Nordalbingia

Nordalbingia (German: Nordalbingien) was one of the four administrative regions of the medieval Duchy of Saxony, the others being Angria, Eastphalia, and Westphalia.

The region's name is based on the Latin name Alba for the Elbe River. It refers to an area that lies predominantly north of the Lower Elbe and roughly coincides with today’s Holstein. Situated in what is now Northern Germany, this is the earliest known dominion of the Saxons.

Nordalbingia consisted of four districts: Dithmarschen, Holstein, Stormarn (north of the Elbe) and the Land of Hadeln (south of the Elbe). Following the defeat of the Nordalbingians in the Battle of Bornhöved (798) by the combined forces of the Obodrites and the Franks, where the Saxons lost 4000 people, 10,000 families of Saxons were deported to other areas of the empire. Areas north of the Elbe were given to the Obodrites, while the Hadeln directly incorporated. However, the Obodrites soon were invaded by the Danes and only the intervention of Charlemagne pushed them out of the Eider river.

After the death of Charlemagne in 814, the Saxons were pardoned and their land restored to them from the Obodrites ^[1]

After Saxon Christianization following the loss of Saxon independence, this entire region was incorporated into Charlemagne’s Carolingian Empire in 804.

According to some sources, Charlemagne intended to establish a diocese of Nordalbingia headed by the priest Heridag. This plan was abandoned after Heridag’s death, and the region came to be assigned to the dioceses of Bremen and Verden during the reign of Emperor Louis the Pious.

References

1. ^ History of Vandalia by Thomas Nugent