What if the Magyars had won at the Lechfeld?
In 955 Otto I crushed a Magyar army near Augsburg and ended half a century of raids. What if the battle had gone the other way?
What actually happened
The Magyars settled the Carpathian Basin around 895 and for the next sixty years raided far into Europe: Italy, Bavaria, Saxony, Burgundy, even southern France and Spain. Their mounted archers were hard to catch, and in 907 they destroyed a Bavarian army near Pressburg. Henry the Fowler, Otto's father, bought a truce, fortified Saxony and beat a raiding force at Riade in 933.
In 955 a large Magyar army besieged Augsburg, defended by its bishop, Ulrich. Otto I came south with contingents from Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia and Bohemia. On 10 August, St Lawrence's day, the armies met on the Lechfeld, the plain by the river Lech. A Magyar force crossed the river and fell on the baggage train guarded by the Bohemians, who broke, but Conrad the Red led a counter-attack that restored the line, at the cost of his own life. Otto, carrying the Holy Lance, won a crushing victory.
Fleeing Magyars were hunted down for days; their leaders Bulcsú, Lél and Súr were captured and hanged at Regensburg. Raids into the west ended. Within a generation the Magyar rulers turned to Christianity, and in 1000 Stephen was crowned the first King of Hungary. Otto was crowned emperor in Rome in 962.
The turning point
The battle was nearly lost early, when the attack from behind scattered the Bohemian rearguard. Had Conrad's counter-attack failed, Otto's army would have been caught between two forces on open ground that suited horse archers.
Historians debate how much the Lechfeld alone ended the raids. Charles Bowlus has argued that the battle was more complex than the classic account, and some scholars think Magyar raiding was already becoming less profitable as the West fortified and the Magyars settled into farming. The battle certainly accelerated the change, and it gave Otto the prestige that carried him to the imperial crown.
The world that might have been
In Crown & Plough the alternative reads: on the banks of the Lech the Bohemian legion guarding the baggage broke first; arrows from behind scattered Otto's ranks and the king withdrew within the walls of Augsburg; the Eastern March and Carantania became the Magyars', and their hooves turned west for another generation. The game then removes the scripted aftermath of the Lechfeld.
Beyond the game, a defeated Otto would have been a weaker candidate for the imperial crown in 962, and the Ottonian revival of the empire might have come later or not at all. A Magyar realm reaching to the Vienna Woods would have changed the later map of Austria, which grew out of the Eastern March Otto's successors rebuilt.
In the long run the Magyars would probably still have settled down and converted, as steppe peoples who took over farmland usually did. The question is how much of Bavaria and the Alps they would have held when they did.
Ripples through time
The Lechfeld is shaped by the Treaty of Verdun: if the Frankish empire stayed united, part of its strength backs Otto and a Magyar victory becomes less likely.
Carried into the Middle Ages (1200), the Kingdom of Hungary starts larger and stronger: it holds Austria and its army is about 15% bigger.
- Shaped by What if Charlemagne's empire had not been divided at Verdun?
- Carries into the next era Middle Ages
Play this turning point
Start in the Age of Vikings and Coronations. The Currents of History story Lechfeld invites you in the 920s; ride with the Magyar horsemen to change history or join the Saxon king's side to keep it. There is no dedicated scenario.
The turning point needs both Otto's realm and the Magyars to exist in your world. The balance of power between them sets the base odds, and your raids or service tip them further.
Questions and answers
When was the Battle of Lechfeld?
On 10 August 955, near Augsburg in Bavaria.
Did the Lechfeld end the Magyar raids?
It ended their raids into western and central Europe. Raids toward Byzantium continued for a few more years, until a defeat at Arcadiopolis in 970.
Was Otto proclaimed emperor after the battle?
The chronicler Widukind of Corvey says the army acclaimed him emperor on the battlefield. His formal imperial coronation by the Pope came in Rome in 962.
Sources and further reading
Widukind of Corvey, Deeds of the Saxons; Gerhard, Life of St Ulrich. Modern accounts: Charles Bowlus, The Battle of Lechfeld and its Aftermath; Pál Engel, The Realm of St Stephen.
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