What is the name of the 782 event in which Charlemagne ordered Saxon prisoners executed?

The 782 event in which Charlemagne ordered Saxon prisoners executed is known as the Massacre of Verden. It took place in October 782 during the long Saxon Wars, Charlemagne’s campaigns to conquer and Christianize Saxony. The execution occurred near Verden, at the confluence of the Aller and Weser rivers in what is now Lower Saxony, Germany.

The Royal Frankish Annals report that 4,500 Saxons were handed over and executed after a rebellion and Frankish defeat at the Battle of Süntel. Widukind, a major Saxon resistance leader, was not among those killed because he had fled north. A revised version of the annals says the executions happened in a single day.

The event is historically famous but not entirely free of debate. Some scholars have argued that the reported number may be exaggerated, although attempts to explain away the massacre as a manuscript error are generally rejected. The massacre intensified Saxon resistance and remains one of the starkest examples of the violence accompanying Charlemagne’s expansion and forced religious policy.