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Old Saxony was the homeland of the Saxons who fought the Frankish empire during the Early Middle Ages, until they conquered it and converted it into a Carolingian stem duchy in the 8th century, the Duchy of Saxony. Contemporary authors such as Bede and the author of the Ravenna Cosmography used the term "Old Saxons" to distinguish them from the Saxons living in Britain, also known as Anglo-Saxons, who they believed had migrated from Old Saxony. Roman sources as far back as the fourth century had described these continental Saxons as northern neighbours of the Franks, who lived near the Lower Rhine. They do not appear to have been politically unified, although they sometimes worked together to fight the Franks. Bede described them as ruled by "satraps".
Old Saxony, like the later duchy of Saxony, included the inland regions later known as Eastphalia, Westphalia and Angria (or Angaria), between the Rhine and Elbe rivers. They possibly also already lived in Nordalbingia, north of the mouth of the Elbe. There is a single uncertain report of a smaller Saxon tribe living in this region in the second century, and this may represent the origin of their name. During their wars with the Frankish empire, the Saxons were described as living north of the Thuringians, as far east as the Elbe. By the time of the Carolingians, most of the North Sea coast between the Rhine and Elbe was inhabited not by the Saxons, but by the medieval Frisians, who were seen as distinct from the Saxons.
Apart from the Frisian coastal area, the Duchy which was formed from this homeland was contained the modern German federal state of Lower Saxony, together with the eastern, , part of modern North Rhine-Westphalia, the part of part of Schleswig-Holstein) and western part of Saxony-Anhalt (Eastphalia), which all lie in northwestern Germany. These old Saxon regions should not be confused with the modern German state of Saxony, which is in eastern Germany, adjoining the northwest border of the Czech Republic.
However, other copies call the same tribe Axones, and it is considered likely that it is a misspelling of the tribe that Tacitus in his Germania called Aviones. These earliest known tribal Saxons inhabited "Northern Albingia", a region bordering the northern bank of the mouth of River Elbe in what is now Western Holstein. As land became scarce, the Saxon population began to expand southward where it absorbed indigenous populations such as Cherusci, Chamavi and Chatti, and remaining portions of the Langobardi (Lombards) and Suebi. This broader domain is called "Old Saxony". The Chauci, according to Tacitus, also lived in the general area later known as Old Saxony and were highly respected among Germanic tribes. He describes them as peaceful, calm, and levelheaded. At some point they may have merged with, or were perhaps synonymous to, the Saxons.
It has been claimed that the Old Saxons were composed of an aristocracy of nobles, a free warrior class of distinction and renown, leading freemen united and controlled by ancient custom of kindred and clan.
"Social differences were jealously guarded by social prescription. The death penalty was imposed on any man who married above his rank; the marriage of a man below his station was severely condemned; bastardy was not tolerated; intermarriage between Saxons and other Germans was frowned upon; and strangers were hated. So tenaciously did the Saxons cling to their ancient customary law that clear traces of these social survivals persisted in Saxony down through the Middle Ages."James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 170 ("Old Saxony" chapter).
The cultural and linguistic changes were stark and led to the creation of various Anglo-Saxons kingdoms in England including that of the South Saxons (Sussex), the West Saxons (Wessex) and the East Saxons (Essex) alongside others established by the Angles and the Jutes and are the foundations of the modern England nation.
For the most part, the Saxon lands were a broad plain, save on the south, where they rose into hills and the low mountainous country of the Harz and Hesse. This low divide was all that separated the country of the Saxons from their ancient enemies and ultimate conquerors, the Franks. The lack of clear physical definition along this border, from time immemorial, had been the cause of incessant tribal conflict between them. Saxons as inhabitants of present-day Northern Germany are mentioned in 555, when Theudebald, the Frankish king, died and the Saxons used this opportunity for war. The Saxons were defeated by Chlothar I, Theudebald's successor. Some of their Frankish successors fought against the Saxons, while others were allied with them; Chlothar II won a decisive victory against the Saxons.
The Saxons' reluctance to accept the new Christian religion and propensity to mount destructive raids on their neighbours would eventually bring them into direct conflict with Charlemagne, the powerful king of the Franks and later emperor. After a bloody and highly attritious Saxon Wars between 772–804 the Old Saxons led by Widukind were eventually subdued by Charlemagne and ultimately forced to convert to Christianity.
The bonds of kindred and clan were particularly strong among the Saxons, and in spite of many divisions the Saxons were an unusually homogeneous nation living as late as the 8th century as the early Germans described by Tacitus in Germania had lived. The long warfare with the Franks largely reduced but did not wholly obliterate their distinct cultural identity.
Adam of Bremen, writing in the 11th century, compared the shape of Old Saxony to a triangle, and estimated from angle to angle the distance was eight days journey. In area Old Saxony was the greatest of the German stem duchy. It included the entire territory between the lower Elbe and Saale rivers almost to the Rhine. Between the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser it bordered the North Sea. The only parts of the territory which lay across the Elbe were the counties of Holstein and Ditmarsch. The tribal lands were roughly divided into four kindred groups: the , along the right bank of the Weser; the , along the Ems and the Lippe; the , on the left bank of the Weser; and the , in modern Holstein. But not even with these four tribal groups was the term of tribal division reached. For the Saxon “nation” was really a loose collection of clans of kindred stock. For example, the Nordalbingians alone were divided into lesser groups: Holsteiners, Sturmarii, Bardi, and the men of Ditmarsch.James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
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