Charlemagne held the 777 assembly with Frankish and Saxon men at Paderborn.
The gathering took place during Charlemagne’s prolonged wars against the Saxons, a conflict combining military conquest, political submission, and Christianization. Paderborn lay in Saxon territory and had become an important royal base after Charlemagne established a settlement near its springs.
At the assembly, many Saxon leaders submitted to Frankish authority and accepted baptism. Charlemagne also used the occasion to project his power beyond Saxony: envoys from Muslim-ruled al-Andalus attended, seeking his help against the Umayyad emirate of Córdoba. Their presence helped draw Charlemagne into the events that led to his 778 expedition across the Pyrenees.
The meeting did not end Saxon resistance. The prominent Saxon leader Widukind did not attend; he fled to Denmark and later helped lead renewed rebellions. Paderborn therefore marked an important moment of apparent submission, not the final settlement of the Saxon Wars. The city later became a bishopric in 795.