Object of His Wars and His Chief Foes
It was in the effort to realize his grand idea that Charlemagne undertook the numerous wars and expeditions that filled the forty-six years of his reign. We shall not enter into the details of these wars; but it is needful to understand their object and their result.
The most important of Charlemagne’s military enterprises were directed against the fierce pagan nations of Germany and the wild Scythians in the outlying lands beyond. To appreciate the importance of these we must try to realize that the eastern frontier of the Frankish land, that is, the eastern boundary of Charlemagne’s kingdom, on the German side of the Rhine, ran into and abutted on the extensive stretch of country in Middle Europe that was still in the hands of the various uncivilized tribes. As long as these peoples remained in their warlike, savage, and pagan condition, they would press heavily on the struggling civilization of the Frankish kingdom, and would endanger, if not utterly destroy, its progress. Hence to subdue and especially to Christianize these tribes—to extend the domain of organized and law-governed society into the desert waste of Teutonic barbarism—was a main object with Charlemagne.