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{{short description|Germanic tribes from the North German Plain}}{{Redirect|Saxon}}

AD| population = | genealogy = Old Saxony, Jutland, Frisia, Heptarchy (Anglo-Saxon England>England)| languages = Old Saxon, Old EnglishGermanic paganism>Germanic and Anglo-Saxon paganism, later Christianity| related_groups = Anglo-Saxons, Angles, Frisii, Jutes| footnotes = }}The Saxons (, , , , , ) were a Germanic people whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, ) near the North Sea coast of what is now Germany.{{harv|Springer|2004|p=12}}: "Unter dem alten Sachsen ist das Gebiet zu verstehen, das seit der Zeit Karls des GroÃŸen (reg. 768-814) bis zum Jahre 1180 also Saxonia '(das Land) Sachsen' bezeichnet wurde oder wenigstens so genannt werden konnte." In the late Roman Empire, the name was used to refer to Germanic coastal raiders, and also as a word something like the later "Viking".{{harv|Springer|2004|p=2004}}: "Im Latein des spÃ¤ten Altertums konnte Saxones als Sammelbezeichnung von KÃ¼stenrÃ¤ubern gebraucht werden. Es spielte dieselbe Rolle wie viele Jahrhunderte spÃ¤ter das Wort Wikinger." Their origins appear to be mainly somewhere in or near the above-mentioned German North Sea coast where they are found later, in Carolingian times. In Merovingian times, continental Saxons had also been associated with the activity and settlements on the coast of what later became Normandy. Their precise origins are uncertain, and they are sometimes described as fighting inland, coming into conflict with the Franks and Thuringians. There is possibly a single classical reference to a smaller homeland of an early Saxon tribe, but its interpretation is disputed (see below). According to this proposal, the Saxons' earliest area of settlement is believed to have been Northern Albingia. This general area is close to the probable homeland of the Angles.{{harv|Springer|2004|p=2004}}In contrast, the British "Saxons", today referred to in English as Anglo-Saxons, became a single nation bringing together Germanic peoples (Frisian, Jutish, Angle) with the Romanized Britons, establishing long-lasting post-Roman kingdoms equivalent to those formed by the Franks on the continent. Their earliest weapons and clothing south of the Thames were based on late Roman military fashions, but later immigrants north of the Thames showed a stronger North German influence.{{Citation|last=Halsall|first=Guy|title= Barbarian Migration and the Roman West 376-568|pages=386â€“392}}BOOK, Haydn Middleton, Romans, Anglo-Saxons & Vikings in Britain,weblink 19 October 2012, 1 June 2001, Heinemann, 978-0-431-10209-2, 7â€“, The term "Anglo-Saxon" came into use by the 8th century (for example Paul the Deacon) to distinguish English Saxons from continental Saxons (referred to in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Ealdseaxe, "old Saxons"), but both the Saxons of Britain and those of Old Saxony (Northern Germany) continued to be referred to as 'Saxons' in an indiscriminate manner, especially in the languages of Britain and Ireland.While the English Saxons were no longer raiders, the political history of the continental Saxons is unclear until the time of the conflict between their semi-legendary hero Widukind and the Frankish emperor Charlemagne. While the continental Saxons are no longer a distinctive ethnic group or country, their name lives on in the names of several regions and states of Germany, including Lower Saxony (which includes central parts of the original Saxon homeland known as Old Saxony), Saxony in Upper Saxony, as well as Saxony-Anhalt (which includes Old, Lower and Upper Saxon regions). The current state of Saxony has its name from dynastic history, and not ethnic history.


(File:Seax with replica.jpg|thumb|upright 1.3|The remains of a seax together with a reconstructed replica)The Saxons may have derived their name from seaxWEB,weblink Saxon {{!, Definition of Saxon in English by Oxford Dictionaries|website=Oxford Dictionaries {{!}} English|access-date=2019-03-10}}, a kind of knife for which they were known. The seax has a lasting symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex, both of which feature three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem. Their names, along with those of Sussex and Wessex, contain a remnant of the word "Saxon".The Elizabethan era play Edmund Ironside suggests the Saxon name derives from the Latin saxa (stone):BOOK, Literary Appropriations of the Anglo-Saxons, New times and old stories, 111 fn 14,

Saxon as a demonym

Celtic languages

In the Celtic languages, the words designating English nationality derive from the Latin word Saxones. The most prominent example, a loanword in English, is the Scottish word Sassenach, used by Scots- or Scottish English-speakers in the 21st centuryWEB,weblink Definition of SASSENACH,, en, 2019-01-16, as a jocular term for an English person. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) gives 1771 as the date of the earliest written use of the word in English.It derives from the Scottish Gaelic Sasannach (older spelling: Sasunnach). The Gaelic name for England is Sasann, and Sasannach (formed with a common adjective suffix -ach) means "English" in reference to people and things, though not to the English Language, which is Beurla.Sasanach, the Irish word for an Englishman, has the same derivation, as do the words used in Welsh to describe the English people (Saeson, sing. Sais) and the language and things English in general: Saesneg and Seisnig.Cornish terms the English Sawsnek, from the same derivation. In the 16th century Cornish-speakers used the phrase Meea navidna cowza sawzneck to feign ignorance of the English language.Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall, 1602. N.B. in revived Cornish, this would be transcribed, My ny vynnaf cows sowsnek. The Cornish word Emit meaning "ant" (and perversely derived from OE) is more commonly used in Cornwall {{as of | 2015 | lc = on}} as slang to designate non-Cornish Englishmen."England" in Scottish Gaelic is Sasann (older spelling: Sasunn, Genitive: Sasainn). Other examples include the Welsh Saesneg (the English language), Irish Sasana (England), Breton saoz(on) (English, saozneg "the English language", Bro-saoz "England"), and Cornish Sowson (English people), Sowsnek (English language), and Pow Sows for 'Land [Pays] of Saxons'.

Romance languages

The label "Saxons" (in Romanian: SaÈ™i) also became attached to German settlers who migrated during the 13th century to southeastern Transylvania. From Transylvania, some of these Saxons migrated to neighbouring Moldavia, as the name of the town Sas-cut shows. Sascut lies in the part of Moldavia that is today part of Romania.During Georg Friederich HÃ¤ndel's visit to Italy (1706â€“09), much was made{{by whom|date=October 2017}} of his origins in Saxony; in particular, the Venetians greeted the 1709 performance of his opera Agrippina with the cry Viva il caro Sassone, "Cheers for the beloved Saxon!"Barber, David W. (1996). Bach, Beethoven And the Boys: Music History as it Ought to be Taught. Sound and Vision, Toronto {{ISBN|0-920151-10-8}}

Non-Indo-European languages

The Finns and Estonians have changed their usage of the root Saxon over the centuries to apply now to the whole country of Germany (Saksa and Saksamaa respectively) and the Germans (saksalaiset and sakslased, respectively). The Finnish word sakset (scissors) reflects the name of the old Saxon single-edged sword - seax - from which the name "Saxon" supposedly derives.BOOK, Suomen sanojen alkuperÃ¤. Etymologinen sanakirja, R-Ã–, 2012, Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura, Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus, 146, In Estonian, saks means "a nobleman" or, colloquially, "a wealthy or powerful person". (As a result of 13th-century Northern Crusades, Estonia's upper class comprised mostly persons of German origin until well into the 20th century.)

Related surnames

The word also survives as the surnames of SaÃŸ/Sass (in Low German or Low Saxon), Sachse and Sachs. The Dutch female first name, Saskia, originally meant "A Saxon woman" (metathesis of "Saxia").

Saxony as a toponym

Following the downfall of Henry the Lion (1129{{nsndns}}1195, Duke of Saxony 1142{{nsndns}}1180), and the subsequent splitting of the Saxon tribal duchy into several territories, the name of the Saxon duchy was transferred to the lands of the Ascanian family. This led to the differentiation between Lower Saxony, lands settled by the Saxon tribe and Upper Saxony, the lands belonging to the House of Wettin. Gradually, the latter region became known as "Saxony", ultimately usurping the name's original meaning. The area formerly known as Upper Saxony now lies in Central Germany.


Early history

(File:Roman Empire 125.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Map of the Roman Empire and contemporary indigenous Europe in 125{{nbsp}}AD, showing the location of the Saxons in Northern Germany)File:Europe and the Near East at 476 AD.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Europe in the late 5th century. Most names shown are the Latin names of 5th-century peoples, with the exceptions of Syagrius (king of a Gallo-Roman rump state), Odoacer (Germanic king of Italy), and (Julius) Nepos (nominally the last Western Roman emperor, de facto ruler of DalmatiaDalmatia(File:Angles saxons jutes.png|thumb|upright=1.1|Possible locations of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes before their migration to Britain.)Ptolemy's Geographia, written in the 2nd century, is sometimes considered to contain the first mentioning of the Saxons. Some copies of this text mention a tribe called Saxones in the area to the north of the lower Elbe.{{CathEncy|wstitle=Saxony}} However, other versions refer to the same tribe as Axones. This may be a misspelling of the tribe that Tacitus in his Germania called Aviones. According to this theory, "Saxones" was the result of later scribes trying to correct a name that meant nothing to them.Green, D.{{nbsp}}H. & Siegmund, F.: The Continental Saxons from the Migration Period to the Tenth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, Boydell Press, 2003, pp.{{nbsp}}14{{nsndns}}15 {{ISBN|1-84383-026-4}}, {{ISBN|978-1-84383-026-9}} On the other hand, SchÃ¼tte, in his analysis of such problems in Ptolemy's Maps of Northern Europe, believed that "Saxones" is correct. He notes that the loss of first letters occurs in numerous places in various copies of Ptolemy's work, and also that the manuscripts without "Saxones" are generally inferior overall.SchÃ¼tte, page 22-23SchÃ¼tte also remarks that there was a medieval tradition of calling this area "Old Saxony" (covering Westphalia, Angria and Eastphalia).SchÃ¼tte page 64 This view is in line with Bede who mentions Old Saxony was near the Rhine, somewhere to the north of the river Lippe (Westphalia, northeastern part of modern German state Nordrhein-Westfalen).{{citation|journal=Palaeohistoria|url= |volume=51/52| year=2010| title=De 14C-chronologie van de Nederlandse Pre- en Protohistorie VI: Romeinse tijd en Merovingische periode, deel A: historische bronnen en chronologische schemaâ€™s|last1=Lanting |last2=van der Plicht|page=70}}The first undisputed mention of the Saxon name in its modern form is from AD 356, when Julian, later the Roman Emperor, mentioned them in a speech as allies of Magnentius, a rival emperor in Gaul. Zosimus also mentions a specific tribe of Saxons, called the Kouadoi, which have been interpreted as a misunderstanding for the Chauci, or Chamavi. They entered the Rhineland and displaced the recently settled Salian Franks from Batavi, whereupon some of the Salians began to move into the Belgian territory of Toxandria, supported by Julian.{{Citation|url=|title=Dark Age Naval Power: A Re-Assessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Seafaring ...|first=John |last=Haywood|page=42}}Both in this case and in others the Saxons were associated with using boats for their raids. In order to defend against Saxon raiders, the Romans created a military district called the Litus Saxonicum ("Saxon Coast") on both sides of the English Channel.In 441â€“442 AD, Saxons are mentioned for the first time as inhabitants of Britain, when an unknown Gaulish historian wrote: "The British provinces...have been reduced to Saxon rule".BOOK, John T. Koch, Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia,weblink 2006, ABC-CLIO, 978-1-85109-440-0, 59â€“, Saxons as inhabitants of present-day Northern Germany are first mentioned in 555, when the Frankish king Theudebald died, and the Saxons used the opportunity for an uprising. The uprising was suppressed by Chlothar I, Theudebald's successor. Some of their Frankish successors fought against the Saxons, others were allied with them. The Thuringians frequently appeared as allies of the Saxons.



Italy and Provence

In 569, some Saxons accompanied the Lombards into Italy under the leadership of Alboin and settled there.Bachrach, p.{{nbsp}}39. In 572, they raided southeastern Gaul as far as Stablo, now Estoublon. Divided, they were easily defeated by the Gallo-Roman general Mummolus. When the Saxons regrouped, a peace treaty was negotiated whereby the Italian Saxons were allowed to settle with their families in Austrasia.Bachrach, p.39 Gathering their families and belongings in Italy, they returned to Provence in two groups in 573. One group proceeded by way of Nice and another via Embrun, joining up at Avignon. They plundered the territory and were as a consequence stopped from crossing the RhÃ´ne by Mummolus. They were forced to pay compensation for what they had robbed before they could enter Austrasia. These people are known only by documents, and their settlement cannot be compared to the archeological artifacts and remains that attest to Saxon settlements in northern and western Gaul.


{{See also|Saxon shore}}A Saxon king named Eadwacer conquered Angers in 463 only to be dislodged by Childeric I and the Salian Franks, allies of the Roman Empire.Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Penguin 1974. It is possible that Saxon settlement of Great Britain began only in response to expanding Frankish control of the Channel coast.Stenton, 12.Some Saxons already lived along the Saxon shore of Gaul as Roman foederati.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}} They can be traced in documents, but also in archeology and in toponymy. The Notitia Dignitatum mentions the Tribunus cohortis primae novae Armoricanae, Grannona in litore Saxonico. The location of Grannona is uncertain and was identified by the historians and toponymists at different places: mainly with the town known today as Granville (in Normandy) or nearby. The Notitia Dignitatum does not explain where these "Roman" soldiers came from. Some toponymists have proposed Graignes (Grania 1109â€“1113) as the location for Grannona/Grannonum. Although some scholars believe it could be the same element *gran, that is recognised in Guernsey (Greneroi 11th century),FranÃ§ois de Beaurepaire, Les noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de la Manche, Ã©ditions Picard 1986. p.{{nbsp}}125 {{nsndns}}127. it most likely derives from the Gaulish god Grannos.BOOK,weblink Questions d'histoire de Bretagne, 1984, E.N.S.B., 9782735500468, 127, fr, This location is closer to Bayeux, where Gregory of Tours evokes otherwise the Saxones Bajocassini (Bessin Saxons), which were ineffective against the Breton Waroch II in 579.History of the Franks, volume II. Trans. O. M. Dalton, Clarendon Press 1967.Bachrach, 52.A Saxon unit of laeti settled at Bayeux{{snds}}the Saxones Baiocassenses.Bachrach, 10. These Saxons became subjects of Clovis I late in the 5th century. The Saxons of Bayeux comprised a standing army and were often called upon to serve alongside the local levy of their region in Merovingian military campaigns. In 589, the Saxons wore their hair in the Breton fashion at the orders of Fredegund and fought with them as allies against Guntram.Bachrach, 63. Beginning in 626, the Saxons of the Bessin were used by Dagobert I for his campaigns against the Basques. One of their own, Aeghyna, was created a dux over the region of Vasconia.Fredegar, IV.54, p.{{nbsp}}66.In 843 and 846 under king Charles the Bald, other official documents mention a pagus called Otlinga Saxonia in the Bessin region, but the meaning of Otlinga is unclear. Different Bessin toponyms were identified as typically Saxon, ex : Cottun (Coltun 1035â€“1037 ; Cola's "town"). It is the only place name in Normandy that can be interpreted as a -tun one (English -ton; cf. Colton).Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing, Dictionnaire Ã©tymologique des noms de lieux en France, Librairie GuÃ©nÃ©gaud 1979. p.{{nbsp}}215. In contrast to this one example in Normandy are numerous -thun villages in the north of France, in Boulonnais, for example Alincthun, Verlincthun, and Pelingthun,Dauzat and Rostaing, DENL showing, with other toponyms, an important Saxon or Anglo-Saxon settlement. Comparing the concentration of -ham/-hem (Anglo-Saxon hÄm > home) toponyms in the Bessin and in the Boulonnais gives more examples of Saxon settlement.Louis Guinet, Les emprunts gallo-romans au germanique (du Ier Ã  la fin du VÃ¨me siÃ¨cle), Ã©ditions Klincksieck 1982. In the area known today as Normandy, the -ham cases of Bessin are unique{{snd}}they do not exist elsewhere. Other cases were considered, but there is no determining example. For example, Canehan (Kenehan 1030/Canaan 1030â€“1035) could be the biblical name CanaanFranÃ§ois de Beaurepaire, Les noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de la Seine-Maritime, Ã©ditions Picard 1979. p. 56. or Airan (Heidram 9th{{nbsp}}century), the Germanic masculine name Hairammus.RenÃ© Lepelley, Dictionnaire Ã©tymologique des noms de communes de Normandie, Charles Corlet / Presses universitaires de Caen. p. 46.The Bessin examples are clear; for example, Ouistreham (Oistreham 1086), Ã‰trÃ©ham (Oesterham 1350 ?),(:fr:Ernest NÃ¨gre), (:fr:Toponymie gÃ©nÃ©rale de la France), Volume II, Librairie Droz. p. 1008. Huppain (*Hubbehain ; Hubba's "home"), and Surrain (Surrehain 11th{{nbsp}}century). Another significant example can be found in the Norman onomastics: the widespread surname Lecesne,WEB,weblink RÃ©partition des LECESNE entre 1891 et 1915, fr, with variant spellings: Le{{nbsp}}Cesne, LesÃ¨ne, LecÃ¨ne, and Cesne. It comes from Gallo-Romance *SAXINU "the Saxon", which is saisne in Old French. These examples are not derived from more recent Anglo-Scandinavian toponyms, because in that case they would have been numerous in the Norman regions (pays de{{nbsp}}Caux, Basse-Seine, North-Cotentin) settled by Germanic peoples.{{clarify|date=November 2017|reason=The part after "when" is not clear.}} That is not the case, nor does Bessin belong to the pagii, which were affected by an important wave of Anglo-Scandinavian immigration.In addition, archaeological finds add evidence to the documents and the results of toponymic research. Around the city of Caen and in the Bessin (Vierville-sur-Mer, BÃ©nouville, Giverville, HÃ©rouvillette), excavations have yielded numerous examples of Anglo-Saxon jewellery, design elements, settings, and weapons. All of these things were discovered in cemeteries in a context of the 5th, 6th and 7th{{nbsp}}centuries AD.Quelques tÃ©moignages de le prÃ©sence Anglo-Saxonne dans le Calvados, Basse-Normandie (Christian Pilet), in FrÃ¼hmittelalterliche Studien (1979), Berlin, New York (Walter de Gruyter) 2009.Des Saxons en Basse-Normandie au VIe siÃ¨cle ? A propos de quelques dÃ©couvertes archÃ©ologiques faÃ®tes rÃ©cemment dans la basse vallÃ©e de l'Orne (C. Lorren) in Studien zur Sachsenforschung 2, 1980.The oldest and most spectacular Saxon site found in France to date is Vron, in Picardy. There, archaeologists excavated a large cemetery with tombs dating from the Roman Empire until the 6th{{nbsp}}century. Furniture and other grave goods, as well as the human remains, revealed a group of people buried in the 4th and 5th{{nbsp}}centuries AD. Physically different from the usual local inhabitants found before this period, they instead resembled the Germanic populations of the north. At the beginning (4th{{nbsp}}century), 92% were buried, sometimes with typical Germanic weapons. Then they were ranked to the east{{clarify|date=November 2017|reason=What does this mean?}}, when they were buried in the 5th and later to the beginning of the 6th century.{{clarify|date=November 2017|reason=The part after "when" is not clear.}} A strong Anglo-Saxon influence became obvious for the middle of the period, but this influence later disappeared. Archaeological material, neighbouring toponymy, and texts{{clarify|date=November 2017|reason=What are "texts"? This should be made clearer.}} support the same conclusion: settlement of Saxon foederati with their families. Further anthropological research by JoÃ«l Blondiaux shows these people were from Low Saxony.C. Seillier, La PrÃ©sence germanique en Gaule du Nord au Bas-Empire, Revue du Nord, 1995, nÂ° 77.

Saxons in Britain

File:Statue d'Alfred le Grand Ã  Winchester.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Alfred the GreatAlfred the Great{{Further|Sub-Roman Britain|Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain}}Saxons, along with Angles, Frisians and Jutes, invaded or migrated to the island of Great Britain (Britannia) around the time of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Saxon raiders had been harassing the eastern and southern shores of Britannia for centuries before, prompting the construction of a string of coastal forts called the Litora Saxonica or Saxon Shore. Before the end of Roman rule in Britannia, many Saxons and other folk had been permitted to settle in these areas as farmers.According to tradition, the Saxons (and other tribes) first entered Britain en masse as part of an agreement to protect the Britons from the incursions of the Picts, Gaels and others. The story, as reported in such sources as the Historia Brittonum and Gildas, indicates that the British king Vortigern allowed the Germanic warlords, later named as Hengist and Horsa by Bede, to settle their people on the Isle of Thanet in exchange for their service as mercenaries. According to Bede, Hengist manipulated Vortigern into granting more land and allowing for more settlers to come in, paving the way for the Germanic settlement of Britain.Historians are divided about what followed: some argue that the takeover of southern Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was peaceful.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} The known account from a native Briton who lived in the mid-5th century AD, Gildas, described events as a forced takeover by armed attack:Gildas described how the Saxons were later slaughtered at the battle of Mons Badonicus 44 years before he wrote his history, and their conquest of Britain halted. The 8th-century English historian Bede tells how their advance resumed thereafter. He said this resulted in a swift overrunning of the entirety of South-Eastern Britain, and the foundation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.Four separate Saxon realms emerged:
  1. East Saxons: created the Kingdom of Essex.
  2. Middle Saxons: created the province of Middlesex
  4. West Saxons: created the Kingdom of Wessex

Later Saxons in Germany

File:Saxe_primitive.JPG|thumb|right|The later stem duchy of Saxony (circa 1000 AD), which was based in the Saxons' traditional homeland bounded by the rivers Ems, Eider and ElbeElbeThe Continental Saxons living in what was known as Old Saxony (c. 531-804) appear to have become consolidated by the end of the 8th century. After subjugation by the Emperor Charlemagne, a political entity called the Duchy of Saxony (804-1296) appeared, covering Westphalia, Eastphalia, Angria and Nordalbingia (Holstein, southern part of modern-day Schleswig-Holstein state).The Saxons long resisted becoming Christians"They are much given to devil worship," Einhard said, "and they are hostile to our religion," as when they martyred the Saints Ewald and being incorporated into the orbit of the Frankish kingdom. In 776 the Saxons promised to convert to Christianity and vow loyalty to the king, but, during Charlemagne's campaign in Hispania (778), the Saxons advanced to Deutz on the Rhine and plundered along the river. This was an oft-repeated pattern when Charlemagne was distracted by other matters.BOOK, Benjamin Lieberman, Remaking Identities: God, Nation, and Race in World History,weblink 22 March 2013, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 978-1-4422-1395-1, 53â€“, They were conquered by Charlemagne in a long series of annual campaigns, the Saxon Wars (772{{nsndns}}804). With defeat came enforced baptism and conversion as well as the union of the Saxons with the rest of the Germanic, Frankish empire. Their sacred tree or pillar, a symbol of Irminsul, was destroyed. Charlemagne also deported 10,000 Nordalbingian Saxons to Neustria and gave their now largely vacant lands in Wagria (approximately modern PlÃ¶n and Ostholstein districts) to the loyal king of the Abotrites. Einhard, Charlemagne's biographer, says on the closing of this grand conflict:The war that had lasted so many years was at length ended by their acceding to the terms offered by the king; which were renunciation of their national religious customs and the worship of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the Christian faith and religion, and union with the Franks to form one people.Under Carolingian rule, the Saxons were reduced to tributary status. There is evidence that the Saxons, as well as Slavic tributaries such as the Abodrites and the Wends, often provided troops to their Carolingian overlords. The dukes of Saxony became kings (Henry I, the Fowler, 919) and later the first emperors (Henry's son, Otto I, the Great) of Germany during the 10th century, but they lost this position in 1024. The duchy was divided in 1180 when Duke Henry the Lion refused to follow his cousin, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, into war in Lombardy.During the High Middle Ages, under the Salian emperors and, later, under the Teutonic Knights, German settlers moved east of the Saale into the area of a western Slavic tribe, the Sorbs. The Sorbs were gradually Germanised. This region subsequently acquired the name Saxony through political circumstances, though it was initially called the March of Meissen. The rulers of Meissen acquired control of the Duchy of Saxony (only a remnant of the previous Duchy) in 1423; they eventually applied the name Saxony to the whole of their kingdom. Since then, this part of eastern Germany has been referred to as Saxony (German: Sachsen), a source of some misunderstanding about the original homeland of the Saxons, with a central part in the present-day German state of Lower Saxony (German: Niedersachsen).


Social structure

Bede, a Northumbrian writing around the year 730, remarks that "the old (that is, the continental) Saxons have no king, but they are governed by several ealdormen (or satrapa) who, during war, cast lots for leadership but who, in time of peace, are equal in power." The regnum Saxonum was divided into three provinces â€“ Westphalia, Eastphalia and Angria â€“ which comprised about one hundred pagi or Gaue. Each Gau had its own satrap with enough military power to level whole villages that opposed him.Goldberg, 473.In the mid-9th century, Nithard first described the social structure of the Saxons beneath their leaders. The caste structure was rigid; in the Saxon language the three castes, excluding slaves, were called the edhilingui (related to the term aetheling), frilingi and lazzi. These terms were subsequently Latinised as nobiles or nobiliores; ingenui, ingenuiles or liberi; and liberti, liti or serviles.Goldberg, 471. According to very early traditions that are presumed to contain a good deal of historical truth, the edhilingui were the descendants of the Saxons who led the tribe out of Holstein and during the migrations of the 6th century. They were a conquering warrior elite. The frilingi represented the descendants of the amicii, auxiliarii and manumissi of that caste. The lazzi represented the descendants of the original inhabitants of the conquered territories, who were forced to make oaths of submission and pay tribute to the edhilingui.The Lex Saxonum regulated the Saxons' unusual society. Intermarriage between the castes was forbidden by the Lex, and wergilds were set based upon caste membership. The edhilingui were worth 1,440 solidi, or about 700 head of cattle, the highest wergild on the continent; the price of a bride was also very high. This was six times as much as that of the frilingi and eight times as much as the lazzi. The gulf between noble and ignoble was very large, but the difference between a freeman and an indentured labourer was small.Goldberg, 472.According to the Vita Lebuini antiqua, an important source for early Saxon history, the Saxons held an annual council at Marklo (Westphalia) where they "confirmed their laws, gave judgment on outstanding cases, and determined by common counsel whether they would go to war or be in peace that year." All three castes participated in the general council; twelve representatives from each caste were sent from each Gau. In 782, Charlemagne abolished the system of Gaue and replaced it with the Grafschaftsverfassung, the system of counties typical of Francia.Goldberg, 476. By prohibiting the Marklo councils, Charlemagne pushed the frilingi and lazzi out of political power. The old Saxon system of Abgabengrundherrschaft, lordship based on dues and taxes, was replaced by a form of feudalism based on service and labour, personal relationships and oaths.Goldberg, 479.


Germanic Religion

Saxon religious practices were closely related to their political practices. The annual councils of the entire tribe began with invocations of the gods. The procedure by which dukes were elected in wartime, by drawing lots, is presumed to have had religious significance, i.e. in giving trust to divine providence{{snd}}it seems{{snd}}to guide the random decision making.Goldberg, 474. There were also sacred rituals and objects, such as the pillars called Irminsul; these were believed to connect heaven and earth, as with other examples of trees or ladders to heaven in numerous religions. Charlemagne had one such pillar chopped down in 772 close to the Eresburg stronghold.Early Saxon religious practices in Britain can be gleaned from place names and the Germanic calendar in use at that time. The Germanic gods Woden, Frigg, Tiw and Thunor, who are attested to in every Germanic tradition, were worshipped in Wessex, Sussex and Essex. They are the only ones directly attested to, though the names of the third and fourth months (March and April) of the Old English calendar bear the names Hrethmonath and Eosturmonath, meaning "month of Hretha" and "month of Ä’ostre." It is presumed that these are the names of two goddesses who were worshipped around that season.Stenton, 97â€“98. The Saxons offered cakes to their gods in February (Solmonath). There was a religious festival associated with the harvest, Halegmonath ("holy month" or "month of offerings", September).Stenton The Saxon calendar began on 25 December, and the months of December and January were called Yule (or Giuli). They contained a Modra niht or "night of the mothers", another religious festival of unknown content.The Saxon freemen and servile class remained faithful to their original beliefs long after their nominal conversion to Christianity. Nursing a hatred of the upper class, which, with Frankish assistance, had marginalised them from political power, the lower classes (the plebeium vulgus or cives) were a problem for Christian authorities as late as 836. The Translatio S.{{nbsp}}Liborii remarks on their obstinacy in pagan ritus et superstitio (usage and superstition).Goldberg, 480.


File:Pictures of English History Plate V - Saint Augustine and the Saxons.jpg|thumb|right|1868 illustration of Augustine addressing the Saxons]]The conversion of the Saxons in England from their original Germanic religion to Christianity occurred in the early to late 7th century under the influence of the already converted Jutes of Kent. In the 630s, Birinus became the "apostle to the West Saxons" and converted Wessex, whose first Christian king was Cynegils. The West Saxons begin to emerge from obscurity only with their conversion to Christianity and keeping written records. The Gewisse, a West Saxon people, were especially resistant to Christianity; Birinus exercised more efforts against them and ultimately succeeded in conversion. In Wessex, a bishopric was founded at Dorchester. The South Saxons were first evangelised extensively under Anglian influence; Aethelwalh of Sussex was converted by Wulfhere, King of Mercia and allowed Wilfrid, Bishop of York, to evangelise his people beginning in 681. The chief South Saxon bishopric was that of Selsey. The East Saxons were more pagan than the southern or western Saxons; their territory had a superabundance of pagan sites.Stenton, 102. Their king, Saeberht, was converted early and a diocese was established at London. Its first bishop, Mellitus, was expelled by Saeberht's heirs. The conversion of the East Saxons was completed under Cedd in the 650s and 660s.The continental Saxons were evangelised largely by English missionaries in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. Around 695, two early English missionaries, Hewald the White and Hewald the Black, were martyred by the vicani, that is, villagers. Throughout the century that followed, villagers and other peasants proved to be the greatest opponents of Christianisation, while missionaries often received the support of the edhilingui and other noblemen. Saint Lebuin, an Englishman who between 745 and 770 preached to the Saxons, mainly in the eastern Netherlands, built a church and made many friends among the nobility. Some of them rallied to save him from an angry mob at the annual council at Marklo (near river Weser, Bremen). Social tensions arose between the Christianity-sympathetic noblemen and the pagan lower castes, who were staunchly faithful to their traditional religion.GoldbergUnder Charlemagne, the Saxon Wars had as their chief object the conversion and integration of the Saxons into the Frankish empire. Though much of the highest caste converted readily, forced baptisms and forced tithing made enemies of the lower orders. Even some contemporaries found the methods employed to win over the Saxons wanting, as this excerpt from a letter of Alcuin of York to his friend Meginfrid, written in 796, shows:If the light yoke and sweet burden of Christ were to be preached to the most obstinate people of the Saxons with as much determination as the payment of tithes has been exacted, or as the force of the legal decree has been applied for fault of the most trifling sort imaginable, perhaps they would not be averse to their baptismal vows.Goldberg, 478.Charlemagne's successor, Louis the Pious, reportedly treated the Saxons more as Alcuin would have wished, and as a consequence they were faithful subjects.Hummer, 141, based on Astronomus. The lower classes, however, revolted against Frankish overlordship in favour of their old paganism as late as the 840s, when the Stellinga rose up against the Saxon leadership, who were allied with the Frankish emperor Lothair I. After the suppression of the Stellinga, in 851 Louis the German brought relics from Rome to Saxony to foster a devotion to the Roman Catholic Church.Hummer, 143. The Poeta Saxo, in his verse Annales of Charlemagne's reign (written between 888 and 891), laid an emphasis on his conquest of Saxony. He celebrated the Frankish monarch as on par with the Roman emperors and as the bringer of Christian salvation to people. References are made to periodic outbreaks of pagan worship, especially of Freya, among the Saxon peasantry as late as the 12th century.

Christian literature


See also




External links

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Eastern Philosophy
History of Philosophy
M.R.M. Parrott