General Notes

Wittekind, the Great, last King of the Saxons, 1st Duke of Saxony 807. Byfar the greater number of the campaigns of Charlemagne were directedagainst the pagan Saxons, who almost alone of the German tribes retainedtheir ancient idolatry. Thirty years and more of his 47-year reign wereoccupied in these wars across the Rhine. Reduced to submission again andagain, as often did the Saxons rise in desperate revolt. Wittekind, theheroic King of the Saxons, was called the 2nd Arminius, who encouragedhis countrymen to resist to the last the intruders upon their soil. Onlyafter great massacre--at one time Charlemagne put 4500 Saxons todeath--did Wittekind and the Saxons yield and accepted Christianity astheir religion and Charlemagne as their sovereign. (Arminius, mentionedabove, was a Saxon leader of A. D. 9, who conquered the Roman Army ofAugustus Caesar, which was an event of greatest significance in thehistory of European civilization. The Teutonic tribes were on the pointof being completely subjugated and Romanized, as had the Celts of Gaulbefore them. Had this occurred, the entire history of Europe would havebeen changed, and had Rome succeeded in exterminating them or enslavingthem, Britain would never have the name of England and the English nationwould never have had an existence.)