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{{Short description|Original homeland of the Saxons in Northwest Germany}}
{{Infobox country
|native_name            = 
|conventional_long_name = Old Saxony
|common_name            = Old Saxony
|era                    = Early Middle Ages
|status                 = Kingdom
|status_text            = Tribal territory of the Saxons<br>Early medieval [[duchy]]
|empire                 = 
|government_type        = Tribal confederation
|year_start             = 6th century
|year_end               = 804 
|event_start            = [[Hadugato]], first documented duke
|event_end              = End of the [[Saxon Wars]]
|date_start             = 
|date_end               = 
|religion               = [[Germanic Paganism]]
|p1                     = Ingaevones
|image_p1               = 
|s1                     = Duchy of Saxony
|image_s1               = 
|symbol_type            = 
|image_map              = Herzogtum Sachsen 1000.PNG
|image_map_caption      = The later [[stem duchy]] of Saxony ({{Circa|1000&nbsp;AD}}), which was based in the [[Saxons]]' traditional homeland bounded by the rivers [[Ems (river)|Ems]], [[Eider (river)|Eider]] and [[Elbe]]
|common_languages       = [[Old Saxon language|Old Saxon]]
|capital                = [[Marklo]]<ref>According to the primary source ''Vita [[Lebuinus|Lebuini]] antiqua'', the annual tribal council was held at [[Marklo]] near [[Weser]].</ref>
|category               = 
}}
[[File:Heiliges Römisches Reich 1000.PNG|thumb|upright=1.4|Medieval duchies (in colour) and ''gaue'' in the [[Holy Roman Empire]] around year [[AD 1000|1000]], including Old Saxony (Saxonia) in the north (in light orange).]]

'''Old Saxony''' was the homeland of the [[Saxons]] during the [[Early Middle Ages]]. It corresponds roughly to the modern German states of [[Lower Saxony]], eastern part of modern [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] state ([[Westphalia]]), [[Nordalbingia]] ([[Holstein]], southern part of [[Schleswig-Holstein]]) and western [[Saxony-Anhalt]] ([[Eastphalia]]), which all lie in northwestern Germany. It had four provinces: [[Nordalbingia]], [[Eastphalia]], [[Westphalia]] and [[Angria]] (or Angaria), these provinces, in turn, were divided into smaller territories, the [[Gau (territory)|gaue]], which are equivalent to modern [[Districts of Germany]] (''Kreise''), and were equivalent to the English [[Shire|shires]] (modern [[County|counties]]).

It should not be confused with the modern German state of [[Saxony]], which is in eastern Germany, adjoining the northwest border of the [[Czech Republic]].

==Origin==
[[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Geographia]]'', written in the 2nd century, is sometimes considered to contain the first mentioning of the Saxons. Some copies of this text mention a tribe called ''Saxones'' in the area to the north of the lower [[River Elbe]], thought to derive from the word ''Sax'' or stone knife.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Saxony}}</ref>

However, other copies call the same tribe ''Axones'', and it is considered likely that it is a misspelling of the tribe that Tacitus in his ''Germania'' called ''[[Aviones]]''. These earliest known tribal Saxons inhabited "[[Northern Albingia]]", a region bordering the northern bank of the mouth of River Elbe in what is now Western [[Holstein]]. As land became scarce, the Saxon population began to expand southward where it absorbed indigenous populations such as [[Cherusci]], [[Chamavi]] and [[Chatti]], and remaining portions of the Langobardi ([[Lombards]]) and [[Suebi]]. This broader domain is called "Old Saxony". The [[Chauci]], according to Tacitus, also lived in the general area later known as ''Old Saxony'' and were highly respected among Germanic tribes. He describes them as peaceful, calm, and levelheaded. At some point they may have merged with, or were perhaps synonymous to, the Saxons.

It has been claimed that the Old Saxons were composed of an aristocracy of nobles, a free warrior class of distinction and renown, leading freemen united and controlled by ancient custom of kindred and clan.

<blockquote> "Social differences were jealously guarded by social prescription. The death penalty was imposed on any man who married above his rank; the marriage of a man below his station was severely condemned; bastardy was not tolerated; intermarriage between Saxons and other Germans was frowned upon; and strangers were hated. So tenaciously did the Saxons cling to their ancient customary law that clear traces of these social survivals persisted in Saxony down through the Middle Ages."{{how|date=September 2021}}<ref>James Westfall-Thompson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=l4QfAAAAMAAJ Feudal Germany]'' (1928), p. 170 ("Old Saxony" chapter).</ref></blockquote>

==Raids on Britain==
[[Saxons]] had been raiding the eastern seaboard of Britain from here during the 3rd and 4th centuries (prompting the construction of maritime defences in eastern Britain called the [[Saxon Shore Forts|Saxon Shore]]) and it is thought that following the collapse of the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] defences on the [[Rhine]] in 407 pressure from population movements in the east forced the [[Saxons]] and their neighbouring tribes the [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]] and the [[Jutes]] to migrate westwards by sea and invade the fertile lowland areas of Britain. The traditional date for this invasion is 449 and is known as the [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Adventus Saxonum]]. However, there is little archaeological evidence of any subsequent long-term conflict, and the evidence for large-scale Germanic migration into Britain is equally scant. It is possible that the level of migration was relatively minimal and that the ethnic makeup of the post-Roman population in Britain remained largely unchanged.<ref>{{
Cite book
| first1=Susan
| isbn=9781641891288
| last1=Ooshuizen
| publisher=Arc Humanities Press
| title=The Emergence of the English
| year=2019
}}</ref>

The cultural and linguistic changes were stark and led to the creation of various [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxon]] kingdoms in [[England]] including that of the [[South Saxons]] ([[Sussex]]), the West Saxons ([[Wessex]]) and the [[Kingdom of Essex|East Saxons]] ([[Essex]]) alongside others established by the Angles and the Jutes and are the foundations of the modern [[England|English]] nation.
==Relations with the Franks==
After the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]] in the 5th century the Old Saxons who remained in ''Germania'' were loosely associated with the [[Merovingian]] [[kingdom of Franks]], but practically remained independent and maintained [[Germanic paganism|their old pagan religion]]. The Saxon pagan religion appears to have focused on the worship of the [[Irminsul]] or "great pillar"; a divine tree that connected [[Heaven]] and [[Earth]] and is thought to have existed at a site close to modern [[Obermarsberg]].

For the most part, the Saxon lands were a broad plain, save on the south, where they rose into hills and the low mountainous country of the [[Harz]] and [[Hesse]]. This low divide was all that separated the country of the Saxons from their ancient enemies and ultimate conquerors, the [[Franks]]. The lack of clear physical definition along this border, from time immemorial, had been the cause of incessant tribal conflict between them. Saxons as inhabitants of present-day [[Northern Germany]] are mentioned in 555, when [[Theudebald]], the Frankish king, died and the Saxons used this opportunity for war. The Saxons were defeated by [[Chlothar I]], Theudebald's successor. Some of their Frankish successors fought against the Saxons, while others were allied with them; [[Chlothar II]] won a decisive victory against the Saxons.
==Conversion to Christianity==
[[File:Conversion of the Saxons crop.jpg|thumb|upright|Conversion of the Saxons, A. de Neuville, {{Circa|1869}}]]
In 690, [[Two Ewalds|two priests]] called Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair set out from [[Northumbria]] to [[Christianization of Saxony|convert the Old Saxons]] to [[Christianity]]. It is recorded that at this time Old Saxony was divided into the ancient dioceses of [[Münster]], [[Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück|Osnabrück]], and [[Paderborn]]. However, by 695 the pagan Saxons had become extremely hostile to the [[Christianity|Christian]] priests and missionaries in their midst and began to realize that their aim was to convert their overlord and destroy their temples and religion. Ewald the Fair was quickly murdered, but Ewald the Black they subjected to torture, and he was torn limb from limb. Afterwards the two bodies were cast into the Rhine. This is understood to have happened on 3 October 695 at a place called [[Aplerbeck]], near [[Dortmund]], where a chapel still stands. The two Ewalds are now celebrated in [[Westphalia]] as saints.

The Saxons' reluctance to accept the new Christian religion and propensity to mount destructive raids on their neighbours would eventually bring them into direct conflict with [[Charlemagne]], the powerful king of the [[Franks]] and later emperor. After a bloody and highly attritious [[Saxon Wars|thirty-year campaign]] between 772–804 the Old Saxons led by [[Widukind]] were eventually subdued by Charlemagne and ultimately forced to convert to Christianity.

The bonds of kindred and clan were particularly strong among the Saxons, and in spite of many divisions the Saxons were an unusually homogeneous nation living as late as the 8th century as the early Germans described by Tacitus in ''Germania'' had lived. The long warfare with the [[Franks]] largely reduced but did not wholly obliterate their distinct cultural identity.

[[Adam of Bremen]], writing in the 11th century, compared the shape of Old Saxony to a triangle, and estimated from angle to angle the distance was eight days journey. In area Old Saxony was the greatest of the German [[stem duchy|tribal duchies]]. It included the entire territory between the lower [[Elbe]] and [[Saale]] rivers almost to the Rhine. Between the mouths of the Elbe and the [[Weser]] it bordered the [[North Sea]]. The only parts of the territory which lay across the Elbe were the counties of [[Holstein]] and [[Ditmarsch]]. The tribal lands were roughly divided into four kindred groups: the ''[[Angria]]ns'', along the right bank of the Weser; the ''[[Westphalia]]ns'', along the Ems and the Lippe; the ''[[Eastphalia]]ns'', on the left bank of the Weser; and the ''[[Nordalbingia]]ns'', in modern [[Holstein]]. But not even with these four tribal groups was the term of tribal division reached. For the Saxon “nation” was really a loose collection of clans of kindred stock. For example, the Nordalbingians alone were divided into lesser groups: ''Holsteiners'', ''Sturmarii'', ''Bardi'', and the men of ''Ditmarsch''.<ref>James Westfall-Thompson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=l4QfAAAAMAAJ Feudal Germany]'' (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).</ref>

==See also==
* [[History of Saxony]]
* [[Duchy of Saxony]], the early Medieval [[stem duchy]]
* [[List of rulers of Saxony]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{coord missing|Lower Saxony}}

[[Category:Old Saxony| ]]
[[Category:Former states and territories of Lower Saxony]]
[[Category:Former states and territories of North Rhine-Westphalia]]
[[Category:Former states and territories of Schleswig-Holstein]]
[[Category:States and territories established in the 530s]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in the 800s]]
[[Category:530s establishments]]
[[Category:800s disestablishments]]
[[Category:9th-century disestablishments in Europe]]
[[Category:Barbarian kingdoms]]