18 Facts About Saxons

In Merovingian times, continental Saxons had been associated with the activity and settlements on the coast of what later became Normandy.

In contrast, the British "Saxons", today referred to in English as Anglo-Saxons, became a single nation bringing together migrant Germanic peoples and assimilated Celtic Britons populations.

Label "Saxons" became attached to German settlers who settled during the 12th century in southeastern Transylvania.

From Transylvania, some of these Saxons migrated to neighbouring Moldavia, as the name of the town shows.

Zosimus mentions a specific tribe of Saxons, called the Kouadoi, which have been interpreted as a misunderstanding for the Chauci, or Chamavi.

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In 569, some Saxons accompanied the Lombards into Italy under the leadership of Alboin and settled there.

Some Saxons already lived along the Saxon shore of Gaul as Roman foederati.

In 589, the Saxons wore their hair in the Breton fashion at the orders of Fredegund and fought with them as allies against Guntram.

Saxons'storians are divided about what followed: some argue that the takeover of southern Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was peaceful.

Gildas described how the Saxons were later slaughtered at the battle of Mons Badonicus 44 years before he wrote his history, and their conquest of Britain halted.

Saxons said this resulted in a swift overrunning of the entirety of South-Eastern Britain, and the foundation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Saxons long resisted becoming Christians and being incorporated into the orbit of the Frankish kingdom.

In 776 the Saxons promised to convert to Christianity and vow loyalty to the king, but, during Charlemagne's campaign in Hispania, the Saxons advanced to Deutz on the Rhine and plundered along the river.

The West Saxons begin to emerge from obscurity only with their conversion to Christianity and keeping written records.

The South Saxons were first evangelised extensively under Anglian influence; Aethelwalh of Sussex was converted by Wulfhere, King of Mercia and allowed Wilfrid, Bishop of York, to evangelise his people beginning in 681.

The East Saxons were more pagan than the southern or western Saxons; their territory had a superabundance of pagan sites.

Continental Saxons were evangelised largely by English missionaries in the late seventh and early eighth centuries.

Saxons celebrated the Frankish monarch as on par with the Roman emperors and as the bringer of Christian salvation to people.