(2) Then followed the period of the Saxon wars, as
much a crusade against German heathenism as the vindication of old and dubious
claims to suzerainty. The first campaign against the Saxons had taken place in 772;
their final submission was not made till 785. The Saxons were still in that
stage of political development which Tacitus describes in his Germania,
ruled by petty chiefs who set up a war-leader when there was need for common
action, otherwise united only by racial sentiment and the cult of a tribal
deity. But they were a warlike race, and found in this crisis a leader of
genius, the famous Widukind. At last he set his followers the example of
embracing Christianity. Charles acted as sponsor at his baptism, and Widukind
became a loyal subject of his spiritual father. In a few years the whole of
Saxony was dotted with mission churches; in a few generations the Saxons were
conspicuous for their loyalty to the faith, and the Saxon bishops counted among
the wealthiest and most influential of ecclesiastical princes. It was through
Saxon rulers, descended from Widukind, that the imperial policy of Charles was
revived in the tenth century and the imperial diadem appropriated by the German
nation. Yet the Saxons sturdily adhered to their national laws and language;
their obstinate refusal to be ruled by other races was a stumbling-block to the
most masterful sovereigns that medieval Germany produced.
(3) During the years 786-787 Charles was threatened
with a conspiracy against his power in Italy. Tassilo, the vassal Duke of
Bavaria, aspired to independence and was induced by his wife, a daughter of King
Didier, to make common cause with her nation; Areghis, the Lombard ruler of Benevento,
had emphasised his independence by assuming the style and crown of a king. The
two princes made common cause, but were detected before their plans had
matured, and successively terrified into submission by the appearance of
overwhelming armies on their borders.
