Saxons

(noun)

A group of Germanic tribes first mentioned as living near the North Sea coast of what is now Germany (Old Saxony) in late Roman times.

Related Terms

Examples of Saxons in the following topics:

  • Anglo-Saxon and Irish Art

    • Anglo-Saxon art emerged when the Anglo-Saxons migrated from the continent in the fifth century, and ended in 1066 with the Norman Conquest.
    • After the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in the seventh century, the fusion of Germanic Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Early Christian techniques created the Hiberno-Saxon style (or Insular art) in the form of sculpted crosses and liturgical metalwork.
    • Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts form a significant part of Insular art and reflect a combination of influences from the Celtic styles that arose when the Anglo-Saxons encountered Irish missionary activity.
    • Anglo-Saxon metalwork initially used the Germanic Animal Style decoration that would be expected from recent immigrants, but gradually developed a distinctive Anglo-Saxon character.
    • Compare elements of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic art, and the results of their contact

  • The Anglo-Saxons

    • The Anglo-Saxons were a people who inhabited Great Britain from the 5th century.
    • The history of the Anglo-Saxons is the history of a cultural identity.
    • He was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons."
    • Monasticism, and not just the church, was at the centre of Anglo Saxon Christian life.
    • The subject of war and the Anglo-Saxons is a curiously neglected one, however, it is an important element of the Anglo-Saxon society.

  • The Rise of Charlemagne

    • The Germanic Saxons were divided into four subgroups in four regions.
    • He returned to Saxony in 775, marching through Westphalia and conquering the Saxon fort at Sigiburg.
    • He then crossed Engria, where he defeated the Saxons again.
    • Finally, in Eastphalia, he defeated a Saxon force and converted its leader, Hessi,  to Christianity.
    • Many Saxons were baptized as Christians.

  • The Vikings

    • Early on it was the Saxons, who occupied Old Saxony, located in what is now northern Germany.
    • The Saxons were a fierce and powerful people and were often in conflict with the Vikings.
    • To counter the Saxon aggression and solidify their own presence, the Danes constructed the huge defense fortification of Danevirke in and around Hedeby.
    • The Vikings soon witnessed the violent subduing of the Saxons by Charlemagne in the thirty-year Saxon Wars from 772–804.
    • The Saxon defeat resulted in their forced christening and the absorption of Old Saxony into the Carolingian Empire.

  • The Catholic Church

    • Missionaries such as Augustine of Canterbury, who was sent from Rome to begin the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, and, coming the other way in the Hiberno-Scottish mission, Saints Colombanus, Boniface, Willibrord, and Ansgar, among many others, took Christianity into northern Europe and spread Catholicism among the Germanic and Slavic peoples.
    • These tribes are referred to as the "Anglo-Saxons," predecessors of the English.
    • Later, under Archbishop Theodore, the Anglo-Saxons enjoyed a golden age of culture and scholarship.
    • Soon, important English missionaries such as Saints Wilfrid, Willibrord, Lullus, and Boniface would begin evangelizing their Saxon relatives in Germany.

  • Manifest Destiny

    • Manifest destiny was the 19th century U.S. belief that the country (and more specifically, the white Anglo-Saxon race within it) was destined to expand across the continent.
    • It is rooted in European nations' early colonization of the Americas, the establishment of the United States by white Anglo-Saxons from England, and the continued wars against and forced removal of the American Indians indigenous to the lands.

  • The Bayeux Tapestry

    • The tapestry can be seen as the final and best known work of Anglo-Saxon art, and though it was made after the Norman Conquest of England, historians now accept that it was created firmly in an Anglo-Saxon tradition.

  • Architecture

    • Architecture of the Anglo-Saxon period exists only in the form of churches, the only structures commonly built in stone apart from fortifications.
    • Due to the systematic destruction and replacement of English cathedrals and monasteries by the Normans, no major Anglo-Saxon churches survive; the largest extant example is at Brixworth
    • Anglo-Saxon churches are typically high and narrow and consist of a nave and a narrower chancel; a west tower often accompanies these.

  • Ottonian Architecture in the Early European Middle Ages

    • The central body of the church has the nave with two aisles sided by two towers characteristic of Carolingian architecture, but it also displays novelties anticipating Romanesque architecture, including the alternation of pillars and columns (a common feature in later Saxon churches), semi-blind arcades in galleries on the nave, and column capitals decorated with stylized leaves of acanthus and human heads .

  • Romanesque Sculpture: Tomb of Rudolf of Swabia

    • This rebellion became known as the Great Saxon Revolt.