麻豆APP

A Statue Charles Martel. Photo by Arnaud 25.

Top 10 Amazing Facts About Charles Martel

Charles Martel 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 Francia from 718 until his death.

He was also known as “The Hammer”, and he successfully asserted his claims to power.

As successor to his father, he had the power behind the throne in Frankish politics.

He continued to build his father鈥檚 work, thus restoring centralized government in Francia.

He also began series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul.

Below as some of the most amazing facts about the man who repelled the moors in Spain and defined the current day France

1.Born To A Frankish Statesman

He was born in 23^rd august c. 688, Herstal, Belgium, by then was known as Austrasia.

Charles was the illegitimate son of Pippin II of Herstal, the mayor of the palace of Austrasia and Alpaida, Pepin’s mistress and a noblewoman.

His brother Childebrand, was a Frankish dux, (duke) of Burgundy.

2.He Was Polygamous

He married Rotrude as his first wife from 718 to 741.

 They had a son Pepin the Short, King of the Franks, and therefore they were grandparents of Charlemagne.

Rotrude is believed to be the daughter of Lambert, Count of Hesbaye, and she died in724

In the 720s he married Swanachild of Agilolfing clan and after an initial conflict, Martel established amicable relations with Bavaria.

With Martel she had one child, Grifo, whom he did not receive any inheritance after his father鈥檚 death.

With the help of her uncle Odila of Bavaria, she attempted to help her son gain a portion of Martel鈥檚 inheritance, but she failed.

3.He Was Imprisoned by Plectrude

Both Charles and Plectrude faced rebellion throughout the Frankish kingdom when Pippin鈥檚 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 Ambl猫ve near Li猫ge in 716 and at Vincy near Cambrai in 717

4.He Fought For The Position of Mayor of The Palace

His success made resistance by Plectrude and the Australians useless, and they submitted.

In 719 Charles defeated Ragenfrid at Soissons and forced him to retreat to Angers. From that point on Charles alone governed the Franks as mayor.

Assured of Austrasia in 724 he  attacked  and subdeued Neustria itself 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 later 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.

Even after these expeditions, the Saxons in particular continued to raid Charles鈥檚 territory whenever the opportunity presented itself.

5.He Consolidated Power and the Battle For Tours

Charles relied heavily on armed freemen to serve as the foundation of his military, but the increasing pace of offensive operations compelled him to create for his army a strong cavalry element composed of landed professional fighting men.

The stirrup was not yet in use among Frankish horsemen, so Charles鈥檚 equestrian force would not have resembled the true heavy shock cavalry of the later Middle Ages, but the expense of arms and armour was nevertheless significant.

To finance this costly enterprise, he sold some of the ecclesiastical mostly in Burgundy.

6.He Strengthened his Power by Reorganizing the Kingdom of Burgundy

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.

In 734, he was forced by Duke of the Frisians to invade independent-minded Frisia.

In the same year, he slew the duke at the Battle of the Boarn and ordered the Frisian pagan shrines destroyed, and that region remained peaceful for twenty years after.

7.He Erected Four Dioceses in Bavaria

Charles used the relative peace to set about integrating the outlying realms of his empire into the Frankish church. The  four dioceses in Bavaria were,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 was under his protection from 723 on,  he could neither administer his church, defend his clergy nor prevent idolatry.

8.He Helped Pope Gregory Against Liutprand

In 739, Pope Gregory III begged Charles for his aid against Liutprand, but Charles 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 the days when he was tottering on excommunication. He set the stage for his son and grandson to assert themselves in the peninsula.

9.He Ruled as Lord of War Until his Death

In 732, south of Frankia was invaded and crushed by a marauding Islamic army commanded by Abd al-Rahman al-Gafiqi.

Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, asked for assistance from Martel, who gathered and trained an army before meeting Al-Rahman鈥檚 larger force at Tours in modern-day France.

Martel won an astonishing victory by killing Al-Rahman

The Muslim advance into northern Europe was halted forever and Christendom was saved.

In 736, Arab invasions was the most serious being a fleet of ships commanded by Al-Rahman鈥檚 son landed in the south of modern France.

Martel was once again equal to the task of crushing these invaders however, and not only defeating the invading army, he also managed to reconquer important cities such as Arles and Avignon from Islamic rule.

Martel鈥檚 army defeated the Arabs again and again until their final destruction at the battle of the river Berre in 737.

As Charles was finishing off the Muslim armies in 737 his King, Theuderic or Thierry IV died.

Bored of this charade, Martel did not bother to crown another and ruled as a 鈥渄ux鈥� or Lord of War until his death.

10.He Had A Peaceful Death

The last few years of Charles鈥� life were more peaceful as he pondered his legacy and who would rule in his stead. Dividing his vast realms between his sons in 740, Martel enjoyed one quieter year of life before dying peacefully on the 22nd October 741.

Though he came from a little-known age, few men could claim to have influenced history more. By throwing back Islam and creating a strong Frankish Empire, Martel did more than any other man to drive Europe into a new age of dominance.

His revolutionary heavy-cavalry tactics would define warfare for hundreds of years to follow as knights lead thunderous charges across Europe and beyond.

The dynasty he founded for his sons would rule as Kings, included Charlemagne, a man who would complete what the Hammer had started.

He was buried at the Basilica of Saint-Denis, a medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis.