Editing Saxons (section)

==The Duchy of Saxony==
{{Also see|Duchy of Saxony|List of rulers of Saxony#Saxony as part of Frankish kingdom(s)}}
Under [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingian rule]], the Saxons were reduced to tributary status. There is evidence that the Saxons, as well as Slavic tributaries such as the [[Abodrites]] and the [[Wends]], often provided troops to their Carolingian overlords. The dukes of Saxony became kings ([[Henry the Fowler|Henry I]], the Fowler, 919) and later the first emperors (Henry's son, [[Otto I, the Great]]) of Germany during the tenth century, but they lost this position in 1024. The duchy was divided in 1180 when Duke [[Henry the Lion]] refused to follow his cousin, Emperor [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick Barbarossa]], into war in [[Lombardy]].

During the [[High Middle Ages]], under the [[Salian dynasty|Salian]] emperors and, later, under the [[Teutonic Knights]], German settlers moved east of the [[Saale]] into the area of a western Slavic tribe, the [[Sorbs]]. The Sorbs were gradually [[Germanisation|Germanised]]. This region subsequently acquired the name Saxony through political circumstances, though it was initially called the [[March of Meissen]]. The rulers of [[Meissen]] acquired control of the [[Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg]] (only a remnant of the previous Duchy) in 1423; they eventually applied the name ''Saxony'' to the whole of their kingdom. Since then, this part of eastern Germany has been referred to as [[Saxony]] ({{langx|de|Sachsen}}), a source of some misunderstanding about the original homeland of the Saxons, with a central part in the present-day German state of [[Lower Saxony]] ({{langx|de|Niedersachsen|links=no}}).