The Carolingian Empire

Conquests: Saxony, Part 2

When Charles was busy elsewhere, the Saxons rebelled again, killing the Christian priests, rebuilding their pagan temples, and refusing to pay the tribute money.

So, in 782, Charles returned again to the swamps and forests of Saxony. Once again he devastated the land, defeated the armies, converted the chiefs. The Saxon rebellion was more serious because the Saxons were nominally Christians now and so were guilty of apostasy, a crime that justified the use of any sort of force against them. Thousands of Saxon warriors perished and many villages were destroyed.

Again, Charles returned home, taking his army with him, leaving priests behind. He was not gone long before the Saxons rebelled yet again. This time, their leader is recorded: a war chief named Widukind led the whole people in rebellion.

Back came Charlemagne, in 785. He defeated Widukind and so thoroughly destroyed the Saxon army that further resistance was impossible. Charles now embarked on a policy to eliminate the Saxon threat forever.

Once again he imposed Christianity at sword point, but he went much further. He founded monasteries and filled them with Franks. He founded villages and filled those, too, with Frankish peasants. He carved up Saxony into administrative units and gave them to his nobles to rule.

Charles went further yet. He destroyed the pagan temples, of course, as he had done before. He destroyed hundreds of Saxon villages, as before. But now he actually removed the Saxon peasants, resettling them into other lands. It was a Saxon diaspora, a scattering of a people. The Saxons were destroyed as a culture, and they would never again rebel.

History of Western Civilization

E.L. Skip Knox
Boise State University

Comments and questions