Who were the Saxons? It depends on who you ask! Their various identities are hard to pin down: pirates, plunderers, and even the Germanic soldiers in the Roman Army were referred to as ‘Saxons’ up until the 5th century. Then the same name was used to refer to those living in some parts of Britannia as well as in regions ruled over by Charlemagne. In the days of the Ottonian dynasty, part of ‘Saxonia’ became a heartland of the Eastern-Frankish German Empire and, after the fall of Henry the Lion (1180), Saxon identities and territories took on a different shape and form once more.