Incursions
Index
Westward
782. In the meantime the king was informed that the Slavonic Sorbs, who inhabit the plains between the Elbe and the Saale, had entered the neighboring territories of Saxons and Thuringians to pillage, and by looting and burning had ravaged several places.1
795. [Charlemagne] entered Saxony with an army and reached the Elbe at Lüne. At that time, Witzin, the king of the Abodrites, was slain there by the Saxons.2
810. …the castle of Hohbuoki on the Elbe, with Odo, the emperor’s envoy, and a garrison of East Saxons, had been captured by the Wilzi…3
851. The Sorbs violated the Frankish border with frequent attacks and incendiary raids. The king, angry at this, proceeded through Thuringia with an army, invaded their territory and oppressed them severely.4
869. The Sorbs and Siusli joined with the Bohemians and the other peoples of the region and crossed the old Thuringian border.5
902. The Slavs laid waste to Saxony.6
975. Emperor Otto burned up and laid waste the Bohemians.7
991. King Otto with a large army of Saxons and reinforcements from Mieszko besieged and conquered Brandenburg8. When he was leaving there, a certain Saxon, Kizo, boldly invaded the same burg with the aid of the Liutizi rashly enough against the king’s command, and, with the perseverance of the aforesaid Slavs, altogether unjustly subjugated it to his control contrary to human or divine law. He attempted frequent attacks of robbery in Saxony along the river Elbe. By the grace of God he fled from them into hiding, not as a victor but a like a fugitive thief.9
993. Kizo, who had previously been a rebel and a fugutive, voiding the faith formerly promised to the Slavs, subjected himself with his men and the aforesaid burg of Brandenburg10 to the king’s power. … In the same year, the Saxons prepared an expedition against the Slavs three times but they achieved nothing; by contrast, the Slavs wearied Saxony with frequent robberies.11
995. King Otto lay waste the Abodrites, and overthrew their burgs and fortresses. Boleslaw, son of Mieszko, brought him aid with a large army, and also the Bohemians came with the son of the other Boleslav. And the king took himself to Saxony with a vast army. … The Slavs lay waste to Saxony by frequent attack.12
997. The Slavs, with the treachery innate to them, broke the agreement of the peace that had been achieved and gnawed the Saxon borders with furtive robberies. Provoked against them, the emperor invaded with a large army, conquered, and pillaged Stodorania, which is commonly called Heneldum, a distinguished land among the Slavonic ones, and as a conqueror entered gloriously into Magdeburg, the preeminent burg of the Saxons. In the meantime however, while the august emperor, that is Otto III, passed through Hevaldum laying waste, the assembled Veletabi attacked unexpectedly the province of Bardengau with much plundering and burning. Seeing this, the Westphalians, whom the aforementioned emperor, proceeding on his campaign, had left to guard the province, swiftly and powerfully overtook the Liutizi and, although they were few, they laid low an innumerable multitude of pagans with such great slaughter and seized so much booty from them that the amount neither of that slaughter nor of the booty can in any way be set forth in human speech.13
[997. A Slav raid on Arneburg involving archbishop Giselher of Madgeburg.]14
[1002.] Boleslav...assembled an army and seized Margrave Gero's march as far as the river Elbe. Then, with siege troops sent ahead, he captured the burg of Bautzen, with all its possessions, and immediately thereafter attacked Strehla.15 Secretly, he also tried to bribe the residents of Meissen... [more on this]. Elated by this success, Boleslav occupied the entire region up to the Elster and secured it with a garrison. [more on how Boleslav's claimed to do so with Henry's permission, on negotiations concerning the region after Henry's coronation, Boleslav's frustration] When he arrived at the city of Strehla, he immediately set fire to it and abducted a large part of the local populace.16
[1003. Boleslav Chrobry further negotiating for Meissen, moving an army to the region, sparing Strehla]17 In one day the whole fertile region of Lommatzsch was ravaged with fire and sword and had its inhabitants abducted. [also receive booty and several thousand captives from Mügeln]18
[1004.] Boleslaw attacked the Bavarians... with a large force. In response, the king assembled an army and attacked the lands of the Milzeni.19
[1005. Jaromir, the Liutizi, and the residents of Wollin complain to King Henry about predations by Boleslaw as a result of the peace agreement; Henry agrees to renounce it. Boleslaw lays waste to Möckern, outside Magdeburg, and takes Zerbst. He then takes the regions of Lausitz, Sorau, and Selpuli and besieges Bautzen.]20
[1009.] The Slavs, who have no fear of God, pillaged both a church located outside the city of Metz and the congregation that served it [implicitly while under the command of the German marcher lord, Dietrich].21
[1012. Boleslaw takes Lebusa, with slaughter and booty, then sets it afire--on 20 August.]22
[1017.] Moravian soldiers of Boleslaw surrounded and killed a large but careless band of Bavarians.23
1033. In the same year, at the castle of Werben, Count Lutger, plus Theidof and Wolferad, were killed with forty others.24
1045. The Slavs who are call the Liutizi were troubling the borders of Saxony; but when the king came there with a force of vassals, they surrendered and promised the customary tribute.25
1056. The Liutizi perpetrated a great slaughter against the Christians, some of whom perished by the sword and others by fleeing into the water. Among them Margrave William was killed.26
1110. The Slavs invaded the region of the Elbians and returned, with many killed and captured. Whence Duke Lothar, riled, hostilely attacked the land of the Slavs, travelled around the region pillaging, seized nine of the richer and more fortified burgs, and, with hostages received from them, returned a victor.27
1136. Invasion of the Slavs in parts of Saxony. Moving an army against them, Margrave Adalbert more than once hostilely attacked and plundered their land.28