contingent, throwing the recent battle at Geule in their faces and promising this battle would end in the same manner. Arnulf was enraged but hesitated because of the enemy's better position. Finally, he ordered his cavalry to dismount and join the phalanx of foot soldiers that formed part of his army. His plan was to advance over the open field toward the Danish fortifications. Arnulf commanded a rear guard of mounted soldiers to protect against any surprise attacks the Vikings might launch from the nearby swamp. The Frankish forces were overwhelmingly successful, especially once they had driven the Vikings past their fortifications. Left with nowhere to retreat, the Danes were cut down by the Franks or drowned in the Dyle as they fled the battle. The Viking leaders Sigfried and Gotfried were slain during the battle, and 16 standards were captured. Aftermath After the battle a period of relative peace ensued in Francia, although the cause of this peace depends on the source. For example, some chroniclers, biased toward the Frankish side, state that it was the incredibly decisive defeat, where virtually all of the Danish forces were massacred, that stymied Viking raiding in the region for the next few years. Less biased chronicles, such as the Annals of St. Vaast, state that the real reason for the Viking departure was famine, which ravaged the countryside in 892. According to these Annals, the Vikings took to their ships to escape the famine and subsequently left the region in peace. These reports fail to represent the situation realistically, however. Viking raids continued in Francia and the rest of Europe for many decades. Merely a year, for instance, after the Battle of the Dyle, the Vikings again crossed the Meuse and raided the land of the Ripuarian Franks. By 896, Viking raiders are again mentioned as active in the Loire and Oise valleys, and bands continued raiding in the Seine basin and northern Aquitaine into the early 10th century. Rather than completely subduing the Viking raiders, the Battle of the Dyle merely ensured a period of short-lived peace in Francia. Citations Bibliography The Annals of Fulda. (Manchester Medieval series, Ninth-Century Histories, Volume II.) Reuter, Timothy (trans.) Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992. Bachrach, Bernard S. and David S. Warfare in Medieval Europe: c.400-c.1453. New York: Routledge, 2017. Coupland, Simon and Janet Nelson. “The Vikings on the Continent,” in History Today 38, no.12 (1988):