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This volume is a little different than most Osprey Campaign books, because it’s really about more than one campaign. In some senses it’s even about more than one war.

But only in fairly limited senses. Mostly, this is about one phase in a larger conflict (“war”), and because of this there’s two distinct battles that get major coverage. The introductory section moves from vague origins of the Franks and Saxons (and notes their main groupings into East- and Westphalians, Angrians, and Nodalbians) to the fact that Charles Martel fought the Saxons something like ten times, and then goes on to his son Charlemagne’s early campaigns against them.

We start with a good map of various campaigns against the Saxons from 772 to 781. While up to the usual Osprey standards, it is relatively confusing because they’re packing a lot of motion into one display. There’s good captioning to help sort it out, but it also serves to show just how much effort was being expended for a fairly constrained area. The effective overall war starts in 772 with Charlemagne invading and destroying the Irminsal, some form of sacred tree that was important to Saxon paganism. It was probably meant to show Christian superiority and symbolically take the Saxons into the Frankish orbit, but of course it also caused resentment. There are two Saxon attacks after that, and Charlemagne imposes peace again. At this point, Widukind emerges as the main leader of Saxon resistance. The main qualification for this is being able to slip out the back door, and just not get forced into much by the Franks. Certainly, he is first noted as not being present at an assembly in 777 called by Charlemagne, and is instead visiting the ruler of the Danes.

The main section of the book opens with Charlemagne holding another assembly in southern Saxony in 782, largely to organize administration in the region, but also to recruit men for a campaign against the Avars. Part of this gets redirected against the Sorbs, but the three senior Frankish leaders find a Saxon rebellion has started behind them, and joined by a fourth commander, they get drawn into fighting in the Süntel hills. This is a disaster, with two of the top commanders, and a number of other important men being killed. There’s another good map showing the area and movements towards battle, and then three isometric maps showing the course of the main battle.

That’s the end of the initial campaign.

There’s another regular map showing movements over the next year, as Charlemagne puts together a new army and looks to put down the rebellion. He defeats them at Detwold, retreats from a confrontation at Osning (Teutoberger Wald; yes that one), and fortified Paderborn. There’s a another battle, which is said to last three days, but Nicolle opines was probably two days of getting Charlemagne’s force over a river (I think that’s sensible interpretation). The Saxons are crushed, and the rebellion is over.

But, Widukind slips out again, and gets more allies. This time the Frisians and Eastphalians rebel, and Charlemagne gets to do it all over again. Progress is blocked by flooded rivers, but little else, and during 785 hostages are exchanged, and Widukind goes to see Charlemagne in Attigny, and converts to Christianity. All of this gets another good overview map.

The ending section goes into the aftermath of Widukind’s incorporation into the Frankish Kingdom, giving a very brief summary of further small rebellions that last until AD 804. At this distance it is hard to point to a lot of concrete results, but the sources make it plain that the fighting had been particularly savage and damaging to the entire region. After this, Saxon resistance was nearly crushed, and most Saxon social and governmental institutions were done away with.

This isn’t the best of the Campaign series by any means, but it is still well put together and informative. The maps, as always are a big help, and both the Irminsal and Widukind feature in modern (French) memory of Charlemagne, so a book focusing on this part of his reign makes a lot of sense. There’s the usual useful color and B/W photography of various artifacts, and some of the landscape (not enough to really help me), and a good set of colored archaeological diagrams of a few Saxon forts of the period.