The Feast of Epiphany, in the year of our Lord ten hundred and sixty seven, monastery of St. Michaelis, Lüneburg.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the holy Virgin Mary, and Saint Benedicte.
May the Lord who has watched over my life watch over the pen with which I write this tale. I am Wilhelm, called von Lüneburg, for I was born in that city, and I am an oblate at the monastery of St. Michaelis. I came into this world of suffering in the year of our Lord ten hundred and forty-eight, and it pleased God to take my mother to Him at my birth. In my eighth year my father died, and my uncle gave me as an oblate to the monastery, where I have lived ever since. I have taken my vows as a monk last Easter, and was supposed to never leave the monastery thereafter.
But two weeks ago, Jean de Bergerac, a monk of our Order, who has visited our monastery many times, came to celebrate the birth of our Lord with us. He held long conferences with the abbot and yesterday I was summoned into the abbot’s rooms. They said that they had chosen me for an important task. I would be sent to the ducal court of Saxony and fulfil my duty to God and the Order there as a chaplain to the Saxon dukes.
I was given this book in which I record my life by Jean de Bergerac and he required that I obey his command to record all events of greater interest while I was at the court.
I will begin with a short history of the Saxons.
In the year of our Lord 804 the emperor Carolus Magnus had finally subdued the pagan Saxons after decades of war and incorporated them into his realm. Liodulf, a descendant of Widukind, the first Saxon ruler adhering the one true faith, was named Dux Saxonum by King Ludwig the German. His sons Brun and Otto succeeded him and when Otto died in 912, he was succeeded by his son, Heinrich, called the Fowler. Seven years later, Heinrich was elected King of the Germans. When his son Otto, who is now called the Great, succeeded him in the year of our Lord 936 he granted the margrave Hermann Billung the title of a procurator for Saxony. While his father was but a representative of the King in Saxony, Bernhard I Billung was the first Duke of Saxony of the Billung dynasty. His successors were Bernhard II Billung and Ordulf I Billung. The latter is still alive in these days and has abdicated in favour of his son, who had taken over the day-to-day government almost completely in recent years.
The current Duke of Saxony, Magnus Billung, reigns over a large territory. The western parts of his realm are administered by two bishoprics, one in Münster with the bishop Friedrich von Wettin and the other in Osnabrück, administered by the bishop Benno. The north-western county of Oldenburg is ruled by Egilmar, who has sworn fealty to Magnus recently. The archbishop of Bremen and Hamburg, Adalbert von Goseck, controls these two important towns and the lands surrounding them, but Magnus has stated interest in controlling Hamburg himself. The northern duchy of Holstein, at the border to the realm of the Danes, is ruled by Burchard von Schauenburg. The rest of the realm makes up the personal demesne of Magnus, the Duke of Saxony.
The Feast of Candlemas, in the year of our Lord ten-hundred sixty-seven, ducal court of Braunschweig
When I arrived at the court in Braunschweig a few days ago everybody was busy preparing the marriage between the duke and Ingrid Estridson, Princess of Denmark. She had arrived with her father, King Svend Estridson, one week ago. The old alliance between Saxons and Danes against the pagan Slavs living in the coastal regions in the north-east was forged anew and excessive feasts were celebrated for one week. Today, the most admirable bishop of Bremen, Adalbert von Goseck, concluded the marriage between the princess and the duke in a holy mass. Great praise was heard for our Lord and dozens of well-wishers from all parts of Saxony and beyond had made their way into the church to see the couple.
