''England'', in G脿idhlig, is ''Sasainn'' (Saxony). Other examples are the Welsh ''Saesneg'' (the English language), Irish ''Sasana'' (England), Breton ''saoz(on)'' (English, ''saozneg'' "the English language", Bro-saoz "England"), and Cornish ''Sowson'' (English people) and ''Sowsnek'' (English language), as in the famous ''My ny vynnav kows Sowsnek!'' (''I will not speak English!'').

During Georg Friederich H盲ndel's visit to Italy, much was made of his being from Saxony; in particular, the Venetians greeted the 1709 performance of his opera ''Agrippina'' with the cry ''Viva il caro Sassone'', "Long live the beloved Saxon!"

The word also survives as the surnames Sa脽/Sass, Sachse and Sachs. The Dutch female first name "Saskia" originally meant "A Saxon woman" (alteration of "Saxia").

History

Early history

The first undisputed mention of the Saxon name in its modern form is from 356, when Julian, later the Roman Emperor, mentioned them in a speech as allies of Magnentius, a rival emperor in Gaul. All mentions of the Saxons during the 4th and early 5th centuries referred to pirates and warlords in Gaul and Britain, rather than to a specific tribe or inhabitants of a specific area. In order to defend against Saxon raiders, the Romans created a military district called the ''Litus Saxonicum'' ("Saxon Coast") on both sides of the English Channel. In 441/442, Saxons are mentioned for the first time as inhabitants of Britain, when an unknown Gaulish historian wrote: "Britain falls under the rule of the Saxons".

Saxons as inhabitants of present-day Northern Germany are first mentioned in 555, when Theudebald, the Frankish king, died and the Saxons used this opportunity for an uprising. The uprising was suppressed by Chlothar I, Theudebald's successor. Some of their Frankish successors fought against the Saxons, others were allied with them; Chlothar II won a decisive victory against the Saxons. The Thuringians frequently appeared as allies of the Saxons.

The Saxons may have derived their name from ''seax'', a kind of knife for which they were known. The seax has a lasting symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex, both of which featuring three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem.

Continental Saxons

Saxony

The Saxons long resisted both becoming Christians and being incorporated into the orbit of the Frankish kingdom, but they were decisively conquered by Charlemagne in a long series of annual campaigns, the Saxon Wars (772 鈥� 804). During Charlemagne's campaign in Hispania (778), the Saxons advanced to Deutz on the Rhine and plundered along the river. With defeat came enforced baptism and conversion as well as the union of the Saxons with the rest of the Germanic, Frankish empire. Their sacred tree or pillar, a symbol of Irminsul, was destroyed. Charlemagne also deported 10,000 of them to Neustria and gave their now vacant lands to the loyal king of the Abotrites. It is constructive now to quote Einhard, Charlemagne's biographer, on the closing of such a grand conflict:

"The war that had lasted so many years was at length ended by their acceding to the terms offered by the King; which were renunciation of their national religious customs and the worship of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the Christian faith and religion, and union with the Franks to form one people."

Under Carolingian rule, the Saxons were reduced to tributary status. There is evidence that the Saxons, as well as Slavic tributaries such as the Abodrites and the Wends, often provided troops to their Carolingian overlords. The dukes of Saxony became kings (Henry I, the Fowler, 919) and later the first emperors (Henry's son, Otto I, the Great) of Germany during the 10th century, but they lost this position in 1024. The duchy was divided up in 1180 when Duke Henry the Lion, Emperor Otto's grandson, refused to follow his cousin, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, into war in Lombardy.

During the High Middle Ages, under the Salian emperors and, later, under the Teutonic Knights, German settlers moved east of the River Saale into the area of a western Slavic tribe, the Sorbs. The Sorbs were gradually Germanised. This region subsequently acquired the name Saxony through political circumstances, though it was initially called the March of Meissen. The rulers of Meissen acquired control of the Duchy of Saxony in 1423 and eventually applied the name ''Saxony'' to the whole of their kingdom. Since then, this part of eastern Germany has been referred to as Saxony (German: ''Sachsen''), a source of some misunderstanding about the original homeland of the Saxons, with a central part in the present-day German state of Lower Saxony (German: ''Niedersachsen'').

Netherlands

The local language, although strongly influenced by standard Dutch, is still officially recognized as Dutch Low Saxon.

Italy and Provence

Gaul

Some Saxons already lived along the Saxon shore of Gaul. We can trace them in the documents, but in the archeology and in the toponymy too. The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' mentions the ''Tribunus cohortis primae novae Armoricanae, Grannona in litore Saxonico''. The location of ''Grannona'' is uncertain and was identified by the historians and toponymists at different places, mainly with the town known today as Granville (nowadays in Normandy) or nearby. The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' does not explain where these "Roman" soldiers came from. Some toponymists proposed another location for ''Grannona'' / ''Grannonum'', that is to say Graignes (''Grania'' 1109 - 1113). It could be the same element ''*gran'', that is recognized in Guernsey (''Greneroi'' 11th c.). This location is closer to Bayeux, where Gregory of Tours evokes otherwise the ''Saxones Bajocassini'' (Bessin Saxons), that were ineffective to defeat the Breton Waroch in 579.

So thus, a Saxon unit of ''laeti'' would have been settled at Bayeux — the ''Saxones Baiocassenses'' — . These Saxons became subjects of Clovis I late in the fifth century. The Saxons of Bayeux comprised a standing army and were often called upon to serve alongside the local levy of their region in Merovingian military campaigns. They were ineffective against Waroch in this capacity in 579. In 589, the Saxons wore their hair in the Breton fashion at the orders of Fredegund and fought with them as allies against Guntram. Beginning in 626, the Saxons of the Bessin were used by Dagobert I for his campaigns against the Basques. One of their own, Aeghyna, was even created a ''dux'' over the region of Vasconia.

In 843 and 846 under king Charles the Bald, other official documents mention a ''pagus'' called ''Otlinga Saxonia'' in the Bessin region, but the meaning of ''Otlinga'' is unclear. Different Bessin toponyms were identified as typically Saxon, ex : Cottun (''Coltun'' 1035 - 1037 ; ''Cola'' 's "town"). It is the only place-name in Normandy that can be interpreted as a ''-tun'' one (English ''-ton''; cf. Colton). However, we cannot compare this single fact in Normandy with the extension of the ''-thun'' villages in the north of France, in Boulonnais, ex : Alincthun, Verlincthun, Pelingthun, etc. showing with other toponyms, an important Saxon or Anglo-Saxon settlement. If we compare the concentration of ''-ham'' / ''-hem'' (Anglo-Saxon ''h膩m'' > home) in the Bessin and in the Boulonnais, we obtain a better result. In the area known today as Normandy, the ''-ham'' cases of Bessin are unique, they don't exist out of it. Other cases were considered, but there is no determining example, f.e. : Canehan (''Kenehan'' 1030 / ''Canaan'' 1030 - 1035) could be the biblical name ''Canaan'' or Airan (''Heidram'' 9th c.), the Germanic masculine name ''Hairammus''.

On the contrary, the Bessin examples are quite sure. f. e. Ouistreham (''Oistreham'' 1086), 脡tr茅ham (''Oesterham'' 1350 ?), Huppain (''*Hubbehain'' ; ''Hubba'' 's "home"), Surrain (''Surrehain'' 11th c.), etc. Another significant example can be found in the Norman onomastics: the widespread surname Lecesne, with variant spellings : Le Cesne, Les猫ne, Lec猫ne and Cesne. It comes from Gallo-Romance *SAXINU "the Saxon" > ''saisne'' in Old French. These examples cannot be more recent Anglo-Scandinavian toponyms, because in that case they would have been numerous in the Norman regions (pays de Caux, Basse-Seine, North-Cotentin) concerned by these Nordic settlements. That is not the case, and Bessin does not belong to the ''pagii'' that were touched by an important Anglo-Scandinavian immigration.

Otherwise, archeological finds add evidence to the documents and the results of toponymic research. All around the city of Caen and in the Bessin (Vierville-sur-Mer, B茅nouville, Giverville, H茅rouvillette), excavations have shown numerous Anglo-Saxon jewelry, design elements, settings and weapons. All these things were discovered in cemeteries in a context of the 5th, 6th and 7th century AD.

However, the oldest and most spectacular Saxon site found in France to date is Vron, in Picardy. There, archeologists excavated a large cemetery with tombs dating from the Roman Empire until the 6th century. Furniture and other gravegoods, as well as the human remains revealed a group of people buried in the 4th and 5th century AD. Physically different from the usual local inhabitants found before this period, they instead resembled the Germanic populations of the North. At the beginning (4th c.) 92% were buried, sometimes with typical Germanic weapons. Then, they were ranked to the east, when they were buried in the 5th and later to the beginning of the 6th c. We can notice a strong Anglo-Saxon influence in the middle of the period, that disappears later. Archeological material, neighbouring toponymy and texts tend toward to the same conclusions: settlement of Saxon foederati with their families. Further anthropological research by Jo毛l Blondiaux shows they were from Low Saxony.

Saxons in Britain

Historians are divided about what followed: some argue that the takeover of southern Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was peaceful. There is, however, only one known account from a native Briton who lived at this time (Gildas), and his description is of a forced takeover:

For the fire...spread from sea to sea, fed by the hands of our foes in the east, and did not cease, until, destroying the neighbouring towns and lands, it reached the other side of the island, and dipped its red and savage tongue in the western ocean. In these assaults...all the columns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being buried, save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts and birds; with reverence be it spoken for their blessed souls, if, indeed, there were many found who were carried, at that time, into the high heaven by the holy angels... Some, therefore, of the miserable remnant, being taken in the mountains, were murdered in great numbers; others, constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves to be slaves for ever to their foes, running the risk of being instantly slain, which truly was the greatest favour that could be offered them: some others passed beyond the seas with loud lamentations instead of the voice of exhortation...Others, committing the safeguard of their lives, which were in continual jeopardy, to the mountains, precipices, thickly wooded forests, and to the rocks of the seas (albeit with trembling hearts), remained still in their country.

Four separate Saxon realms emerged: # East Saxons: created the Kingdom of Essex. # Middle Saxons: created the province of Middlesex # South Saxons: led by Aelle, created the Kingdom of Sussex # West Saxons: created the Kingdom of Wessex

During the period of the reigns from Egbert to Alfred the Great, the kings of Wessex emerged as Bretwalda, unifying the country and eventually forging it into the kingdom of England in the face of Viking invasions.

Culture

Social structure

In the mid-9th century, Nithard first described the social structure of the Saxons beneath their leaders. The caste structure was rigid; in the Saxon language the three castes, excluding slaves, were called the ''edhilingui'' (related to the term aetheling), ''frilingi'', and ''lazzi''. These terms were subsequently Latinised as ''nobiles'' or ''nobiliores''; ''ingenui'', ''ingenuiles'', or ''liberi''; and ''liberti'', ''liti'', or ''serviles''. According to very early traditions that it is presumed contain a good deal of historical truth, the ''edhilingui'' were the descendants of the Saxons who led the tribe out of Holstein and during the migrations of the sixth century.

According to the ''Vita Lebuini antiqua'', an important source for early Saxon history, the Saxons held an annual council at Marklo where they "confirmed their laws, gave judgment on outstanding cases, and determined by common counsel whether they would go to war or be in peace that year." Charlemagne outlawed the Marklo councils and thus pushed the ''frilingi'' and ''lazzi'' out of political power. The old Saxon system of ''Abgabengrundherrschaft'', lordship based on dues and taxes, was replaced by a form of feudalism based on service and labour, personal relationships, and oaths.

Religion

Paganism

Something of early Saxon religious practices in Britain can be gleaned from place names. The Germanic gods Woden, Frigg, Tiw, and Thunor, who are attested to in every Germanic tradition, were worshipped in Wessex, Sussex, and Essex, and they are the only ones directly attested to, though the names of the third and fourth months (March and April) of the Old English calendar bear the names ''Hrethmonath'' and ''Eosturmonath'', meaning "month of Hretha" and "month of 膾ostre", it is presumed from the names of two goddesses who were worshipped around that season. The Saxons offered cakes to their gods in February (''Solmonath'') and there was a religious festival associated with the harvest, ''Halegmonath'' ("holy month" or month of offerings", September). The Saxon calendar began on 25 December, and the months of December and January were called Yule (or ''Giuli'') and contained a ''Modra niht'' or "night of the mothers", another religious festival of unknown content.

The Saxon freemen and servile class remained faithful to their original beliefs long after their nominal conversion to Christianity. Nursing a hatred of the upper class, which, with Frankish assistance, had marginalised them from political power, the lower classes (the ''plebeium vulgus'' or ''cives'') were still a problem for Christian authorities as late as 836, when the ''Translatio S. Liborii'' remarks on their obstinacy in pagan ''ritus et superstitio'' (usage and superstition).

Conversion and resistance

The continental Saxons were evangelised largely by English missionaries in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. Around 695, two early English missionaries, Hewald the White and Hewald the Black, were martyred by the ''vicani'', that is, villagers.

Under Charlemagne, the Saxon Wars had as their chief object the conversion and integration of the Saxons into the Frankish empire. Though much of the highest caste converted readily, forced baptisms and forced tithing made enemies of the lower orders. Even some contemporaries found the methods employed to win over the Saxons wanting, as this excerpt from a letter of Alcuin of York to his friend Meginfrid, written in 796, shows:

If the light yoke and sweet burden of Christ were to be preached to the most obstinate people of the Saxons with as much determination as the payment of tithes has been exacted, or as the force of the legal decree has been applied for fault of the most trifling sort imaginable, perhaps they would not be averse to their baptismal vows.

Vernacular Christianity

From an early date, Charlemagne and Louis the Pious supported Christian vernacular works in order to evangelise the Saxons more efficiently. The ''Heliand'', a verse epic of the life of Christ in a Germanic setting, and ''Genesis'', another epic retelling of the events of the first book of the Bible, were commissioned in the early ninth century by Louis to disseminate scriptural knowledge to the masses. A council of Tours in 813 and then a synod of Mainz in 848 both declared that homilies ought to be preached in the vernacular. The earliest preserved text in the Saxon language is a baptismal vow from the late eighth or early ninth century; the vernacular was used extensively in an effort to Christianise the lowest castes of Saxon society.

See also

Notes

References

External links

Category:Ancient peoples Category:Ancient Germanic peoples Category:Germanic peoples Category:Ethnic groups in Europe Category:History of the Germanic peoples Category:Iron Age Europe Category:Saxons Category:West Germanic peoples