One on one combat appears as a solution to wider bloodshed in a number of places. As per Gregory of Tours we know that the Vandal champion fought the Suevi-Alemann champion and lost (the Vandals then left Spain, as per the story). In the Slavic area there was the duel at Agrimeswidil between Burwid and a Slav champion as reported by Adam of Bremen.
But there was another (or was it?) duel of the champions – this one between a Saxon Christian and a Slav heathen. And this time the advantage was the Slav’s. The story is told by Wipo of Burgundy (circa 995 – circa 1048) in his “The Deeds of Conrad II” (Gesta Chuonradi II). The champion’s duel takes place in the broader context of the Empire’s war against the Lutizi in 1035 or so. As Wipo observes, the Slavic champion prevailed because, notwithstanding being a pagan, “truth” was on his side. (As in his book, he also discusses Piasts and other Slavs, we will return to Wipo later).
Henry
note: King (at the beginning of the story, actually Duke of Bavaria) Henry is Henry III or Henry the Black or the Pious who was emperor in the years 1046 – 1056. Conrad II was his father and was emperor from 1027 to 1039. After his death, Henry ruled as king and then, startin in 1046, as emperor.
Chapter 33
How King Henry Subdued the Slavs
Quod rex Heinricus Sclavos subiugavit
(about 1033 or 1035)
“In the meantime, while the Emperor [Conrad II] was in Burgundy, engaged in the matters in the matters discussed above, his son King Henry [the future Henry III], though still in his childhood years, oversaw matters of state in Bohemia and other Slavic countries; and he subjugated strenuously Udalrich the duke of Bohemia and many others who had resisted many emperors; and he returned to meet his father, the double victory bringing double joy to the people.”
(Interea, dum haec quae superius dicta sunt imperator in Burgundia faceret, filius suus Heinricus rex, licet in puerilibus annis, non segnius rei publicae consuluit in Bohemia et in caeteris regionibus Sclavorum; ubi et Uodalricum ducem Bohemiae et reliquos quam plures caesari adversantes strenue subiugavit, et redeunti patri occurrens, de duplici victoria duplex gaudium populis effecerat.)
“Then he assembled Saxon troops against those who are called Liutizi who were once almost Christian but now through the wickedness of apostasy are all pagans [but] the emperor came and miraculously stopped the conflict. At that time there were many conflicts and incursions between the Saxons and the pagans. When the emperor came he began to inquire as to when the peace that had been inviolate for so long [among them] had been destroyed. The pagans claimed that it was the Saxons that first breached the peace and that, if the emperor were to permit it, they would show it in a trial by combat. And so too the Saxons (though their claim was unjust) to refute the pagans likewise accepted single combat in front of the emperor. The emperor consulted their leaders and, acting incautiously, permitted this trial by duel. At once two fighters met, each chosen by his own [men]. A Christian supported by faith alone (but without any good works is dead, to be honest, for he has not seriously considered that God, who is the truth, decides all in the true court, he, who lets his sun rise over the good and the evil, who lets it rain over the just and the unjust) began the combat bravely. The heathen, though, who had before his eyes only the consciousness of truth for which he fought, resisted strongly. At the end the Christian was wounded by the heathen and fell.
The Slavic champion came better prepared that day
(Deinde collectis copiis de Saxonia, super eos qui Liutizi vocantur, quique olim semicristiani, nunc per apostaticam nequitiam omnino sunt pagani, imperator venit, ibique conflictum implacabilem mirabiliter diremit. Inter Saxones enim et paganos fiebant ea tempestate multae dissensiones et incursiones. Cumque caesar veniret, coepit quaerere, ex qua parte pax, quae diu inviolata inter eos fuerat, prius corrumperetur. Dicebant pagani, a Saxonibus pacem primitus confundi, idque per duellum, si caesar praeciperet, probari. Econtra Saxones ad refellendos paganos similiter singulare certamen, quamvis iniuste contenderent, imperatori spondebant. Imperator, consulentibus principibus suis, licet non satis caute ageret, hanc rem duello diiudicari inter eos permisit. Statim duo pugiles congressi sunt, uterque a suis electus. Christianus in sola fide, quae sine operibus iustitiae mortua est, confidens, et non diligenter attendens, quod Deus, qui veritas est, omnia in vero iudicio disponint, qui solem suum oriri super bonos et malos facit, qui pluit super iustos et iniustos, audacter pugnare coepit. Paganus autem solam conscientiam veritatis, pro qua dimicabat, prae oculis habens, acriter resistebat. Postremo christianus a pagano vulneratus cecidit.)
Confirmation of same events from the Chronicon Suevicum Universale
“As a result of this the pagans became so haughty and audacious that, had the Emperor not been there, they would have immediately attacked the Christians; but the Emperor built the castle Wirbin in order to prevent their incursions and he garrisoned the same and he obligated the leaders of Saxony to unanimously resist the heathens [both] through an oath and the imperial command. Then he returned to Francia.”
(Ex qua re pagani in tantam elationem et audaciam venerunt, ut, nisi imperator adesset, continuo irruerent super christianos; sed imperator ad compescendas incursiones eorum construxit castrum Wirbinam, in quo praesidia militum locabat, et principies Saxoniae, ut unanimiter resisterent paganis, sacramento et imperiali iussione constringebat. Deinde reversus est in Franciam.)
“But in the following year, that castle was taken by the heathens through trickery and a great part of our men [garrisoned there] were killed. Angered by this, the Emperor returned with an army to the Elbe River. But since the pagans were defending the passage, the Emperor had a part of his army cross the river at a different ford. And after the enemies were forced to flee, he invaded the country from the now freed up river bank and humbled them so greatly, by [causing] immense destruction and devastation everywhere, with the exception of those places that were impregnable, that from then on they paid the Emperor Konrad the tribute imposed on them by the prior emperors and even more.”
(Sequenti vero anno idem castrum a paganis dolo captum est, et plures nostrorum qui in eo erant ab eis occisi sunt. Hinc commotus imperator, iterum cum copiis usque Albim fluvium venit. Sed cum pagani transitum prohiberent, imperator per aliud vadum fluvii partem exercitus latenter transmisit; et ita fugatis hostibus, ipse per ripam liberam regionem ingrediens, immensis devastationibus et incendiis ubique, nisi in locis inexpugnabilibus, sic humiliavit eos, ut censum ab antiquis imperatoribus propositum et iam auctum Chuonrado imperatori postea persolverent.)
Conrad on the throne
“The Emperor Conrad struggled much [both] before and at that time with the peoples of the Slavs; about which one of ours had created a kind of summary [breviarium] which he later presented to the Emperor. There, one reads, how the Emperor, from time to time, stood up to his waste in these swamps, where he himself fought and urged his warriors onwards, and how he, after his victory over the heathens, and on account of their unspeakable superstition, massacred the same [heathens] terribly.”
(Multum enim laboravit Chuonradus imperator prius et tunc in gente Sclavorum; unde quidam de nostris quoddam breviarium versifice fecit, quod postea imperatori praesentavit. Ibi legitur, qualiter imperator interdum in paludibus usque gemora stabat, pugnans ipse et exhortans milites ut pugnarent, et victis paganis nimis acriter tucidabat eos pro quadam superstitione illorum nefandissima.)
“For it is told that the heathens had, at one time, lampooned a wooden crucifix of our Lord Jesus Christ in unspeakable ways, for they spat on it and hit it with a fist; eventually, they ripped out his eyes and ripped off his hands and feet. In order to punish this, the Emperor had a great deal of the captured heathens, just for this one figure of Christ, mutilated in similar ways and in killed in various ways. It is for this reason that the Emperor is called in this poem the Avenger of the Faith and compared with the Roman Emperors Titus and Vespasian, who in order to avenge the Lord [!], exchanged thirty Jews for one gold piece, just as the Jews exchanged the Lord for just as many coins. The Emperor returned [to Francia] and, to the extent he found any, he dispersed all the remaining obstacles in the Empire with his imperial might. In the same year Adalbert, the duke of the Carinthians, who fell out of favor with the Emperor, lost his duchy and was banished ”
(Nam fertur, ut quodam tempore efficiem ligneam crucifixi domini nostri Iesu Christi scelerato ludibrio habuissent pagani, et in eam spuerent atque colaphis caederent; ad extremum oculos eruebant, manus et pedes truncabant. Haec ulciscens imperator, de captis paganis maximam multitudinem pro una effigie Christi simili modo truncavit et varia morte delevit. Idcirco in eisdem versibus caesar ultor fidei vocatur, et Romanis principibus Tito et Vespasiano comparatur, qui in ultionem Domini triginta Iudaeos pro uno nummo commutaverant, cum Iudaei Christum pro totidem denariis vendiderint. Reversus imperator, quicquid obstaculi in regno invenit, imperiose disiecit. Eodem anno Adalbero dux Carantanorum imperatoris gratiam perdens, ducatum amisit et in exilium misss est.)
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