The ''Stellinga'' (

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It ...

for "companions, comrades"Flierman, ''Saxon Identities'', p. 126–130.) or ''Stellingabund'' (German for "''Stellinga'' league") was a movement of Saxon ''frilingi'' (freemen) and ''lazzi'' (

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

) between 841 and 843. These were the middle two Saxon castes, below the nobility and above the unfree. The aim of the ''Stellinga'' was to recover those rights the two castes had possessed before their conversion from

Germanic paganism Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germ ...

in the 770s. At that time they had still possessed political privileges, but

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 ...

, having won over to his cause the Saxon nobility, had reduced them to mere peasants. The ''Stellinga'' thus despised the ''

Lex Saxonum The ''Lex Saxonum'' are a series of laws issued by Charlemagne 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 la ...

'' (law of the Saxons), which had been codified by Charlemagne, preferring to live in accordance with ancient and unwritten tribal custom. The movement was violently resisted by the uppermost caste, the ''nobiles'' (

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...

), not always with the support of the Frankish kings.

Saxon conditions 838–841

During the civil war of 840–843 in the

Carolingian Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–888) was a large Frankish-dominated empire in western and central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the ...

, between the heirs of

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...

, the ''Stellinga'' had the support of Lothair I, who promised to grant them the rights they had had when formerly pagan and whom they in turn promised to support for the throne of East Francia. Saxony, on the eve of the ''Stelling'' uprising, was divided into two noble factions: the Saxons supportive of

Hattonid The Hattonids were an important imperial noble family in the first half of the 9th century, during the reigns of the Carolingian kings Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. They lost their position under Louis the German. They were patronised by the empe ...

influence (and thus of imperial unity) and the ''Saxones sollicitati'', who were allied with

Louis the German Louis the German (c. 806/810 – 28 August 876), also known as Louis II of Germany and Louis II of East Francia, was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 843 to 876 AD. Grandson of emperor Charlemagne and the third son of Louis the P ...

in his invasion of Alemannia in 839. When Louis the Pious died, the German Louis deposed the Hattonid leader Banzleib from his royal offices and bestowed them on the Abbey of Corvey. Among Louis's chief supporters in Saxony were the Ecbertiner and the Bardonids. Having patronised new families and removed from power old ones, Louis the German made the Saxon aristocracy his organ of government there and forced his foes, such as Lothair, to look to the lower classes for support in Saxony.

Uprising

The chief sources for the ''Stellinga'' are the ''

Annales Xantenses The ''Annales Xantenses'' or ''Annals of Xanten'' are a series of annals which adapt and continue the Royal Frankish Annals. Their first editor, Georg Pertz, thought they were perhaps written at the monastery at Xanten, hence their name. However, ...

'', ''

Annales Bertiniani ''Annales Bertiniani'' (''Annals of Saint Bertin'') are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the Abbey of Saint Bertin, Saint-Omer, France, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus contin ...

'' (written by

Prudentius of Troyes Prudentius (? in Aragon, Spain – 6 April 861 at Troyes, France) was bishop of Troyes, a chronicler and an opponent of Hincmar of Reims in the controversy on predestination. Life Prudentius left Spain in his youth and came to the Frankish Empir ...

), ''

Annales Fuldenses The ''Annales Fuldenses'' or ''Annals of Fulda'' are East Frankish chronicles that cover independently the period from the last years of Louis the Pious (died 840) to shortly after the end of effective Carolingian rule in East Francia with the a ...

'' (written by

Rudolf of Fulda Rudolf of Fulda (died March 8, 862) was a Benedictine monk during the Carolingian period in the 9th century. Rudolf was active at Fulda Abbey in the present-day German state of Hesse. He was one of the most distinguished scholars of his time. Man ...

), and the ''Historiae'' of Nithard. Gerward, author of the ''Annales Xantenses'', wrote under the year 841 that "throughout all of Saxony the power of the slaves rose up violently against their lords. They usurped for themselves the name ''Stellinga'' . . . d the nobles of that land were violently persecuted and humiliated by the slaves." Both Nithard and the ''Annales Bertiniani'' indicate that an anti-Christian reaction was prevalent among the ''Stellinga''. At

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...

late in 841, Lothair and his young son Lothair II met the leaders of the ''Stellinga'' uprising, among other Saxon notables who were loyal to him.

, however, marched against the Saxon "freedmen seeking to oppress their lawful lords" and "crushed

hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the g ...

ruthlessly by sentencing the ringleaders to death". The Saxon ''nobilies'' themselves disarmed the movement with a brutal action in 843.

Historiography

Modern historiography has often seen parallels between the ''Stellinga'' uprising and earlier Saxon resistance to Charlemagne, the near contemporary self-defence league formed by the peasantry of the Seine basin and crushed by the nobility in 859, and the later

Liutizi The Lutici or Liutizi (known by various spelling variants) were a federation of West Slavic Polabian tribes, who between the 10th and 12th centuries lived in what is now northeastern Germany. Four tribes made up the core of the federation: th ...

uprising in 983 in favour of Slavic paganism. It was the only popular revolt recorded in Europe between the sixth century, when Gregory of Tours records several riots in protest of

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

taxation, and the tenth century and the 983 rebellion. The ''Stellinga'' uprising has been studied extensively and in detail by Marxist historians in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. The Marxists formed two camps, those who saw the ''Stellinga'' as probably feudal dependents trying to free themselves from their obligations and those who saw them as essentially free men seeking to ward off the ''Feudalisierungsprozeß'', the

feudalisation Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

of Germany. According to scholar Eric Goldberg,

Marxist analysis Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectica ...

has tended to ignore the simultaneous civil war in the Carolingian kingdoms and has mostly failed to explain why "exploitation" or "oppression" did not incite more revolts during the Middle Ages.Goldberg, "Popular Revolt", p. 469.

Notes

Sources

*Flierman, Robert. ''Saxon Identities, AD 150–900''. Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. *Goldberg, Eric J. "Popular Revolt, Dynastic Politics, and Aristocratic Factionalism in the Early Middle Ages: The Saxon Stellinga Reconsidered." '' Speculum'', Vol. 70, No. 3. (Jul., 1995), pp 467–501. *Reuter, Timothy (trans.)
The Annals of Fulda
'. (Manchester Medieval series, Ninth-Century Histories, Volume II.) Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992.

Saxon conditions 838–841

Uprising

Historiography

Notes

Sources

Further reading