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Charles Martel (or, in modern
English, Charles the Hammer) (23 August 686 – 22 October 741)
was proclaimed Mayor of the Palace, ruling the Franks in the
name of a titular King, and proclaimed himself Duke of the
Franks (the last four years of his reign he did not even bother
with the facade of a King) and by any name was de facto ruler of
the Frankish Realms. He expanded his rule over all three of the
Frankish kingdoms: Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy. Martel was
born in Herstal, or present-day Wallonia, Belgium, the
illegitimate son of Pippin the Middle and his concubine Alpaida
(or Chalpaida).
He is best remembered for winning
the Battle of Tours in 732, which has traditionally been
characterized as an action saving Europe from the Umayyad
expansionism that had conquered Iberia. "There were no further
Umayyad invasions of Frankish territory, and Charles's victory
has often been regarded as decisive for world history, since it
preserved western Europe from Muslim conquest and Islamization."
[1]
Though primarily remembered simply
as the leader of the Christian army that prevailed at Tours,
Charles Martel was a truly giant figure of the Middle Ages. A
brilliant general in an age generally bereft of the same, he is
considered the forefather of western heavy cavalry, chivalry,
founder of the Carolingian Empire, (which was named after him),
and a catalyst for the feudal system that would see Europe
through the Middle Ages. (Although some recent scholars have
suggested he was more of a beneficiary of the feudal system than
a knowing agent for social change, others continue to see him as
the primary catalyst for the feudal system.)[1]
****
Consolidation of power
Charles stood to inherit nothing of
his father's(Pippin the Middle) office because of his
illegitimacy. In December 714, Pippin the Middle died. Pepin, at
his wife Plectrude's urging, designated Theudoald, his grandson
by Plectrude's son Grimoald, as his heir to his office. This was
immediately opposed by the nobles, as Theudoald was a child of
eight years. Moving quickly, Plectrude seized Charles Martel,
her husband's eldest surviving son, a bastard, and put him in
prison in Cologne. This prevented temporarily an uprising
against Theudoald in Austrasia, but another uprising occurred in
the neighbouring Frankish territory, Neustria, over rights to
the Frank title.
Civil war of 715-718
In 715, the Neustrian nobles
proclaimed one Ragenfrid (mayor of their palace) on behalf of,
and apparently with the support of, Dagobert III, the young
king, who in fact had the legal authority to select a mayor,
though by this time the Merovingian dynasty had lost most such
regal powers.
The Austrasians were not to be left
supporting a woman and her young boy for long. Before the end of
the year, Charles Martel had escaped from prison and been
acclaimed mayor by the nobles of Austrasia. The Neustrians had
been attacking Austrasia, and the nobles were waiting for a
strong man to lead them against their invading countrymen. That
year, Dagobert died and the Neustrians proclaimed Chilperic II
king without the support of the rest of the Frankish people.
In 716, Chilperic and Ragenfrid
together led an army into Austrasia. The Neustrians allied with
another invading force under Radbod, King of the Frisians, and
met Charles in battle near Cologne, still held by Plectrude.
Charles had little time to gather men, or prepare, and the
result was the only defeat of his life. In fact, he fled the
field as soon as he realized he did not have the time or the men
to prevail, retreating to the mountains of the Eifel. The king
and his mayor then turned to besiege their other rival in the
city and took it and the treasury, and received the recognition
of both Chilperic as king and Ragenfrid as mayor. Plectrude
surrendered on Theudoald's behalf.
At this juncture, events turned in
favour of Charles. Having made the proper preparations, Charles
fell upon the triumphant army near Malmedy as it was returning
to its own province, and, in the ensuing Battle of Amblève,
routed it and it fled. Several things were notable about this
battle, in which Charles set the pattern for the remainder of
his military career: First, 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. Charles, in this battle,
had begun demonstrating the military genius that would mark his
rule, in that he never attacked his enemies where, when, or how
they expected, and the result was an unbroken victory streak
that lasted until his death.
In Spring 717, Charles returned to
Neustria with an army and confirmed his supremacy with a victory
at Vincy, near Cambrai. He chased the fleeing king and mayor to
Paris before turning back to deal with Plectrude and Cologne. He
took the city and dispersed her adherents. He allowed both
Plectrude and Theudoald to live, and treated them with
kindness—unusual for those Middle Ages, when mercy to a former
jailer, or a potential rival, was rare. On this success, he
proclaimed one Clotaire IV king of Austrasia in opposition to
Chilperic and deposed the archbishop of Rheims, Rigobert,
replacing him with one Milo, a lifelong supporter.
After subjugating all Austrasia, he
marched against Radbod and pushed him back into his territory,
even forcing the concession of West Frisia (later Holland). He
also sent the Saxons back over the Weser and thus secured his
borders—in the name of the new king, of course. More than any
other prior mayor of the palace, however, absolute power lay
with Charles.
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 made himself independent during the civil war in 715, but
was again defeated, at Soissons, by Charles. The king fled with
his ducal ally to the land south of the Loire while Ragenfrid
fled to Angers. Soon Clotaire IV died and Odo deserted Chilperic
and, in exchange for recognising his dukeship, surrendered the
king to Charles, who recognised his kingship over all the Franks
in return for legitimate royal affirmation of his mayoralty,
likewise over all the kingdoms (718).
Foreign wars from 718-732
The ensuing years were full of
strife. 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 such as Echternach), subjugated Bavaria and
Alemannia, and defeated the pagan Saxons.
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. 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 seized
control upon the death of Pippin. Although Charles did not trust
the pagans, their ruler, Aldegisel, accepted Christianity.
Charles sent Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht, the famous "Apostle
to the Frisians" to convert the people. Charles also did much to
support Winfrid, later Saint Boniface, the "Apostle of the
Germans."
When Chilperic II died in 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 puppets in his
hands; by the end of his reign, he stopped even bothering to
appoint any. At this time, Charles again marched against the
Saxons. Then the Neustrians rebelled under Ragenfrid, who had
been left the county of Anjou. They were easily defeated in 724,
but Ragenfrid gave up his sons as hostages in return for keeping
his county. This ended the civil wars of Charles' reign.
The next six years were devoted to
strengthening Frankish authority over the dependent Germanic
tribes. Between 720 and 723, Charles fought 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 and 728, he again entered Bavaria
and the ties of lordship seemed strong. From his first campaign,
he brought back the Agilolfing princess Swanachild, who
apparently became his concubine. In 730, he marched against
Lantfrid, duke of Alemannia, who had also become independent,
and killed him in battle. He forced the Alemanni to acknowledge
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.
But by 730, his own realm secure,
Charles began to prepare exclusively for the coming storm from
the west.
In 721, the emir of Córdoba had
built up a strong army from Morocco, Yemen, and Syria to conquer
Aquitaine, the large duchy in the southwest of Gaul, nominally
under Frankish sovereignty, but in practice almost independent
in the hands of the Odo the Great since the Merovingian kings
had lost power. The invading Umayyad forces besieged the city of
Toulouse, then Aquitaine's most important city. Odo immediately
left to find help. He returned three months later just before
the city was about to surrender and defeated the Umayyad
invaders on June 9, 721, at the Battle of Toulouse. The victory
was essentially the result of a classic enveloping movement on
Odo's part. After Odo had originally fled, the Umayyad army
became overconfident and ceased to maintain strong outer
defenses around their siege camp and continue scouting. Thus,
when Odo returned, he was able to launch a nearly complete
surprise attack on the besieging force, scattering it at the
first attack, and slaughtering units which were resting, or fled
without weapons or armour.
Charles had watched the Iberian
situation since Toulouse, convinced the Muslims would return,
and while he was securing his own realms, he was also preparing
for war against the Umayyads. He believed he needed a virtually
fulltime army, one he could train, as a core of veterans to add
to the usual conscripts the Franks 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 which could withstand the Umayyad 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 this money, he seized church lands
and property, and used the funds to pay his soldiers. The same
man who had secured the support of the ecclesia by donating
land, seized some of it back between 724 and 732. The Church was
enraged, and, for a time, it looked as though Charles might even
be excommunicated for his actions. But then came a significant
invasion.
Eve of Tours
It has been noted that Charles
Martel could have pursued the wars against the Saxons—but he was
determined to prepare for what he thought was a greater danger.
Instead of concentrating on conquest to his east, he prepared
for the storm gathering in the west. Well aware of the danger
posed by the Umayyads after the Battle of Toulouse, in 721, he
used the intervening years to consolidate his power, and gather
and train the core of a veteran army that would defend
Christianity.
The Umayyads were not aware, at
that time, of the true strength of the Franks, or the fact that
they were building a real army, not the typical barbarian hordes
which had infested Europe after Rome's fall. They considered the
Germanic tribes, including the Franks, simply barbarians and
were not particularly concerned about them. The Arab Chronicles,
the history of that age, show that 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.
Further, the Muslims had not bothered with the normal scouting
of potential foes, for if they had, they surely would have noted
Charles Martel as a force to be reckoned with. Martel's thorough
domination of Europe from 717 on, and his sound defeat of all
powers who contested his dominion, should have alerted the Moors
that, not only was a real power rising from the ashes of the
Western Roman Empire, but it was led by a truly gifted general.
Thus, when they launched their great invasion of 732, they were
not prepared for Martel and his Frankish army.
This, in retrospect, was a
disastrous mistake. Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi was a good
general, but he made two mistakes: he failed to assess the
strength of the Franks in advance of the invasion, assuming that
they would not come to the aid of their Aquitanian cousins; and
he failed to scout the movements of the Frankish army and
Charles Martel. Had he done either, he would have curtailed his
light horse ravaging throughout lower Gaul and marched at once,
with his full power, against the Franks. This strategy would
have nullified every advantage Charles had at Tours, as the
invaders would have not been burdened with booty that played
such a huge role in the battle. They would not been weakened in
the battles they fought prior to Tours. (Although they lost
relatively few men subduing Aquitane, the casualties they did
suffer may have been significant at Tours).
Finally, the Umayyads would have
bypassed weaker opponents, such as Odo, whom they could have
dealt with later, while moving at once to force battle with the
real power in Europe, and at least partially picked the
battlefield. While some military historians point out that
leaving enemies in one's rear is generally unwise, the Mongols
proved that indirect attack and bypassing weaker foes to
eliminate the strongest first was a devastatingly effective mode
of invasion. In this case, those enemies posed virtually no
danger, given the ease with which the Muslims destroyed them.
The real danger was Charles, and the failure to scout Europe
adequately proved fatal. Had Al Ghafiqi realized how thoroughly
Martel had dominated Europe for 15 years, and how gifted a
commander he was, he would not have allowed Charles Martel to
pick the time and place the two powers would collide, which
historians agree was pivotal to his victory.
Battle of Tours
Main article Battle of Tours.
Leadup and importance
The Cordoban emirate had previously
invaded Gaul and had been stopped in its northward sweep at the
Battle of Toulouse, in 721. The hero of that less celebrated
event had been Odo the Great, Duke of Aquitaine, who was not the
progenitor of a race of kings and patron of chroniclers. It has
previously been explained how Odo defeated the invading Muslims,
but when they returned, things were far different. The arrival
in the interim of a new emir of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al
Ghafiqi, who brought with him a huge force of Arabs and Berber
horsemen, triggered a far greater invasion. Abdul Rahman Al
Ghafiqi had been at Toulouse, and the Arab Chronicles make clear
he had strongly opposed the Emir's decision not to secure outer
defenses against a relief force, which allowed Odo and his
infantry to attack with impunity before the Islamic cavalry
could assemble or mount. Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi had no
intention of permitting such a disaster again. This time the
Umayyad horsemen were ready for battle, and the results were
horrific for the Aquintanians. Odo, hero of Toulouse, was badly
defeated in the Muslim invasion of 732 at the Battle of the
River Garonne—where the western chroniclers state, "God alone
knows the number of the slain"— and the city of Bordeaux was
sacked and looted. Odo fled to Charles, seeking help. Charles
agreed to come to Odo's rescue, provided Odo acknowledged
Charles and his house as his Overlords, which Odo did formally
at once. Thus, Odo faded into history while Charles marched into
it. Charles was pragmatic; his former enemy Odo and his
Aquitanian nobles formed the right flank of Charles' forces at
Tours.
The Battle of Tours earned Charles
the cognomen "Martel", for the merciless way he hammered his
enemies. Many historians, including the great military historian
Sir Edward Creasy, believe that had he failed at Tours, Islam
would probably have overrun Gaul, and perhaps the remainder of
western Christian Europe. Gibbon made clear his belief that the
Umayyad armies would have conquered from Rome to the Rhine, and
even England, with ease, had Martel not prevailed. Creasy said
"the great victory won by Charles Martel ... gave a decisive
check to the career of Arab conquest in Western Europe, rescued
Christendom from Islam, [and] preserved the relics of ancient
and the germs of modern civilization." Gibbon's belief that the
fate of Christianity hinged on this battle is echoed by other
historians including William E. Watson, and was very popular for
most of modern historiography. It fell somewhat out of style in
the twentieth century, when historians such as Bernard Lewis
contended that Arabs had little intention of occupying northern
France. More recently, however, many historians have tended once
again to view the Battle of Tours as a very significant event in
the history of Europe and Christianity. Equally, many, such as
William Watson, still believe this battle was one of
macrohistorical world-changing importance.
In the modern era, Matthew Bennett
and his co-authors of "Fighting Techniques of the Medieval
World", published in 2005, argue 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." Michael Grant, author of "History of Rome",
grants the Battle of Tours such importance that he lists it in
the macrohistorical dates of the Roman era.
Another contemporary historian,
William Watson, believes that a failure by Martel at Tours would
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. While some modern
assessments of the battle's impact have backed away from the
extreme of Gibbon's position, many modern historians such as
William Watson and Antonio Santosuosso generally support the
concept of Tours as a macrohistorical event favoring western
civilization and Christianity, though Santosuosso believes
Martel's victories in the campaigns of 732-737 were considerably
more vital. (Watson believes Tours was the decisive historial
event) Military writers such as Robert W. Martin, "The Battle of
Tours is still felt today," also argue that Tours was such a
turning point in favor of western civilization and Christianity
that its after-effect remains to this day.
Battle
The Battle of Tours probably took
place somewhere between Tours and Poitiers (hence its other
name: Battle of Poitiers). The Frankish army, under Charles
Martel, consisted mostly of veteran infantry, somewhere between
15,000 and 75,000 men. While Charles had some cavalry, they did
not have stirrups, so he had them dismount and reinforce his
phalanx. Odo and his Aquitanian nobility were also normally
cavalry, but they also dismounted at the Battle's onset, to
buttress the phalanx. Responding to the Umayyad invasion, the
Franks had avoided the old Roman roads, hoping to take the
invaders by surprise. Martel believed it was absolutely
essential that he not only take the Umayyads by surprise, but
that he be allowed to select the ground on which the battle
would be fought, ideally a high, wooded plain where the Islamic
horsemen, already tired from carrying armour, would be further
exhausted charging uphill. Further, the woods would aid the
Franks in their defensive square by partially impeding the
ability of the Umayyad horsemen to make a clear charge.
From the Muslim accounts of the
battle, they were indeed taken by surprise to find a large force
opposing their expected sack of Tours, and they waited for six
days, scouting the enemy and summoning all their raiding parties
so their full strength was present for the battle. Emir Abdul
Rahman was an able general who did not like the unknown at all,
and he did not like charging uphill against an unknown number of
foes who seemed well-disciplined and well-disposed for battle.
But the weather was also a factor. The Germanic Franks, in their
wolf and bear pelts, were more used to the cold, better dressed
for it, and despite not having tents, which the Muslims did,
were prepared to wait as long as needed, the fall only growing
colder.
On the seventh day, the Umayyad
army, mostly Berber and Arab horsemen and led by Abdul Rahman Al
Ghafiqi, attacked. During the battle, the Franks defeated the
Islamic army and the emir was killed. While Western accounts are
sketchy, Arab accounts are fairly detailed in describing how the
Franks formed a large square and fought a brilliant defensive
battle. Rahman had doubts before the battle that his men were
ready for such a struggle, and should have had them abandon the
loot which hindered them, but instead decided to trust his
horsemen, who had never failed him. Indeed, it was thought
impossible for infantry of that age to withstand armoured
cavalry.
Martel managed to inspire his men
to stand firm against a force which must have seemed invincible
to them, huge mailed horsemen, who, in addition, probably vastly
outnumbered the Franks. In one of the rare instances where
medieval infantry stood up against cavalry charges, the
disciplined Frankish soldiers withstood the assaults even
though, according to Arab sources, the Umayyad cavalry several
times broke into the interior of the Frankish square. The scene
is described in a translation of an Arab account of the battle
from the Medieval Source Book:
"And in the shock of the battle the
men of the North seemed like a sea that cannot be moved. Firmly
they stood, one close to another, forming as it were a bulwark
of ice; and with great blows of their swords they hewed down the
Arabs. Drawn up in a band around their chief, the people of the
Austrasians carried all before them. Their tireless hands drove
their swords down to the breasts of the foe."
Both accounts agree that the
Umayyad forces had broken into the square and were trying to
kill Martel, whose liege men had surrounded him and would not be
broken, when a trick Charles had planned before the battle bore
fruit beyond his wildest dreams. Both Western and Muslim
accounts of the battle agree that sometime during the height of
the fighting, with the battle still in grave doubt, scouts sent
by Martel to the Muslim camp began freeing prisoners. Fearing
loss of their plunder, a large portion of the Muslim army
abandoned the battle and returned to camp to protect their
spoils. In attempting to stop what appeared to be a retreat,
Abdul Rahman was surrounded and killed by the Franks, and what
started as a ruse ended up a real retreat, as the Umayyad army
fled the field that day. The Franks resumed their phalanx, and
rested in place through the night, believing the battle would
resume at dawn of the following morning.
The next day, when the Umayyad army
did not renew the battle, the Franks feared an ambush. Charles
at first believed the Muslims were attempting to lure him down
the hill and into the open, a tactic he would resist at all
costs. Only after extensive reconnaissance by Frankish soldiers
of the Umayyad camp—which by both accounts had been so hastily
abandoned that even the tents remained, as the Umayyad forces
headed back to Iberia with what spoils remained that they could
carry—was it discovered that the Muslims had retreated during
the night. As the Arab Chronicles would later reveal, the
generals from the different parts of the Caliphate, Berbers,
Arabs, Persians and many more, had been unable to agree on a
leader to take Abd er Rahman's place as Emir, or even to agree
on a commander to lead them the following day. Only the Emir,
Abd er Rahman, had a Fatwa from the Caliph, and thus absolute
authority over the faithful under arms. With his death, and with
the varied nationalities and ethnicities present in an army
drawn from all over the Caliphate, politics, racial and ethnic
bias, and personalities reared their head. The inability of the
bickering generals to select anyone to lead resulted in the
wholesale withdrawal of an army that might have been able to
resume the battle and defeat the Franks.
Martel's ability to have Abd er
Rahman killed through a clever ruse he had carefully planned to
cause confusion, at the battle's apex, and his years spent
rigorously training his men, combined to do what was thought
impossible: Martel's Franks, virtually all infantry without
armour, withstood both mailed heavy cavalry with 20 foot lances,
and bow-wielding light cavalry, without the aid of bows or
firearms. [2] This was a feat of war almost unheard of in
medieval history, a feat which even the heavily armored Roman
legions proved themselves incapable of against the Parthians,
[3]and left Martel a unique place in history as the savior of
Europe [4] and a brilliant general in an age not known for its
generalship.
After Tours
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 Martel 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, Martel
continued on in campaigns in 736 and 737 to drive other Muslim
armies from bases in Gaul after they again attempted to get a
foothold in Europe beyond Al-Andalus.
Wars from 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 Radbod,
duke of the Frisians (719-734), son of the Duke Aldegisel who
had accepted the missionaries Willibrord and Boniface, to invade
independence-minded Frisia again in 734. In that year, he slew
the duke, who had expelled the Christian missionaries, in battle
and so wholly subjugated the populace (he destroyed every pagan
shrine) that the people were 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, Hunold, whose
dukeship Charles recognised 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 Hunold 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
Narbonnea 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 Martel 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. He
left Narbonne therefore, isolated and surrounded, and his son
would return to liberate it for Christianity. Provence, however,
he successfully rid of its foreign occupiers, and crushed all
foreign armies able to advance Islam further.
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 Muslim force at the River Berre,
near Narbonne, in particular was as important a victory for
Christian Europe as Tours. In Barbarians, Marauders, and
Infidels, Antonio Santosuosso, Professor Emeritus of History at
the University of Western Ontario, and considered an expert
historian in the era in dispute, puts forth an interesting
modern opinion on Martel, Tours, and the subsequent campaigns
against Rahman's son in 736-737. Santosuosso presents a
compelling case that these later defeats of invading Muslim
armies were at least as important as Tours in their defence of
Western Christendom and the preservation of Western monasticism,
the monasteries of which were the centers of learning which
ultimately led Europe out of her Middle Ages. He also makes a
compelling argument, after studying the Arab histories of the
period, that these were clearly armies of invasion, sent by the
Caliph not just to avenge Tours, but to begin the conquest of
Christian Europe and bring it into the Caliphate.
Further, unlike his father at
Tours, Rahman's son in 736-737 knew that the Franks were a real
power, and that Martel personally was a force to be reckoned
with. He had no intention of allowing Martel to catch him
unawares and dictate the time and place of battle, as his father
had, and concentrated instead on seizing a substantial portion
of the coastal plains around Narbonne in 736 and heavily
reinforced Arles as he advanced inland. They planned from there
to move from city to city, fortifying as they went, and if
Martel 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 Martel 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 Martel to develop heavy
cavalry equal to that of the Muslims. The Caliphate believed it
would take a generation, but Martel managed it in five short
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 championed
Christianity and halted Muslim expansion into Europe, as the
window was closing on Islamic ability to do so. These defeats,
plus those at the hands of Leo 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.
Interregnum
In 737, at the tail end of his
campaigning in Provence and Septimania, the king, Theuderic IV,
died. Martel, titling himself maior domus and princeps et dux
Francorum, did not appoint a new king and nobody acclaimed one.
The throne lay vacant until Martel's death. As the historian
Charles Oman says (The Dark Ages, pg 297), "he cared not for
name or style so long as the real power was in his hands."
Gibbon has said Martel 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 Saint 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 loathe to fight his
onetime ally and ignored the Papal plea. Nonetheless, the Papal
applications for Frankish protection showed how far Martel had
come from the days he was tottering on excommunication, and set
the stage for his son and grandson to literally rearrange Italy
to suit the Papacy, and protect it.
Death
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 were divided among his adult
sons a year earlier: to Carloman he gave Austrasia and Alemannia
(with Bavaria as a vassal), to Pippin the Younger Neustria and
Burgundy (with Aquitaine as a vassal), and to Grifo nothing,
though some sources indicate he intended to give him a strip of
land between Neustria and Austrasia.
Gibbon called him "the hero of the
age" and declared "Christendom ... delivered ... by the genius
and good fortune of one man, Charles Martel." A strong argument
can be made Gibbon was correct on both counts.
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
heathen Saxons, which his grandson Charlemagne would fully
subdue, and Moors, which he halted on a path of continental
domination.
Though he never cared about titles,
his son Pippin 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 recognised or not), declared for "he who had the power"
and immediately crowned Pippin.
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
Charlmagne 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, and while legally
this may have been true, 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. An institution unique in history was being born:
the Holy Roman Empire. 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 and
Salian dynasties and, to a lesser, extent, the Hohenstaufen. It
lasted until 1806, by then it was a nonentity. Though his
grandson became its first emperor, the "empire" such as it was,
was largely born during the reign of Charles Martel.
Charles was that rarest of
commodities in the Middle Ages: a brilliant stategic 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
brave 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, cooly shifting
to compensate for the unforeseen and unforeseeable.
Gibbon, whose tribute to Martel has
been noted, was not alone among the great mid era historians in
fervently praising Martel; 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 Martel 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 [2] perhaps
sums up Martel 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
730's::
"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 Lyons,
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 Poiters. Yet its failure (at
Martel's hands) put an end to any serious Muslim expedition
across the Pyrennes (forever)."
In the Netherlands, a vital part of
the Carolingian Empire, and in the low countries, he is
considered a hero. In France and especially in Germany, he is
revered as a hero of epic proportions.
Skilled as an administrator and
ruler, Martel 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. ("First or Dominant Mayor and Prince
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.
Beginning of the Reconquista
Although it took another two
generations 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 Martel, his
son Pippin the Younger, and his grandson Charlemagne created a
western power which prevented the Emirate of Córdoba from
expanding over the Pyrenees. Martel, who in 732 was on the verge
of excommunication, instead was recognised by the Church as its
paramount defender. Pope Gregory II wrote him more than once,
asking his protection and aid [5], and he remained, till his
death, fixated on stopping the Muslims. Martel's son Pippin the
Younger kept his father's promise and returned and took Narbonne
by siege in 759, and 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. This sector of what is now Spain was then
called "The Moorish Marches" by the Carolingians, who saw it as
not just a check on the Muslims in Hispania, but the beginning
of taking the entire country back. This formed a permanent
buffer zone against Islam, which became the basis, along with
the King of Asturias, named Pelayo (718-737, who started his
fight against the Moors in the mountains of Covadonga, 722) and
his descendants, for the Reconquista until all of the Muslims
were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula.
Military legacy
First, and foremost, Charles Martel
will always be remembered for his victory at Tours. Creasy
argues that the Martel victory "preserved the relics of ancient
and the germs 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 neighbors of Gaul [France], from the civil and religious
yoke of the Koran." Paul Akers, in his editorial on Charles
Martel, says for those who value christianity "you might spare a
minute sometime today, and every October, to say a silent "thank
you" to a gang of half-savage Germans and especially to their
leader, Charles "The Hammer" Martel." [6].
In his vision of what would be
necessary for him to withstand a larger force and superior
technology (the Muslim horsemen had the stirrup, which made the
first knights possible), he, daring not to send his few horsemen
against the Islamic cavalry, trained his army to 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 trained a core of his men
year round, using mostly Church funds. 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. After 732, he began the integration into his army of
heavy cavalry, using the stirrup and mailed armour, training his
infantry to fight in conjunction with cavalry, a tactic which
stood him in good stead during his campaigns of 736-7,
especially at the Battle of Narbonne. His incorporation of heavy
armoured cavalry into the western forces created the first
"knights" in the west.
Martel earned his reputation for
brilliant generalship, in an age generally bereft of same, by
his ability to use what he had, integrating new ideas and
technology. As a consequence he was undefeated from 716 to his
death against a wide range of opponents, including the Muslim
cavalry, at that time the world's best, and the fierce barbarian
Saxons on his own borders, and despite virtually always being
outnumbered. He was the only general in the MIddle Ages in
Europe to use the eastern battle technique of feigned retreat.
His ability to attack where he was least expected, when he was
least expected, and how he was least expected, were legendary.
The process of the development of the famous chivalry of France
continued in the Edict of Pistres of his great-great-grandson
and namesake Charles the Bald.
The defeats Martel inflicted on the
Muslims were absolutely 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 Muslims self-destructed, is of
macrohistorical importance, and is why Dante writes of him in
Heaven as one of the "Defenders of the Faith." After 750, the
door to western Europe, the Iberian emirate, was in the hands of
the Umayyads, while most of the remainder of the Muslim world
came under the control of the Abbasids, making an invasion of
Europe a logistical impossibility while the two Muslim empires
battled. This put off Islamic invasion of Europe until the
Turkish conquest of the Balkans half a millennium later.
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 legendary for never doing what his
enemies forecast he would do. It was this ability to do the
unforeseen, and move far faster than his opponents believed he
could, that characterized the military career of Charles Martel.
Conclusion
J.M. Roberts says of Charles Martel
in his note on the Carolingians on page 315 of his 1993 History
of the World:
It (the Carolingians) 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
coud display his banner on the Elbe, the Rhone, and shores of
the ocean."
It is notable that the Northmen did
not begin their European raids until after the death of Martel's
grandson, Charlemagne. They had the naval capacity to begin
those raids at least three generations earlier, but chose not to
challenge Martel, his son Pippin, or his grandson, Charlemagne.
This was probably fortunate for Martel, who despite his enormous
gifts, would probably not have been able to beat off the Vikings
in addition to the Muslims, Saxons, and everyone else he
defeated. However, it is notable that again, despite the ability
to do so, (the Danes had constructed defenses to defend from
counterattacks by land, and had the ability to launch their
wholesale sea raids as early as Martel's reign), they chose not
to challenge Charles Martel.
Family and children
Charles Martel married twice:
Rotrude of Treves (690-724)
(daughter of St. Leutwinus, Bishop of Treves), with children:
Hiltrud (d. 754), married Odilo I,
Duke of Bavaria
Carloman
Landrade (Landres), married
Sigrand, Count of Hesbania
Auda, Aldana, or Alane, married
Thierry IV, Count of Autun and Toulouse
Pippin the Younger
Swanhild, with child:
Grifo
Charles Martel also had a mistress,
Ruodhaid:
Bernard (b. before 732-787)
Hieronymus
Remigius, archbishop of Rouen (d.
771)
Ian (d. 783)
Arnulfing Dynasty
Born: 676
Died: 741
Preceded by
Pepin II the Middle Mayor of the
Palace of Austrasia
714–741 Succeeded by
Carloman
Preceded by
Ragenfrid Mayor of the Palace of
Neustria
717–741 Succeeded by
Pepin III the Younger
****
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