WITTEKIND, a Westphalian chieftain, the most celebrated leader of the Saxons against Charles the great, made his first appearance as leader in the expeditions which the Saxons undertook in 774 against the fortress of Eresberg, in Westphalia, and the Frankish province of Hesse, while Charles was subduing the Lombards. When most of the Saxon nobles submitted to the emperor Charles at the imperial diet at Pader born in 777, Wittekind fled to Siegfried, king of Jutland, whose sister Geva he is said to have married. In 778 he returned, and when Charles was absent in Spain, began to lay waste the Rhine country. Charles's return obliged him again to take refuge in Jutland; but in 782 he fell upon the Frankish army by surprise at the Sintleberg, and entirely annihilated it—an act for which Charles took frightful vengeance by the exe cution of 4,500 Saxons. On this, all the Saxon tribes rose in arms, and the war was again led by Wittekind until 785. when Charles entered into negotiations with him, the result of which was that Wittekind repaired to the emperor's camp at Attigny in Cham pagne, and received baptism. After that, he appears no more in history. According
to the legend, however, that is still current among the people in Charles promoted Wittekind to be duke of the Saxons, and made over Engcrs to him. From his castle, called Babilonie, situated in the neighborhood of Ltibeck, he is said to have ruled with gentleness and justice till 807, when he met his death in a campaign a,gainst duke Gerald of Swabia. His bones repose in the parish church of Engers, in the duchy of Ravensberg, where Charles IV., in 1377, erected a monument to him; and on Oct. 18, 1812, another monument in his honor was erected at Minden by the Westphalian society. The higher of the two hills which form the Westphalian gates on the Weser, near Minden, bears the name of Wictekindsberg.