Quasi una gens: Saxony and the Frankish world, c. 772–888

Abstract

The Saxons were conquered by Charlemagne in 804, after 33 years of intermittent campaigning; they were converted to Christianity and incorporated into the Carolingian political order. Yet despite this history of conquest and incorporation, historians have largely viewed Carolingian Saxony as distinct from the Frankish world. To a large extent, this may be seen as a result of the politicization of Saxon history in the early 20th century. Early Nazi propaganda drew upon the Saxon wars as an example of German heroism and resistance, with particular attention paid to the history of conflict and warfare; unsurprisingly, there was little interest in such circles in delineating subsequent cooperation and coexistence. The postwar period, by contrast, saw a resurgence of local history, which, while serving as a corrective to earlier nationalistic approaches, did not seek to situate the history of individual Saxon Christian centres, whether monasteries or bishoprics, in their wider context. Only recently has an interest in Saxon regional history resurfaced, but even still, the connection of the region to the Frankish world remains relatively unexplored with a few notable exceptions. Recent work on the Carolingian empire has stressed its regionalism and variety, arguing for less top‐down control and more “grassroots” politics. In such a context, Carolingian Saxony need not stand as an outlier: rather, it should be analyzed both alongside, and as part of, the wider Carolingian world.

Economic and military aspects of the Frankish conquest of Saxony

“…The compelling nature of Einhard's statement and the frequent citation of Kahl's thesis notwithstanding, a substantial current within modern scholarship holds that the Frankish war against the Saxons was driven almost entirely by ideological motivations, both secular and religious (Nelson, 1996, p. xxix; Rembold, 2017, p. 14). This opinion derives not only from the evidence for such motivations found in the Frankish sources, which tend to view the conflict through a religious lens, but from a conviction that Saxony simply had nothing of material value with which to entice the Franks—an interpretation that stands at odds with the prevailing understanding of Carolingian warfare more generally.…”

“…This trickle‐down system of economic predation came to an end, argued Reuter in a follow‐up article, during the reign of Louis the Pious when there were simply no more worthwhile enemies left to rob and extort—a situation of diminishing opportunities, which, coupled with internal political turmoil and external threats, brought about the end of the Carolingian empire (Reuter, 1990). Saxony, in the view of many scholars, is the fly in Reuter's ointment, for it is widely believed that in Saxony there was “a dearth of valuable plunder” (Rembold, 2017, p. 5; see also Davis, 2015, p. 369; Fouracre, 1995, p. 107; Bachrach, 2013, p. 194; France, 2002, p. 65). It was Janet Nelson who first observed that while the other wars waged by the Franks (such as those against the Lombards and the Avars) yielded apparently massive hauls of valuable treasure, the Frankish sources contain only a single reference to ‘gold and silver’ taken from Saxony—that seized from the pagan shrine known as the Irminsul during Charlemagne's first foray into the region in 772 (Nelson, 1996, p. xxix).…”

“…The second major area of recent research has concentrated on the process of Saxony's incorporation into the Carolingian world, with scholars exploring the implantation of Christian religious structures (Ehlers, 2007;Röckelein, 2002) and Frankish political institutions (Becher, 1996), as well as the ways that Carolingian authority led to the formation of a new, Christian Carolingian Saxon identity situated culturally and institutionally within the larger remit of Frankish rule (Rembold, 2017(Rembold, , 2018Shuler, 2010).…”

“…In general, the accepted view is now one of small scale and heterogeneous identities and political structures within the pre‐conquest Saxon lands–a situation that was thoroughly changed by the region's conquest, Christianization, and incorporation by the Franks. The second major area of recent research has concentrated on the process of Saxony's incorporation into the Carolingian world, with scholars exploring the implantation of Christian religious structures (Ehlers, 2007; Röckelein, 2002) and Frankish political institutions (Becher, 1996), as well as the ways that Carolingian authority led to the formation of a new, Christian Carolingian Saxon identity situated culturally and institutionally within the larger remit of Frankish rule (Rembold, 2017, 2018; Shuler, 2010).…”

“…Recent decades, in contrast, have seen a marked resurgence of scholarly interest in the subject of Saxony and the Saxons in general, and in the conquest and Christianization of Saxony in particular. Numerous monographs and articles have made significant contributions to our understanding and reassessed older historiographical dogmas (Rembold, 2017(Rembold, , 2018Flierman, 2017;Ehlers, 2007;Springer, 2004;Green & Siegmund, 2003;Röckelein, 2002;Becher, 1996). Several new museum exhibitions, meanwhile, have corrected the oversights of the 1965 exhibition in Aachen by setting Saxony, Saxons, and the conquest at centre stage, and raising the profiles of these topics in the public consciousness (Ludowici, 2019;Stiegmann, Kroker, & Walter, 2013;Stiegmann & Wemhoff, 1999).…”