According to the "Res gestae Saxonicae" by chronicler Widukind of Corvey, King Henry the Fowler in 924 or 926 was besieged here by Hungarian cavalry during their invasion into Saxony. While the horses sank into the swampy area of the nearby river, Henry managed to capture a Hungarian nobleman—probably Zoltán, son of Grand Prince Árpád—and to reach an agreement on a nine-years-truce, after which he was able to defeat the magyars at the 933 Battle of Riade. Henry's son Otto the Great provably stayed at the "Pfalz" five times. Upon the sudden death of Emperor Otto III in 1002, Margrave Henry of Schweinfurt and late Otto's sisters Sophia of Gandersheim and Adelaide of Quedlinburg met with the Saxon princes at Werla, in order to promote the succession of the Ottonian duke Henry IV of Bavaria against his rivals Margrave Eckard of Meissen and Duke Herman II of Swabia.