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122-713: Charles Martel ( / m ɑːr ˈ t ɛ l / ; c.  688 – 22 October 741), Martel being a sobriquet in Old French for "The Hammer", was a Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace , was the de facto ruler of the Franks from 718 until his death. He was a 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

244-529: A century later. Many say that the Franks originally came from Pannonia and first inhabited the banks of the Rhine. Then they crossed the river, marched through Thuringia, and set up in each county district [ pagus ] and each city [ civitas ] longhaired kings chosen from their foremost and most noble family. The author of the Chronicle of Fredegar claimed that the Franks came originally from Troy and quoted

366-648: A certain unity in Gaul, Charles saved it from a great peril. In 711 the Arabs had conquered Spain. In 720 they crossed the Pyrenees, seized Narbonensis, a dependency of the kingdom of the Visigoths, and advanced on Gaul. By his able policy Odo succeeded in arresting their progress for some years; but a new vali, Abdur Rahman , a member of an extremely fanatical sect, resumed the attack, reached Poitiers, and advanced on Tours,

488-626: A cessation 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 Charles's forces the unreasonableness of the Neustrians. They met near Cambrai at the Battle of Vincy on 21 March 717. The victorious Charles 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

610-568: A city and its environs. Initially only in certain cities in western Gaul, in Neustria and Aquitaine, did the kings possess the right or power to call up the levy. The commanders of the local levies were always different from the commanders of the urban garrisons. Often the former were commanded by the counts of the districts. A much rarer occurrence was the general levy, which applied to the entire kingdom and included peasants ( pauperes and inferiores ). General levies could also be made within

732-462: A darker reputation, for his alleged abuse of church property. A ninth-century text, the Visio Eucherii , possibly written by Hincmar of Reims , portrayed Charles as suffering in hell for this reason. According to British medieval historian Paul Fouracre , this was "the single most important text in the construction of Charles's reputation as a seculariser or despoiler of church lands". By

854-489: A known military unit based on the Rhône . The Ripuarian territory on both sides of the Rhine thus became a central part of Merovingian Austrasia . This stretched to include Roman Germania Inferior (later Germania Secunda ), which included the original Salian and Ripuarian lands, and roughly equates to medieval Lower Lotharingia. It also included Gallia Belgica Prima (roughly medieval Upper Lotharingia), and further lands on

976-548: A lasting impact on the use of Frank-related names for Western Europeans in many non-European languages. The name Franci was not a tribal name, but within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the original peoples who constituted the Frankish population. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm , the name of the Franks has been linked with the English adjective frank , originally meaning "free". There have also been proposals that Frank comes from

1098-679: A location between the French cities of Tours and Poitiers , in a victory described by the Continuations of Fredegar . According to the historian Bernard Bachrach , the Arab army, mostly mounted, failed to break through the Frankish infantry. News of this battle spread, and may be recorded in Bede's Ecclesiastical History (Book V, ch. 23). However, it is not given prominence in Arabic sources from

1220-577: A mare's value was the same as that of an ox or of a shield and spear, two solidi and a stallion seven or the same as a sword and scabbard, which suggests that horses were relatively common. Perhaps the Byzantine writers considered the Frankish horse to be insignificant relative to the Greek cavalry, which is probably accurate. The Frankish military establishment incorporated many of the pre-existing Roman institutions in Gaul, especially during and after

1342-478: A militarised nature. The Franks called annual meetings every Marchfeld (1 March), when the king and his nobles assembled in large open fields and determined their targets for the next campaigning season. The meetings were a show of strength on behalf of the monarch and a way for him to retain loyalty among his troops. In their civil wars, the Merovingian kings concentrated on the holding of fortified places and

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1464-407: A note of unfinished business". Charles 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: Most of the children married and had issue. Hiltrud married Odilo I ( Duke of Bavaria ). Landrade was once believed to have married a Sigrand (Count of Hesbania) but Sigrand's wife

1586-551: 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." More recently, the memory of Charles has been appropriated by far right and white nationalist groups, such as the ' Charles Martel Group ' in France, and by

1708-594: A source) that among the spoils Charles's forces captured after the Battle of Tours were many genets (raised for their fur) and several of their pelts. Charles gave these furs to leaders amongst his army, forming the first order of knighthood, the Order of the Genet. Favyn's claim was then repeated and elaborated in later works in English, for instance by Elias Ashmole in 1672, and James Coats in 1725. Franks Although

1830-581: A very consequential victory against an Umayyad invasion of Aquitaine at the Battle of Tours , at a time when the Umayyad Caliphate controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula . Alongside his military endeavours, Charles has been traditionally credited with an influential role in the development of the Frankish system of feudalism . At the end of his reign, Charles divided Francia between his sons, Carloman and Pepin . The latter became

1952-443: Is both habitual and a national custom and they are proficient in this. At the hip they wear a sword and on the left side their shield is attached. They have neither bows nor slings, no missile weapons except the double edged axe and the angon which they use most often. The angons are spears which are neither very short nor very long. They can be used, if necessary, for throwing like a javelin , and also in hand to hand combat . In

2074-462: Is generally believed to mean 'The Chamavi who are Franks' (despite the letter p). Further up the river the word "Francia" is clearly marked, indicating a country name on the bank opposite to Nijmegen and Xanten . The Salians were first mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus , who described Julian 's defeat of "the first Franks of all, those whom custom has called the Salians", in 358. Julian allowed

2196-484: Is now France. He and his son Clovis I founded the Merovingian dynasty which succeeded in unifying most of Gaul under its rule during the 6th century following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, as well as establishing leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on or near the Rhine frontier. The dynasty subsequently gained control over a significant part of what is now western and southern Germany. It

2318-599: Is on the River Danube , settling near the Sea of Azov . There they founded a city called Sicambria. (The Sicambri were the most well-known tribe in the Frankish homeland in the time of the early Roman empire, still remembered though defeated and dispersed long before the Frankish name appeared.) The Trojans joined the Roman army in accomplishing the task of driving their enemies into the marshes of Mæotis, for which they received

2440-685: Is that ferocity of yours? Where is that ever untrustworthy fickleness?"). Latin feroces was used often to describe the Franks. Contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. The formulary of Marculf written about 700 AD described a continuation of national identities within a mixed population when it stated that "all the peoples who dwell (in the official's province), Franks, Romans, Burgundians and those of other nations, live ... according to their law and their custom." Writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that "the word 'Frankish' quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of

2562-531: The Augustan History , a collection of biographies of the Roman emperors . None of these sources presents a detailed list of which tribes or parts of tribes became Frankish, or concerning the politics and history, but to quote James (1988 , p. 35): A Roman marching-song joyfully recorded in a fourth-century source, is associated with the 260s; but the Franks' first appearance in a contemporary source

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2684-717: The Strategikon , supposedly written by the emperor Maurice , or in his time, the Franks are lumped together with the Lombards under the heading of the "fair-haired" peoples. If they are hard pressed in cavalry actions, they dismount at a single prearranged sign and line up on foot. Although only a few against many horsemen, they do not shrink from the fight. They are armed with shields, lances, and short swords slung from their shoulders. They prefer fighting on foot and rapid charges. [...] Either on horseback or on foot they are impetuous and un- disciplined in charging, as if they were

2806-626: The Battle of Tertry in 687, each mayor of the palace , who had formerly been the king's chief household official, effectively held power until in 751, with the approval of the Pope and the nobility, Pepin the Short deposed the last Merovingian king Childeric III and had himself crowned. This inaugurated a new dynasty, the Carolingians . The unification achieved by the Merovingians ensured

2928-685: The Battle of Vouillé , he established Frankish hegemony over most of Gaul, excluding Burgundy , Provence and Brittany , which were eventually absorbed by his successors. By the 490s, he had conquered all the Frankish kingdoms to the west of the River Maas except for the Ripuarian Franks and was in a position to make the city of Paris his capital. He became the first king of all Franks in 509, after he had conquered Cologne. Clovis I divided his realm between his four sons, who united to defeat Burgundy in 534. Internecine feuding occurred during

3050-504: The Mayors of the Palace , who controlled the royal treasury, dispensed patronage, and granted land and privileges in the name of the figurehead king. Charles's father, Pepin of Herstal, had united the Frankish realm by conquering Neustria and Burgundy . Pepin was the first to call himself Duke and Prince of the Franks, a title later taken up by Charles. In December 714, Pepin of Herstal died. A few months before his death and shortly after

3172-669: The River Loire everyone seems to have been considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest (except Bretons ); Romani (Romans) were essentially the inhabitants of Aquitaine after that". Apart from the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours , two early sources relate the mythological origin of the Franks: a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar and the anonymous Liber Historiae Francorum , written

3294-649: The Salian Franks to the west, who came south via the Rhine delta ; and the Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks to the east, who eventually conquered the Roman frontier city of Cologne and took control of the left bank of the Lower Rhine in that region. Childeric I , a Salian Frankish king, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in the northern part of what

3416-546: The Somme river . Chlodio is often seen as an ancestor of the future Merovingian dynasty. Childeric I , who according to Gregory of Tours was a reputed descendant of Chlodio, was later seen as administrative ruler over Roman Belgica Secunda and possibly other areas. Records of Childeric show him to have been active together with Roman forces in the Loire region, quite far to the south. His descendants came to rule Roman Gaul all

3538-598: The Teutoburg Forest and thus secured the Frankish border. When the Frisian leader Radbod died in 719, Charles seized West Frisia without any great resistance on the part of the Frisians , who had been subjected to the Franks but had rebelled upon the death of Pippin. When Chilperic II died in 721, Charles appointed as his successor the son of Dagobert III, Theuderic IV , who was still a minor, and who occupied

3660-553: 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 . According to a near-contemporary source, the Liber Historiae Francorum , Charles was "a warrior who was uncommonly ... effective in battle". Charles gained

3782-622: The 260s, the armies under the Germanic Batavian Postumus revolted and proclaimed him emperor and then restored order. From then on, Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, most notably Franks, were promoted from the ranks. A few decades later, the Menapian Carausius created a Batavian–British rump state on Roman soil that was supported by Frankish soldiers and raiders. Frankish soldiers such as Magnentius , Silvanus , Ricomer and Bauto held command positions in

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3904-591: The 450s and 460s, Childeric I , a Salian Frank, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in Roman Gaul (roughly modern France). Childeric and his son Clovis I faced competition from the Roman Aegidius as competitor for the "kingship" of the Franks associated with the Roman Loire forces (according to Gregory of Tours , Aegidius held the kingship of

4026-468: The 720s onwards. Indeed, the anonymous Chronicle of 754 records a victory for Odo in 721 at the Battle of Toulouse , while the Liber Pontificalis records that Odo had killed 375,000 Saracens. It is more likely that this invasion or raid took place in revenge for Odo's support for a rebel Berber leader named Munnuza . Whatever the precise circumstances were, it is clear that an army under

4148-564: The Agilolfing Princess Swanachild as a second wife. In 725 and 728, he again entered Bavaria but, in 730, he marched against Lantfrid , Duke of Alemannia, who had also become independent, and killed him in battle. He forced the Alemanni to capitulate 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

4270-663: The Battle of Amblève , Charles routed them and they fled. Thereafter, Charles Martel remained virtually undefeated and Chilperic's strong will was subdued in a series of campaigns waged in Neustrian territory. In 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. On succeeding there, Charles Martel immediately proclaimed Chlothar IV king of Austrasia in opposition to Chilperic. In 718, Chilperic, in response, allied with Odo

4392-484: The Byzantine historians do not assign them to the Franks. The evidence of Gregory and of the Lex Salica implies that the early Franks were a cavalry people. In fact, some modern historians have hypothesised that the Franks possessed so numerous a body of horses that they could use them to plough fields and thus were agriculturally technologically advanced over their neighbours. The Lex Ribuaria specifies that

4514-494: The Frankish dux (that is, duke ) of Burgundy . Older historiography commonly describes Charles as "illegitimate", but the dividing line between wives and concubines was not clear-cut in eighth-century Francia. It is likely that the accusation of "illegitimacy" derives from the desire of Pepin's first wife Plectrude to see her progeny as heirs to Pepin's throne. By Charles's lifetime the Merovingians had ceded power to

4636-480: The Frankish name does not appear until the 3rd century, at least some of the original Frankish tribes had long been known to the Romans under their own names, both as allies providing soldiers, and as enemies. The term is first used to describe the tribes working together to raid Roman territory. Frankish peoples subsequently living inside Rome's frontier on the Rhine river are often divided by historians into two groups –

4758-525: The Frankish realm. Chief among these was the standing army under the command of the Patrician of Burgundy . In the late 6th century, during the wars instigated by Fredegund and Brunhilda , the Merovingian monarchs introduced a new element into their militaries: the local levy . A levy consisted of all the able-bodied men of a district who were required to report for military service when called upon, similar to conscription . The local levy applied only to

4880-472: The Franks for 8 years while Childeric was in exile). This new type of kingship, perhaps inspired by Alaric I , represents the start of the Merovingian dynasty which succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, as well as establishing its leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on the Rhine frontier. Aegidius died in 464 or 465. Childeric and his son Clovis I were both described as rulers of

5002-461: The Franks fought primarily as a tribe, unless they were part of a Roman military unit fighting in conjunction with other imperial units. The primary sources for Frankish military custom and armament are Ammianus Marcellinus , Agathias and Procopius, the latter two Eastern Roman historians writing about Frankish intervention in the Gothic War . Writing of 539, Procopius says: At this time

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5124-627: The Franks in return for legitimate royal affirmation of his own mayoralty over all the kingdoms. Between 718 and 732, Charles secured his power through a series of victories. 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

5246-425: The Franks knew little about their background and that they may have felt some inferiority in comparison with other peoples of antiquity who possessed an ancient name and glorious tradition. [...] Both legends are of course equally fabulous for, even more than most barbarian peoples, the Franks possessed no common history, ancestry, or tradition of a heroic age of migration. Like their Alemannic neighbours, they were by

5368-744: The Franks to remain in Texuandria as fœderati within the Empire, having moved there from the Rhine-Maas delta. The 5th century Notitia Dignitatum lists a group of soldiers as Salii . Some decades later, Franks in the same region, possibly the Salians, controlled the River Scheldt and were disrupting transport links to Britain in the English Channel . Although Roman forces managed to pacify them, they failed to expel

5490-475: The Franks, hearing that both the Goths and Romans had suffered severely by the war ... forgetting for the moment their oaths and treaties ... (for this nation in matters of trust is the most treacherous in the world), they straightway gathered to the number of one hundred thousand under the leadership of Theudebert I and marched into Italy: they had a small body of cavalry about their leader, and these were

5612-537: The Franks, who continued to be feared as pirates. The Salians are generally seen as the predecessors of the Franks who pushed southwestwards into what is now modern France, who eventually came to be ruled by the Merovingians (see below). This is because when the Merovingian dynasty published the Salian law ( Lex Salica ) it applied in the Neustrian area from the river Liger ( Loire ) to the Silva Carbonaria ,

5734-502: 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 inevitable. 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. After that they withdrew. The Battle of Cologne is the only defeat of Charles's career. Charles retreated to

5856-655: The Germanic word for " javelin " (such as in Old English franca or Old Norse frakka ). Words in other Germanic languages meaning "fierce", "bold" or "insolent" (German frech , Middle Dutch vrac , Old English frǣc and Old Norwegian frakkr ) may also be significant. Eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures: Ubi nunc est illa ferocia? Ubi semper infida mobilitas? ("Where now

5978-542: 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 Raganfrid fled to Angers . Soon Chlotar IV died and Odo surrendered King Chilperic in exchange for Charles recognizing his dukedom. Charles recognized Chilperic as king of

6100-500: The Great , the Duke of Aquitaine , who had made himself independent during the contests in 715, but he was again defeated by Charles, at Soissons in 718. King Chilperic II fled with his ducal ally Odo to the land south of the Loire and his mayor Ragenfrid fled to Angers . Chlothar IV soon died suspiciously in 718. Duke Odo then handed over Chilperic II to Charles Martel and, in exchange for Charles recognising Chilperic's kingship over all

6222-552: The Pious . Following Louis the Pious's death, however, according to Frankish culture and law that demanded equality among all living male adult heirs, the Frankish Empire was now split between Louis' three sons. Germanic peoples, including those tribes in the Rhine delta that later became the Franks, are known to have served in the Roman army since the days of Julius Caesar . After the Roman administration collapsed in Gaul in

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6344-502: The Rhine became so frequent that the Romans began to settle the Franks on their borders in order to control them. The Franks appear to be mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana , an atlas of Roman roads . (It is a 13th-century copy of a 4th or 5th century document that reflects information from the 3rd century.) Several tribal names are written at the mouth of the Rhine. One of these says Hamavi; Quietpranci , which

6466-607: The Roman Province of Belgica Secunda , by its spiritual leader in the time of Clovis, Saint Remigius . Clovis later defeated the son of Aegidius, Syagrius , in 486 or 487 and then had the Frankish king Chararic imprisoned and executed. A few years later, he killed Ragnachar , the Frankish king of Cambrai, and his brothers. After conquering the Kingdom of Soissons and expelling the Visigoths from southern Gaul at

6588-424: The Roman army during the mid 4th century. From the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus it is evident that both Frankish and Alamannic tribal armies were organised along Roman lines. After the invasion of Chlodio , the Roman armies at the Rhine border became a Frankish "franchise" and Franks were known to levy Roman-like troops that were supported by a Roman-like armour and weapons industry. This lasted at least until

6710-407: The Salians they appear in Roman records both as raiders and as contributors to military units. Unlike the Salii, there is no record of when, if ever, the empire officially accepted their residence within its borders. They eventually succeeded to hold the city of Cologne, and at some point seem to have acquired the name Ripuarians, which may have meant "river people". In any case a Merovingian legal code

6832-412: 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. Earlier in his life Charles had many internal opponents and felt the need to appoint his own kingly claimant, Chlotar IV . Later, however, the dynamics of rulership in Francia had changed, and no hallowed Merovingian ruler

6954-422: The archaeological evidence. The Lex Ribuaria , the early 7th century legal code of the Rhineland or Ripuarian Franks, specifies the values of various goods when paying a wergild in kind; whereas a spear and shield were worth only two solidi , a sword and scabbard were valued at seven, a helmet at six, and a "metal tunic" at twelve. Scramasaxes and arrowheads are numerous in Frankish graves even though

7076-410: The banks of the Danube and the Ocean Sea. Again splitting into, two groups, half of them entered Europe with their king Francio. After crossing Europe with their wives and children they occupied the banks of the Rhine and not far from the Rhine began to build the city of "Troy" (Colonia Traiana-Xanten). According to historian Patrick J. Geary , those two stories are "alike in betraying both the fact that

7198-458: The chances of preserving his life's work were better with a successful field commander like Charles than with Plectrude in Cologne. Willibrord subsequently baptized Charles's son Pepin . Gerberding suggests a likely date of Easter 716. Charles also received support from bishop Pepo of Verdun. Charles took time to rally more men and prepare. By the following spring, he had attracted enough support to invade Neustria. Charles sent an envoy who proposed

7320-423: The city and dispersed her adherents. Plectrude was allowed to retire to a convent. Theudoald lived to 741 under his uncle's protection. Upon this success, Charles proclaimed Chlothar IV king in Austrasia in opposition to Chilperic and deposed Rigobert , archbishop of Reims , replacing him with Milo , a lifelong supporter. In 718, Chilperic responded to Charles's new ascendancy by making an alliance with Odo

7442-455: The civil wars of Charles' reign. The next six years were devoted in their entirety to assuring Frankish authority over the neighboring political groups. 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

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7564-441: The conquests of Clovis I in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Frankish military strategy revolved around the holding and taking of fortified centres ( castra ) and in general these centres were held by garrisons of milities and laeti , who were descendants of Roman soldiers with Germanic origin, granted a quasi-national status under Frankish law. These milites continued to be commanded by tribunes. Throughout Gaul,

7686-408: The continuation of what has become known as the Carolingian Renaissance . The Carolingian Empire was beset by internecine warfare, but the combination of Frankish rule and Roman Christianity ensured that it was fundamentally united. Frankish government and culture depended very much upon each ruler and his aims and so each region of the empire developed differently. Although a ruler's aims depended upon

7808-467: The date of the beginning of the conquest of Gaul. The Byzantine authors present several contradictions and difficulties. Procopius denies the Franks the use of the spear while Agathias makes it one of their primary weapons. They agree that the Franks were primarily infantrymen, threw axes and carried a sword and shield. Both writers also contradict the authority of Gallic authors of the same general time period ( Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours ) and

7930-453: The days of the scholar Procopius (c. 500 – c. 565), more than a century after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, who wrote describing the former Arborychoi , having merged with the Franks, retaining their legionary organization in the style of their forefathers during Roman times. The Franks under the Merovingians melded Germanic custom with Romanised organisation and several important tactical innovations. Before their conquest of Gaul,

8052-466: The days when he was tottering on excommunication, and set the stage for his son and grandson to assert themselves in the peninsula. Charles died on 22 October 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

8174-491: The descendants of Roman soldiers continued to wear their uniforms and perform their ceremonial duties. Immediately beneath the Frankish king in the military hierarchy were the leudes , his sworn followers, who were generally 'old soldiers' in service away from court. The king had an elite bodyguard called the truste . Members of the truste often served in centannae , garrison settlements that were established for military and police purposes. The day-to-day bodyguard of

8296-482: 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. In 735, Duke Odo of Aquitaine died. Though Charles wished to rule the duchy directly and went there to elicit the submission of the Aquitanians, the aristocracy proclaimed Odo's son, Hunald I of Aquitaine , as duke, and Charles and Hunald eventually recognised each other's position. In 737, at

8418-421: The east bank of the Rhine. Gregory of Tours (Book II) reported that small Frankish kingdoms existed during the fifth century around Cologne , Tournai , Cambrai and elsewhere. The kingdom of the Merovingians eventually came to dominate the others, possibly because of its association with Roman power structures in northern Gaul, into which the Frankish military forces were apparently integrated to some extent. In

8540-424: The eighteenth century, historians such as Edward Gibbon had begun to portray the Frankish leader as the saviour of Christian Europe from a full-scale Islamic invasion. In the nineteenth century, the German historian Heinrich Brunner argued that Charles had confiscated church lands in order to fund military reforms that allowed him to defeat the Arab conquests, in this way brilliantly combining two traditions about

8662-448: The emperors of the Western Roman Empire . As such, the Carolingian Empire gradually came to be seen in the West as a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire. This empire would give rise to several successor states, including France, the Holy Roman Empire and Burgundy , though the Frankish identity remained most closely identified with France. After the death of Charlemagne , his only adult surviving son became Emperor and King Louis

8784-540: The enemy's unpreparedness, this was not necessary. In any event, the suddenness of the assault led them to believe they were facing a much larger host. Many of the enemy fled and Charles's troops gathered the spoils of the camp. His reputation increased considerably as a result, and he attracted more followers. This battle is often considered by historians as the turning point in Charles's struggle. Richard Gerberding points out that up to this time, much of Charles's support

8906-682: 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 al-Rahman been victorious at Tours-Poitiers in 732." And in 1993,

9028-574: The first king of the Carolingian dynasty . Pepin's son Charlemagne , grandson of Charles, extended the Frankish realms and became the first emperor in the West since the Fall of the Western Roman Empire . Charles, nicknamed "Martel" ("the Hammer") in later chronicles, was a son of Pepin of Herstal and his mistress, possible second wife, Alpaida . He had a brother named Childebrand , who later became

9150-405: The first time. It seems likely that the term Frank in this first period had a broader meaning, sometimes including coastal Frisii . The Life of Aurelian , which was possibly written by Vopiscus, mentions that in 328, Frankish raiders were captured by the 6th Legion stationed at Mainz . As a result of this incident, 700 Franks were killed and 300 were sold into slavery. Frankish incursions over

9272-454: The first years of the reign. In 731, after defeating the Saxons, Charles turned his attention to the rival southern realm of Aquitaine, and crossed the Loire, breaking the treaty with Duke Odo. The Franks ransacked Aquitaine twice, and captured Bourges , although Odo retook it. The Continuations of Fredegar allege that Odo called on assistance from the recently established emirate of al-Andalus, but there had been Arab raids into Aquitaine from

9394-455: The hills of the Eifel to gather and train men. In April 716, he fell upon the triumphant army near Malmedy as it was returning to Neustria. In the ensuing Battle of Amblève , Charles 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

9516-505: The holy town of Gaul. In October 732—just 100 years after the death of Mahomet —Charles gained a brilliant victory over Abdur Rahman , who was called back to Africa by revolts of the Berbers and had to give up the struggle. ...After his victory, Charles took the offensive". Similarly, William E. Watson , who wrote of the battle's importance in Frankish and world history in 1993, suggested that "Had Charles Martel suffered at Tours-Poitiers

9638-431: The influential political scientist Samuel Huntington saw the battle of Tours as marking the end of the "Arab and Moorish surge west and north". Other recent historians, however, argue that the importance of the battle is dramatically overstated, both for European history in general and for Charles's reign in particular. This view is typified by Alessandro Barbero , who in 2004 wrote, "Today, historians tend to play down

9760-448: The king was made up of antrustiones (senior soldiers who were aristocrats in military service) and pueri (junior soldiers and not aristocrats). All high-ranking men had pueri . The Frankish military was not composed solely of Franks and Gallo-Romans, but also contained Saxons , Alans , Taifals and Alemanni . After the conquest of Burgundy (534), the well-organised military institutions of that kingdom were integrated into

9882-418: The leadership of Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi headed north, and after some minor engagements marched on the wealthy city of Tours. According to British medieval historian Paul Fouracre , "Their campaign should perhaps be interpreted as a long-distance raid rather than the beginning of a war". They were, however, defeated by the army of Charles at the Battle of Tours (known in France as the Battle of Poitiers), at

10004-475: The leadership of Maurontus . Charles used the relative peace to 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,

10126-580: The less Romanised regions of Gaul. On an intermediate level, the kings began calling up territorial levies from the regions of Austrasia (which did not have major cities of Roman origin). All the forms of the levy gradually disappeared, however, in the course of the 7th century after the reign of Dagobert I . Under the so-called rois fainéants , the levies disappeared by mid-century in Austrasia and later in Burgundy and Neustria. Only in Aquitaine, which

10248-559: The men. His contemporary, Agathias, who based his own writings upon the tropes laid down by Procopius, says: The military equipment of this people [the Franks] is very simple ... They do not know the use of the coat of mail or greaves and the majority leave the head uncovered, only a few wear the helmet. They have their chests bare and backs naked to the loins, they cover their thighs with either leather or linen. They do not serve on horseback except in very rare cases. Fighting on foot

10370-419: The more general levies were composed of pauperes and inferiores , who were mostly farmers by trade and carried ineffective weapons, such as farming implements. The peoples east of the Rhine  – Franks, Saxons and even Wends  – who were sometimes called upon to serve, wore rudimentary armour and carried weapons such as spears and axes . Few of these men were mounted. Merovingian society had

10492-580: The murder of his son Grimoald the Younger , he had taken the advice of his wife Plectrude to designate as his sole heir Theudoald , his grandson by their deceased son Grimoald . This was immediately opposed by the Austrasian 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

10614-471: The name of Franks (meaning "fierce"). A decade later the Romans killed Priam and drove away Marcomer and Sunno , the sons of Priam and Antenor, and the other Franks. The most important contemporary sources mentioning the early Franks include the Panegyrici Latini , Ammianus Marcellinus , Claudian , Zosimus , Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours . The Franks are first mentioned in

10736-412: The only ones armed with spears, while all the rest were foot soldiers having neither bows nor spears, but each man carried a sword and shield and one axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides, while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at a signal in the first charge and thus to shatter the shields of the enemy and kill

10858-409: The only people in the world who are not cowards. While the above quotations have been used as a statement of the military practices of the Frankish nation in the 6th century and have even been extrapolated to the entire period preceding Charles Martel 's reforms (early mid-8th century), post-Second World War historiography has emphasised the inherited Roman characteristics of the Frankish military from

10980-432: The period. Despite his victory, Charles did not gain full control of Aquitaine, and Odo remained duke until 735. 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

11102-475: The perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch , New Zealand, in 2019. The memory of Charles is a topic of debate in contemporary French politics on both the right and the left. In the seventeenth century, a legend emerged that Charles had formed the first regular order of knights in France. In 1620, Andre Favyn stated (without providing

11224-554: The political alliances of his family, the leading families of Francia shared the same basic beliefs and ideas of government, which had both Roman and Germanic roots. The Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. With the coronation of their ruler Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, he and his successors were recognised as legitimate successors to

11346-570: The political centre of gravity in the kingdom gradually shifted eastwards to the Rhineland. The Frankish realm was reunited in 613 by Chlothar II , the son of Chilperic, who granted his nobles the Edict of Paris in an effort to reduce corruption and reassert his authority. Following the military successes of his son and successor Dagobert I , royal authority rapidly declined under a series of kings, traditionally known as les rois fainéants . After

11468-481: The region for about a decade before they were subdued and expelled by the Romans. In 287 or 288, the Roman Caesar Maximian forced a Frankish leader Genobaud and his people to surrender without a fight. In 288, the emperor Maximian defeated the Salian Franks , Chamavi , Frisii and other Germanic people living along the Rhine and moved them to Germania inferior to provide manpower and prevent

11590-498: The reigns of the brothers Sigebert I and Chilperic I , which was largely fuelled by the rivalry of their queens, Brunhilda and Fredegunda , and which continued during the reigns of their sons and their grandsons. Three distinct subkingdoms emerged: Austrasia , Neustria and Burgundy, each of which developed independently and sought to exert influence over the others. The influence of the Arnulfing clan of Austrasia ensured that

11712-431: The ruler. However, Fouracre argued that "...there is not enough evidence to show that there was a decisive change either in the way in which the Franks fought, or in the way in which they organised the resources needed to support their warriors." Many twentieth-century European historians continued to develop Gibbon's perspectives, such as French medievalist Christian Pfister , who wrote in 1911 that "Besides establishing

11834-406: 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. In 739, Pope Gregory III begged Charles for his aid against Liutprand , but Charles was loath to fight his onetime ally and ignored the plea. Nonetheless, the pope's request for Frankish protection showed how far Charles had come from

11956-626: The scene by the 8th century. Merovingian armies used coats of mail , helmets, shields , lances , swords , bows and arrows and war horses . The armament of private armies resembled those of the Gallo-Roman potentiatores of the late Empire. A strong element of Alanic cavalry settled in Armorica influenced the fighting style of the Bretons down into the 12th century. Local urban levies could be reasonably well-armed and even mounted, but

12078-413: The settlement of other Germanic tribes. In 292, Constantius , the father of Constantine I defeated the Franks who had settled at the mouth of the Rhine. These were moved to the nearby region of Toxandria . Eumenius mentions Constantius as having "killed, expelled, captured [and] kidnapped" the Franks who had settled there and others who had crossed the Rhine, using the term nationes Franciae for

12200-476: 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, in 2002 Tomaž Mastnak wrote: "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

12322-609: The sixth century a fairly recent creation, a coalition of Rhenish tribal groups who long maintained separate identities and institutions." The other work, the Liber Historiae Francorum , previously known as Gesta regum Francorum before its republication in 1888 by Bruno Krusch, described how 12,000 Trojans, led by Priam and Antenor , sailed from Troy to the River Don in Russia and on to Pannonia , which

12444-422: The still-pagan trans-Rhenish stem duchies on the orders of a monarch. The Saxons , Alemanni and Thuringii all had the institution of the levy and the Frankish monarchs could depend upon their levies until the mid-7th century, when the stem dukes began to sever their ties to the monarchy. Radulf of Thuringia called up the levy for a war against Sigebert III in 640. Soon the local levy spread to Austrasia and

12566-545: The stretch of the Rhine from roughly Mainz to Duisburg , the region of the city of Cologne , are often considered separately from the Salians, and sometimes in modern texts referred to as Ripuarian Franks. The Ravenna Cosmography suggests that Francia Renensis included the old civitas of the Ubii , in Germania II ( Germania Inferior ), but also the northern part of Germania I (Germania Superior), including Mainz . Like

12688-567: The tail end of his campaigning in Provence and Septimania , the Merovingian 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. The interregnum, the final four years of Charles' life, was relatively peaceful although in 738 he compelled the Saxons of Westphalia to submit and pay tribute and in 739 he checked an uprising in Provence where some rebels united under

12810-422: The throne from 721 to 737. Charles was now appointing the kings whom he supposedly served ( rois fainéants ). By the end of his reign, he didn't appoint any at all. At this time, Charles again marched against the Saxons. Then the Neustrians rebelled under Raganfrid, who had left the county of Anjou. They were easily defeated in 724 but Raganfrid gave up his sons as hostages in turn for keeping his county. This ended

12932-557: The use of siege engines . In wars waged against external foes, the objective was typically the acquisition of booty or the enforcement of tribute. Only in the lands beyond the Rhine did the Merovingians seek to extend political control over their neighbours. Chilperic II Chilperic II (c. 672 – 13 February 721) was King of the Franks from 715 until his death. He was a son of Childeric II and his half-cousin wife, Bilichild , both of whom were assassinated, along with their eldest son Dagobert, in 675. Still an infant, Chilperic

13054-468: The way to there, and this became the Frankish kingdom of Neustria , the basis of what would become medieval France. Childeric's son Clovis I also took control of the more independent Frankish kingdoms east of the Silva Carbonaria and Belgica II. This later became the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia , where the early legal code was referred to as "Ripuarian". The Rhineland Franks who lived near

13176-532: The western kingdom founded by them outside the original area of Frankish settlement. In the 5th century, Franks under Chlodio pushed into Roman lands in and beyond the " Silva Carbonaria " or "Charcoal forest", which ran through the area of modern western Wallonia . The forest was the boundary of the original Salian territories to the north and the more Romanized area to the south in the Roman province of Belgica Secunda , which now lies in northern France. Chlodio conquered Tournai , Artois , Cambrai , and as far as

13298-470: The works of Virgil and Hieronymus : Blessed Jerome has written about the ancient kings of the Franks, whose story was first told by the poet Virgil: their first king was Priam and, after Troy was captured by trickery, they departed. Afterwards they had as king Friga, then they split into two parts, the first going into Macedonia, the second group, which left Asia with Friga were called the Frigii, settled on

13420-429: Was by building upon the basis of this Merovingian empire that the subsequent dynasty, the Carolingians , eventually came to be seen as the new emperors of Western Europe in 800, when Charlemagne was crowned by the pope. In 870 , the Frankish realm came to be permanently divided between western and eastern kingdoms, which were the predecessors of the later Kingdom of France and Holy Roman Empire respectively. It

13542-597: Was called the Lex Ribuaria , but it probably applied in all the older Frankish lands, including the original Salian areas. Jordanes , in his Getica mentions a group called the "Riparii" as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius during the Battle of Châlons in 451, and distinct from the "Franci": "Hi enim affuerunt auxiliares: Franci, Sarmatae, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundiones, Saxones, Riparii, Olibriones  ..." But these Riparii ("river dwellers") are today not considered to be Ripuarian Franks, but rather

13664-527: Was defeated and fled back to Cologne. Before the end of the year, Charles 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. In 716, Chilperic and Raganfrid together led an army into Austrasia intent on seizing the Pippinid wealth at Cologne. The Neustrians allied with another invading force under Redbad, King of

13786-524: Was fast becoming independent of the central Frankish monarchy, did complex military institutions persist into the 8th century. In the final half of the 7th century and first half of the 8th in Merovingian Gaul, the chief military actors became the lay and ecclesiastical magnates with their bands of armed followers called retainers. The other aspects of the Merovingian military, mostly Roman in origin or innovations of powerful kings, disappeared from

13908-462: Was his own man: both a fighter and a leader, always at the forefront in battle at the head of his troops. In 716, he and Ragenfrid together led an army into Austrasia , then being warred over by Plectrude , on behalf of her grandson Theudoald, and Charles Martel , the son of Pepin of Heristal. The Neustrians allied with another invading force under Radbod, King of the Frisians , and met Charles in battle near Cologne , then held by Plectrude. Chilperic

14030-825: Was in 289. [...] The Chamavi were mentioned as a Frankish people as early as 289, the Bructeri from 307, the Chattuarri from 306 to 315, the Salii or Salians from 357, and the Amsivarii and Tubantes from c. 364 to 375. The Franks were described in Roman texts both as allies ( laeti ) and enemies ( dediticii ). About the year 260, during the Crisis of the Third Century , one group of Franks penetrated as far as Tarragona in present-day Spain, where they plagued

14152-546: Was intended to be her capital. This prevented an uprising on his behalf in Austrasia , but not in Neustria . 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 Raganfrid mayor of the palace . On 26 September 715, Raganfrid's Neustrians met the young Theudoald's forces at the Battle of Compiègne . Theudoald

14274-557: Was more likely the sister of Rotrude. Auda married Theoderic, Count of Autun . Charles also married a second time, to Swanhild and they had a child named Grifo . With Ruodhaid , with whom he had: For early medieval authors, Charles was famous for his military victories. Paul the Deacon for instance attributed a victory against the Saracens actually won by Odo of Aquitaine to Charles. However, alongside this there soon developed

14396-674: 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 Raganfrid, 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

14518-403: Was required. Charles divided his realm among his sons without opposition (though he ignored his young son Bernard ). For many historians, Charles laid the foundations for his son Pepin's rise to the Frankish throne in 751, and his grandson Charlemagne's imperial acclamation in 800. However, for Paul Fouracre, while Charles was "the most effective military leader in Francia", his career "finished on

14640-511: Was spirited to a monastery to protect his life from the internecine feuding of his family. There, he was raised as Daniel until the death of Dagobert III in 715, when he was taken from the monastery – at the age of forty-three – and raised on the shield of the Neustrian warriors as king. It appears he was supposed to be but a tool in the hands of Ragenfrid , mayor of the palace of Neustria , acclaimed in 714 in opposition to Theudoald , Pepin of Heristal 's designated heir. Chilperic, however,

14762-605: Was the inhabitants of western kingdom who eventually came to be known as "the French " ( French : Les Français , German : Die Franzosen , Dutch : De Fransen , etc.) and this kingdom is the forerunner of the nation state of France. However, in various historical contexts, such as during the medieval crusades, not only the French, but also people from neighbouring regions in Western Europe , continued to be referred to collectively as Franks. The crusaders in particular had

14884-451: Was victorious and Charles fled to the mountains of the Eifel . The king and his mayor then turned to besiege their other rival in the city. Plectrude acknowledged Chilperic as king, gave over the Austrasian treasury, and abandoned her grandson's claim to the mayoralty. At this juncture, events took a turn against Chilperic. As he and Ragenfrid were leading their triumphant soldiers back to Neustria, Charles ambushed them near Malmedy and in

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