As Widukind of Corvey wrote, Mieszko ruled over the tribe called the Licicaviki, now commonly identified with the Polabian Lubusz Land.

By his own admission, Widukind first wrote several Christian hagiographies before he began his Res gestae saxonicae.

* Widukind of Corvey's Saxon Chronicle

St. Mathilda was the daughter of the Westphalian count Dietrich and his wife Reinhild, and her biographers traced her ancestry back to the legendary Saxon leader Widukind ( c. 730 – 807 ).

Statue of the Saxons leader Widukind, who fought for Saxon independence against Charlemagne, in Herford, Kreis Herford, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

On May 8, the nobles of the Empire assembled before Otto II and, according to the Saxon Chronicler Widukind of Corvey, " elected " Otto II as his father's successor.

* Widukind of Corvey, Saxon chronicler

Widukind ( 8th / 9th centuries ; modernized name Wittekind ) was a pagan Saxon leader and the chief opponent of Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars.

In later times, Widukind became a symbol of Saxon independence and a figure of legend.

Statue of the Saxons leader Widukind, who fought for Saxon independence against Charlemagne, in Herford, Kreis Herford, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

While Widukind was considered the leader of the Saxon resistance by the Franks, his exact role in the military campaigns is unknown.

When in the 10th century Saxon kings ( of the Ottonian dynasty ) replaced the Frankish kings in East Francia ( the later Holy Roman Empire ), these kings proudly claimed descent from Widukind: Matilda, the wife of King Henry I, was apparently a great-great-great-granddaughter of Widukind.

Widukind of Corvey ( c. 925after 973 ) was a mediæval Saxon chronicler.

In view of his name, he possibly was a descendant of the Saxon leader and national hero Widukind, mentioned in the Royal Frankish Annals, who had battled Charlemagne in the Saxon Wars from 777 to 785.

He dedicated the chronicles to Abbess Matilda of Quedlinburg ( c. 955999 ), daughter of Emperor Otto the Great, like himself a descendant of the Saxon leader Widukind.

" The Saxon leader Widukind died about 808.

Mining on the Rammelsberg was first mentioned in the records around 968 by the Saxon chronicler, Widukind of Corvey, in his Res gestae saxonicae.

Liudolf became the progenitor of the Saxon ducal, royal and imperial Ottonian dynasty ; nevertheless his descendance, especially his affiliation with late Duke Widukind, has not been conclusively established.

According to the medieval chronicler Widukind of Corvey, King Conrad designated Henry his heir, thereby denying the succession of his own brother Eberhard of Franconia, and in 919 the Saxon duke was elected King of East Francia by the assembled Saxon and Franconian princes at Fritzlar.

Charles ' main Saxon opponent, Widukind, accepted baptism in 785 as part of a peace agreement, but other Saxon leaders continued to fight.

The fall of the Thuringian dynasty became the subject of numerous epic treatments, the best known of which is in the Rerum gestarum saxonicarum libri tres by Widukind of Corvey, a Saxon foundation myth written in 967.

Curiously, as a member of the Ottonian dynasty he was considered a descendant of Widukind, the ferocious and final pagan king of Old Saxony who had fought long and hard against Charlemagne during the late 8th century to prevent the forced conversion of his people to Christianity.

King Harald Bluetooth's conversion to Christianity is a contested bit of history, not least because medieval writers such as Widukind of Corvey and Adam of Bremen give conflicting accounts of how it came about.

According to the chronicler Widukind of Corvey, Otto " pitched his camp in the territory of the city of Augsburg and joined there the forces of Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, who was himself lying mortally ill nearby, and by Duke Conrad with a large following of Franconian knights.

Christianization was fostered by the Asturian kings, who did not base their power on the indigenous religious traditions ( unlike other medieval European kings, e. g. Penda of Mercia or Widukind ), but on the texts of the Christian Sacred Scriptures ( particularly, the books of Revelation, Ezekiel and Daniel ) and the Fathers of the Church, which furnished the new monarchy with its foundational myths.

Even though Widukind allied himself with the Frisians, Charlemagne's winter attacks of 784 / 785 were successful, and Widukind and his allies were pushed back beyond the River Elbe.

Widukind and his allies were then baptized in Attigny in 785, with Charlemagne as his godfather.

Widukind of Corvey starts with the wars between Theuderich I, King of Austrasia, and the Thuringii, in which the Saxons played a large part.

An English translation is found in an unprinted doctoral dissertation: Raymond F. Wood, The three books of the deeds of the Saxons, by Widukind of Corvey, translated with introduction, notes, and bibliography ( University of California, Los Angeles, 1949 ).

Widukind is also credited with a vita of St Paul and St Thecla doubtless based on the 2nd century Acts of Paul and Thecla, but no traces of it now remain.

Widukind of Corvey, writing in 10th-century Saxony, inundates his similar account with various legends.

With Charlemagne's defeat and baptism of Duke Widukind in 785 during the Saxon Wars, his lands were integrated into the Frankish Empire and the Saxons were increasingly converted to Christianity.

The details of Saint Matilda's life come largely from brief mentions in the Res gestae saxonicae of the monastic historian Widukind of Corvey ( c. 925 – 973 ), and from two sacred biographies ( the vita antiquior and vita posterior ) written, respectively, circa 974 and circa 1003.

* Widukind returns to Saxony from Denmark.

All sources about him stem from his enemies, the Franks, who painted a negative picture of Widukind, calling him an " insurgent " and a " traitor ".

The House of Billung, to which several Dukes of Saxony belonged, had Matilda's sister among its ancestors and thus also claimed descent from Widukind.

According to the Res gestae saxonicae by 10th century chronicler Widukind of Corvey, the Saxons had arrived from Britannia at the coast of Land Hadeln in the Elbe-Weser Triangle, called by the Merovingian rulers of Francia to support the conquest of Thuringian kingdom.

Waltbert, a grandson of Widukind, brought the relics of St. Alexander from Rome to Wildeshausen to further Christianity in the sparsely populated area.

* Charlemagne defeats the Saxons ; their leader Widukind flees to Denmark.

* Widukind and many other Saxons are baptized.

However, Widukind does not even mention such an event in his contemporary Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres or " Deeds of the Saxons ", which, considering Widukind was at least partly writing to promote Otto I and his family, is damning to Adam of Bremen's claims.

Widukind was the leader of the Saxons against the Frankish king Charlemagne ( later emperor of the West ).

In 782, when Charlemagne organized Saxony as a Frankish province and ordered forced conversion of the pagan Saxons of Widukind, the Saxons resumed warfare against the Franks.

The Saxons devastated the Frankish stronghold at Eresburg ; their leader ( Herzog ) Widukind refused to appear at the 777 Imperial Diet at Paderborn, retired to Nordalbingia and afterwards led several uprisings against the occupants, avenged by Charlemagne at the ( alleged ) Massacre of Verden in 782.

He preached to them for two years but, in 782, the Saxons under Widukind, rebelled against Charlemagne and Willehad was forced to flee to Frisia.

After Charlemagne had once more ruthlessly subjected the Saxons and had Widukind baptized, Willehad returned to his Saxon mission between the Weser and the Elbe rivers.

After a bloody and highly attritious thirty-year campaign between 772 – 804 the Old Saxons led by Widukind were worn down, slaughtered, exiled and eventually subdued by Charlemagne.