The saga of the Vikings, 4th and last part: The last fires.

4th part: The last fires.
In 885, the Vikings are for the 4th time in front of Paris.
The siege is recounted in an imaginary way in the poems of the monk Abbon of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Like the previous sieges, the aim of the Vikings is not to seize the Frankish capital but the authorization to plunder Burgundy, Paris being the gateway to the rich province, since the Vikings move along the Seine .
The two fortified bridges of the city bar their passage.
After Bishop Gozlin's refusal to let their fleet pass, the Vikings stormed and began the long siege of the city.
From January 31 to February 3, 886, they launched a general assault, which failed to break the resistance of the Parisians led by their Count Eudes and Bishop Gozlin.
Siegfried then temporarily withdrew with his troops to devastate eastern France, near Reims, as evidenced by contemporary letters from Archbishop Foulques.
After a flood of the Seine which washed away the left bank bridge, the besiegers succeeded on February 6, 886 in seizing the bridgehead, thus isolated from the city.
In March, an attempt by Count Henri of Franconia to rescue the city failed.
Eudes and Gozlin then start negotiations with Chief Siegfried offering him 60 pounds of silver against his retirement.
After being paid, Siegfried leads his troop to the conquest of Bayeux, destroy Coutances and move towards Saint-lo, but many warriors of whom he is not otherwise the leader have not benefited from this tribute, refuse to follow him and persist in their attacks but are repelled.
After ten months of siege, the Carolingian emperor Charles the Fat advances with a strong army against the besiegers but decides to pay a heavy price rather than to face the troops of Siegfried, who returned as reinforcements after the siege and the capture. from Bayeux.
He left the Vikings the possibility of going up the Seine beyond Paris to Burgundy, and promised them the payment of 700 pounds of silver in March 887 when they left the country.
On November 6, Charles le Gros left Paris for Soissons.
He is followed by Siegfried's men who devastate the Saint-Médard abbey in Soissons after his departure for Alsace.
Siegfried returned to the Seine in the spring of 887, then set out again for Friesland in the fall where he died.
The payment of a tribute by King Charles the Fat, after two years of siege, contributed to discredit the Carolingian dynasty.
Weakened and sick, the king is driven from the throne in favor of his nephew, illegitimate son of Carloman, Arnulf of Carinthia, but it is the end of the Carolingian Empire and the advent of the Robertians in the person of Eudes, eldest son by Robert 1er.
The continuation on the video.
Good reading.

[@pagesdhistoire.historypage7086]

Traduction en langue anglaise en cours (English translation in progress).

[@pagesdhistoire.historypage7086]

Now available in English (Maintenant disponible en anglais).

[@michaelg.family327]

La saga est maîtrisée de bout en bout et fort intéressante. Merci Pages d'Histoire pour ce remarquable travail.

[@pagesdhistoire.historypage7086]

Super sympa, Merci beaucoup.

[@SANDfr78]

Génial série espérons que tu reçoives plein d'abonnés !

[@pagesdhistoire.historypage7086]

Merci ça fait plaisir.
J'ai 974 abonnés...

[@renechimil7353]

Excellent comme d'habitude.

[@pagesdhistoire.historypage7086]

Merci René.
Bonne soirée.

[@maudbarmijo]

🙏