Battle of Val-ès-Dunes: Encyclopedia II - Battle of Val-ès-Dunes - The battle

Battle of Val-ès-Dunes - The battle

In January 1047, King Henry's army joined Duke William's much smaller Norman army near Caen, in the heart of rebel territory. Ralph Tesson and his men then changed sides and joined the royal army. The next day, the combined armies joined battle with the rebel army on the plain of Val-ès-Dunes, near the present-day town of Conteville.

The battle consisted mainly of a series of cavalry skirmishes. The rebel army outnumbered the royal army, but it lacked the royal army's coordination and leadership. After losing several skirmishes (in one of which Haimo of Creully was killed), the rebel army broke apart, panicked, and fled to the west. The royal army pursued closely, slaughtering the rebels by the thousand and driving the remnants of their army into the Orne River, near the Athis fort and Fleury-sur-Orne. An observer recorded that the bodies of the rebel knights who tried to cross the Orne were so numerous that they blocked the mill of Barbillon as the river carried them downstream en masse.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The battle", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki