inhabiting the land between the Elbe and the Oder, engaged the Saxon nobles in a ceaseless and devastating border warfare: since the accession of Louis the Child a new and still greater peril hung over Germany in the violent inroads of the Magyars. These barbarians lived for war alone. Though they were addicted to hunting and fishing, they chiefly relied for their subsistence on the spoils of their victories. Their appearance, made more grotesque and sinister by artificial means, their outlandish war-cries, their dashing onslaught, and their ruthless cruelty combined to strike terror upon those they encountered. Their unrivalled skill in archery and horsemanship gave them a reputation of invincibility. For the early years of Henry's reign the Hungarians had remained quiet, but in 924 they once more poured westward into Germany and Italy. The lack of military organisation and system of defence in Saxony was laid bare. With fire and sword they overran the whole of the province: the people fled before them and hid themselves in the forests: Henry, helpless and unable to offer any resistance, shut himself up in the fortress of Werla at the foot of the Harz mountains. By an amazing stroke of luck, a Hungarian chief, apparently a person of considerable importance, fell into Henry's hands. Ransom was refused: the king would only surrender his prize on condition that the invaders would withdraw from Saxony and refrain from molesting him for a period of nine years; for his part, he was prepared to pay a yearly tribute. The terms were accepted, the Hungarian noble was given up, and for nine years Saxony was rid of the aggressions of her formidable neighbour[1].
The nine years Henry turned to good account. He was enabled to carry out his schemes of defence undisturbed. The Saxons were unaccustomed to town life; they lived still, like the Germans of Tacitus, apart in scattered villages and hamlets; a royal fortress or a monastery, the seat of a spiritual or secular prince, alone served as places of meeting for social purposes or the transactions of business. Fortified towns were all but unknown. Henry saw the necessity not only of strengthening the existing fortresses but of building and fortifying towns. Merseburg and Hersfeld, Goslar and Gandersheim were secured within wall and moat. Quedlinburg and Pöhlde are lasting memorials of his constructive activity and prove him not unworthy of the name of "builder of cities" (Städteerbauer) given him by later writers. The town was to be the centre of all economic and judicial, military and social activity, the position of defence, the place of refuge in time of invasion; to promote the prosperity of the towns it was ordained that all councils and social gatherings should be held there and that no substantial or valuable buildings should be erected outside the walls. The country conquered from the Wends Henry divided into military fiefs which he granted out to his ministeriales. They were formed into groups of nine tenants, one of whom lived in the
- ↑ The truce appears to have extended only to Saxony and Thuringia, for in 926 we find the Hungarians invading Swabia and Lotharingia.
