varied are the incidents, so jejune the details afforded by contemporary
sources.

(1) In 773 he crossed the Alps, at the prayer of Pope Hadrian, because
the Lombard King Didier had seized some cities comprised in Pepin's
Donation and was even threatening Rome. Pavia was starved into
surrender, Didier relegated to a monastery; Charles annexed the whole of
Lombard territory except Spoleto (which submitted to the Pope) and
Benevento. He assumed the title of King of the Lombards; but beyond
garrisoning a few towns and appointing a few Frankish counts made no
attempt to displace Lombard officials or alter the Lombard modes of
government. He visited Hadrian at Rome, renewed the Donation of Pepin,
and concluded a pact of eternal friendship with the Papacy.

(2) Then followed the period of the Saxon wars, as much a crusade
against German heathenism as the vindication of old and dubious claims
to suzerainty. The first campaign against the Saxons had taken place in
772; their final submission was not made till 785. The Saxons were still
in that stage of political development which Tacitus describes in his
_Germania_, ruled by petty chiefs who set up a war-leader when
there was need for common action, otherwise united only by racial
sentiment and the cult of a tribal deity. But they were a warlike race,
and found in this crisis a leader of genius, the famous Widukind. At
last he set his followers the example of embracing Christianity. Charles
acted as sponsor at his baptism, and Widukind became a loyal subject of
his spiritual father. In a few years the whole of Saxony was dotted with
mission churches; in a few generations the Saxons were conspicuous for
their loyalty to the faith, and the Saxon bishops counted among the
wealthiest and most influential of ecclesiastical princes. It was
through Saxon rulers, descended from Widukind, that the imperial policy