Limes Saxoniae
Encyclopedia
Limes
A limes was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the boundaries of the Roman Empire.The Latin noun limes had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting fields, a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any...
or border between the Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
and the Slavic Obotrites
Obotrites
The Obotrites , also commonly known as the Obodrites, Abotrites, or Abodrites, were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany . For decades they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against Germanic Saxons and Slavic...
, established about 810 in present-day Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
.
After Charlemagne had removed Saxons and given their land to Obotrites, who were allies of Charlemagne, he finally after years of warfare against Saxons conquered the Saxon lands
Saxon Wars
The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the more than thirty years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of disaffected tribesmen was crushed. In all, eighteen battles were fought in what is now northwestern Germany...
, signed the 811 Treaty of Heiligen
Treaty of Heiligen
The Treaty of Heiligen was signed at Heiligen in 811 between the Danish King Hemming and Charlemagne. Based on the terms of the accord, the southern boundary of Denmark was established at the Eider River...
with the neighbouring Danes and may at the same time have reached a border agreement with the Polabian Slavs
Polabian Slavs
Polabian Slavs - is a collective term applied to a number of Lechites tribes who lived along the Elbe river, between the Baltic Sea to the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae to the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes to the south, and Poland to the east. They have also been known...
in the east. As no major fortifications are preserved, the Limes mainly followed natural obstacles like bogs and thick wood. According to Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
's description in the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum is a historical treatise written between 1075 and 1080 by Adam of Bremen. It covers the period from 788 to the time it was written. The treatise consist of:*Liber I...
about 1075, it ran from the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
river near Boizenburg
Boizenburg
Boizenburg is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, 53 km west of Ludwigslust, 25 km northeast of Lüneburg and 50 km east of Hamburg. Old Town is connected to the Elbe via a harbor...
northwards along the Bille
Bille
The river Bille is a small, slow-flowing river in Stormarn, Schleswig-Holstein, a right tributary of the Elbe. Its source is near Linau, north of the Hahnheide forest. It then flows south of Trittau, representing the border between Stormarn and Lauenburg, continues south of Reinbek and reaches the...
river to the mouth of the Schwentine
Schwentine
The Schwentine is a river in the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is approximately 62 kilometres long and rises on the hill of Bungsberg, the highest point in the state, near the village of Kasseedorf in Ostholstein. It then runs from its source to Kiel where it flows into the Kiel...
at the Kiel Fjord
Kiel Fjord
Kiel Fjord is an approximately long fjord or firth of the Baltic Sea along the shores of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Formed by glacial movement during the last Ice Age, it lies between the Danish Wold and Wagria. It originates at the Hörn in centre-city Kiel and merges into the Bay of Kiel.The...
and the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
.
It was breached several times by the Slavic Obotrites (983 and 1086) and Mieszko II Lambert
Mieszko II Lambert
Mieszko II Lambert was King of Poland during 1025–1031, and Duke from 1032 until his death.He was the second son of Bolesław I the Brave, but the eldest born from his third wife Emmilda, daughter of Dobromir, possible ruler of Lusatia. He was probably named after his paternal grandfather, Mieszko I...
of Poland (1028 and 1030). The Limes was dissolved during the first phase of the Ostsiedlung
Ostsiedlung
Ostsiedlung , also called German eastward expansion, was the medieval eastward migration and settlement of Germans from modern day western and central Germany into less-populated regions and countries of eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia...
, when Count Henry of Badewide
Henry of Badewide
Henry of Badewide was a Saxon Count of Botwide and Count of Ratzeburg .Henry came from a knightly family from Lüneburg. He took his name from Bode near Ebstorf...
campaigned the Wagri
Wagri
The Wagri, Wagiri, or Wagrians were a tribe of Polabian Slavs inhabiting Wagria, or eastern Holstein in northern Germany, from the ninth to twelfth centuries. They were a constituent tribe of the Obodrite confederacy....
an lands in 1138/39 and the Slavic population was Germanized
Germanisation
Germanisation is both the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, and the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet...
by German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, mostly Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
, settlers.