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First mentioned by the Ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy , the Pre-Christian settlement of the Saxon people originally covered an area a little more to the Northwest, with parts of the southern Jutland peninsula, Old Saxony and small sections of the eastern Netherlands . During the 5th century AD the Saxons were part of the people invading Great Britain and forming the Anglo-Saxons . The word 'Saxon' is believed to be derived from the word Seax , meaning a variety of single-edged Knive s. The Saxons were considered by Charlemagne , and some historians, to be especially war-like and ferocious. CONTINENTAL SAXONS The Anglo-Saxon historian Bede writing around the year 730 remarks that "the old Saxons have no king, but they are governed by several eorldermen (satrapas) who during war cast lots for leadership, but who in time of peace are equal in power". However, the territory appears to have consolidated itself and by the end of the 8th Century there was a political entity called the Duchy Of Saxony . The Saxons long avoided becoming Christians (see Ewald The Black ) and being incorporated into the orbit of the Frankish kingdom, but were decisively conquered by Charlemagne in a long series of annual campaigns ( 772 - 804 ). With defeat came the enforced Baptism and Conversion of the Saxon leaders and their people. Even their sacred tree, Irminsul , was destroyed. Under Carolingian rule, the Saxons were reduced to a tributary status. There is evidence that the Saxons, as well as Slavic tributaries like 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 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 Italy. Only during the late Middle Ages, settlements of the Saxon people further extended into the area in eastern Germany known as the ''(German: Niedersachsen)''. The label "Saxons" was also applied to German Settlers who migrated during the 13th Century to south-eastern Transylvania in present-day Romania , where their descendants numbered a quarter of a million in the early decades of the 20th Century . Most have left since World War II , many of them during the 1970s and 1980s due to the Romanianisation policies of the Ceauşescu regime. The German-speaking minority in Romania is still referred to as Transylvanian Saxons . INVASION OF GREAT BRITAIN A number of Saxons, along with Angles , Jutes , Frisians and possibly Franks , invaded or migrated to the island of Great Britain ( Britannia ) around the time of the collapse of Roman authority in the west. Saxon raiders had been harassing the eastern and southern shores of Britannia for centuries before - prompting the construction of a string of coastal forts called the litora Saxonica or Saxon Shore and many Saxons and other folk had been permitted to settle in these areas as farmers long before the end of Roman rule in Britannia . However, in 449 following a particularly devastating raid in the north from the Picts and their allies the Romano-British administration invited two Jutish warlords - namely Hengist and Horsa - to occupy the island of Thanet in north Kent and act as mercenaries against the Picts at sea. After the Jutes had executed this mission and defeated the Picts they returned with demands for more lands. When this was rejected they rose in revolt and provoked an insurrection amongst all the settled farming folk of Germanic stock with them. Three separate Saxon Kingdoms emerged 1. The East Saxons: Settled around Colchester, creating the area of Essex. 2. The South Saxons: led by Aelle , created the area of Sussex 3. The West Saxons: led by Cerdic , ruled the Kingdom of Wessex from their capital Winchester. During the period of Ecbert to Alfred the kings of Wessex emerged as Bretwalda , unifying the country, with the shorter-lived Middlesex eventually became part of the kingdom of England in the face of Danish Viking invasions. Historians are divided about what followed. Some argue that the takeover of lowland Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was peaceful. However, there is only one known account from a native Briton who lived at this time ( Gildas ) and his description is anything but:
Wars between the native Romano-Britons and the invading Jutes , Saxons and Angles continued for over 400 years with the Britons being gradually driven to and contained in the mountain strongholds of Wales , south west and north west England and Strathclyde . Some fled over the sea to Brittany . Collectively the Germanic settlers of Great Britain, mostly Saxons, Angles and Jutes, came to be called the Anglo-Saxons . Both Old English and modern Middle Low German are derived from Old Saxon . MODERN REMNANTS OF THE SAXON NAME In the Finnish and Estonian languages the words that historically applied to ancient Saxons have changed their meaning over the centuries to denote the whole country of Germany (''Saksa'' in both) and the Germans (''saksalaiset'' and ''sakslased'', respectively) now. In some Celtic Languages the word for the English nationality is derived from Saxon, e.g. the Scottish term '' Sassenach '', the Breton ''Saouzon'' and the Welsh term ''Sais''. EXTERNAL LINKS |