Hello everyone and welcome back to the Viking Age podcast. My name is Lee and this is episode 27, Charlemagne and the Saxon Wars Part 2.

This is the fifth episode in our series on the Carolingian Viking Age.

Last time, we talked about the early years of Charlemagne's reign, with particular

focus spent on the campaigns, which marked the beginning of the three decades-long conflict

we know today as the Saxon Wars. Specifically, we spent quite a bit of time talking about

the Saxons as a people, who they

were, how they organized themselves, and what religion they practiced.

With our view of the Saxons firmly established, we then shifted focus to the Franks

and examined what exactly motivated Charlemagne to adopt a strategy of

open warfare against his neighbors to the north. And what we found was that his intention was nothing

less than the complete conquest and conversion of the whole of Saxony. What we found was that Charlemagne was motivated as much by

religious concerns as he was by territorial ambitions in his campaign against the Saxons.

For the King of the Franks, the conversion of these pagans was just as important as gaining military and political control

over their lands. Indeed, when we last left the King of the Franks in the year 775, he had,

according to the revised Royal Frankish Annals, quote, decided to attack the treacherous and treaty-breaking tribe of the Saxons,

and to persist in this war until they were either defeated and forced to accept

the Christian religion or entirely exterminated.

End quote.

For Charlemagne, nothing less than the complete submission and Christianization of the

Saxons would be acceptable. And the Saxon wars were on. To this end, we are told that in 775 CE,

the King of the Franks called together the yearly assembly of his people, and from there,

the full might of the Frankish armies marched east into Saxony. They reached as far as the

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