Part III
The Saxon Line
The Saxons were a Teutonic people mentioned for the first time by Ptolemy about the middle of the 2nd century who occupied the neck of the Cimbric peninsula, lying in the modern province of Schleswig, between Germany and Denmark. We next hear of them in connection with piratical expeditions in the North Sea about the year 286. These raids became more frequent, and at the beginning of the 5th century, they occupied the northern coast of Gaul and the south-east coast of Britain, and a considerable portion of north-west Germany. According to their own traditions they landed at Hadeln in the neighborhood of Cuxhaven and seized the surrounding districts.
Early Saxony was a stronghold of heathenism. The prolonged resistance which the Saxons offered to Christianity, was chiefly a result of their hostility to the Franks, who threatened their independence. The reduction of the Saxons was attempted by Charles Martel and Pippin the Short and was finally carried through in a series of campaigns by Charlemagne. Each of his expeditions bit deeper than its predecessor into the heart of Germany, leaving behind it bitter memories of forced conversion, deportations and massacre. It should not, however, be thought that Charlemagne�s treatment of the Saxons sprang only from political considerations. He was as sincerely resolved to fulfill with fire and sword his missionary duty as a Christian ruler, as were the Saxons to resist conversion and to uphold the bloodthirsty pagan rites of their ancestors. The most famous leader of Saxon resistance was a certain Widukind, for longer than any other Saxon. Resistance gave them a certain racial unity, but they were not politically united among themselves, let alone with other Germans. They continued to live upon their estates among the forest clearings. In 772 Charlemagne destroyed their great sanctuary near Marsberg on the Diemel. This was marked by a great wooden pillar called Irminsul, the center of Saxon worship. By 797, Widukind had finally surrendered and was baptized.
The conversion of the Saxons to Christianity, progressed, and continued through the reign of Louis I. Bishorics were established; the abbey of Corvey became a center of learning for the country, and the Saxons undertook with eagerness, the conversion of their heathen neighbors. Saxony was slowly integrated.
By the treaty of Verdun in 843 Saxony fell to Louis the German, but he paid little attention to the northern part of his kingdom, which was harassed by the Normans and the Slavs. About 850, he appointed a Saxon noble named Liudolf as margrave.