Incursions

AQued


808. But Charles, the son of the emperor, built a bridge across the Elbe, and moved the army under his command as fast as he could across the river against the Linones and Smeldingi. These tribes had also defected to Godofrid. Charles laid waste their fields far and wide and after crossing the river again returned to Saxony with his army unimpaired.1
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…2
844. Louis crushed the Abodrites in battle, who had been preparing to defect from his allegiance; as their king Goztomuizli had been killed, he had the land and people which God had brought under his yoke ruled by duces.3
858. Louis... returned to Frankfurt, and, after he had discussed and dealt with many things of importance for the kingdom with his men, decided that three armies should be sent to different frontiers of his kingdom. The first, under Carloman his eldest son, he sent against the Moravian Slavs and Rastiz; a second under Louis, his younger son, against the Abodrites and Linones; the third was sent under Thaculf against the Sorbs who refused to obey his commands.4
[929. Henry I campaigns successfully against Hevelli, taking Brandenburg5; against Daleminzi, taking Gana; against Bohemians, taking Prague; also made Abodrites, Wilzi, and Redarii tributary; Redarii rebelled, taking Walsleben; Saxons respond by besieging Lenzen, a battle described in detail.]6
934. King Henry was in 'Wocronin' with an army.7
955. King Otto contended most perilously against the Abodrites, whom Ekbert, the son of his maternal aunt, had gathered against him.8
985. The Saxons invaded Slavia. Mieszko came to them with a large army as reinforcements. They laid waste to that whole land with fire and much slaughter.9
986. King Otto while still a little boy came to Slavia with a large army of Saxons. Mieszko came to him there with a very great multitude, and obtained from him a camel and many other presents, and also put himself under his power. Proceeding together, they laid waste to that whole land with fires and much pillage.10
987. The Saxons again laid waste to Slavia. Whence compelled, they put themselves under the king’s control and the castles along the Elbe were restored.11
[994.] At this time, the Slavs were defeated.12
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.13
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.14