acceptance of Christianity was the price they paid for their insurrection. In 932 the Lusatians and in 934 the Ukrani on the lower Oder were subdued and made tributary. With these Henry's work among the Wendish tribes is completed. Much still remained to be done but he had laid the foundation for the work of his son Otto, the civilising and the conversion of the people on the eastern frontier.
Even more important were the results of his Hungarian conflict. This warfare was to prove the soundness of his measures of defence and protection, the strength of his new towns, the supreme test of his reorganised army. Cavalry would meet cavalry, not as in the battles with the Wends, horse against foot. In 933 the nine years' truce was at an end. Henry refused the accustomed tribute. The Hungarians lost no time; they swarmed into the West in three armies, one to ravage Italy, another France and Burgundy, and a third to punish Henry for his audacious refusal of tribute. On their way they sought the help of the Dalemintzi, but instead of the expected submissiveness they were received with scorn and derision and were presented with a mongrel dog as a token of their contempt. In Thuringia they divided their forces. One army pushed on westward into Saxony. Henry at once took the initiative, fell on them, slew their leaders, and dispersed the remainder in panic to die from hunger or cold, to be slain by the sword or taken into captivity. He then lost no time in coming up with the other host while still overwhelmed by the fate of their comrades. The battle took place at Riade (perhaps Rittburg on the Unstrut or Ried) near Merseburg on 15 March 933. The seemingly impenetrable masses were broken at the onslaught of the Saxon army, the camp was taken, the remnant of the once feared and invincible army of the Magyars fled back to their own land in panic and confusion. The Danes alone remained unsubdued. They had long pushed beyond the river Eider, the limit fixed by Charles the Great; they had encroached upon Holstein and plundered continually the coast of Frisia. In 934 Henry entered Denmark; Gorm the Old, not venturing to risk a battle, sued for peace which he obtained at the price of the old Eider boundary and the establishment of the march of Schleswig.
Towards the end of his life Henry, largely no doubt owing to the influence of his wife Matilda, became more active in works of piety and in advancing the interests of the Christian Church. He was always a serious churchman and there is evidence that his early hostility to the ecclesiastical power grew less intense in his later years[1]. The Synod of Erfurt in June 932 testifies to his interest in church matters. At his favourite home of Quedlinburg he founded a Church and a nunnery. He
- ↑ The fact that he was, as far as we know, the first German king to make a bishop count over his own city shews that he was not averse to the extension of the secular power of the ecclesiastical party. In 928 he made the Bishop of Toul count in his city.
