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 I 202 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE throughout his reign he was constantly crushing and forcibly converting to Christianity, only to have them rebel and force him to begin all over again. His measures for their welfare seem very harsh to us. The death penalty was pre- scribed for all heathen customs and even for eating meat in Lent. In a single day he had forty-five hundred decapitated. Others were transplanted far from their native soil to re- mote parts of the Frankish territory. But he finally suc- ceeded in incorporating them in the Frankish state, and Western Christendom reached the river Elbe. Against the Slavs to the east of the Elbe and in Bohemia, Charles also did some righting, and he had to repel some incursions by the Danes or Northmen, whose wave of invasion was; now beginning. England was the only important Christian territory in the West that was not brought under Charles's 1 Je. Egbert Relations Kni g °* t ^ ie West Saxons, was for a time a fugi with tive at his court. Charlemagne helped him t( regain his throne, and thereafter Egbert so pros pered that he forced the other petty monarchs of the Anglo Saxon states to recognize him as overlord. Charles not merely fought with his neighbors and in creased his territory; he governed with a strong hand withii The Frank- his borders. The Frankish constitution and king ttonfcentrai S ^P na< ^ na< ^ three centuries in which to develop government s i nce the time of Clovis. The chief' ceremonia officials at Charlemagne's court, who might also assist ii state business, were the seneschal, butler, chamberlain, anc marshal. This last official had charge of the royal stable Then there was the chancery where documents were writtei out and sealed, a labor which was apt to be performs largely by the court chaplains. The state archives were, ii fact, kept in the royal chapel. Important action was seldon taken without a meeting of the chief nobles of the realm including some of the higher clergy. There were no longe general assemblies of all the freemen as among the earl: Germans, except in so far as the mustering of the army fo annual campaign corresponded to this. But importan