The Viking tribes from Scandinavia began their violent period of European conquest in the last decade of the eighth century.
According to the Monk of St. Gall, Charlemagne was dining with his men in a coastal town in the southern part of the kingdom when the caught sight of Viking ships on a raiding party. The king ordered them captured, but the swift Viking vessels easily outdistanced the Franks. Apparently, Charlemagne wept over the incident. “He was horrendously anguished,” wrote the monk, “by the thought of the harm those pirates could inflict on his subjects and successors.”
Charlemagne’s decree in Saxony that any subject who did not embrace the Christian faith
would be deported led thousands of Saxons to flee to Denmark rather than become subjects of the Franks. This put a strain on relations between the Franks and the Danes.
Between the Elbe River and the Danish border lived a proud tribe called the Albingians, who refused to accept Charlemagne’s religious impositions. The king attacked them form his encampment on the Weser, but his cavalry suffered from a lack of food on the campaign, and the Albingians won the first round. Heady with victory the rebels then attacked a Slavic people to the east who were allies of the Franks. The Albingians were defeated, and Charlemagne decreed deportation as a punishment.
This cruel measure angered Godfried, king of the Danes, who sent troops and a fleet of ships to Schleiswig. The Danish and the Frankish armies confronted each other without attacking. Charlemagne left his son Carloman in charge of the northern borders, and as soon as the emperor had departed, Godfried attacked. He quickly retreated, however, when Charlemagne resolved that Godfried should be taught a lesson.
Charlemagne waited for the appearance of the Norse ships, but they never appeared. Godfried had been assassinated, and a Frankish-Viking encounter was for the time being postponed.