9. A Saxon Revolt Against Charlemagne’s New Ways
The Stellinga Rebellion of 841 to 845 took its name from an Old Saxon word that means “comrade” or “companion”. The uprising was a revolt of mostly-peasant Saxon freemen and freedmen to recover recently lost rights. The rebels’ class, while lowly, had nonetheless possessed political privileges when the Saxons were pagans and lived under traditional tribal customs. After the Saxons were forcibly converted to Christianity by Charlemagne, however, their nobility were co-opted by the conqueror, while the commoners were reduced to mere peasants and serfs.
In 840, a civil war had broken out in the Carolingian Empire between the heirs of Emperor Louis the Pious. One of the contestants, Lothair I, promised the Saxon lower classes of the Stellinga a restoration of the rights they had enjoyed in the days of paganism. In exchange, he secured their support to put him on the throne of East Francia – the future Kingdom of Germany. In the meantime, the Saxon nobility was divided between supporters of the new order imposed by Charlemagne, and those who pushed back against it.
