The Limes Saxoniae ( Latin for "Limit of Saxony"), also known as the Limes Saxonicus or Sachsenwall ("Saxon Dyke"), was an unfortified limes or border between the Saxons and the Slavic Obotrites, established about 810 in present-day Schleswig-Holstein. LimesSaxoniae Hornbek

After Charlemagne had removed Saxons from some of their lands and given it to the Obotrites (who were allies of Charlemagne), he finally managed to conquer the Saxons in the

Saxon Wars The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the thirty-three years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of tribesmen was defeated. In all, 18 campaigns were fought ...

. In 811 he signed the Treaty of Heiligen with the neighbouring

Danes Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. Danes generally regard t ...

and may at the same time have reached a border agreement with the Polabian Slavs in the east. This border should not be thought of as a fortified line, however, but rather a defined line running through the middle of the border zone, an area of

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

and thick forest that was difficult to pass through. According to Adam of Bremen's description in the '' Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum'' about 1075, it ran from the Elbe river near Boizenburg northwards along the Bille river to the mouth of the Schwentine at the Kiel Fjord and the Baltic Sea. It was breached several times by the Slavic Obotrites (983 and 1086) and Mieszko II Lambert of Poland (1028 and 1030). The Limes was dissolved during the first phase of the

Ostsiedlung (, literally "East-settling") is the term for the Early Medieval and High Medieval migration-period when ethnic Germans moved into the territories in the eastern part of Francia, East Francia, and the Holy Roman Empire (that Germans had al ...

, when Count Henry of Badewide campaigned in Wagrian lands in 1138/39 and the Slavic population was Germanized by German, mostly

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

, settlers.

Bibliography

*Matthias Hardt: "Hesse, Elbe, Saale and the Frontiers of the Carolingian Empire." In: Walther Pool /

Ian N. Wood Ian N. Wood, (born 1950) is an English scholar of early medieval history, and a professor at the University of Leeds who specializes in the history of the Merovingian dynasty and the missionary efforts on the European continent. Patrick J. Gear ...

/ Helmut Reimitz (Hrsg.): ''The Transformation of Frontiers from Late Antiquity to the Carolingians.'' The Transformation of the Roman World 10. Leiden-Boston-Köln 2001, S. 219–232, . *Matthias Hardt: "Limes Saxoniae." In: '' Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde'', Bd. 18, Landschaftsrecht – Loxstedt. Berlin-New York 2001, S. 442–446, . *Günther Bock: "Böhmische Dörfer“ in Stormarn? – Verlauf und Bedeutung des Limes Saxoniae zwischen Bille und Trave." In: Derselbe: ''Studien zur Geschichte Stormarns im Mittelalter''. Neumünster 1996 (Stormarner Hefte 19), S. 25–70 (mit Karten), . Geography of Schleswig-Holstein Obotrites Holstein Borders {{Germany-hist-stub