Background
Charles Martel was born on August 23, 686 and was the illegitimate son of Pepin of Heristal and a noblewoman named Alpaide.
(Charles Martel is generally considered as the Frankish Mi...)
Charles Martel is generally considered as the Frankish Military Leader who defeated the Moslem army and stopped the great movement of Arab conquest in Europe. His victory during the battle of Tours (also called the battle of Poitiers) is described by the historians as the decisive event which preserved the European Civilization. According to E. Gibbon the victory of Charles Martel rescued the ancestors of Europeans, from the Islamic civilization. And the historian L. Von Ranke said : the battle of Poitiers was the turning point of one of the most important epochs in the history of the world. Who really was Charles Martel? This book present the story of Charles Martel, the military leader and defender of Frankish kingdom.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/2366593627/?tag=2022091-20
(This book is a work of historical literature, with docume...)
This book is a work of historical literature, with documentation and drama to make history alive for the reader.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006AXEPC/?tag=2022091-20
(In the early decades of the 8th century AD, Islamic force...)
In the early decades of the 8th century AD, Islamic forces were flooding into Europe through the Iberian peninsula, threatening Frankish and Burgundian territory and raiding it with ever-increasing ferocity. At the battle of Poitiers, also known as Tours, Christian forces under the Frankish leader Charles Martel "The Hammer" (grandfather of Charlemagne) confronted a massive invading Islamic army. The Franks were victorious, effectively halting the northward advance of Islam and preserving Christianity as the dominant faith in Europe. Expert medievalist David Nicolle draws on contemporary sources to reconstruct this turning-point battle, places it in its historical context and reviews its background and immediate and longer-term historical consequences.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/184603230X/?tag=2022091-20
Charles Martel was born on August 23, 686 and was the illegitimate son of Pepin of Heristal and a noblewoman named Alpaide.
After the reign of Dagobert I (629-639) the Merovingian royal house was weakened by the fact that none of the later kings survived until manhood. Therefore in the 7th century the real power of government was exercised by the mayors of the palace. These officials controlled the royal treasury, dispersed patronage, and granted land and privileges in the name of the king. The Merovingian kingdom in Gaul comprised two major subkingdoms, Neustria (the northwestern portion) and Austrasia (northeastern Gaul and the Rhineland), each of which was ruled by a mayor of the palace. The respective rulers of the two kingdoms fought bitterly for supremacy, and in 687 at the battle of Tetry, the Austrasian mayor, Pepin of Heristal, defeated the Neustrian mayor and united the two kingdoms. It was thus the task of Pepin and his son Charles Martel to restore centralized government in the Frankish kingdom and to combat the expanding power of Islam. When Pepin died in 714, Charles successfully asserted his claims to power over the resistance of Pepin's widow, Plectrude, and became mayor of the palace. Charles attracted and maintained a group of personal retainers who formed the core of the royal army. Most of his reign as mayor of the palace was spent in checking the expansion of the Saracens in southern France and in the Rhone-Saône Valley. In October 732 Charles won a major victory against the Saracens outside Poitiers despite the fact that the invaders were mounted and the Franks were on foot. The battle, aside from temporarily checking the expansion of the Moslems, was of long-range significance because it was here that Charles became convinced of the necessity of cavalry. After Poitiers, Charles developed the cavalry as his primary offensive fighting force. This change, however, proved highly expensive, and the cost of supporting and training men on horseback led to the adoption of a means of support that had far-reaching consequences. Charles found it necessary to "borrow" considerable lands from the Church; he then dispersed these properties among his lay retainers. The old army of Frankish freemen became less important, and gradually a considerable social distinction developed between the mounted knight and the ordinary foot soldier. Thus the elite class of mounted warriors who dominated medieval France owed their origins to the military policy of Charles Martel. In his effort to maintain unity in the Frankish realm and to combat the Saracens, Charles relied heavily on the support of the Church and particularly on that of Boniface, the great missionary to the Germans. Charles encouraged the missionary efforts of Boniface and in return received new territories and considerable ecclesiastical revenues to support his fighting force. His role as protector of Christendom lay primarily in his wars against the Saracens. In 739 Pope Gregory III asked him to defend the Holy See against the Lombards; Charles, however, did not intervene because of an earlier treaty with the Lombards. Charles Martel died at the royal palace at Quierzy on October 22, 741, and was buried at the abbey of St. Denis.
(In the early decades of the 8th century AD, Islamic force...)
(Charles Martel is generally considered as the Frankish Mi...)
(This book is a work of historical literature, with docume...)
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 five children. Charles married second time to Swanhild, and they had a child, Grifo. Finally, Charles Martel also had known a mistress, Ruodhaid, with whom he had the children Bernard, Hieronymus, and Remigius.
635 – 16 December 714
654 – 714
726–753
____ - 724
716 died 754
722 – 755
wife of Theoderich, Count of Autun.
____ - 771
722 - 782
716 – 17 August 754
714 – 24 September 768
720–787
