Saxons

Quick Facts: Who was Saxons?

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Saxons

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A Germanic people of early medieval Northern Germany, whose history spans from ancient raiders to a major duchy.

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Origins & Early Life

The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony (Latin: Antiqua Saxonia) which became a Carolingian "stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like them, speakers of West Germanic dialects, including both the Franks and Thuringians to the south, and the coastal Frisians, Angles and Danes to the north who were among the peoples who were originally referred to as "Saxons" in the context of early raiding and settlements in Roman Britain and Gaul. To their east were Obotrites and other Slavic-speaking peoples. The political history of these continental Saxons is unclear until the 8th century and the conflict between their semi-legendary hero Widukind and the Frankish emperor Charlemagne. They do not appear to have been politically united until the generations of conflict leading up to that defeat, before which they were reportedly ruled by regional "satraps".

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Previous Frankish rulers of Austrasia, both Merovingian and Carolingian, fought numerous campaigns against Saxons, both in the west near the Lippe, Ems and Weser, and further east, near Thuringia and Bohemia, including the area which later medieval sources referred to as "North Swabia". Charlemagne conquered all the Saxons after winning the long Saxon Wars (772–804 AD) and forced them to convert to Christianity, annexing Saxony into the Carolingian domain. Under the Carolingian Franks Saxony became a single Stem duchy, fitting it within the basic political structure of the later Holy Roman Empire. The early rulers of this Duchy of Saxony expanded their territories—and therefore those of the Holy Roman Empire—to the east, at the expense of Slavic-speaking Wends. Long before any clear historical mention of Saxony as a state, the name "Saxons" was also used to refer to coastal raiders who attacked the Roman Empire from north of the Rhine, in a sense similar to the much later term Viking.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

These early raiders and settlers included Frisians, Angles and Jutes, and the term Saxon was not at that time a term for any specific tribe. Earlier still, there is a single possible classical reference to a smaller and much earlier Saxon tribe in the second century AD, but the interpretation of this text ("Axones" in most surviving manuscripts) is disputed. For historians who accept this record, the original Saxon tribe lived north of the mouth of the Elbe, close to the probable homeland of the Angles, in the part of later Saxony which later came to be known as Nordalbingia. Today the Saxons of Germany no longer form a distinctive ethnic group or country, but their name lives on in the names of several regions and states of Germany, including Lower Saxony (German: Niedersachsen) which includes most of the original duchy. Their language evolved into Low German which was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League, but has faced a long and gradual decline since the Late Medieval period as a literary, administrative and, to a significant extent, cultural language in favor of Dutch and German.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Saxons

True or False: “The term 'Saxon' was originally used only to describe the settled agricultural communities within modern-day Saxony.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): Initially, the term 'Saxon' was also applied broadly to coastal raiders who attacked the Roman Empire from north of the Rhine, including Frisians and Angles.

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