The Battle of Püchen was fought in the summer of 919, between a Hungarian raiding army and the newly elected East Francian/German king Henry the Fowler, and ended with a Hungarian victory. This battle was a part of a long range Magyar raiding campaign, which lasted between the summer of 919 and the late winter or early spring of 920, and took part in countries like East Francia, West Francia, Burgundy and the Kingdom of Italy, resulting in victorious battles against the German king Henry the Fowler and the Burgundian king Rudolf II, while the West Francian and Lotharingian king Charles the Simple had no courage to face them.
Sources The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg has the only account of this battle.Thietmari Merseburgensis Episcopi Chronicon, Die Chronik des Bischofs Thietmar von Merseburg und ihre Korveier Überarbeitung herausg. von Robert Holtzmann. Berlin Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1935, p. 21-22 In addition other chronicles account the Hungarian campaign against Saxony: Antapodosis, seu rerum per Europam gestarum, written by Liutprand of Cremona,Antapodosis of Liutprand of Cremona. In Györffy György: A magyarok elődeiről és a honfoglalásról; Osiris Kiadó, Budapest, 2002 p. 217-218 Annales Corbeienses, etc.
Background After the defeat of Pressburg in 907, resulting in the death of his father Luitpold, and of a big part of the Bavarian elite, the new duke of Bavaria, Arnulf, tried to shape a modus vivendi with the Hungarians, which consisted in paying a tribute to them,Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. New York: Longman, 1991., p. 129-130 letting their armies cross his lands when they went to attack other countries, and using their help to defeat his enemies. When in 914, he was chased away by the East Francian king Conrad I from his throne, he with his family retreated to Hungary, and, after an unsuccessful attempt in 916, he regained his duchy with Magyar's help in 917. This occurred while the Hungarians, continuing their campaign towards West, occupied and burned Basel, a city which was, several months before, captured by Conrad I from the supporters of Arnulf and his ally, Burchard II, Duke of Swabia.Bóna István 2000 p. 38 Conrad was an enemy of the Hungarians, trying to oppose them, and was really angered by the alliance between his stepson (he was married with Arnulf's mother, Kunigunde) and the Hungarians, and by the fact, that he, instead of stopping them on his borders, he let them to cross unharmed, every time when they started a campaign to West. So, this was one of the causes of the hostility between the king and the duke. After Arnulf came back with his family, and took back his throne, Conrad again attacked Bavaria, but was defeated and wounded by Arnulf in a battle, and died on 23 December 918. With the death of Conrad I, Arnulf, helped by Burchard II, Duke of Swabia, hoped that he could be elected as East Francian king, but as a final revenge, the king, on his death-bed, designated Henry, the duke of Saxony as new king; a choice which was confirmed also by the assembly of Fritzlar, in May 919 by the nobles from Saxonia and Franconia.Reuter, Timothy, 1991 p. 136-137
Prelude Historians agree that the Hungarian campaign of 919-920 started from Arnulf's thirst for revenge, because Henry the Fowler was elected as German king and not him.Vajay Szabolcs, Der Eintritt des ungarischen Staemmebundes in die Europaeische Geschichte (862-933) Ungarisches Institut München. V. Hase & Koehler Verlag. Mainz, 1968, p. 61 Liutprand of Cremona writes that the cause of the campaign was to force the new king to pay tribute, and the most persuasive instrument to convince him, was an army. Liutprand refers to the fact that Conrad I paid a tribute to the Hungarians (however, this information was not strengthened by other contemporary sources), and the Hungarians wanted this tribute to continue during Henry's reign too.Antapodosis of Liutprand of Cremona. In Györffy György, 2002 p. 217 Hungarian translation from the original Latin: "Ugyanebben az időben, amikor a magyarok meghallották Konrád király halálát és Henrik trónutódlását, egymás között ilyen beszélgetésbe kezdtek: "Az új király talán új szokásokat akar bevezetni. Tehát nem kis csapatot gyűjtve szálljunk lóra, és vizsgáljuk meg, vajon Henrik király hajlandó-e a nekünk járó adót megfizetni. Mert ha nem különbözik a többi királytól -mint hisszük-, akkor öldöklés és mérhetetlen tűzvész pusztítja el országát"." English translation from the Hungarian: In the same time, when the Hungarians heard about the death of king Conrad and the succession to the throne of Henrik, they started to talk among themselves: "Maybe the new king wants to introduce new customs. So lets gather a big army, get on horseback, and test if king Henry is willing to pay us the tribute, which is due to us. Because if he is not different from the other kings -as we believe-, his country will be destroyed by massacre and immeasurable fire. Besides, the same chroniclers account about the payment of tribute from Bavarians, Swabians, Francians and Saxons refers to this period, which starts from 910.Györffy György 2002 p. 214 From Antapodosis of Liutprand of Cremona. Hungarian translation from the original Latin: "A magyaroknak teljesült ugyan az óhajuk, de aljas természetüket mégsem elégítette ki a keresztények ily mérhetetlen legyilkolása, hanem, hogy álnokságuk dühét jóllakassák, keresztülszáguldoznak a bajorok, svábok, frankok és szászok országán, mindent felperzselve. Nem is akadt senki, aki megjelenésüket máshol, mint a nagy fáradtsággal, vagy a természettől fogva megerősített helyeken bevárta volna. A nép itt jó néhány éven keresztül adófizetőjük lett" English translation from the Hungarian: Although the Hungarians fulfilled their wish, their mean nature was not satisfied by the so immeasurable slaughtering of the Christians, but in order to satisfy the anger of their perfidy, they galloped along through the county of the Bavarians, Swabians, Francians and Saxons, burning everything. Indeed, nobody remained who could wait until they arrived, in other place than the places fortified with great effort or by nature. The people who lived here paid them tribute many years from now on This is why the Hungarians wanted to know, if the tribute received by them from the German duchies will continue or not? Because they were afraid that a strong king could change this situation, uniting against them the forces of the duchies.
Henry fought even before 919 with the Hungarians. For example, in 915, when he was just duke, they attacked Saxony, Henry or one of his commanders having been vanquished by them at Eresburg, and during the same campaign they burned the city of Bremen.Baják lászló: A fejedelmek kora. A korai magyar történet időrendi vázlata. II. rész. 900-1000 ("The Era of the Princes. The chronological sketch of the early Hungarian history. II. part. 900-1000"); ÓMT, Budapest, 2000 p. 14
Battle In Saxony, Henry's army faced the Hungarians at Püchen. Unfortunately, we do not have a detailed account of the battle from the Chronicon of Thietmar (the only contemporary source which mentions the battle), which reports only that King Henry wanted to stop them at Püchen, but was defeated and barely saved his life by fleeing to the above-mentioned city.
However, a secondary source can enlighten us about some aspects of the battle. Liutprand of Cremona, when he describes the Battle of Riade fought in 933 in which the same King Henry defeated the Hungarians, writes down the speech which the king delivered to his soldiers before the battle. Henry instructed his cavalry to attack the Hungarians in a single unbroken line, holding their shields to ward off the arrows of the enemy, and then to charge them without breaking ranks. Thus the Hungarian archers would be prevented from nocking their arrows and shooting again, and the lightly armored Magyars would not be able to withstand the charge of the German heavy cavalry.Györffy György 2002 p. 218 From Antapodosis of Liutprand of Cremona. Hungarian translation from the original Latin: "Amikor elkezditek a harcot, senki ne próbálja előzni bajtársát, még ha gyorsabb is a lova, hanem egyik oldalról pajzsoktól védve, a pajzsokon fogjátok fel az első nyíllövéseket, azután sebes vágtatással és leghevesebb lendülettel rohanjatok rájuk, hogy másodszor ne tudják kilőni rátok nyilaikat, mindaddig, amíg nem érzik a fegyvereitek által ütött sebeket.". English translation from the Hungarian: When you start the fight, nobody should go before his brother in arms, even if his horse is faster, but from one side protected by your shields, ward off their first arrows with your shields, than with fast galloping and with the fiercest verve attack them, [preventing them] to shoot their arrows the second time, until they feel the wounds caused by your weapons. For this reason, Henry advised his heavy cavalry to attack in unbroken lines the Hungarians at their first attack, driving them from the battlefield without letting them regroup and attack again. This early attack of the Germans, unusual in their warfare, prevented the heavy losses provoked by the Hungarian arrows in a long fight, which also prevented the dissolution of their battle order, while the light armored enemy had no chance of success against their advancing wall of shields and spears of the heavy cavalry. This shows that in 933, Henry the Fowler had deep knowledge about the nomadic war tactics of the Hungarians, based on disrupting the enemies' battle order, then "covering" the tangled enemy lines with their arrows, which without their battle order suffered heavy losses. He could acquire this knowledge only from the battles he fought against the Hungarians. According to the sources, the last battle which he fought against them was the battle of Riade. It is very likely that he used his experience gained from the tactics of the Hungarians seen in this battle, and based on this, he found an effective solution for countering these tactics. The solution used thus by King Henry reflect the tactics used by the Hungarians in the battle of Püchen.
Based on this secondary source, we can conclude that in the Battle of Püchen, the Hungarians used their most known war tactic: The Hungarian army had units which attacked and shot from distance at the German lines, which defended themselves using their shields. At one moment the attacking Hungarian units feigned retreat, luring the Germans after them into a place where the main Hungarian forces waited, encircling the now disintegrated German battle lines, which because of this, could not be controlled anymore. After launching storms of arrows upon them from all directions, the Hungarians at last finished the job in close combat with their swords and lances.