It was in the effort to realize his grand idea that Charlemagne
undertook the numerous wars and expeditions that filled the forty-six
years of his reign. We shall not enter into the details of these wars;
but it is needful to understand their object and their result.
The most important of Charlemagne’s military enterprises were directed
against the fierce pagan nations of Germany and the wild Scythians in
the outlying lands beyond. To appreciate the importance of these we must
try to realize that the eastern frontier of the Frankish land, that is,
the eastern boundary of Charlemagne’s kingdom, on the German side of the
Rhine, ran into and abutted on the extensive stretch of country in
Middle Europe that was still in the hands of the various uncivilized
tribes. As long as these peoples remained in their warlike, savage, and
pagan condition, they would press heavily on the struggling civilization
of the Frankish kingdom, and would endanger, if not utterly destroy, its
progress. Hence to subdue and especially to Christianize these
tribes--to extend the domain of organized and law-governed society into
the desert waste of Teutonic barbarism--was a main object with
Charlemagne.