The ''Lex Saxonum'' are a series of laws issued by

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

between 782 and 803 as part of his plan to subdue the Saxon nation. The law is thus a compromise between the traditional customs and statutes of the pagan Saxons and the established laws of the

Frankish Empire Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...

. The ''Lex Saxonum'' has come down to us in two manuscripts and two old editions (those of B. J. Herold and du Tillet), and the text has been edited by Karl von Richthofen in the ''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' (''MGH'') is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of Northwestern and Central European history from the end of the Roman Empire ...

, Leges'', v. The law contains ancient customary enactments of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, and, in the form in which it has reached us, is later than the conquest of Saxony by

. It is preceded by two

capitularies A capitulary (Medieval Latin ) was a series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Frankish court of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, especially that of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Romans in the west since the ...

of Charlemagne for Saxony, the ''

Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae ''Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae'' (Latin, variously translated as 'Ordinances concerning Saxony' or the 'Saxon Capitularies' or 'Capitulary of Paderborn')For example, Pierre Riché (1993:105) renders the Latin as 'Ordinances concerning Saxony', w ...

'' (A. Boretius i. 68), which dates from either 782 or 795,Yitzhak Hen
"Charlemagne’s Jihad"
''Ben-Gurion University of the Negev'', 2006 and is characterized by great severity, death being the penalty for every offence against the Christian religion; and the ''Capitulare Saxonicum'' (A. Boretius i. 71), of the 28 October 797, in which Charlemagne shows less brutality and pronounces simple compositions for misdeeds which formerly entailed death. The ''Lex Saxonum'' apparently dates from 803, since it contains provisions which are in the ''Capitulare legi Ribuariae additum'' of that year. The law established the ancient customs, at the same time eliminating anything that was contrary to the spirit of Christianity; it proclaimed the peace of the churches, whose possessions it guaranteed and whose right of asylum it recognized.

External links

Information on the ''lex Saxonum'' and its manuscript tradition on the ' website
A database on Carolingian secular law texts (Karl Ubl, Cologne University, Germany, 2012). {{Italic title

References

Germanic legal codes 780s 8th century in law 790s