Stellinga
Stellinga (PAL, Comrade) was the self-designation of the insurgents in the named after them stellinga uprising in Old Saxons from 841 to 845. It rose the lower Saxon stands of Frilinge (Free Farmers) and distillates (half-Free) against the franc cooperating Saxon nobility . The main aim of the rebels was to restore their original right to political participation, which had been abolished 50 years earlier in the course of forced Christianization by Charlemagne . The uprising spread across the whole of Saxony, threatened to eliminate the nobility and the church in Saxony, and endangered the Carolingian claim to power in Saxony. From 842 he was bloodily crushed by the Saxon nobility, sometimes with Franconian help.
Emergence
The origin of the uprising was based on social tensions among the Saxon estates, the time can be traced back to the weakening of the Saxon aristocracy with the simultaneous call-up of all Frilinge and Latina to arms.
In the 8th century, the Saxon population was divided into three classes, which the Frankish historian Nithard called edhilingui , frilinge and lazzi in Saxon . Originally the system was permeable. In addition, all the stands took part in the formation of political will. As a result of Charlemagne's Saxon Wars , the social status of the nobility was massively upgraded. This had participated in the overthrow of Saxony on the Frankish side, accepted the Christian faith of the victors and became the sole bearer of political will. On the other hand, Frilinge and Laten remained attached to the old beliefs and traditional customs and traditions. In addition, the lower classes lost their right to political participation. Because in the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae issued by Charlemagne , the thing assemblies were forbidden at which the Frilinge and Latins were involved in decisions about warfare or justice.
The outbreak of the uprising was facilitated by the Carolingian Brethren War 840-843, which had split the Saxon nobility. While the majority of the Saxon greats around the Hattons as well as Bishop Otgar of Mainz with their important Saxon followers were on the side of Lothar I , the number of supporters of Ludwig the German was limited to the Bardonen and the Ekbertiner . When it became apparent at the turn of the year 840/841 that the confrontations were heading for a military conflict, both sides had the Frilinge and Laten called to arms. As a result, larger groups of armed men formed all over Saxony, whose readiness to fight for a foreign cause was comparatively low. Since it also became evident that they should fight against each other because their own leaders were at odds with one another, there was an open revolt against the nobility.
Another thesis for the origin of the Stellinga uprising was put forward in 2005 by Caspar Ehlers. According to this, the insurgents are said to have been the "[...] disappointed (forcibly?) Integrated Saxons of the first hour [...]". They would have been the Saxon elites who would have bet on the promises of the Franks and Christianity and so would have lost a large part of their property through gifts and foundations. So they would have lost their position as elites in Saxony. In the Stellinga uprising they would have tried to defend their position against the newly rising and wealthy noble families, but this fails with the suppression of the Stellinga uprising, so that a new elite is formed in Saxony.
course
Lothar I managed to use this uprising for himself. After his defeat in the Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye , he fled to Aachen and in August 841 turned to the rebellious Stellinga with a request for support against the Saxon allies Ludwig II of the German. In return, he offered the Stellinga the prospect of tolerating the exercise of their old habits and legal habits and the abandonment of Christianity. In doing so, he legitimized the uprising, which, under Franconian law, represented high treason.
The Stellinga accepted Lothar's I offer. He withdrew the Saxon nobles allied with him with their men from Saxony, so that the Stellinga uprising was directed against the supporters of Ludwig the German who remained in Saxony, i.e. Abbot Warin von Corvey, his brother Cobbo and Count Bardo their followers. According to contemporary sources, the uprising spread across Saxony. He threatened to completely destroy the Frankish order and to exterminate the Christian faith in the country. The Stellinga hunted and killed the members of the nobility and prepared to drive the remaining nobility out of the country. From February 842 the tide began to turn. Lothar I's winter campaign against his brother Karl turned out to be a failure. Lothar's allies returned to Saxony without booty and as a loser, where they no longer had a place in the constitution established by the Stellinga. To the right of the Rhine, Ludwig II the German had meanwhile gained the upper hand. After the provisional peace with his brother Lothar I, to which he had been urged not least by the chaotic conditions in Saxony, he devoted himself to the conditions in Saxony from the summer of 842. From Worms he sent Count Bardo to Saxony in order to win over the returned Saxon greats for his side. To this end, he promised them to restore the Frankish legal order in Saxony and reinstate the Saxon nobility in their old status. After the suppression of the uprising by the members of the nobility, Ludwig II the German marched through Saxony and destroyed all who still resisted. He had the instigators and leaders captured and beheaded 140 of them, hanged 14 more and emasculated countless insurgents so that they could never rise again. Despite this deterrent terror, unrest broke out again in November 843, but it was quickly ended.
Contemporary perception
With four independent sources, more contemporary written sources report on the Stellinga uprising than on Charlemagne's coronation. The Franconian Nithard wrote stories in his Four Books , which he wrote up to 843 , that peace between the three sons of Louis the Pious could not be understood without the uprisings in Saxony. Like Nithard, Prudentius , author of the Annals of St. Bertin , emphasizes that the rebels were primarily concerned with living like their ancestors before the Frankish conquest and Christianization of Saxony. The Frisian cleric Gerward emphasizes in the Annales Xantenses the danger posed by the uprising for the continued existence of the Saxon nobility. Even Rudolf of Fulda , the author of the corresponding entries in the Annales Fuldenses , describing the uprising as illegitimate attempt to stellinga to distribute their rightful masters.
swell
- GH Pertz, Nithardi Historiarum libri IIII, in MGH, Script. rer. Germ., 44 (1839)
- Georg Waitz (Ed.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 5: Annales Bertiniani. Hanover 1883 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
- Annales Fuldenses sive Annales regni Francorum Orientalis (MGH SS rer. Germ. 7). Edited by Friedrich Kurz. Hanover 1891; Ndr. Hanover 1978.
- Annales Xantenses. In: Bernhard von Simson (ed.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 12: Annales Xantenses et Annales Vedastini. Hanover 1909, pp. 1–39 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
literature
- Eric Joseph Goldberg: Popular revolt, dynastic politics, and aristocratic factionalism in the early Middle Ages. The Saxon Stellinga reconsidered. In: Speculum , 70, 467-501 (1995).
- Eckhard Müller-Mertens : The Stellinga uprising. Its bearers and the question of political power. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft Vol. 20, 1972, pp. 818-842.
- Ingrid Rembold: Conquest and Christianization: Saxony and the Carolingian World, 772-888. Cambridge 2017, pp. 85-140.
- Norbert Wagner: The name of Stellinga. In: Contributions to name research , Vol. 15 (1980) pp. 128-133.
Remarks
- ↑ Caspar Ehlers : The integration of Saxony into the Frankish empire (751-1024). Würzburg 2005, p. 239.