ABSTRACT
Ansgar was also an instrument of Frankish royal policy, and his work cannot be understood outside the context of the wider programs of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious in Saxony, Denmark and Sweden. Charlemagne's Saxon wars made a deep impression on contemporaries, and chroniclers of ecclesiastical institutions in Saxony tended in retrospect to trace their foundation to these wars, with or without justification. Ansgar developed this particular Charlemagne legend to provide Hamburg with an origins story comparable to that of the neighboring dioceses in Saxony. This chapter opens with an examination of the political context in Saxony and the development of these dioceses. It then examines Carolingian policy in the northeast, the foundation of the royal Saxon monasteries Corvey and Herford, and finally the early attempts of Ebo of Reims and Ansgar to evangelize the Danes and the Swedes.
