Alpert of Metz (died 1024) was a Benedictine chronicler of the eleventh century. His De diversitate temporum (On the Diversity of the Times, which really means something like On Our Interesting Times) is a major source for the history of Western Europe (particularly for France, Western Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands) in the period it covers (990 to 1021).
In the book Alpert makes a very brief mention of the Slavs who fought Henry II. This could refer to the Veleti but also the Poles or Bohemians – or to all of them as Alpert speaks of multiple kings of the Winnidi:
Of the Reign of Henry [II]
Book I
Chapter 5
“But as soon as the most noble Henry took dominion, this place [the monastery] was brought back to its former state. Many exquisite things may be written by us about this man: how easily did, by God’s grace, he reach the peaks [highest position] of the kingdom; how through a quick victory, he compelled the surrender of famous and very mighty men, who had [previously] started wars against him; how he subjugated and made tributary to him kings in the interior of Germany who are called Winnidi; how he besieged for several years and almost completely destroyed Metz, a town in Lorraine that had been angering him for a long time, and [how he] finally after doing a lot of damage subjugated it. But because lord Adelbold, the bishop of Utrecht described all of this beautifully in a book, we have believed that [in describing] the part [of the narrative] that now necessarily comes to [the fore] in our work, we need to go further beyond [Adelbold’s version] so as to avoid a work of history, that is [otherwise] so full of important and that beautiful lessons, becoming muddled through us as if by a foolish pawn.“
De Henrico rege
Ubi vero Heinricus summa rerum potitus est, iterum locum illum in priorem statum reduxit. Multa praeclara de hoc viro nobis scribenda sufficiunt: quam facile gratia Dei donante ad apicem regni pervenerit, qualiter illustres viros et summae potentiae, bella adversum se concitantes, celeri victoria in deditionem venire coegerit, qualiter reges in interioribus Germaniae partibus, qui sunt Winnidi vocati, suae dicioni tributarios effecerit, et Mettim in Belgis diu contra se male cogitantem, et compluribus annis obsessam, pene ad interitionem vastaverit, et tandem multis incommodis illatis sibi subegerit; set quia domnus Adelboldus Traiectensis episcopus haec omnia pleniter in uno volumine luculento sermone comprehendit, a nobis pars quae aliquando nostris scriptis necessario occurritt praetereunda visa est, ne historia tantis et tam venustis documentis edita a nobis tanquam ab insipientis latratu obfuscaretur.
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