22
October 741 A.D. Charles
“The Hammer” Martel Dies—Frankish Ruler Who Stems Islamo-Muslimist-Jihadist
Incursions at Poitier, France.
On 10 Oct 722 A.D., we remembered “The Hammer’s” victory at
the Battle of Tours/Poitiers over the advancing Islamo-bates advances into southern
France. The Hammer hammered them and
stopped the Bates' advances. As Edward
Gibbon said, “This saved England and our southern neighbor [France] from Islam.” Now, today, we recall the Hammer’s passage to
the world without dispute.
Duckett,
Eleanor Shipley. “Charles Martel.” Encyclopedia
Britannica. N.d. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/107383/Charles-Martel. Accessed 24 May 2014.
Charles Martel, Latin Carolus Martellus, German Karl Martell (born c. 688—died Oct. 22, 741, Quierzy-sur-Oise [France]), mayor
of the palace of Austrasia (the eastern part of the Frankish kingdom) from 715 to 741. He reunited
and ruled the entire Frankish realm and stemmed the Muslim invasion at Poitiers
in 732. His byname, Martel, means “the hammer.”
Charles was the
illegitimate son of Pippin II of Herstal, the mayor of the palace of Austrasia. By this period the Merovingian kings of
the Frankish realm were rulers in name only. The burden of rule lay upon the
mayors of the palace, who governed Austrasia, the eastern part of the Frankish
kingdom, and Neustria, its western portion. Neustria bitterly
resented its conquest and annexation in 687 by Pippin, who, acting in the name
of the king, had reorganized and reunified the Frankish realm.
The assassination
of Pippin’s only surviving legitimate son in 714 was followed a few months
later by the death of Pippin himself. Pippin left as heirs three grandsons,
and, until they came of age, Plectrude, Pippin’s widow,
was to hold power. As an illegitimate son, Charles Martel was entirely
neglected in the will. But he was young, strong, and determined, and an intense
struggle for power at once broke out in the Frankish kingdom.
Both Charles and
Plectrude faced rebellion throughout the Frankish kingdom when Pippin’s will
was made known. The king, Chilperic II, was in the power of Ragenfrid, mayor
of the palace of Neustria, who joined forces with the Frisians in Holland in order to eliminate Charles. Plectrude imprisoned Charles and tried to
govern in the name of her grandchildren, but Charles escaped, gathered an army, and defeated the Neustrians in battles at Amblève near Liège (716) and at
Vincy near Cambrai (717). His success made resistance by Plectrude and the Austrasians
useless; they submitted, and by 719 Charles alone governed the Franks as mayor.
Assured of
Austrasia, Charles now attacked Neustria itself, finally subduing it in 724.
This freed Charles to deal with hostile elements elsewhere. He attacked Aquitaine, whose ruler, Eudes (Odo), had been an ally of Ragenfrid, but
Charles did not gain effective control of southern France until late in his reign. He also conducted long campaigns, some as late as
the 730s, against the Frisians, Saxons, and Bavarians, whose brigandage
endangered the eastern frontiers of his kingdom. In order to consolidate his
military gains, Charles supported St.
Boniface and other missionaries in their
efforts to convert the German tribes on the eastern frontier to Christianity.
Ever since their
arrival in Spain from Africa in 711, the Muslims had raided Frankish territory,
threatening Gaul and on one occasion (725) reaching Burgundy and sacking Autun. In 732 ʿAbd
ar-Raḥmān,
the governor of Córdoba,
marched into Bordeaux and defeated Eudes. The Muslims then proceeded north across Aquitaine to the city of Poitiers. Eudes appealed to Charles for assistance, and
Charles’s cavalry managed to turn back the Muslim onslaught at the Battle of Tours. The battle itself may have been
only a series of small engagements, but after it there were no more great Muslim
invasions of Frankish territory.
In 733 Charles
began his campaigns to force Burgundy to yield to his rule. In 735 word arrived
that Eudes was dead, and Charles marched rapidly across the Loire River in
order to make his power felt around Bordeaux. By 739 he had completely subdued
the petty chieftains of Burgundy, and he continued to fend off Muslim advances
into Gaul during the decade.
Charles’s health
began to fail in the late 730s, and in 741 he retired to his palace at
Quierzy-sur-Oise, where he died soon after. Before his death he divided the
Merovingian kingdom between his two legitimate sons, Pippin III and Carloman. He continued to maintain the fiction of Merovingian rule, refraining from
transferring the royal title to his own dynasty.
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