With his horsemen armed to the teeth, Attila attacked the Roman Empire and massacred entire villages. In his conquest, he eventually reached Gaul with his army of formidable warriors. The Huns invaded Belgium, then the cities of Metz and Reims, but they avoided Paris. Then, between Troy and Châlons-en-Champagne, “the battle of the Champs-Catalauniques” will take place.
Through wars against the Byzantine Empire, Attila ended up seeing his army decimated by an epidemic. Eventually, the Hunnic king returned to the region of Pannonia, near present-day Hungary.
On his wedding night, the man nicknamed the “scourge of God” died suddenly in his sleep, at the age of 58. His body was discovered the next morning. Some spoke of an assassination perpetrated by Attila's wife or ordered by his enemies. But the most likely possibility is that he died of apoplexy, after drinking and eating too much.
Attila was buried secretly in a triple coffin of gold, silver and iron. The slaves who dug her grave had their throats slit so that she would never be discovered and desecrated. When Attila died, his sons fought over their kingdom from the Huns and the empire that shook Europe collapsed like a house of cards.
>> The Bastards of History. Through a long-format story, Éric Brunet retraces, every week, the life and crimes of a bastard of History. A special collection of our flagship show Enter history.
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