Joshua M. Cragle. Converting the Saxons: A Study of Violence and Religion in Early Medieval Germany

Between 772 and 804 CE, after a long and exhausting war on both sides, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, finally managed to break the Saxons' resistance and integrated them and their lands into the newly formed empire. This is the abbreviated version; the story was in fact very complicated because the conflict began much earlier, and its aftermath (without exaggeration) shaped the image of modern Europe and the world. Nevertheless, the facts remain mostly unknown. Joshua M. Cragle's book, written in accessible narrative language, is a valuable addition to the field. It takes us through the history of the Frankish-Saxon Wars in detail and is enriched with analyses of strategies for building a Christian empire.The book begins with six maps designed to outline the ethnic situation in Western and Central Europe between 400 and 843 CE, and an introduction that summarizes the book's content. The actual material is divided into three main sections: Origins (five chapters), Charlemagne's Saxon Wars (four chapters) and Consequences (three chapters). In turn, the author introduces narratively and chronologically the main actors of the story (Franks and Saxons); the detailed history of the Frankish-Saxon Wars; and the world of the Carolingian Empire, which was created (spoiler alert!) as a result of the Franks' victory. Each chapter ends with a short conclusion, which students will no doubt enjoy. In the final chapter of Conclusions, Cragle defines strategies for conquering the world in the name of Christendom and for consolidating power using religion, strategies that were developed during the wars described but are still used successfully to this day.This results in a far from brief history of how the main players evolved during the complex ethnogenesis processes of the Migration period and the Early Middle Ages. While we know a great deal about the Franks and their kingdom, which grew from the ruins of the Roman provinces and was ruled by the Merovingians, what is particularly noteworthy is Cragle's attempt to portray the Saxons: how their society was organized and what role their own religion played in it. Given the paucity of sources (the result of the Frankish chroniclers "censorship"), the author has accomplished the task very effectively.In the second part, which is dedicated to the Saxon Wars alone, the author delineates this complicated history; sometimes he plays the role of the Saxons' advocate and tries to understand their rationale and viewpoint. This approach allows readers to see that Charles was not so "Great" after all. The Frankish Kulturkampf—under the guise of spreading civilization—was very brutal, and its primary aim was conquest. Particularly noteworthy is the extensive passage devoted to the leader (rebel, or soldier of freedom?) of the Saxon uprising, Widukind, in the years 777–785.The third part examines the consequences, some of them far-reaching in time, of the Saxon Wars; it provides a history of how the Saxons changed from enemies of the empire to a force for maintaining the emperor's power. They consistently took over as Christianizers of the eastern frontiers. It is an irony of history that after almost thirty years of unequal and defeated war, and further years of partisan resistance against the Franks, it was the Saxons who became the new Franks by renewing the Roman Empire of the German Nation in the tenth century and undertaking the Drang nach Osten.The book is an excellent and compact source for the history of the Frankish-Saxon Wars and a slice of the history of the Carolingian state. It is written in accessible language, without superfluously complicated constructions, and its English edition definitely makes it the most readily available source of its kind at present. The alternatives, until now, remained German and Polish studies. The extensive review of classic and recent literature will also benefit anyone wishing to delve into any of the issues Cragle raises, such as the private churches of the nobility or the activities of individual missionaries. There are minor errors, such as mixing up the names of some Slavic tribes, or granting a large part of the Tatra Mountains on the map to the Avars, and of the grods to the Polabian Slavs as early as the early eighth century. These errors are marginal, however, and probably only result from the Anglo-Saxon-centric viewpoint of the work (incidentally, Frankish chroniclers took a similar approach 1,200 years ago; they once referred to Wends as the Slavs in general, and once as a specific Slavic tribe). The minor inaccuracies may also reflect the choice of mainly English-language sources, and above all studies by historians. Some references to archaeological literature are missing, but we can safely place Cragle's book on the shelf next to those of Pierre Riché, Ian Wood, Rosamond McKitterick, and Bernard S. Bachrach (who are quoted here) because this addition to the library offers a different, fresh perspective on the Carolingian era.