Upper Saxony
It was particularly to distinguish the lands from 'Lower Saxony', a concept which arose later in popular usage (though never enforced) as a term for the original Saxon lands in north and west Germany (where Low German dialects had spread), in what is now the state of Lower Saxony, as well as the adjacent Westphalian region, Holstein and the western part of today's Saxony-Anhalt north of the Harz range (Eastphalia).
Saxons
Bede, a Northumbrian writing around the year 730, remarks that "the old (that is, the continental) Saxons have no king, but they are governed by several ealdormen (or "satrapa") who, during war, cast lots for leadership but who, in time of peace, are equal in power." The "regnum Saxonum" was divided into three provinces – Westphalia, Eastphalia and Angria – which comprised about one hundred "pagi" or "Gaue". Each "Gau" had its own satrap with enough military power to level whole villages that opposed him.