Marklo

Marklo ( altsächs: marka 'frontier', 'border area' and Loh " clearing ", " meadow ", " wood ", " grove " ) was a central meeting place of the pre-Christian Old Saxons. From Marklo reported a single historical source - the biography of the Holy Lebuin.

The Marklo Assembly in the Vita Lebuini

In the Vita Lebuini is said that the Old Saxons had no king. Instead, there were for individual parts of the country ( pagi ) used prince ( satrapes ), held annually in a general assembly ( consilium generale ) came together to change local laws to decide important legal disputes and with respect to advising questions of war and peace. The location of this meeting was the middle of Saxony, on the river Weser, and bore the name Marklo. Present at the meeting were all princes ( satrapes ), also from the various parts of the country chose twelve Noble ( electi nobiles ) and as many free ( liberi ) and as many distillates ( lati ).

During such meeting, the missionary Lebuin appeared ( † about 775) of those present and presented them to the choice either to accept the Christian faith and so to be able to continue their kingless rule - or to be subjected to violence by a neighboring king. The Old Saxons revolted against and expelled the missionaries from the meeting place.

The Assembly prohibition in legislation of Charlemagne

The later conquerors Altsachsens, Charlemagne, limited the policy options of the conquered, by forbidding their meetings. In Article 34 of Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae - a legal writing, is dated between the years 787 and 803 - forbade the Frankish king all public Zusammkünfte ( generaliter conventus publicos ) in Saxony, except those ordinary court proceedings, by appointed by the king himself Count ( comes ) were held. This provision must have completed the Marklo Assembly.

The importance of Marklo Assembly in historical research

The Old Saxons have not even documented in writing. The historical research is, therefore, in addition to results from archeology and linguistics, rely on the contemporary sources of Christian neighbors. These mainly relate to the Old Saxons Frankish sources but mostly indirectly or casually. The report on the meeting is Marklo, delivers both the Ecclesiastical History of the Venerable Bede in the early eighth century, the only font source to specific information about the stately and social conditions that pre-Christian people. Thus, the Marklo report is a part of paramount importance, but on the other hand provides for historical derivations only a dangerously narrow basis.

In the research literature the Marklo Assembly is often referred to as " the Saxon tribal assembly. " This refers to a general, and regularly meets on central institution, similar to a Reichstag or Althing. Some researchers see - through the interpretation of the Latin word " electi " ( elected, appointed, determined, exquisite ) as " elected by the people " - in the Marklo Assembly even a kind of Deputies Parliament (M. Lintzel ), which in the Germanic history rarity would be.

Other historians, however, reject the idea of Marklo Assembly altogether, because they invented for keeping the report of the Vita Lebuini (M. Springer ). You suspect that the Old Saxons only meetings of the usual kind of pre-Christian Germanic tribes were holding ( Thing ).

The localization of Marklo

The exact localization of Marklo is unknown. There is no further reference to this place as the relevant passage in the Vita Lebuini: " in media Saxonia iuxta locum qui dicitur ad Fluvium Wisuram Marclo " ( the middle of Saxony on the Weser River in a place called Marklo ).

In the 1930s, as was the interest in the Old Saxons and their opposition to the Christian Franks in Germany particularly large, it has been attempted to determine Marklo using old place names in more detail. Probabilities were claimed for:

  • The church today Marklohe ( at Nienburg ). This place extended in 1931 to its original name of Lohe to Marklohe. ⊙ 52.6710789.157378
  • The district Lohe the town of Bad Oeynhausen ⊙ 52.1802478.800645. This assumption could possibly be true, as is now accepted as the most likely variant. The neighboring town of Herford planted in 1934 near the city limits a memorial tree in honor of the Holy Lebuin, which was hidden a legend, there pursuing him Saxony. ⊙ 52.1449598.714175
  • The district waterway in the city Peter Hagen ( near Minden ). ⊙ 52.4769259.08947

In this context it should be mentioned that there are less than 30 km east of Lebuins eigentlichem Mission Center, Deventer, a municipality is Markelo ( Overijssel ), whose name is attested as Marclo at least since 1180. ⊙ 52.2318976.500068

Swell

To Marklo:

  • Anonymous: Vita Lebuini I. Monumenta Historica Germaniae, SS 30.2 [ perhaps written 840-862, maybe only around 900 ]
  • Hucbald: Vita Lebuini II [ written 917-930 ]. Translated by W. Arndt, in: The historian of the German past, edited by GH Pertz, 8th century, Volume 2, Berlin, 1863
  • See also: Bede: 5.10. Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the English People, 1982, p 458-459.

For legislation of Charlemagne:

Secondary literature

  • Martin Lintzel: Selected Writings, Berlin 1961
  • Matthias Becher: Marklohe / Marklo. In: Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity ( RGA). 2nd edition. Volume 19, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-017163-5, pp. 289-290.
  • Rainer Pape: Marklo and the army ford in the Saxon Wars. In: Herford Yearbook 24 (1988 ), pp. 121-135.
  • Matthias Springer: The Saxons, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 135-152 and 228-229.

Comments

  • History of Law ( Germany )
  • Porta Westfalica (city)
  • Lower Saxon History
  • Old Saxony
Lebuinus Duchy of Saxony Petershagen Hof van Twente Lex Saxonum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde
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