The years 808 to 810 from the Annals of the Kingdom of the Franks

These annals constitute what is unquestionably the most important single source for the political and
military history of the reign of Charlemagne. They are known as the Annales regni Francorum, and in
English they are sometimes referred to as the Royal Frankish Annals. The work itself covers the years 741
to 829, and is a compilation of at least three different authors. The section below details an invasion by the
Danish king, Godfred, and other events in the years 808 to 810.
808 AD
The winter at this time was extremely mild and unhealthy. And at the beginning of spring the emperor
proceeded to Nijmegen, where he spent the period of the Lenten fast and celebrated holy Easter before
returning to Aachen again.
And since it was reported that Godfred, king of the Danes, had crossed into the territory of the Abodrites
with an army, he sent his son Charles to the Elbe with a strong force of Franks and Saxons and orders to
resist the insane king should he attempt an attack upon the frontiers of Saxony. But after Godfred had
maintained camp on the coast for some time and also attacked and captured by force of arms a number of the
Slavs' castella, he returned home. His force had suffered heavy casualties, for although he had driven out
Thrasco, dux of the Abodrites, who despaired of the people's loyalty, had captured another dux. Godelaib,
by treachery and hanged him from a gallows, and had made two thirds of the Abodrites his tributaries, he
had yet lost the best and most fearless of his soldiers and with them his brother's son, Reginold, who was
killed together with a great many of the primores of the Danes at the siege of a certain fortress [oppidum].
Moreover, the emperor's son Charles threw a bridge across the Elbe and with all the speed he could muster
moved the army he commanded across it against the Linones and Smeldingi, who had also defected to king
Godfred. He laid waste their fields far and wide and then recrossed the river, returning to Saxony with his
army unscathed.
With Godfred on the aforesaid expedition were the Slavs who are called Wiltzites; they had joined his forces
voluntarily out of the ancient enmity which existed between them and the Abodrites. When he went back to
his kingdom they returned to their homes also, with the booty which they had been able to seize from the
Abodrites.
Before Godfred returned home, however, he destroyed the trading-place on the seacoast which was called
Reric in the Danes' tongue and conferred great benefit on his kingdom through the payment of tolls. He
transported the merchants from there, had his fleet set sail and arrived with his entire army at the port called
Sliesthorp [Schleswig]. Staying there for some time, he decided to protect the frontier-area of his kingdem
facing Saxony with a rampart in such a way that a protective bulwark, broken by a single gateway through
which wagons and horsemen could be let out and admitted, would form a border from the gulf on the eastern
seaboard which they call Ostersalt [the Baltic] along the entire length of the northern bank of the river Eider
as far as the western ocean. Once he had apportioned the work among the dures of his troops, he returned
home.
Meanwhile, the king of the Northumbrians, from the island of Britain, Eardwulf by name, came to the
emperor while he was still at Nijmegen; he had been driven from his kingdom and native land. After
explaining the matter which had brought him, he set out for Rome; and on his return from there he was
conducted back into his kingdom by legates of the Roman pontiff and the lord emperor. Leo III presided
over the Roman church at this time; and the legate whom he sent to Britain was the deacon Ealdwulf, who
came from Britain and was a Saxon by race. With him, sent by the emperor, travelled two abbots, Rotfrid the
notary and Nanthar of St Omer.
After having his legates build two castella on the river Elbe and posting garrisons in these against the
incursions of the Slavs, the emperor wintered at Aachen, where he celebrated both the Lord's birthday and
holy Easter. And the count of the years changed to
809 AD
A fleet dispatched from Constantinople sailed first to Dalmatia and then to Venetia. And while it was
wintering there, a section of it attacked the island of Comacchio; defeated and forced to flee when it joined
battle with the garrison stationed there, it retreated to Venetia. But when the dux who commanded the fleet, a
man called Paul, endeavoured to negotiate with the lord Pippin, king of Italy, about establishing peace
between Franks and Greeks - acting as if he had been charged to do this - all his initiatives were impeded by
Willeri and Beatus, the dukes of Venetia, who even concocted plots against him. Recognising their
treachery, he departed.
In the western regions the lord king Louis entered Spain with an army and besieged the city of Tortosa,
which lies on the bank of the river Ebro. After devoting some time to its reduction, he realised that it could
not be captured so swiftly, lifted the siege and returned to Aquitaine with his army unscathed.
After Eardwulf, king of the Northumbrians, had been conducted back into his kingdom and the papal and
imperial legates had begun their return journey, one of them, the deacon Ealdwulf, was captured by pirates
and taken by them to Britain. The others made the crossing safely. Ealdwulf returned to Rome after he was
ransomed by one of king Cenwulf's homines.
In Tuscany the maritime city of Fopulonia was pillaged by Greeks called Orobiotae. Also, Moors from Spain
landed in Corsica and plundered a certain city on the Holy Saturday of Easter itself, leaving nothing in it but
the bishop and a few old and infirm people.
Meanwhile Godfred, king of the Danes, sent word by some merchants that he had heard that the emperor
was angry with him because he had led an army against the Abodrites the year before and avenged the
injuries done him. He added that he wished to clear himself of what was alleged against him; the first breach
of the treaty had originated with them. He asked, further, that a meeting of his counts and the emperor's
should take place beyond the Elbe, near the frontier of his kingdom, where what had been done on both sides
could be brought up between the parties and matters which it would be appropriate to put right could be
detailed. The emperor did not reject this request and the conference with the primores of the Danes was held
across the Elbe in the place called Badenfliot [probably Beidenfleth]. Many matters were brought up and
detailed on both sides, but when they separated the business was left entirely unsettled. However, Thrasco,
dux of the Abodrites, after he had given his son as a hostage to Godfred as the king required, gathered a
force of his countrymen together and, with help from the Saxons, attacked his neighbours, the Wiltzites; he
laid their territory waste with fire and sword and returned home with immense booty. Then, with further aid
from the Saxons, more than before, he captured the greatest civitas of the Smeldingi. By these successes he
forced all those who had defected from him to become his allies again.
After all this the emperor returned from the Ardennes to Aachen and in November held a council on the
question of the procession of the Holy Spirit, an issue first raised by a certain John, a monk of Jerusalem. In
order to settle this matter Bernhar, bishop of Worms, and Adalhard, abbot of the monastery of Corbie, were
sent to Rome, to pope Leo. There was also discussion at this council about the state of the churches and the
conduct of those who are said to serve God within them, but here too nothing was settled, because of what
was seen as the magnitude of those matters.
The emperor decided, however, in view of the many reports which had reached him about the bragging and
arrogance of the king of the Danes, that he would build a civitas across the river Elbe and install a garrison
of Franks in it. And after he had gathered men from throughout Gaul and Germany for this purpose and
ordered them, furnished with arms and the other equipment which they needed for the task, to be taken to the
appointed place through Frisia, Thrasco, dux of the Abodrites, was treacherously killed by Godfred's
homines at the trading-place of Reric. Neverthless, once the site for the civitas which was to be established
had been confirmed, the emperor put count Egbert in charge of the execution of the project and com manded
him to cross the Elbe and occupy the place. This lies on the bank of the river Stor and is called Esesfelth
[Itzehoe]. Egbert and the Saxon counts took possession of the place about the middle of March and began its
fortification.
Count Aureolus, who was established in the frontier-region of Spain and Gaul across the Pyrenees, over
against Huesca and Saragossa, died. And Amrus, governor of Saragossa and Huesca, seized the area in
which he had held authority, posted garrisons in his castella and sent a legation to the emperor, promising
that he intended to surrender himself and all that he held to him.
An eclipse of the moon occurred on 26 December.
810 AD
When the emperor's legates reached him, Amrus, the governor of Saragossa, asked for a conference between
himself and the defenders of the Spanish frontier-region, promising that at this he would place himself and
all that he held under the emperor's dominion. Although the emperor agreed that this meeting should take
place, a variety of matters arose to prevent its being held. Moors, with a very large fleet which had been
brought together from the whole of Spain, landed first in Sardinia and then in Corsica; finding no garrison in
the latter, they subjected almost the whole island. Meanwhile, king Pippin, goaded by the perfidy of the
Venetian dukes, waged war, ordering Venetia to be attacked by land and sea. After Venetia had been
subjected and the surrender of its dukes received, he dispatched the same fleet to devastate the coasts of
Dalmatia. But when Paul, the governor of Cephalonia, approached with an eastern fleet to aid the
Dalmatians, the royal fleet returned home.
Rotrud, the emperor's eldest daughter, died on 6 June.
And while still at Aachen and pondering a campaign against king Godfred, the emperor was told that a fleet
of 200 ships from Nordmannia had sailed to Frisia, that all the islands off the Frisian coast had been
devastated, that the army was already on the mainland and had fought three battles with the Frisians, that the
victorious Danes had imposed tribute on the vanquished, that the Frisians had already paid 100 pounds of
silver under title of tribute, but that king Godfred was at home. Such was indeed the situation. So enraged by
this news was the emperor that he sent men out into all the regions far and wide to gather an army and
himself straightway set out from the palace, deciding first to join up with the fleet and then to cross the river
Rhine at the place called Lippeham and await the troops who had not yet assembled. And while he stayed
there for a time the elephant sent to him by Aaron, rex of the Saracens, suddenly died. When the troops had
finally gathered, he marched as rapidly as possible to the river Aller, set up camp by its confluence with the
river Weser and awaited the outcome of king Godfred's threats. For that king, puffed up with the emptiest
hopes of victory, was bragging that he meant to engage the emperor in pitched battle.
But while the emperor maintained his quarters at the place mentioned, various matters were reported to him:
the fleet which had been devastating Frisia had returned home; king Godfred had been killed by someone
from his retinue; the castellum lying on the river Elbe by the name of Hohbeck, which contained a garrison
of east Saxons and the emperor's legate, Odo, had been captured by the Wiltzites; his son Pippin, king of
Italy, had departed this life on 8 July; and two legations had arrived from different parts of the world to make
peace, one from Constantinople, the other from Cordova. After receiving these reports and arranging matters
in Saxony to suit the circumstances of the time, he returned home. There was such a severe murrain among
the cattle on this expedition that it almost happened that not a single beast was left for such a large army but
all died, to the last head. And it was not only there but throughout all the provinces subject to the emperor
that death raged most savagely against this type of animal.
Reaching Aachen in October, the emperor received in audience the legates mentioned and made peace with
the emperor Nicephorus and with Abulaz, rex of Spain. He returned Venetia to Nicephorus and recovered
count Haimric, who had earlier been captured by the Saracens and was sent back by Abulaz. In this year the
sun and the moon were both eclipsed twice, the sun on 7 June and 30 November, the moon on 21 June and
15 December. The island of Corsica was again devastated by the Moors. Amrus was driven out of Saragossa
by Abd al-Rahman, the son of Abulaz, and forced to enter Huesca. After the death of Godfred, king of the
Danes, Hemming, his brother's son, succeeded to the kingship and made peace with the emperor.

This text was first translated in Charlemagne: Translated Sources, by P.D. King (Kendal, 1987). We thank
Professor King for his permission to include these items.