crime accomplished, which I here in verse have told,
  
  Angibert myself I witnessed, fighting with the other men,
  
  I alone of all remaining, in the battle's foremost line.
  
  On the side alike of Louis, on the side of Charles alike,
  
  Lies the field in white enshrouded, in the vestments of the dead,
  
  As it lies when birds in autumn settle white off the shore.
  
  Woe unto that day of mourning! Never in the round of years
  
  Be it numbered in men's annals! Be it banished from all mind,
  
  Never gleam of sun shine on it, never dawn its dusk awake.
  
  Night it was, a night most bitter, harder than we could endure,
  
  When they fell, the brave men fighting, shrewdest in the battle's skill,
  
  Father, mother, sister, brother, friends, the dead with tears have wept.
  
  Now the wailing, the lamenting, now no longer will I tell;
  
  Each, so far as in him lieth, let him stay his weeping now;
  
  On their souls may He have mercy, let us pray the Lord of all.
caption: Obelisk commemorating the Battle of Fontenoy.
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