26–27 November 885
The assault on the tower, November 885
On 26 November 885 the Danes attack the tower at the right bank end of the Grand Pont, which is still unfinished. The defenders drive them off with arrows, stones and a mixture of hot wax and pitch poured from above. During the night they raise the tower by another storey.
The Northmen besiege Paris in 885, an engraving by Gabriel Lacoste after Jules Gagniet and Planchenot, 19th century, Musée CarnavaletWikimedia Commons, Gabriel Lacoste, CC0 (Siège de Paris par les Normands en 885, G.41053.jpg)
On 27 November the Danes return with rams, dig at the foot of the tower and try to set it on fire, and fail again. Bishop Gozlin fights on the outer defences with a bow and an axe and plants a cross there. After the two days of assaults the Danes build a camp walled with stone round the church of Saint-Germain-le-Rond on the right bank and settle down to a siege.
Sources
- Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Bella Parisiacae urbis, book 1.
- Nirmal Dass (ed.), Viking Attacks on Paris: The Bella Parisiacae Urbis of Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (2007).
- Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Siege (1992).
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