The Bethenici (also Bethenzi or Bechelenzi) were a West Slavic people living east of the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

river in the ninth century. They lived near the confluence of the Elbe and the

Havel The Havel () is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the States of Germany, states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. The long Havel is a right tributary of the Elbe. However, the direct distance from ...

, probably between the rivers alongside the

Smeldingi The Smeldingi were a small group of Polabian Slavs living on the border of the Old Saxony in the 9th century, probably between the Elbe and the Havel. They were a sub-group of the Hevelli. Their name is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *''smola'' ...

. In 811, according to the ''

Chronicle of Moissac The ''Chronicle of Moissac'' (also known as ''Chronicon Moissiacense'') is an anonymous compilation that was discovered in the abbey of Moissac, but is now thought to have been compiled in the Catalan monastery of Ripoll in the end of the tenth ...

'', the

Frankish emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and head of state of the Holy Roman Empire. ...

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

dispatched an army of

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

and

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

across the Elbe against "those Slavs, who are called Linai and Bechelenzi." The Linai, as Linones, are also mentioned in the ''

Royal Frankish Annals The ''Royal Frankish Annals'' (Latin: ''Annales regni Francorum''), also called the ''Annales Laurissenses maiores'' ('Greater Lorsch Annals'), are a series of annals composed in Latin in Carolingian Francia, recording year-by-year the state of ...

'' for 811. The ''

Annals of Aniane The ''Chronicle of Aniane'' (or ''Annals of Aniane'') is an anonymous Latin history covering the rise of the Carolingian family from 670 to 840. It was composed by a monk of the Abbey of Aniane (Hérault). The ''Chronicle of Aniane'' is closely ...

'', which are related to the ''Chronicle of Moissac'', use the spelling Bethenzi. Other variations that appear in the manuscripts are Bethenzr and Bethelclereri. The ''Chronicle of Moissac'' and its variants are the only Frankish annals to mention the Bethenici. The Bethenici are mentioned in the '' Catalogue of Fortresses and Regions to the North of the Danube'', which was produced at the court of the Frankish king

Louis the German Louis the German (German language, German: ''Ludwig der Deutsche''; c. 806/810 – 28 August 876), also known as Louis II of Germany (German language, German: ''Ludwig II. von Deutschland''), was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 8 ...

between 844 and 862. They are grouped with the Smeldingi and Morizani and the three are said to have eleven fortresses between them. The Linones are said to live to their north. To their south lived the Hevelles. Writing over a century later,

Thietmar of Merseburg Thietmar (also Dietmar or Dithmar; 25 July 9751 December 1018), Prince-Bishop of Merseburg from 1009 until his death in 1018, was an important chronicler recording the reigns of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian (Saxon) dynas ...

says that the Kuckenburgers, a certain class of "citizen warriors" in

Meissen Meissen ( ), is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden and 75 km (46 mi) west of Bautzen on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, th ...

under Margrave Gunzelin of Kuckenburg, were called ''Vethenici'' in Slavonic.Quoted in : "''In ea parte isnae urbis qua satellites habitant, dicti Sclavonice Vethenici, Cukesburgienses.''" This may indicate that the name was never that of a people, but of a class of warriors.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Slavic ethnic groups (VII-XII century) West Slavic tribes