804. “At this time Godfrey, king of the Danes, came with a fleet and all the horsemen of his kingdom, to a place called Schlesvig, on the borders of his realm and that of Saxony.”
808. “A last war was undertaken against the Northmen, whom we call Danes, and their king, Godfrey, was so inflated with proud hopes, that he promised himself the empire of all Germany. Frisia and Saxony he looked upon as provinces belonging to himself.
“Wishing to assemble a fleet to fight the Northmen, Charlemagne had ships built on all the rivers of Gaul and Germany which flow into the Northern ocean; and, as the Northmen devastated in their continual voyages the coasts of both these countries, he erected solid structures at the entrances of all the harbours and navigable mouths of rivers which could receive vessels, and thus blocked the route of the enemy.”
810. “The emperor, then at Aix-la-Chapelle, planned an expedition against King Godfrey. He suddenly received tidings that a fleet of two hundred ships, coming from the country of the Northmen, had landed in Frisia, and ravaged all the islands adjacent to this shore; that this army had gone inland, and that three battles had taken place between it and the Frisians; that the Danish conquerors had imposed a tribute on the conquered; that, under the name of a tax, a hundred pounds of silver had been paid by the Frisians; and that King Godfrey was on his return home. These reports proving true, the emperor was so vexed that he sent messengers in every direction to collect an army, left his palace at once, and joined his fleet. He passed the Rhine at Lippenheim, and resolved to await there the troops which had not yet arrived. His army assembled, the Emperor went as quickly as possible to the river Aller, pitched his tents near the confluence of this river with the Weser and awaited the result of the threats of Godfrey; for this king, puffed up with the vain hope of victory, boasted that he would try his strength with the army of the emperor.
“After he had remained here some time he heard, among other things, that the fleet which had devastated Frisia, had returned to Denmark; that King Godfrey had been slain by one of his servants; that a fort near the Elbe, named Hobbuck (supposed to be Hamburg), in which were Odo, the emperor’s envoy, and a garrison of eastern Saxons, had been taken by the Wiltzes.... Hemming, son of the brother of Godfrey, king of the Danes, succeeded him, and made peace with the emperor.”
From the following we find that the Norwegians and Danes are confounded with each other, as were at times all the tribes of the North. Danish princes are said to live on the shores opposite Britain (Norway).
813. “The emperor sent noble Franks and Saxons into the country of the Northmen, beyond the Elbe, to make peace with the Danes, according to the wish of their kings, and to give back their brother. The Danish nobles came to the place appointed, in number equal to that of the Franks (they were sixteen on each side); peace was confirmed by oaths, and the Franks gave up to the Danes the brother of their kings. These princes were not then in their own country, but had gone to Westerfulde with an army. This country, the most distant of their kingdom, is situated to the north-west, and looks to the north of Britain.”
Charlemagne died in 814 and was succeeded by his son Louis le Debonnaire. During the early years of his reign, he appears to have kept on friendly terms with the Northmen, who were suffering from internal dissensions, owing to the succession being disputed between Heriold, and the sons of King Godfrey. Louis espoused the cause of Heriold, and we read that in
828. “Lothaire returned to his father at Aix-la-Chapelle. As they proceeded to occupy the frontier of the Northmen, both in order to renew the alliance between these peoples and the Franks, and to protect the interests of Heriold, and when almost all the counts of Saxony had united for this purpose with the commanders of the marches, Heriold, too eager to hasten the conclusion of the matter, broke the peace pledged and guaranteed by hostages, and ravaged and burned some farms of the Northmen. Hearing this the sons of Godfrey quickly collected troops, marched to the frontier, crossed the Eider river, and falling upon our men, camped upon the bank, who were not expecting such an attack, took the entrenchments, put the defenders to flight, pillaged everything, and returned to camp with all their force.”
829. “He received the information that the Northmen contemplated the seizure of the part of Saxony beyond the Elbe, and that, with this design, their army had already approached our frontiers. Greatly troubled at this, he sent into all the countries of the Franks to order the people in mass, to march toward Saxony with all haste, and announced that he, in person, would cross the Rhine at Nuitz in the middle of July.”