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King of Kings - by Lewis Lavoie
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| Wikipedia: Henry I the Fowler was the duke of Saxony from 912 and king of the Germans from 919 until his death. First of the Ottonian Dynasty of German kings and emperors, he is generally considered to be the founder and first king of the medieval German state, known until then as East Francia. An avid hunter, he obtained the epithet "the Fowler" because he was allegedly fixing his birding nets when messengers arrived to inform him that he was to be king. Henry was an able military leader. In 924 Henry paid a tribute to the Magyars (Hungarians), who had repeatedly raided Germany, and thereby secured a ten-year truce so that he could fortify towns and train a new elite cavalry force. During the truce with the Magyars, Henry conquered the Havelli and the Daleminzi in 928 and put down a rebellion in Bohemia in 929. When the Magyars began raiding again, he led an army of all German tribes to victory at the battle of Riade in 933 near the river Unstrut, stopping their advance into Germany. He also pacified territories to the north, where the Danes had harried the Frisians by sea. The monk and historian Widukind of Corvey in his Res gestae Saxonicae reports that the Danes were subjects of Henry the Fowler. Henry incorporated into his kingdom territories held by the Wends, who together with the Danes had attacked Germany, and also conquered Schleswig in 934. |
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