Saxon

In the island of Brittany

A part of them, as well as Angles, Jutes and Clippings, invaded the Great Britain at the beginning of the Moyen-âge.

According to the English tradition and as brings it back Bède Worthy the, the first of them would have been directed by two brothers, Hengist and Horsa and would have come at the instigation from the Breton king Vortigern, towards 450, in order to defend the island of Brittany against the Pictes, a not romanized indigenous tribe. Archeology, as for it, attests the presence of Germanic mercenaries in the neighborhoods of London as of the first years of the 5th century.

See dark Ages of the island of Brittany .

At all events, the arrival of Saxon and the political disturbances relating to the parcelling out of Roman Brittany in many kingdoms resulted in one dark period, that the English historiography recorded under the name of Dark Ages (literally, “dark ages”). A massive depopulation, related on the calamities of the war and the epidemics, also seems to have supported the germanisation of the old Roman province at the 5th century.

Undoubtedly as of the 6th century, the Saxon ones constituted four kingdoms in the south of the island: the Essex, the Sussex, and the Wessex (respectively grounds saxonnes of the East, the South and the West) as well as the Middlesex, more transitory since it was annexed to the ground of the Angles, the '' Angle '' ground ( Eng Land). As a whole, the Saxon ones also showed a rather strong resistance to the Christianity which gained the kingdom of Kent at the beginning of the 7th century, under the influence of the Roman missionary Paulinus.

So as of the 7th century the presence of Bretwaldas , kinds of “on-kings” is attested among the Anglo-Saxons of Great Britain, it is only at the 10th century that a dynasty saxonne, namely that of Wessex, was essential finally on the island under the reign of Alfred Large the and for one short period until the invasion Norman.

The language of Saxon gave rise to the Old English the Vieil English, and is prolonged today still in the Low-Saxon dialect .

Saxon the “continental ones” with the Early middle ages

The majority of Saxon remained however on the continent, where they still formed a pagan nation at the 8th century in spite of the efforts of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries. Many the latter, indeed, came on the continent, mainly of Northumbrie, and professed their faith into Germanic in the hope to convert their “brothers” remained in the error: most known Willibrord (657 are ? - 738?) and Holy Boniface (680 - 755), which évangélisèrent the Frisons.

At the extreme end of VIIIe century, the Saxon ones of Germanie were built-in a Duché of Saxony. Charlemagne - following the annual campaigns that it carried out, of 772 with 804 - their imposed the Baptême: the Saxon chiefs, like their people, became Christian, probably to gain the peace following the example most famous of them: Widukind, a long time savage opposing to the vagueness of Christianization occurred in the orbit of the kingdom of the Frank (to read Germanic franque) .

According to the habit Carolingian, the Saxon ones were then compelled with the payment of a tribute and, like the people Slaves of the Abodrites and the Wendes, they had thereafter to provide troops to their Suzerain.

The dukes of Saxony reigned on Germany at the 10th century but their kingdom was dismantled in 1180.

The Maison of Saxony reigned on two States: the Kingdom of Saxony then the Thuringe, which became later on the duchy of Saxony.

Thereafter, the duchy of Saxony became a “electorate of Saxony” in the Germanic Empire, then was divided into a duchy and an electorate. Several duchies coexisted then with the electorate: duchies of Saxony-Cobourg, Saxony-Gotha-Altenbourg, Saxony-Lauenbourg, Saxony-Meiningen, Saxony-Weimar and Saxony-Hildburghausen.

The territory known under the name of Kingdom of Saxony of 1806 with 1918, and which is located at the south-east of the Germany, owes as for him its name with the acquisition of the Duché of Saxony by the Margrave of Meissen in 1423 and is in fact beyond the grounds saxonnes.

Saxon of Transylvania

Saxon colonists emigrated at the 13th century in Transylvania, in current Romania, where they constituted a community of approximately 250 000 hearts at the beginning of the 20th century.

Some left at the conclusion of the Second world war and this movement continued in the years 1970 and 1980 because of the policy of Roumanisation followed by the mode Ceauşescu. The majority of them left the Romania for Germany with fine beginning of the year 1990 putting at 800 years history.

Saxon current

Three Länder of the federal Germany of today owe their name with the Saxon ones: Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony

See too

Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of the Early middle ages

Simple: Saxon

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