🏰 Part II: Charlemagne and the Saxon Campaigns | c. AD 780 Language notes (spoken lines): •Church Latin: Trans flumen Veseram pugnabimus. → “We will fight across the River Weser.” •Old Frankish: Wi welōn faran ofer thesan flod. → “We will go across this river.” •Church Latin (monk): De hoste Saxonum cavendum est. → “We must beware the Saxon enemy.” Why two languages? Latin was the court and clergy’s official tongue. Old Frankish was daily speech for commanders. Einhard says Charlemagne spoke Latin well for formal use but preferred Frankish with his men. Where does this scene take place? At Aachen (modern-day Germany), the royal court and capital of the Frankish Empire, Charlemagne planned an advance across the River Weser (a major river in northern Germany) into Saxony. Who were the Saxons? Pagan Germanic tribes in northern Germany between the Weser and Elbe (roughly today’s Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein). Why did Charlemagne fight them?
They raided Frankish fro...