It took three decades, however, to triumph against the Saxons, a Germanic tribe of pagans. The culmination occurred at the Massacre of Verden in 782, in which Charlemagne supposedly ordered the ...

Charlemagne started a long and bloody war against the Saxons, another Germanic tribe that had harried Charlemagne's father. In A.D. 772, Charlemagne's forces marched into Saxony (modern northern ...

The longest and most influential campaigns led by Charlemagne were the Saxons Wars, which stretched in some form or another for the better part of three decades. The rivalry between the Franks and ...

Charlemagne isn’t called the “father of Europe” for nothing. Charlemagne’s first known partner was a Frankish noblewoman named Himiltrude. She gave birth to Charlemagne’s oldest child, a ...

So did St. Boris, Theodosius I, and Charlemagne (at least at first). In general, the political leaders of premodern Europe preferred the political method. And, for obvious reasons, they usually ...

D uring early Dark Age Britain, the Britons and the Anglo-Saxons were chronically at war with each other. This warfare started around 430 and continued over the centuries that followed. Already by ...

Flaxseed was cultivated in Babylon as early as 3000 BC. In the 8th century, King Charlemagne believed so strongly in the health benefits of flaxseed that he passed laws requiring his subjects to ...

Save guides, add subjects and pick up where you left off with your BBC account. Anglo-Saxons believed in lucky charms. They thought that rhymes, potions, stones and jewels would protect them from ...