In November 885, the Viking leader Siegfred and tens of thousands of Vikings launched a siege of the city of Paris in the Frankish region of the Carolingian dynasty. This game between French warriors and Nordic warriors is a famous battle in French history - the 9th century defense of Paris. In Assassin's Creed: The House of Heroes' latest DLC, Siege of Paris, we'll recreate the battle that went down in history from the perspective of protagonist Evol. So why did the Vikings have such a deep obsession with Paris? Today we will talk about the story of this war in history.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > sin stems from gold jewelry</h1>
"Money is a good soldier, and having it makes people a hundred times more courageous." —Shakespeare
In the game, two emissaries from the Franks, Toka and Pierre, hope that our protagonist, Evol, will lead the Black Crow clan into the war between Siegfred and Charles III, in order to defeat Charles III's army before they can sword England and inflict damage on the Vikings in England.
So who was this Charles III?
Charles III, nicknamed Charles the Fat, was never very peaceful in the Carolingian dynasty, and in 876 he inherited Swabian (Almannia, in present-day southwestern Germany) from his late father Louis the German. In 879, he inherited the Kingdom of Italy from his brother (the Kingdom of Italy at that time consisted of only one area in the northern part of the Apennine Peninsula). Pope John VIII crowned him "Emperor of the Romans" (i.e., Holy Roman Emperor) in 881. Through "family inheritance" and political efforts, Charles III integrated the Charlemagne Empire, the Middle Frankish Kingdom, the West Frankish Kingdom and the East Frankish Kingdom, unifying the entire Frankish Kingdom.
Charles III
For the frank's fat meat, the Vikings who chased gold and silver jewelry had already tasted a lot. As an important city in the Franks, Paris, which accompanies the Seine River, was repeatedly ravaged by the Vikings. In 845, when the famous Viking leader of history, Ragnar Lordbroke, led a large army to plunder Paris, King Charles II of West Francia paid him 7,000 livres of "Danish gold" and made some promises to get the Vikings to withdraw and leave West Francia. Since then, the Vikings have repeatedly paid Danish gold from the weak Charles II more than a dozen times, allowing them to taste the sweetness.
In addition to Paris, many parts of northwestern Francia were plundered by the Vikings. Many Vikings labeled Ragnar Lordbroke's looting of Paris and the surrounding areas as "glory" and repeatedly praised. That's why in the game, Evol and his Viking companions repeatedly mention the "looting of Paris" in the plot.
Ragnar Lordbroke in the TV series Vikings
In November 885, after Siegfried and numerous Viking warriors had seized parts of West Francia, they headed southeast along the Seine, targeting Paris. Compared with the game "In order to protect the homeland of the Vikings in England", the legend of the plundering of Paris and the 7,000 Danish gold, as well as the rich wealth of the country's capital, may be the real purpose of these Viking warriors.
Viking longship
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > a sudden siege battle</h1>
"Siege of the city is not afraid of Qi Shenwu, And Yubi can support millions of soldiers." - "Pestle Song" [Yuan] Yang Weizhen
Unlike modern Paris, France, the city of Paris was located on the present-day Ile de la Cité, and the entire city was surrounded by the Seine. Charles II, who had previously repeatedly paid Danish gold to the Vikings, ordered the construction of two huge wooden bridges and stone-clad bridgeheads on tributaries of the Seine river around the city of Paris.
At the end of November 885, the Viking leader Siegfred and his army came to the city of Paris along the Seine after plundering other cities. Although many Vikings were eyeing Paris, their original intention was to negotiate with the defenders to safely cross the two bridges outside Paris and to plunder the cities and countryside on the upper Seine. They also promised that if it was safe to pass, the city of Paris would be protected from the fighting.
Game of Paris
Paris at that time
However, the Count of Oed and Bishop Gozelin, who were in charge of guarding Paris, refused the Vikings' request for navigation.
The Earl of Oed replied that Emperor Charles had brought Paris into their hands in order to use it as a barrier to protect the rest of Nuustria, and that if they had given most of the kingdom to the Vikings to burn and plunder in order to preserve Paris, they would have betrayed their lordship.
If the negotiations fail, they can only "force the attack". The Vikings had more than 700 ships, and tens of thousands of Viking warriors awaited battle. Legend has it that these boats filled the Seine, blocking it. Siegfred, the leader of the Vikings, after hearing the answer of the paris defenders, chose to lay siege to Paris. It has even begun to arrange manpower to manufacture various siege equipment.
Looking at the city of Paris, the number of elite soldiers and knights was only a few hundred, and although a large number of the people of the city chose to fight with the defenders, it was still a severe test to face a hundred times the number of Vikings than them.
The Vikings launched an attack on the city of Paris immediately after the negotiations, hoping to break through the bridgehead to the north. Although the bridgehead to the north was not yet completed, it still blocked the Viking attack. That night, the soldiers and civilians guarding the city built and reinforced the bunker, and successfully completed the unfinished and damaged bunker within one night. In the face of a formidable enemy, the parisian military and civilians showed extraordinary bravery and unity.
In the game, these two bridgeheads also deployed a lot of soldiers. Compared to historical bunkers, the bunkers of the city of Paris are obviously stronger in the game, but the soldiers are less resistant to fighting. Nasty cavalry are also deployed on the bridge, and for the protagonist who cannot use a knife and gun on the horse, although there are bows and arrows to shoot, it still takes a lot of effort to deal with them.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" > blood stains the banks of the Seine</h1>
"Life is like a river, but don't be too attached to the riverbank." - Vikings
Encouraged by the leader Siegfred, the Viking warriors charged forward one by one, armed with shields and baffles, dragging the siege cone under the bridgehead, hoping to smash the gate through siege weapons. The Frankish soldiers who held the bridgehead used a mixture of ignited oil and asphalt to pour on the Viking warriors under the bunker, and many people were burned on the spot by the hot mixture, resulting in the casualties of the users of the siege weapons, resulting in a very slow progress in the siege.
At the same time, the Viking warriors tried to break through the bunker by digging tunnels, but to no avail. When the Vikings, who were besieging the city, launched a fierce attack on the bridgehead, the heavy crossbow arrows and dense arrow rain on the bunker made it difficult for the Vikings. Soon, after paying the sacrifices of hundreds of people, they chose to retreat temporarily.
In order to take Paris, these Vikings plundered the area around Paris and robbed a large amount of resources. At the same time, trenches and wooden fences with spikes were built on the banks of the Seine, and a large number of soldiers were deployed, which completely encircled the city of Paris and the two bridgeheads. Although the Vikings used siege weapons such as huge catapults and covered siege hammers (the kind that often appear in games), they were useless against impregnable bunkers and powerful crossbow arrows.
Siege weapons are similar to this
By January 886, the Vikings had been besieging Paris for two months. At this point, they used new heavy bunkers and siege weapons, and sent soldiers on the waterway to attack the bridgehead. Such operations significantly destroyed the bridgehead, but the Vikings also suffered heavy casualties under the counterattack of the defenders' arrows and crossbows. At this point, the Paris defenders used a hook with a long beam to hook the front end of the Viking siege hammer, preventing the Vikings from pushing it to hit the bunker. In addition, the defenders also used catapults to attack the heavy bunkers of the Vikings, with remarkable results.
Under the fierce counterattack of the defenders, the Vikings chose to withdraw their troops in the night after sacrificing more than a thousand people, and left their siege weapons in front of the bunkers.
During the Vikings' land raid on the bridgehead, the Vikings filled several ships with large quantities of flammable material and set them on fire, hoping to burn the bridge connecting the city of Paris and the bridgehead. But the boats all ran aground as they drifted toward the bridge, and the bridge was not damaged at all.
Unfortunately, a few days later it rained heavily in Paris, the Seine swelled, and the ferocious waters soon washed away the bridges in the northeast. At this time, the bridgehead connected by the bridge was in a state of being lost to the main city and isolated, and Siegfred immediately sent his men to light a cart of straw next to the gate of the bunker, using the smoke from the burning straw to block the view of the defenders inside the bunker, and launched a fierce attack on the bunker. Eventually, the bunker, located northeast of the city of Paris, was captured, and 12 Parisian soldiers of the bunker were killed by the Vikings.
Since the bridge was broken, the Vikings had to go upstream by boat to attack the city of Paris after capturing the bridgehead. They eventually chose to reorganize their army and send soldiers to plunder the surrounding areas to replenish their resources. Ebolas, abbot of the Abbey of Paris Saint-Germain-des-Pétain, thought that most of the Vikings had been evacuated, so he sent troops out of the city to prepare for an attack on the surrounding Viking camps. However, the number of Vikings in the camp was still very large, so Ebolas's army was soon defeated and withdrew to the city of Paris.
A few days after the retreat to the city, the Vikings continued to attack the city continuously, facing the impregnable city and powerful crossbow arrows, the Vikings not only failed to invade the city, but also paid a terrible price for thousands of people. The morale of the Parisians and civilians soared in the process of repeatedly repelling the Vikings, but in the face of the fact that the number of troops was much larger than their Vikings, the soldiers and civilians in the city still hoped that the king's reinforcements would arrive in time to save them from the fire.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="39" > victory in the war was not glorious</h1>
"Today's Hair (1/1)"
In March, reinforcements finally saw the walls of Paris in the distance, led by the Duke of Saxony (who was then granted the title of Tribal Duke, whose son later became the founder of the Saxon dynasty, Henry I the Bird Catcher). Taking advantage of the gap between the Viking defensive camps not taking the initiative to attack, they transported supplies to Paris and joined forces with part of the Paris defenders to attack the Viking camps. The attack did not wipe out the Vikings, and the Duke of Saxony led his troops to retreat, leaving the seine. The Paris defenders also used the resources obtained to repair the bridges and bridgeheads in the northeast.
In April, after repeated failed Viking offensives, the Paris defenders presented 60 pounds of silver to the Viking chief Siegfred, hoping that they would withdraw immediately. Siegfried accepted this and wanted to lift the siege of Paris at once. However, one of the Viking generals, Sinrik, was reluctant to withdraw and chose to continue the attack on Paris. A large part of the reason for this stemmed from the death of one of the generals who was defending the city, Bishop Gozelin, as well as many other soldiers and civilians, from the plague that spread through the city.
Paintings about the Black Death in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, diseases were as common as colds are today. At that time, medical conditions were scarce, sanitary conditions were extremely poor, and all the filth left by the people after they were released was packed in wooden barrels and directly dumped on the street. Although at the end of the 9th century, many cities still retained the drainage system left over from the Roman Empire, but it has been unusable due to its age. In the game, we can see a lot of drainage facilities left over from the Roman Empire, but they are all badly damaged.
Many excrement flows down the rainwater into the river, and before the river uses its self-cleaning function to completely "clean up", most of it will become the people's domestic water. Compared with these waters that had been contaminated with germs, the milk drunk by the British army in the First World War was inferior to that of the toilet water.
When it came to hygiene, the citizens of the Roman Empire were clearly superior
The indiscriminate accumulation of excrement and other domestic waste not only breeds mosquitoes, but also makes small animals carrying diseases such as rats roam the city at will, which is one of the reasons for the spread of many diseases in the city of Paris. In the game, the rats cannot be killed by the protagonist Evol and have extremely high attack power, but instead reproduce the large number of rat families in the Middle Ages, which are difficult to eradicate and carry deadly germs.
Despite the loss of a major general, the Parisian military and civilians still blocked many Viking offensives. By the end of June, the Count of Erder, who had previously left the city of Paris in search of support, finally led three thousand soldiers and broke through the Viking encirclement from the outside to join the military and civilians in the city of Paris. After this, king Charles III of the Franks finally led a large number of soldiers from the Apennine Peninsula to Reims, seemingly ready to destroy the Vikings who besieged Paris in one fell swoop.
However, Charles III only had the retreating Duke of Saxony send some of his men to attack the Vikings, while he himself remained unmoved. The Duke of Saxony's offensive was eventually defused by the Vikings, and the Duke himself fell into the trench and was killed. Many of the reinforcements were demoralized by the death of the Duke of Saxony, and the well-equipped men did not dare to launch a large-scale offensive against the Vikings.
Sensing Charles III's actions, the Vikings again raised an army to attack Paris, using more siege equipment than before. Fortunately, however, the Paris military and civilians once again defused the crisis. During this time, the Vikings once again resorted to fire, and billowing smoke once again covered the bridgehead northeast of Paris. However, the number of troops sent by Charles III was still very limited.
Later, the Viking army suffered heavy losses in the long offensive, and was no longer in number than the reinforcements brought by Charles III and the total number of Parisian soldiers and civilians. However, the Frankish king Charles III chose to sign a contract with the Vikings: as soon as the Vikings lifted the siege of Paris, he would pay 700 pounds of silver to the other side and allow the other side to travel freely to Burgundy. The Vikings accepted his "ransom for peace" and withdrew their troops from around Paris. The Battle of Paris came to an official end after paying the lives of many Viking and Frankish soldiers, as well as 700 pounds of silver.
As a result of the Chinese king's bad behavior in this battle, and the king's long-standing incompetence, many people began to express strong dissatisfaction with Charles III. In November 887, he was deposed by his nephew Anurf and died two months later. Although in the game, we can directly assassinate Charles III and directly create a new "historical script" that died 888 years ago, his image in the game is obviously more attractive than the historical him.
For the Vikings of history, wealth and glory were the driving force behind their conquest of Paris. The wonderful story of Aver and the Black Crow Clan is just a "parallel time and space" of artistic processing. If it wasn't for gold, who would want to take up an axe, a shield and a steel helmet and fight the Franks to the death in the battlefield?