Wittekind's Baptism
Notwithstanding their many defeats and the massacre at Verden, the
Saxons were not completely subjugated. Infuriated by that dreadful
event, Wittekind and the Saxon leaders incited another uprising and
began a war of revenge. Charlemagne in consequence was forced to use
more strenuous measures than before. Two desperate battles were fought,
one at Detmold, which was not decisive, and the other at Hesse, between
the Ems and the Weser, in which the Saxons, who fought with almost
unexampled bravery, were completely routed. Charlemagne removed ten
thousand Saxons with their women and children to Brabant and Flanders,
where they found new homes, their old ones having been turned over to
Frankish settlers.
The King was now fully determined to put an end to any further
opposition by making an offensive campaign. Hitherto the Saxons had been
the aggressors, but this year (784) he invaded Saxony and advanced as
far as the Elbe. There he learned that Wittekind and Albion were on the
opposite shore of the river and that they were desirous of opening
negotiations with him. Accordingly he sent messengers to them promising
them safe conduct if they wished to meet him. Wittekind sent back word
that they were ready to tender allegiance and to be baptized, whereupon
Charlemagne arranged for a meeting at his castle at Attigny.[36] When
they arrived they were received so graciously that the King's kindness
offset the bitter necessity which had forced them to submit.
The reconciliation of Charlemagne and Wittekind amply justified the
former's attitude toward the Saxons. Wittekind, in the presence of the
great King, whose majesty and graciousness impressed him and whose words
animated him with a new spirit, felt that had he been in Charlemagne's
place he should have acted as the King had done. In view of the event at
Attigny, those who criticised Charlemagne were dwarfs whose weak eyes
could not see above his sword belt, much less appreciate the majestic
spirit that shone in his kingly face. In their own name and in the name
of their people, Wittekind and Albion vowed allegiance and were
baptized, together with a great number of Saxons. Geva, the wife of
Wittekind, who accompanied him, was also baptized. Charlemagne regarded
that day at Attigny as the most fortunate in his career. Wittekind, his
wife Geva, and Albion were loaded down with gifts and left for their
homes escorted by a guard of honor. In a letter to the Pope, Charlemagne
requested that a thanksgiving festival be ordered in commemoration of
the event.
[Illustration: _WITTEKIND'S Submission_]
It is related in the tradition concerning Wittekind's baptism that he
subsequently came in disguise to the castle when Charlemagne was
celebrating the Christmas festival, and that what he saw and heard there
removed the last vestige of his heathen belief and left him a true
Christian.