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Portrait of Charles Martel
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Charles
Martel died on October 22, 741, at Quierzy-sur-Oise in what is today the Aisne département in the Picardy region of
France. He was buried at Saint Denis Basilica in Paris. I will post information
about this Frankish Warrior from Wikipedia and other
links.
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Charles
Martel
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Reign
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718–741
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718
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Predecessor
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Successor
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Reign
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715–741
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Coronation
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715
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Predecessor
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Successor
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Reign
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718–741
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Coronation
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718
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Predecessor
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Successor
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King of the Franks (acting)
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Reign
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737–741
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Coronation
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737
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Predecessor
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Successor
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Born
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c. 688
Herstal |
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Died
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22 October 741
Quierzy |
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Burial
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Spouse
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Issue
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Carolingian (Founder)
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Father
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Mother
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Charles Martel (c. 686 – 22 October 741) was a
Frankish statesman and military leader who as Duke and Prince of the Franks and
Mayor of the Palace, was de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death.
The son of the Frankish statesman Pepin of Herstal and a noblewoman named
Alpaida, Charles successfully asserted his claims to power as successor to his
father as the power behind the throne in Frankish politics. Continuing and
building on his father's work, he restored centralized government in Francia
and began the series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as
the undisputed masters of all Gaul.
After
work to establish a unity in Gaul, Charles' attention was called to foreign
conflicts, and dealing with the Islamic advance into Western Europe was a
foremost concern. Arab and Berber Islamic forces had conquered Spain (711),
crossed the Pyrenees (720), seized a major dependency of the Visigoths
(721–725), and after intermittent challenges, under Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi,
the Arab Governor of al-Andalus, advanced toward Gaul and on Tours, "the
holy town of Gaul"; in October 732, the army of the Umayyad Caliphate led
by Al Ghafiqi met Frankish and Burgundian forces under Charles in an area
between the cities of Tours and Poitiers (modern north-central France), leading
to a decisive, historically important Frankish victory known as the Battle of
Tours (or ma'arakat Balâṭ ash-Shuhadâ, Battle of the Palace of Martyrs), ending
the "last of the great Arab invasions of France," a military victory
termed "brilliant" on the part of Charles.
Charles
further took the offensive after Tours, destroying fortresses at Agde, Béziers
and Maguelonne, and engaging Islamic forces at Nimes, though ultimately failing
to recover Narbonne (737) or to fully reclaim the Visigoth's Narbonensis. He
thereafter made significant further external gains against fellow Christian
realms, establishing Frankish control over Bavaria, Alemannia, and Frisia, and
compelling some of the Saxon tribes to offer tribute (738).
Apart
from the military endeavours, Charles is considered to be a founding figure of
the European Middle Ages. Skilled as an administrator as well as a warrior, he
is credited with a seminal role in the emerging responsibilities of the knights
of courts, and so in the development of the Frankish system of feudalism. Pope
Gregory III, whose realm was being menaced by the Lombards, and who could no
longer rely on help from Constantinople, asked Charles to defend the Holy See
and offered him the Roman consulship, though Charles declined.
He
divided Francia between his sons Carloman and Pepin. The latter became the
first of the Carolingians. Charles' grandson, Charlemagne, extended the
Frankish realms to include much of the West, and became the first Emperor in
the West since the fall of Rome.
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If Charles Martel was alive today
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/charles-martel-alive-today]
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1
Background
Charles,
nicknamed "Martel", or "the Hammer", in later chronicles,
was the son of Pepin of Herstal and his second wife Alpaida. He had
a brother named Childebrand, who later became the Frankish dux
(that is, duke) of Burgundy.
In
older historiography, it was common to describe Charles as
"illegitimate". This is still widely repeated in popular culture
today. But, polygamy was a legitimate Frankish practice at the time and it is
unlikely that Charles was considered "illegitimate". It is likely
that the interpretation of "illegitimacy" derives from the desire of
Pepin's first wife Plectrude to see her progeny as heirs to Pepin's power.
After
the reign of Dagobert I (629–639) the Merovingians effectively ceded
power to the Pippinid Mayors of the Palace, who ruled the Frankish realm of Austrasia in
all but name. They controlled the royal treasury, dispensed patronage, and
granted land and privileges in the name of the figurehead king. Charles'
father, Pepin of Herstal, was able to unite the Frankish realm by conquering Neustria and Burgundy. He
was the first to call himself Duke and Prince of the Franks, a title later
taken up by Charles.
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Charles Martel depicted in the French book "Promptuarii
Iconum Insigniorum" by Guillaume Rouillé, published in 1553
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2
Contesting for power
In
December 714, Pepin of Herstal died. Prior to his death, he had,
at his wife Plectrude's
urging, designated Theudoald, his grandson by their late son Grimoald, his heir in the entire realm. This
was immediately opposed by the nobles because Theudoald was a child of only
eight years of age. To prevent Charles using this unrest to his own advantage,
Plectrude had him imprisoned in Cologne, the city which was destined to be her capital. This
prevented an uprising on his behalf in Austrasia,
but not in Neustria.
2.1
Civil war of 715–718
Pepin's
death occasioned open conflict between his heirs and the Neustrian nobles who
sought political independence from Austrasian control. In 715, Dagobert
III named Ragenfrid mayor of their palace. On 26 September 715,
Ragenfrid's Neustrians met the young Theudoald's forces at the Battle of Compiegne. Theudoald was defeated and
fled back to Cologne. Before the end of the year, Charles Martel had escaped
from prison and been acclaimed mayor by the nobles of Austrasia. That same
year, Dagobert III died and the Neustrians proclaimed Chilperic
II, the cloistered son of Childeric
II, as king.
2.1.1
Battle of Cologne
In
716, Chilperic and Ragenfrid together led an army into Austrasia intent on
seizing the Pippinid wealth at Cologne. The Neustrians allied with another
invading force under Radbod, King of the Frisians and met
Charles in battle near Cologne, which was still held by Plectrude.
Charles had little time to gather men, or prepare, and the result was the only
defeat of his career. The Frisians held off Charles, while the king and his
mayor besieged Plectrude at Cologne, where she bought them off with a
substantial portion of Pepin's treasure. Then they withdrew.
2.1.2
Battle of Amblève
Charles
retreated to the hills of the Eifel to gather men, and train them. Having made the proper
preparations, in April 716, he fell upon the triumphant army near Malmedy as it
was returning to its own province. In the ensuing Battle of Amblève, Martel attacked as the enemy
rested at midday. According to one source, he split his forces into several
groups which fell at them from many sides. Another suggests that while this was
his intention, he then decided, given the enemy's unpreparedness, this was not
necessary. In any event, the suddenness of the assault lead them to believe
they were facing a much larger host. Many of the enemy fled and Martel's troops
gathered the spoils of the camp. Martel's reputation increased considerably as
a result, and he attracted more followers.
In
this battle, Charles set a pattern for the remainder of his military career. He
appeared where his enemies least expected him, while they were marching
triumphantly home and far outnumbered him. He also attacked when least
expected, at midday, when armies of that era traditionally were resting.
Finally, he attacked them how they least expected it, by feigning a
retreat to draw his opponents into a trap. The feigned retreat, next to unknown
in Western Europe at that time—it was a traditionally eastern tactic—required
both extraordinary discipline on the part of the troops and exact timing on the
part of their commander. The result was an unbroken victory streak that lasted
until his death.
2.1.3
Battle of Vincy
Richard Gerberding points out that up to this
time, much of Martel's support was probably from his mother's kindred in the
lands around Liege. After Amblève, he seems to have won the backing of the
influential Willibrord, founder of the Abbey of Echternach. The abbey had been built
on land donated by Plectrude's mother, Irmina
of Oeren, but most of Willibrord's missionary work had been carried out in
Frisia. In joining Chilperic and Ragenfrid, Radbod of Frisia sacked Utrecht,
burning churches and killing many missionaries. Willibrord and his monks were
forced to flee to Echternach. Gerberding suggests that Willibrord had decided
that the chances of preserving his life's work were better with a successful
field commander like Martel than with Plectrude in Cologne. Willibrord
subsequently baptized Martel's son Pepin.
Gerberding suggests a likely date of Easter 716. Martel also received support
from Bishop Pepo of Verdun.
Charles
took time to rally more men and prepare. By the following spring, Charles had
attracted enough support to invade Neustria. Charles sent an envoy who proposed
a secession of hostilities if Chilperic would recognize his rights as mayor of
the palace in Austrasia. The refusal was not unexpected but served to impress
upon Martel's forces the unreasonableness of the Neustrians. They met near
Cambrai at the Battle of Vincy on 21 March 717. The victorious
Martel pursued the fleeing king and mayor to Paris, but as he was not yet
prepared to hold the city, he turned back to deal with Plectrude and Cologne.
He took the city and dispersed her adherents. Plectrude was allowed to retire
to a convent; Theudoald lived to 741 under his uncle's protection, a
kindness—unusual for those times, when mercy to a former gaoler, or
a potential rival, was rare.
3
Consolidation of power
Upon
this success, Martel proclaimed Chlothar
IV king of Austrasia in opposition to Chilperic and deposed Rigobert, archbishop of Reims, replacing
him with Milo, a lifelong supporter.
In
718, Chilperic responded to Charles' new ascendancy by making an alliance with Odo
the Great (or Eudes, as he is sometimes known), the duke
of Aquitaine, who had become independent during the civil war in 715, but
was again defeated, at the Battle of Soissons, by Charles. Chilperic
fled with his ducal ally to the land south of the Loire and Ragenfrid
fled to Angers.
Soon Clotaire IV died and Odo surrendered King Chilperic in exchange for Martel
recognising his dukedom. Charles recognised Chilperic as king of the Franks in
return for legitimate royal affirmation of his own mayoralty over all the
kingdoms.
3.1
Wars of 718–732
Between
718 and 723, Charles secured his power through a series of victories: he won
the loyalty of several important bishops and abbots by donating lands and money
for the foundation of abbeys, he subjugated Bavaria and Alemannia.
Having unified the Franks under his banner, Charles was determined to punish
the Saxons who had invaded Austrasia. Therefore, late in 718, he laid waste
their country to the banks of the Weser, the Lippe,
and the Ruhr. He defeated them in the Teutoburg
Forest and thus secured the borders—in the name of King Clotaire.
Radbod died in 719. Charles seized
West Frisia without any great resistance on the part of the Frisians, who
had been subjects of the Franks but had rebelled upon the death of Pippin. When
Chilperic II died the following year (720), Charles appointed as his successor
the son of Dagobert III, Theuderic IV, who was still a minor, and who occupied
the throne from 720 to 737. Charles was now appointing the kings whom he
supposedly served, rois fainéants who were mere figureheads; by the
end of his reign he didn't appoint one at all. At this time, Charles again
marched against the Saxons. Then the Neustrians rebelled under Ragenfrid, who
had left the county of Anjou. They were easily defeated (724), but Ragenfrid
gave up his sons as hostages in turn for keeping his county. This ended the
civil wars of Charles' reign.
The
next six years were devoted in their entirety to assuring Frankish authority
over the dependent Germanic tribes. Between 720 and 723, Charles was fighting
in Bavaria, where the Agilolfing dukes had gradually evolved into independent
rulers, recently in alliance with Liutprand the Lombard. He forced
the Alemanni
to accompany him, and Duke Hugbert submitted to Frankish suzerainty. In 725
he brought back the Agilolfing princess Swanachild as a second wife.
In
725 and 728, he again entered Bavaria. In 730, he marched against Lantfrid, duke
of Alemannia, who had also become independent, and killed him in battle. He
forced the Alemanni capitulation to Frankish suzerainty and did not appoint a
successor to Lantfrid. Thus, southern Germany once more became part of the
Frankish kingdom, as had northern Germany during the first years of the reign.
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4
Prelude to Tours
4.1
Lead-up
Main
article: Battle of Toulouse (721)
By
721, the emir of Córdoba had built up a strong army from Morocco, Yemen, and Syria to conquer Aquitaine.
The large duchy in southwest Gaul was nominally under Frankish sovereignty, but
in fact was almost independent under Odo the
Great, Duke of Aquitaine. The invading Umayyads besieged
Toulouse, then Aquitaine's most important city. Odo, who was not in the city at
that time, left to seek help. After Odo's escape the Umayyads had become
overconfident and failed to maintain defenses or scout patrols.
Returning
three months later, Odo was in time to prevent the city's surrender and
defeated the invaders on June 9, 721, at the Battle of Toulouse. Odo's forces launched
a surprise assault on the Umayyad forces, simultaneously from behind and from
within the walls . The surprised besiegers scattered and fled.
By
730 Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, who had been at
Toulouse, was the emir of Córdoba. The Arab Chronicles make clear
he had strongly opposed his predecessor's decision not to secure outer defenses
against a relief force, which allowed Odo's force to attack with impunity
before the Islamic cavalry could assemble or mount.
4.2
Raising an army
Historian
Paul K. Davis wrote, "Having
defeated Eudes, he turned to the Rhine to strengthen his northeastern
borders—but in 725 was diverted south with the activity of the Muslims in
Acquitane." Charles then concentrated his attention to the Umayyads,
virtually for the remainder of his life. Due to the situation in Iberia,
Charles believed he needed a full-time army—one he could train intensely—as a
core of veteran Franks who would be augmented with the usual conscripts called
up in time of war. (During the Early
Middle Ages, troops were only available after the crops had been planted
and before harvesting time.) To train the kind of infantry that could withstand
the Arab heavy cavalry, Charles needed them year-round, and he needed to pay
them so their families could buy the food they would have otherwise grown.
To
obtain money he seized church lands and property, and used the funds to pay his
soldiers. The same Charles who had secured the support of the ecclesia
by donating land, seized some of it back between 724 and 732. For a time, it
looked as though Charles might even be excommunicated for his actions. But then
came a significant invasion.
The
Umayyads were not aware, at that time, of the true strength of the Franks, or
the fact that they were building a disciplined army instead of the typical
barbarian hordes that had dominated Europe after Rome's fall. The Arab
Chronicles (the history of that age) show that Arab awareness of the Franks as
a growing military power came only after the Battle of Tours when the Caliph
expressed shock at his army's catastrophic defeat.
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Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://faithandheritage.com/2016/10/the-guardian-of-the-west/]
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5
Battle of Tours in 732
Main
article: Battle of Tours
In
731, after defeating the Saxons, Martel, turned his attention to the rival
southern realm of Aquitaine, and crossed the Loire, breaking the treaty with
Odo. The Franks ransacked Aquitaine twice, and captured Bourges,
although Odo retook it. Thus occupied, Odo was unable to come to the assistance
of his ally, the Berber rebel lord Uthman ibn Naissa, who hearing of the
oppression of Berbers in North Africa, had negotiated a peace treaty with Odo.
After a brief battle, Uthman ibn Naissa was defeated and executed by Abd
al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi.
Abdul
Rahman next proceeded through Gascony all the way to Bordeaux, capturing the
city. Odo engaged Abdul Rahman on the Garonne River at the Battle of Bordeaux, but was defeated.
The Umayyads looted the rich monasteries of northern Aquitaine before resuming
their march towards Tours, a town said to be holding abundant wealth and
treasures. This plundering gave Odo enough time to re-organise his Aquitanian
troops and warn Charles Martel of the impending danger.
It was under one of their ablest and most renowned commanders, with a veteran army, and with every apparent advantage of time, place, and circumstance, that the Arabs made their great effort at the conquest of Europe north of the Pyrenees.
Odo
and his remaining Aquitanian nobles formed the right flank of Charles's forces
at Tours. In the midst of the fighting a rumour went through the Umayyad army
that Frankish scouts threatened the booty that they had taken from Bordeaux.
Odo set fire to the Umayyad encampment. Some of the Umayyad cavalry troops at
once broke off the battle and returned to camp to secure their loot. To the
rest of the Umayyad army, this appeared to be a full-scale retreat, and soon it
became one. While trying to stop the retreat, 'Abd-al-Raḥmân became surrounded,
which led to his death, and the Umayyad troops then withdrew altogether to
their camp. The Franks held their position, believing the battle would resume
the following morning. Come morning, Frankish scouts discovered that the
Umayyad force had withdrawn during the night.
"The
victory at the battle near Poitiers and Tours would later earn
Charles the cognomen
"Martellus" (L., and so "Martel", Fr.: "the
hammer") from 9th century chroniclers who, in the view of Pierre Riche,
"seem to have been… recalling Judas Maccabaeus, 'the Hammerer,'" of 1
Maccabees, "whom God had similarly blessed with victory" ...."
Twelve
years later, when Charles had thrice rescued Gaul from Umayyad invasions, Antonio Santosuosso noted when he destroyed an
Umayyad army sent to reinforce the invasion forces of the 735 campaigns,
"Charles Martel again came to the rescue."
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Charles de Steuben's Bataille de Poitiers en
octobre 732 romantically depicts a triumphant Charles
Martel (mounted) facing Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi (right) at the
Battle of Tours.
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5.1
Contemporary historians
It
is important to note, however, that modern Western historians, military
historians, and writers, essentially fall into three camps. The first, those
who believe Gibbon was right in his assessment that Charles saved Christianity
and Western civilization by this battle, as typified by Bennett, Paul Davis,
Robert Martin, and educator Dexter B. Wakefield, who writes in An Islamic
Europe?:
A Muslim France? Historically, it nearly happened. But as a result of Charles’ fierce opposition, which ended Muslim advances and set the stage for centuries of war thereafter, Islam moved no farther into Europe. European schoolchildren learn about the Battle of Tours in much the same way that American students learn about Valley Forge and Gettysburg."
The
second camp of contemporary historians believe that a failure by Charles at
Tours could have been a disaster, destroying what would become Western
civilization after the Renaissance. Certainly all historians agree that no power
would have remained in Europe able to halt Islamic expansion had the Franks
failed: William E. Watson strongly supports Tours as a
macrohistorical event, but distances himself from the rhetoric of Gibbon and
Drubeck, writing of the battle's importance in Frankish and world history in
1993:
There is clearly some justification for ranking Tours-Poitiers among the most significant events in Frankish history when one considers the result of the battle in light of the remarkable record of the successful establishment by Muslims of Islamic political and cultural dominance along the entire eastern and southern rim of the former Christian, Roman world. The rapid Muslim conquest of Palestine, Syria, Egypt and the North African coast all the way to Morocco in the seventh century resulted in the permanent imposition by force of Islamic culture onto a previously Christian and largely non-Arab base. The Visigothic kingdom fell to Muslim conquerors in a single battle at the Battle of Guadalete on the Rio Barbate in 711, and the Hispanic Christian population took seven long centuries to regain control of the Iberian Peninsula. The Reconquista, of course, was completed in 1492, only months before Columbus received official backing for his fateful voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Had Charles Martel suffered at Tours-Poitiers the fate of King Roderick at the Rio Barbate, it is doubtful that a "do-nothing" sovereign of the Merovingian realm could have later succeeded where his talented major domus had failed. Indeed, as Charles was the progenitor of the Carolingian line of Frankish rulers and grandfather of Charlemagne, one can even say with a degree of certainty that the subsequent history of the West would have proceeded along vastly different currents had ‘Abd ar-Rahman been victorious at Tours-Poitiers in 732.
The
final camp of Western historians believe that the importance of the battle is
dramatically overstated. This view is typified by Alessandro Barbero, who
writes, "Today, historians tend to play down the significance of the
battle of Poitiers, pointing out that the purpose of the Arab force defeated by
Charles Martel was not to conquer the Frankish kingdom, but simply to pillage
the wealthy monastery of St-Martin of Tours". Similarly, Tomaž Mastnak
writes:
Modern historians have constructed a myth presenting this victory as having saved Christian Europe from the Muslims. Edward Gibbon, for example, called Charles Martel the savior of Christendom and the battle near Poitiers an encounter that changed the history of the world... This myth has survived well into our own times... Contemporaries of the battle, however, did not overstate its significance. The continuators of Fredegar's chronicle, who probably wrote in the mid-eighth century, pictured the battle as just one of many military encounters between Christians and Saracens—moreover, as only one in a series of wars fought by Frankish princes for booty and territory... One of Fredegar's continuators presented the battle of Poitiers as what it really was: an episode in the struggle between Christian princes as the Carolingians strove to bring Aquitaine under their rule.
However,
it is vital to note, when assessing Charles Martel's life, that even those
historians who dispute the significance of this one battle as the event that
saved Christianity, do not dispute that Charles himself had a huge effect on
Western European history. Modern military historian Victor Davis Hanson acknowledges the debate on
this battle, citing historians both for and against its macrohistorical
placement:
Recent scholars have suggested Poitiers, so poorly recorded in contemporary sources, was a mere raid and thus a construct of western myth-making or that a Muslim victory might have been preferable to continued Frankish dominance. What is clear is that Poitiers marked a general continuance of the successful defense of Europe (from the Muslims). Flush from the victory at Tours, Charles Martel went on to clear southern France from Islamic attackers for decades, unify the warring kingdoms into the foundations of the Carolingian Empire, and ensure ready and reliable troops from local estates.
In
the modern era, Matthew Bennett argues that "few
battles are remembered 1,000 years after they are fought ... but the Battle of
Poitiers, (Tours) is an exception ... Charles Martel turned back a Muslim raid
that, had it been allowed to continue, might have conquered Gaul."
6
After Tours
6.1
Introduction
In
the subsequent decade, Charles led the Frankish army against the eastern
duchies, Bavaria and Alemannia, and the southern duchies, Aquitaine
and Provence.
He dealt with the ongoing conflict with the Frisians and Saxons to his
northeast with some success, but full conquest of the Saxons and their
incorporation into the Frankish empire would wait for his grandson Charlemagne,
primarily because Charles concentrated the bulk of his efforts against Muslim
expansion.
So
instead of concentrating on conquest to his east, he continued expanding
Frankish authority in the west, and denying the Emirate of Córdoba a foothold
in Europe beyond Al-Andalus. After his victory at Tours, Charles continued on
in campaigns in 736 and 737 to drive other Islamic armies from bases in Gaul
after they again attempted to expand beyond Al-Andalus.
6.2
Wars of 732–737
Between
his victory of 732 and 735, Charles reorganized the kingdom of Burgundy,
replacing the counts and dukes with his loyal supporters, thus strengthening
his hold on power. He was forced, by the ventures of Bubo, Duke of the Frisians, to invade
independent-minded Frisia again in 734. In that year, he slew the duke at the Battle of the Boarn. Charles ordered the
Frisian pagan shrines destroyed, and so wholly subjugated the populace that the
region was peaceful for twenty years after.
The
dynamic changed in 735 because of the death of Odo the Great, who had been
forced to acknowledge, albeit reservedly, the suzerainty of Charles in 719.
Though Charles wished to unite the duchy directly to himself and went there to
elicit the proper homage of the Aquitainians, the nobility proclaimed Odo's
son, Hunald I
of Aquitaine, whose dukedom Charles recognized when the Umayyads invaded
Provence the next year, and who equally was forced to acknowledge Charles as
overlord as he had no hope of holding off the Muslims alone.
This
naval Arab invasion was headed by Abdul Rahman's son. It landed in Narbonne in
736 and moved at once to reinforce Arles and move inland. Charles temporarily put the conflict
with Hunald on hold, and descended on the Provençal strongholds of the
Umayyads. In 736, he retook Montfrin and Avignon, and Arles and Aix-en-Provence
with the help of Liutprand, King of the Lombards. Nîmes, Agde, and Béziers,
held by Islam since 725, fell to him and their fortresses were destroyed.
He
crushed one Umayyad army at Arles, as that force sallied out of the city, and
then took the city itself by a direct and brutal frontal attack, and burned it
to the ground to prevent its use again as a stronghold for Umayyad expansion.
He then moved swiftly and defeated a mighty host outside of Narbonne at the
River Berre, but failed to take the city. Military historians believe he could
have taken it, had he chosen to tie up all his resources to do so—but he
believed his life was coming to a close, and he had much work to do to prepare
for his sons to take control of the Frankish realm.
A
direct frontal assault, such as took Arles, using rope ladders and rams, plus a
few catapults, simply was not sufficient to take Narbonne without horrific loss
of life for the Franks, troops Charles felt he could not lose. Nor could he
spare years to starve the city into submission, years he needed to set up the
administration of an empire his heirs would reign over. In addition, he faced
strong opposition from regional lords such as the patrician Maurentius, from
Marseille, who revolted against the Frankish leader. Moreover, the Aquitanian
duke Hunald threatened his lines of communication with the north, so deciding
him to withdraw from Septimania and destroy several strongholds (Béziers, Agde,
etc.). He left Narbonne therefore, isolated and surrounded, and his son would
return to conquer it for the Franks.
Notable
about these campaigns was Charles' incorporation, for the first time, of heavy
cavalry with stirrups to augment his phalanx. His
ability to coordinate infantry and cavalry veterans was unequaled in that era
and enabled him to face superior numbers of invaders, and to decisively defeat
them again and again. Some historians believe the Battle against the main
Umayyad force at the River Berre, near Narbonne, in particular was as important
a victory for Christian Europe as Tours.
Further,
unlike his father at Tours, Rahman's son in 736–737 knew that the Franks were a
real power, and that Charles personally was a force to be reckoned with. He had
no intention of allowing Charles to catch him unaware and dictate the time and
place of battle, as his father had. He concentrated instead on seizing a
substantial portion of the coastal plains around Narbonne in
736 and heavily reinforced Arles as he advanced inland.
Abdul
Rahman's son planned from there to move from city to city, fortifying as they
went, and if Charles wished to stop them from making a permanent enclave for
expansion of the Caliphate, he would have to come to them, in the open, where,
he, unlike his father, would dictate the place of battle. All worked as he had
planned, until Charles arrived, albeit more swiftly than the Moors believed he
could call up his entire army. Unfortunately for Rahman's son, however, he had
overestimated the time it would take Charles to develop heavy cavalry equal to
that of the Muslims.
The
Caliphate believed it would take a generation, but Charles managed it in five
years. Prepared to face the Frankish phalanx, the Muslims were totally
unprepared to face a mixed force of heavy cavalry and infantry in a phalanx.
Thus, Charles again halted Muslim expansion into Europe. These defeats, plus
those at the hands of Leo III of the Byzantine
Empire in Anatolia, were the last great attempt at expansion by the Umayyad
Caliphate before the destruction of the dynasty at the Battle
of the Zab, and the rending of the Caliphate forever, especially the utter
destruction of the Umayyad army at River Berre near Narbonne in 737.
6.3
Interregnum
In
737, at the tail end of his campaigning in Provence and Septimania,
the king, Theuderic IV, died. Charles, titling himself maior domus and princeps
et dux Francorum, did not appoint a new king and nobody acclaimed one. The
throne lay vacant until Charles' death. As the historian Charles
Oman says "he cared not for name or style so long as the real power
was in his hands."
Gibbon
has said Charles was "content with the titles of Mayor or Duke of the
Franks, but he deserved to become the father of a line of kings," which he
did. Gibbon also says of him, "in the public danger, he was summoned by
the voice of his country."
The
interregnum, the final four years of Charles' life, was more peaceful than most
of it had been and much of his time was now spent on administrative and
organisational plans to create a more efficient state. Though, in 738, he
compelled the Saxons of Westphalia to do him homage and pay tribute, and in 739
checked an uprising in Provence, the rebels being under the leadership of
Maurontus. Charles set about integrating the outlying realms of his empire into
the Frankish church.
He
erected four dioceses in Bavaria (Salzburg, Regensburg, Freising, and Passau) and gave them Boniface as archbishop
and metropolitan over all Germany east of the
Rhine, with his seat at Mainz. Boniface had been under his protection from 723 on;
indeed the saint himself explained to his old friend, Daniel of Winchester,
that without it he could neither administer his church, defend his clergy, nor
prevent idolatry. It was Boniface who had defended Charles most stoutly for his
deeds in seizing ecclesiastical lands to pay his army in the days leading to
Tours, as one doing what he must to defend Christianity.
In
739, Pope Gregory III begged Charles for his aid
against Liutprand, but Charles was loath to fight his onetime ally and ignored
the Papal plea. Nonetheless, the Papal applications for Frankish protection
showed how far Charles had come from the days he was tottering on
excommunication, and set the stage for his son and grandson to rearrange
Italian political boundaries.
7
Death and transition in rule
Charles
Martel died on October 22, 741, at Quierzy-sur-Oise
in what is today the Aisne
département in the Picardy region
of France. He was buried at Saint Denis Basilica in Paris.
His territories had been divided among his adult sons a year earlier: to Carloman he gave Austrasia, Alemannia, and Thuringia, and to Pippin the Younger Neustria, Burgundy, Provence, and Metz and Trier in the "Mosel duchy"; Grifo was given several lands throughout the kingdom, but at a later date, just before Charles died.
Gibbon
called him "the hero of the age" and declared "Christendom ...
delivered ... by the genius and good fortune of one man, Charles Martel."
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Charles Martel (left) and ISIS (right)
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://shoebat.com/2015/01/21/not-charlie-hebdo-charles-martel-time-bring-back-christendom-destroy-enemies-god/]
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8
Legacy
At
the beginning of Charles Martel's career, he had many internal opponents and
felt the need to appoint his own kingly claimant, Clotaire IV. By his end,
however, the dynamics of rulership in Francia had changed, no hallowed Meroving
was needed, neither for defence nor legitimacy: Charles divided his realm
between his sons without opposition (though he ignored his young son Bernard). In between, he
strengthened the Frankish state by consistently defeating, through superior
generalship, the host of hostile foreign nations which beset it on all sides,
including the non-Christian Saxons, whom his grandson Charlemagne would fully subdue,
and Moors, whom he halted on a path of continental domination.
Though
he never cared about titles, his son Pippin
(Fr.: Pepin) did, and finally asked the Pope "who should
be King, he who has the title, or he who has the power?" The Pope, highly
dependent on Frankish armies for his independence from Lombard and Byzantine
power (the Byzantine Emperor still considered
himself to be the only legitimate "Roman
Emperor", and thus, ruler of all of the provinces of the ancient
empire, whether recognized or not), declared for "him who had the
power".
Decades
later, in 800, Pippin's son Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the Pope, further
extending the principle by delegitimising the nominal authority of the
Byzantine Emperor in the Italian peninsula (which had, by then, shrunk to
encompass little more than Apulia and Calabria at best) and ancient Roman Gaul, including the
Iberian outposts Charlemagne had established in the Marca
Hispanica across the Pyrenees, what today forms Catalonia.
In short, though the Byzantine Emperor claimed authority over all the old Roman
Empire, as the legitimate "Roman" Emperor, it was simply not
reality.
The
bulk of the Western Roman Empire had come under Carolingian
rule, the Byzantine Emperor having had almost no authority in the West since
the sixth century, though Charlemagne, a consummate politician, preferred to
avoid an open breach with Constantinople. Though the sardonic Voltaire
ridiculed its nomenclature, saying that the Holy Roman Empire was "neither
Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire," it constituted an enormous political
power for a time, especially under the Saxon,
the Salian dynasties, the House
of Habsburg, and, to a lesser extent, the Hohenstaufen.
It lasted until 1806. Though his grandson became its first emperor, the
"empire" such as it was, was largely born during the reign of Charles
Martel.
Charles
was a brilliant strategic general, who also was a tactical commander par
excellence, able in the heat of battle to adapt his plans to his foe's
forces and movement—and amazingly, to defeat them repeatedly, especially when,
as at Tours, they were far superior in men and weaponry, and at Berre and
Narbonne, when they were superior in numbers of fighting men. Charles had the
last quality which defines genuine greatness in a military commander: he
foresaw the dangers of his foes, and prepared for them with care; he used
ground, time, place, and fierce loyalty of his troops to offset his foe's
superior weaponry and tactics; third, he adapted, again and again, to the enemy
on the battlefield, shifting to compensate for the unforeseen and
unforeseeable.
Gibbon,
whose tribute to Charles has been noted, was not alone among the great mid era
historians in fervently praising Charles; Thomas Arnold ranks the victory of
Charles Martel even higher than the victory of Arminius in
the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in
its impact on all of modern history:
Charles Martel's victory at Tours was among those signal deliverances which have affected for centuries the happiness of mankind.
— History of the later Roman Commonwealth, vol ii. p. 317.
German historians are especially ardent in their
praise of Charles and in their belief that he saved Europe and Christianity
from then all-conquering Islam, praising him also for driving back the ferocious
Saxon barbarians on his borders. Schlegel speaks of this "mighty
victory" in terms of fervent gratitude, and tells how "the arm of
Charles Martel saved and delivered the Christian nations of the West from the
deadly grasp of all-destroying Islam", and Ranke points out,
as one of the most important epochs in the history of the world, the commencement of the eighth century, when on the one side Mohammedanism threatened to overspread Italy and Gaul, and on the other the ancient idolatry of Saxony and Friesland once more forced its way across the Rhine. In this peril of Christian institutions, a youthful prince of Germanic race, Karl Martell, arose as their champion, maintained them with all the energy which the necessity for self-defence calls forth, and finally extended them into new regions.
In
1922 and 1923, Belgian historian Henri
Pirenne published a series of papers, known collectively as the
"Pirenne Thesis", which remain influential to this day. Pirenne held
that the Roman Empire continued, in the Frankish realms, up until the time of
the Arab conquests in the 7th century. These conquests
disrupted Mediterranean trade routes leading to a decline in the European
economy. Such continued disruption would have meant complete disaster except
for Charles Martel's halting of Islamic expansion into Europe from 732 on. What
he managed to preserve led to the Carolingian Renaissance, named after him.
Professor
Santosuosso perhaps sums up Charles best when he talks about his coming to the
rescue of his Christian allies in Provence, and driving the Muslims back into
the Iberian Peninsula forever in the mid and late 730s:
After assembling forces at Saragossa the Muslims entered French territory in 735, crossed the River Rhone and captured and looted Arles. From there they struck into the heart of Provence, ending with the capture of Avignon, despite strong resistance. Islamic forces remained in French territory for about four years, carrying raids to Lyon, Burgundy, and Piedmont. Again Charles Martel came to the rescue, reconquering most of the lost territories in two campaigns in 736 and 739, except for the city of Narbonne, which finally fell in 759. The second (Muslim) expedition was probably more dangerous than the first to Poitiers. Yet its failure (at Charles' hands) put an end to any serious Muslim expedition across the Pyrenees (forever).
Skilled
as an administrator and ruler, Charles organized what would become the medieval
European government: a system of fiefdoms, loyal to barons, counts, dukes and
ultimately the King, or in his case, simply maior domus and princeps et
dux Francorum. ("Mayor of the Palace, Duke of the Franks") His close coordination
of church with state began the medieval pattern for such government. He created
what would become the first western standing army since the fall of Rome by his
maintaining a core of loyal veterans around which he organized the normal
feudal levies. In essence, he changed Europe from a horde of barbarians
fighting with one another, to an organized state.
8.1
Beginning of the Reconquista
Further
information: Reconquista
Although
it took another two decades for the Franks to drive all the Arab garrisons out
of Septimania
and across the Pyrenees,
Charles Martel's halt of the invasion of French soil turned the tide of Islamic
advances, and the unification of the Frankish kingdoms under Charles, his son
Pippin the Younger, and his grandson Charlemagne created a western power which
prevented the Emirate of Córdoba from expanding over the Pyrenees. Charles, who
in 732 was on the verge of excommunication, instead was recognised by the
Church as its paramount defender. Pope
Gregory II wrote to him more than once, asking his protection and aid.
Charles'
son Pippin the Younger (Pepin II, The Short) kept his
father's promise and returned and took Narbonne by siege in 759. His grandson, Charlemagne,
actually established the Marca
Hispanica across the Pyrenees in part of what today is Catalonia,
reconquering Girona
in 785 and Barcelona
in 801. Carolingians called this region of modern-day Spain "The Moorish
Marches", and saw it as more than a simple check on the Muslims in
Hispania. It formed a permanent buffer zone against Islam and became the basis,
along with the efforts of Pelayo (Latin: Pelagius) and his descendants,
for the Reconquista.
9
Military legacy
Victor Davis Hanson argues that Charles Martel
launched "the thousand year struggle" between European heavy
infantry and Arab cavalry. Of course, Charles is also the father of heavy
cavalry in Europe, as he integrated heavy armoured cavalry into his forces.
This creation of a real army would continue all through his reign, and that of
his son, Pepin the Short, until his Grandson, Charlemagne, would possess the
world's largest and finest army since the peak of Rome. Equally, the Muslims
used infantry—indeed, at the Battle of Toulouse most of their forces were light
infantry. It was not till Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi brought a huge force of Arab
and Berber cavalry with him when he assumed the emirate of Al-Andulus that the
Muslim forces became primarily cavalry.
Charles'
army was the first standing permanent army since the fall of Rome in 476. At
its core was a body of tough, seasoned heavy infantry who displayed exceptional
resolution at Tours. The Frankish infantry wore as much as 70 pounds of armour,
including their heavy wooden shields with an iron boss. Standing close
together, and well disciplined, they were unbreakable at Tours. Charles
had taken the money and property he had seized from the church and paid local
nobles to supply trained ready infantry year round.
This
was the core of veterans who served with him on a permanent basis, and as
Hanson says, "provided a steady supply of dependable troops year
around." While other Germanic cultures, such as the Visigoths or Vandals,
had a proud martial tradition, and the Franks themselves had an annual muster of
military aged men, such tribes were only able to field armies around planting
and harvest. It was Charles' creation of a system whereby he could call on
troops year round that gave the Carolingians the first standing and permanent
army since Rome's fall in the west.
Charles
Martel's most important military achievement was the victory at Tours. Creasy
argues that the Charles victory "preserved the relics of ancient and the
gems of modern civilizations." Gibbon called those eight days in 732, the
week leading up to Tours, and the battle itself, "the events that rescued
our ancestors of Britain, and our neighbours of Gaul [France], from the civil
and religious yoke of the Koran."
Charles
analysed what would be necessary for him to withstand a larger force and superior
technology (the Arab horsemen had adopted the armour and accoutrements of heavy
cavalry from the Sassanid warrior class, which made the armored mounted knight
possible). Not daring to send his few horsemen against the Islamic cavalry, he
had his army fight in a formation used by the ancient
Greeks to withstand superior numbers and weapons by discipline, courage,
and a willingness to die for their cause: a phalanx. He had trained a core of
his men year round, using mostly Church funds, and some had been with him since
his earliest days after his father's death. It was this hard core of
disciplined veterans that won the day for him at Tours.
Hanson
emphasizes that Charles' greatest accomplishment as a general may have been his
ability to keep his troops under control. Iron discipline saved his infantry
from the fate of so many infantrymen—such as the Saxons at Hastings—who broke
formation and were slaughtered piecemeal. After using this infantry force by
itself at Tours, he studied the foe's forces and further adapted to them,
initially using stirrups and saddles recovered from the foe's dead horses, and
armour from the dead horsemen.
The
defeats Charles inflicted on the Muslims were vital in that the split in the
Islamic world left the Caliphate unable to mount an all-out attack on Europe via
its Iberian stronghold after 750. His ability to meet this challenge, until the
fragmentation of authority within the Muslim faith, is considered by most
historians to be of macrohistorical importance, and is why Dante
writes of him in Heaven as one of the "Defenders of the Faith."
H. G.
Wells says of Charles Martel's decisive defeat of the Muslims in his
"Short History of the World:
The Muslim when they crossed the Pyrenees in 720 found this Frankish kingdom under the practical rule of Charles Martel, the Mayor of the Palace of a degenerate descendant of Clovis, and experienced the decisive defeat of Poitiers (732) at his hands. This Charles Martel was practically overlord of Europe north of the Alps from the Pyrenees to Hungary."
However,
when the Muslim first crossed the Pyrenees, Aquitaine was actually an
independent realm under duke Odo's leadership and the Gothic Septimania
remained out of Frankish rule. Odo, who was Charles's southern rival, had
struck a peace treaty after the Frankish civil wars in Neustria and Austrasia,
and garnered much popularity and the Pope's favour for his victory on the 721
Battle of Toulouse against the Moors. On the eve of the Muslim expedition north
(731), Charles Martel crossed the Loire and captured the Aquitanian city of
Bourges, while Odo re-captured it briefly afterwards.
John
H. Haaren says in Famous Men of the Middle Ages:
The battle of Tours, or Poitiers, as it should be called, is regarded as one of the decisive battles of the world. It decided that Christians, and not Moslems, should be the ruling power in Europe. Charles Martel is especially celebrated as the hero of this battle.
Just
as his grandson, Charlemagne, would become famous for his swift and unexpected
movements in his campaigns, Charles was renowned for never doing what his
enemies forecast he would do, and for moving far faster than his opponents
believed he could. It is notable that the Northmen did not begin their European
raids until after the death of Charles' grandson, Charlemagne. They had the
naval capacity to begin those raids at least three generations earlier, and
constructed defenses against counterattacks by land, but chose not to challenge
Charles, his son Pippin, or his grandson, Charlemagne.
10
Conclusion
J. M. Roberts says of Charles Martel in
his note on the Carolingians in his History of the World:
It (the Carolingian line) produced Charles Martel, the soldier who turned the Arabs back at Tours, and the supporter of Saint Boniface, the Evangelizer of Germany. This is a considerable double mark to have left on the history of Europe."
Gibbon
perhaps summarized Charles Martel's legacy most eloquently: "in a
laborious administration of 24 years he had restored and supported the dignity
of the throne... by the activity of a warrior who in the same campaign could
display his banner on the Elbe, the Rhone, and shores of the ocean."
11
Family and children
Charles
Martel married twice, his first wife being Rotrude of Treves, daughter either of Lambert II, Count of Hesbaye, or of Leudwinus,
Count of Treves. They had the following children:
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Most
of the children married and had issue. Hiltrud married Odilo I (a Duke of Bavaria). Landrade was once
believed to have married a Sigrand (Count of Hesbania) but
Sigrand's wife was more likely the sister of Rotrude. Auda
married Thierry
IV (a Count of Autun
and Toulouse).
Charles also married a second time, to Swanhild,
and they had a child, Grifo.
Finally,
Charles Martel also had a known mistress, Ruodhaid, with
whom he had the children Bernard, Hieronymus, and Remigius,
the latter who became an archbishop of Rouen.
Ancestry
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Ancestors
of Charles Martel
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How to kneel down the
totalitarian ideology and the reason why you should support Ex-Muslims!
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/exmuslims.no/photos/a.1112180008840899.1073741829.1080371725355061/1805565819502311/?type=3&theater
……….. https://www.facebook.com/VictimsFamiliesForTheDeathPenalty/posts/1569541856501108]
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External links
- Ian Meadows, "The Arabs in Occitania": A sketch giving the context of the conflict from the Arab point of view.
- http://www.standin.se/fifteen07a.htm Poke's edition of Creasy's "15 Most Important Battles Ever Fought According to Edward Shepherd Creasy" Chapter VII. The Battle of Tours, A.D. 732.
- Richard Hooker, "Civil War and the Umayyads"
- "Leaders and Battles Database"
- Robert W. Martin, "The Battle of Tours is still felt today", from About.com
- Medieval Sourcebook: Arabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732
- Arabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732: Three Accounts from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook
- Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory II to Charles Martel, 739
- Medieval Lands Project
- "Charles Martel". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
OTHER LINKS:
