Hamburg
Frankish stronghold beyond the Elbe where Louis the Pious founded an archbishopric for the mission to the north, with Ansgar as its first archbishop. Burned by raiders, the see was joined to Bremen.
Rimbert says that Louis the Pious set up an archbishop’s see at Hamburg, in the furthest part of Saxony beyond the Elbe, so that bishops and priests could be sent from it to the Danes and Swedes (Rimbert, Life of Anskar 12). Raiders from the sea took the town, and the church and monastery built under Ansgar were burned with his books; the diocese, which had only four baptismal churches, was then united with Bremen (Rimbert, Life of Anskar 16; 22).
What happened here
- AD 829 to AD 831, estimated dateAnsgar’s Mission to Scandinavia
The monk Ansgar is sent from the Frankish court to the Danes and then to the Swedish trading town of Birka, and becomes the first archbishop of Hamburg. His churches are few and fragile, and depend on the leave of kings.
Primary sources
Life of Anskar
- Rimbert, Life of Anskar 12sourcebooks.fordham.edu
- Rimbert, Life of Anskar 16; 22sourcebooks.fordham.edu