Charlemagne's Wars // Gudfred: King of the Danes (804-810)

[Music] in the year 804 a grizzled frankish army under the command of the great king charlemagne the most powerful ruler in western europe since the fall of rome marched north through the recently conquered lands of old saxony subjugated through fire and blood over the previous three decades [Music] [Applause] the franks road north into the unknown far beyond any lands conquered by the romans beyond the borders of the christian world to the jutland peninsula on the southern edge of scandinavia what they found there waiting for them on the ancient defensive earthwork between germany and denmark known as the danework would not only shock and unsettle that frankish army but eventually go on to change the face of western europe entirely [Music] it was an army of danes apparently led to the border by a king named gudford as a show of force against any potential invasion of his lands whilst goodfried was almost certainly not the only figure calling himself king of the danes at the time he was sufficiently powerful enough to feature prominently in the frankish records for the next decade or so during which time his soldiers would provide a major thorn in the side of charlemagne's empire and eventually after his death their descendants would move in on mass to capitalize upon its gradual decay decimating the expansive frankish coastlines and growing ever more prosperous as a result [Music] [Music] whilst frank's danes saxons and friesians all share the same linguistic and cultural roots in the ancient germanic past franchia had long been a christian kingdom by the time of charlemagne its kings having converted to the religion of the romans close to 300 years before during the dying days of the empire partially as a result of this affiliation with the late roman administration francia had since risen to become the most powerful state in western europe dominating much of modern-day france germany and italy at its height and seeing charlemagne crowned by the pope as a new roman emperor in the year 800 to the north however still existed a more ancient way of life [Music] the people up there had never had any contact with the romans besides trade items trickling up from the south [Music] up there they still venerated the old gods spirits of the forest water and sky while the franks were moving into the prosperous lands of the romans converting to the christian god of the south the inhabitants of jutland still made offerings to river gods they worshipped the trees and perhaps most terrifying of all for the southerners every now and again when the gods demanded it they gave up one of their own as a human sacrifice was these ancient societies and cultures some of the oldest in europe's recorded history just to the west of the jutland peninsula on the rugged coastlines of freesia that first began to be infringed upon by the franks during the 7th century after a lengthy series of wars sometimes sparked by a reluctance to convert to the christianity of the francs and at other times undertaken more out of old tribal rivalries by the early 8th century the marshlands of freesia were finally conquered outright though the hearts and minds of many of the locals remained resolutely unchanged for centuries to come [Music] next on the agenda was the neighbouring cultural sphere of old saxony the same wild forest lands and prairies that the ancestors of the anglo-saxons of britain had first sprung from three centuries earlier just as the franks moved into the collapsing roman province of gaul [Music] the wars of the franks and their pagan neighbours to the north were a brutal and protracted series of conflicts that raged on for generations by the time charlemagne came to power in 768 summary executions massacres and desecrations of holy sites on both sides had become the norm the franks gave their pagan foes a simple ultimatum convert or die during his own wars against the saxons between 772 and their final defeat by around 804 the great king saw no issue with massacring those who refused conversion perhaps most notably having 4 500 saxons beheaded on a single occasion after a particularly difficult revolt holy places of veneration such as urban soul trees were regularly destroyed this was a holy war eighth century style and as charlemagne's power grew elsewhere on his other frontiers it only increased in scale and ferocity on this occasion the cross was very much preceded by intense violence terror and anger this violence left a lasting impression upon the neighbouring peoples around the baltic too sending shockwaves and ripples far to the north towards the danes as part of his imperial policy charlemagne tended to use the strategy of divide and rule exercised so often by his roman forebears expertly utilized to turn potential foes into friends and of course enemies into divided factions one of the peoples he allied himself with were the arbitrations a west slavic people traditionally hostile to the saxons in 798 their king thrasko inflicted a heavy defeat upon one of the last remaining factions of saxons the nordalbingians at the battle of bornhovet which essentially ended the saxon wars bar a few isolated holdouts in the aftermath of the battle and in a final act of revenge after the protracted and lengthy wars charlemagne allegedly had the entire nordelbingian saxon population either massacred or deported far to the south much of their now sparsely populated lands were given to the oberdreitis as a reward to the north however past the danework king goodford must have waited with baited breath for news from the south the danes were no friends to the saxons the very existence of the huge earthwork fortification along their border was a testament to that though this new threat this was something else though goodford is first recorded in the frankish sources in 804 he was likely a prominent leader before this date though lineage helped the society he hailed from elected their leaders in part through reputation rather than heredity goodford's father is named as siegfried a ruler who came to power sometime in the 770s incidentally it is around this time that vitikind one of the last prominent war leaders of the saxons had apparently fled north into denmark to seek temporary refuge and ultimately support during his wars against the franks [Music] as a danish king of southern jutland it seems probable that siegfried had at least some interaction with vidikent possibly even providing him with troops thus by the time godfred took charge of part of denmark he was well aware of the storm coming his way in 804 the now largely depopulated border territory of hulston previously inhabited by the saxons was apparently given to the arbitrations to rule probably fearing an invasion either by them or the franks goodford is recorded as beginning a series of vast improvements to the danework during this time which is corroborated by archaeological evidence it's thought that his wall was built with an earthen embankment topped by a wooden stockade and protected from the south by a deep ditch impressive fortifications and forts have also been found dating from this time a potential clue to the changing psychology of the region [Music] denmark's most important town hederby which apparently already existed on the shleen was expanded and garrisoned around this time and the early sections of the wall were designed to protect it for the first time in their history the danes were now orienting themselves to the south possibly as a result of charlemagne's policy of divide and rule it's thought that goodford's brother hafdan then a wealthy yal of several market towns south of the river edia in northern swore allegiance to the franks in 807 rather than submit to his brother by 808 however the cracks and the outwardly unassailable frankish war machine had already begun to show the emperor himself now spent most of his time housed up in his cathedral at arkhan possibly riven with gout whereas before he had spent nearly every summer campaigning far and wide from the spanish marches in the south to the baltic in the north he was now old and when a frankish king died due to a tendency to divide up inheritance between sons a succession crisis almost always ensued ever eager to capitalize upon this curious throwback to the frank's ancient germanic roots the danes were [Music] ready [Music] in 808 goodford forced the obertritis to acknowledge him as their overlord the citizens of the trading port of rarick then often frequented by frankish traders and soldiers were forced out on mass and resettled to the north in hedeby which was then being integrated into the danework unwilling to fight yet another lengthy war from his already over-extended borders charlemagne sent emissaries in an attempt to make peace with the danes his overtures apparently had no effect on the danish king who seems to have been set on a course of preemptive violence possibly in order to forestall any potential invasions of his own lands according to charlemagne's biographer einhard who knew charlemagne personally godfred was so puffed up with empty ambition that he planned to make himself master of the whole of germany he had come to look upon freesia and saxony as provinces belonging to him and he had already reduced the abhidratis who were his neighbours to a state of subservience and made them pay him tribute now he boasted that he would soon come with a huge army to arkhan itself where the king had his court in 810 in a grand display of his power probably capitalizing upon the frankish armies being elsewhere in the vast carolingian empire goodfried is said to have led 200 ships south to plunder the friesian coastline he forced the merchants and peasants there to pay a hundred pounds of silver and successfully claimed northern freesia as danish territory [Music] in order to protect the northern coastline of his empire charlemagne began paying other danish chieftains to protect sections of his coastlines in the 810s einhard talks of charlemagne leading expeditions into saxony to wage war against goodford in the last years of his life suggesting that in regards to seizing saxony he was really considered to be on the point of trying such a maneuver and was only prevented from doing so by the fact that he died suddenly he was killed by one of his own followers so that his own life and the war which he had started both came to a sudden end [Music] this sudden death saved charlemagne from a major invasion but as time would tell it was only the beginning another slightly later biographer of charlemagne not curtis stammerer further elaborates on gudford's end at a moment when charlemagne was traveling on a protracted journey across his own wide empire goodford the king of the northmen encouraged by the emperor's absence invaded the territory of the frankish kingdom and settled down in the neighborhood of the mizell goodford's own son whose mother the king had only recently repudiated so that he might marry another woman in her place caught up with him just as he was calling his falcon off a heron and cut him through the middle with his sword [Music] none of the northmen dared to rely any longer upon his courage or his weapons but all sought safety in flight in this way the land of the franks was liberated without any great effort being made the king was dead but his torch of war would be carried by scandinavians for centuries to come debate still rages as to whether some of the earliest viking raids carried out during this same time period were actually retaliatory raids or even preemptive strikes against a perceived christian enemy as a result of the saxon wars could the viking age have in fact been sparked at least in part by a sense of cultural self-preservation as much as population pressure or greed after all monasteries as far away as pictoland and ireland did lie within the same christian sphere of influence as francia just like the saxons friesians and danes had to a certain extent existed within their own separate cultural sphere prior to their wars against frankie furthermore the establishment of extensive trade networks in the 7th century would have given the danes already a maritime culture unprecedented access to the western christian world writing in the next century with the benefit of hindsight notker has the following to say about the last years of charlemagne's reign [Music] charlemagne who was a god-fearing just and devout ruler rose from the table and stood at a window facing east for a long time the precious tears poured down his face no one dared to ask him why in the end he explained his morose behavior to his warlike leaders my faithful servants said he do you know why i weep so bitterly i am not afraid that these ruffians will be able to do me any harm but i am sick at heart to think that even in my lifetime they have dared to attack the coast and i am horror-stricken when i foresee what evil they will do to my descendants and their [Music] subjects [Music] hey guys thanks for watching that video on charlemagne there's much more on the way where that came from just a quick update here to let you know that i've actually started a brand new channel to go along with history time it's one for the real history buffs out there and people who just like a good story it's called voices of the past and it's an attempt to tell history through the written records of the people who actually lived through it i'd also like to quickly recommend a couple of other channels so this guy history of vikings runs a fantastic podcast and he's branched out now into youtube so i'm expecting great things in the future from this guy vikings fans head over and give him some love and we've also got the people profiles this guy does half-hour documentaries on the greats from history from roman emperors to 20th century dictators pretty much anything seems to be fair game and it's great go check it out don't forget to subscribe and thanks for watching i'll see you on the next one

Channel: History Time

Views: 327,776

Keywords: iMovie, charlemagne, gudfred, vikings, franks, wars of the franks, wars of charlemagne, charlemagne's wars, early medieval, medieval, middle ages, early middle ages, start of the viking age

Id: Fhw8XO2t0eE

Length: 20min 18sec (1218 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 11 2018