Battle of Fontenoy (841) - Angilbert's Account

Angilbert's Account

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."