The Historians' History of the World 07

WARS IN THE NORTH AND WITH THE AVARS (791-796 A.D.)

[791-810 A.D.]

When these commotions were thus allayed war was begun against the Slavs, whom we are accustomed to call Wilzi, but who are more properly termed in their own tongue Welatabi. In this war among other nations who were bidden to rally round the king’s ensigns, the Saxons fought as our allies, but their obedience was feigned and far from being truly devoted. The cause of the war was that the Welatabi harried the Abodriti, who had in former days been allied with the Franks; nor could the assiduity of their incursions be checked by orders. There is a certain gulf which stretches eastwards from the western ocean, of unascertained length, but of a width which nowhere exceeds a hundred miles, whereas in many places it is narrower. Many nations are gathered round its border, such as Danes and Swedes whom we call Northmen, and they occupy the northern shores and all the islands in the gulf. But the southern shores are inhabited by Slavs and Aisti, and divers other nations among whom the chief are the Welatabi against whom the king was now making war. In one expedition, which he conducted in person, he so utterly crushed and humbled them, that in future they were advised to do as they were told without the smallest show of resistance.

The war following this was, with the exception of the Saxon War, the greatest of all those waged by my hero; it was that memorable war against the Avars or Huns. The king set about it with even greater spirit and with far greater military resources than had gone to the others. Yet he himself made but one expedition into Pannonia, the province then inhabited by the Avars. The rest of the campaigns were entrusted to his son Pepin and the prefects of the provinces, and to the counts and lieutenants. They used the utmost diligence in the conduct of affairs; yet eight years had well-nigh passed before the war was ended. What a great many battles were fought, what blood was shed, the desolate Pannonia, empty of all living creatures, bears witness. Moreover, the place in which was situate the royal palace of the chagan (khan) is so abandoned that you cannot see a trace of human habitation in it. The whole nobility of the Avars perished in this war, and the entire glory of the nation was extinguished. All their money and long-accumulated treasures were seized; nor can human memory recall any war of the Franks in which they have won greater spoil or been more enriched.

Up to this time, sure enough, the Franks had appeared to be a poor nation; but now so much gold and silver was found in the royal treasury, such a heap of valuable spoil was taken in battle, that we may safely assume that the Franks seized this new wealth from the Huns, and rightly too, for had not the Huns before this seized it wrongfully from other nations? Only two among the chiefs of the Frankish nobility fell in this war,—Eric, duke of Friuli, killed in Liburnia, near Tharsatica (Fiume), a maritime state, who was entrapped in an ambush laid by the townspeople; and Gerold, prefect of the Bavarians, who was killed in Pannonia while drawing up his men in line of battle in the act of engaging with the Huns. No one knew who did the deed, for he was killed, with the two others who rode in his company, as he spoke a word of encouragement to each man along the ranks. But for this, the war was almost a bloodless one for the Franks and had a most prosperous ending, although it was prolonged far beyond what was natural from its size.

DANISH WAR (808-810 A.D.)

When this and the Saxon War had been brought to an end which their tediousness made welcome, the two wars which followed, one against the Bohemians and the other against the Linonians, did not last long, for they were both speedily despatched under the direction of Charles the Younger. The last war to be undertaken was that against the Northmen who are called Danes. At first they indulged in pirate warfare, and later they ravaged the shores of Gaul and Germany with a large fleet. So puffed up with vain ambition was their king, Godfrey,[136] that he thought he would gain the sovereignty of all Germany for his own. Frisia and Saxony he simply regarded as his own provinces; he had already brought the neighbouring Abodriti under his sway and made them tributary to him. He even would boast that in a little while he would appear with his enormous army at Aachen,[137] where the king held his court. Nor was all faith denied to his talk, empty as it was; on the contrary, he rather acquired the reputation of a man who would have begun some such enterprise had he not been arrested by a premature death. He was murdered by one of his own servants, and so ended abruptly his life and the war that he had inaugurated.

GLORY OF CHARLEMAGNE

[768-810 A.D.]