Rothilde charlemagne biography summary

In the year , during his thirty year campaign to force the Saxons into accepting Christianity, the Frankish King, Charlemagne Charles the Great , destroyed the Saxon holy pillar, known as Irminsul, a sacred tree trunk in Saxon Paganism. Ten years after the destruction of Irminsul, and fifty years after the arrival of Saint Boniface to convert the Saxons to Christianity, King Charlemagne defeated the rebellious Saxons.

Constantine and charlemagne

Charlemagne ordered them to convert to Christianity or be beheaded. It is recorded in the Royal Frankish Annals the death of 4, Saxons. The slaughter and genocide took place in October , in what is now Lower Saxony, Germany, by the river Aller, in Verden. It is known today as The Massacre of Verden. Then all the Saxons came together again, submitted to the authority of the Lord King, and surrendered the evildoers who were chiefly responsible for this revolt to be put to death - four thousand and five hundred of them.

This sentence was carried out. Widukind was not among them, since he had fled to Nordmannia Denmark. When he had finished this business, the Lord King returned to Francia. Several years later, a Royal chronicler commenting on Charlemagne's treatment of the Saxons, states:. King Charlemagne is known today as the 'Slaughterer of the Saxons'.