It were undesirable to recount them in detail, for the relation
would be monotonous and useless; but it is obligatory to make fully
known their causes, their characteristic incidents, and their results.
Under the last Merovingian kings, the Saxons were, on the right bank of
the Rhine, in frequent collision with the Franks, especially with the
Austrasian Franks, whose territory they were continually threatening and
often invading. Pepin the Short had more than once hurled them back far
from the very uncertain frontiers of Germanic Austrasia; and, on
becoming king, he dealt his blows still farther, and entered, in his
turn, Saxony itself. "In spite of the Saxon's stout resistance," says
Eginhard, "he pierced through the points they had fortified to bar
entrance into their country, and, after having fought here and there
battles wherein fell many Saxons, he forced them to promise that they
would submit to his rule; and that every year, to do him honor, they
would send to the general assembly of Franks a present of three hundred
horses. When these conventions were once settled, he insisted, to insure
their performance, upon placing them under the guarantee of rites
peculiar to the Saxons; then he returned with his army to Gaul.
Pages:
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680