Bloody Verdict of Verden

From Free net encyclopedia

(Difference between revisions)

Revision as of 02:55, 5 March 2006
Cosal (Talk | contribs)

Next diff →

Current revision

The Bloody Verdict of Verden (from German Blutgericht) was an alleged massacre of Saxons in 782, ordered by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars.

[edit]

History

Some 4,500 Saxon leaders are said to have been beheaded at Verden in Lower Saxony for practicing paganism after converting to Christianity and undergoing baptism. The river Aller was said to have been flowing red with their blood.

Today, the veracity of this event is in question: there may have been a misspelling in the original source by which the Latin delocabat (meaning exiled or displaced) erroneously became decollabat (meaning beheaded). Archeological evidence for the massacre has not been found, although the bodies of the slain could have been buried elsewhere by their next-of-kin.

Clearly, although their leader Widukind had escaped to Denmark, the Saxons lost virtually their entire tribal leadership and were henceforth largely governed by Frankish counts installed by Charlemagne. Charlemagne's motives were to demonstrate his overlordship and the severity of punishment for rebellion.

As a memorial, the Third Reich assembled the Sachsenhain (Saxon Grove) in 1935, consisting of about 1,000 large stones in Verden. The site now belongs to the Protestant regional youth church and is accessible to the public.

[edit]