Unconquered Louis Rejoiced In Iron": Military History In East Francia Under King Louis The German (C. 825-876)"

Abstract

This project is a comprehensive military history of East Francia during the reign of King Louis the German (c. 825-876). It interrogates annals and chronicle sources, royal and ecclesiastical charters, Carolingian capitularies, and papal letters to study all aspects of Louis’s military machine. These include grand strategy, military organization, tactics, training, leadership, morale, and logistics. The work fills a notable lacuna in scholarship between the heavily studied militaries of Charlemagne and the Ottonian period. Louis was not a military innovator. Rather, he looked to his Carolingian predecessors for examples in nearly every aspect of military policy and strategy. His main intent was defensio patriae, which he achieved successfully through a system of what modern scholars would classify as defense in depth and the doctrine of overwhelming force. Both of these essential strategies can be traced readily to the reign of Charlemagne, when offensive warfare aimed at territorial conquest largely gave way to more defensive strategies. Contrary to much of the prevailing ninth century scholarship, the central East Frankish administration did not suffer as a result of the perceived consolidation of power in the hands of local magnates. Rather, Louis proved capable of putting very large armies—often several at once—into the field simultaneously. He fielded well-supplied troops from all across his substantial realm and was able to project effective military force into various theaters. He led his armies on well-organized campaigns to the west of his kingdom, against his Carolingian father, brothers, and nephews, and he defended the long eastern frontier against various Slavic peoples, most prominently the Moravians, whom he subsumed to the Carolingian state through a system of tributary relationships. Louis’s military systems, deliberately modeled upon those established by the early Carolingians and Charlemagne, ensured that East Francia remained intact throughout the course of his reign. The institutions by which he fielded effective armies survived after Louis’s death, during the notable void in royal power in the late ninth and early tenth centuries, to be utilized in recognizable form by the early Ottonian kings.