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Revision as of 17:13, 17 July 2002 by Ktsquare (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Charles Martel (b. ca 688- d. October 22 741) was Mayor of the Palace of the kingdom of the Franks.
Martel is best remembered for winning the Battle of Tours, which has been romanticized as the salvation of Europe from the Arab menace. Although it took another two generations for the Franks to drive all the Arab garrisons out of what is now France and across the Pyrenees, Martel's Frankish army defeated an Arab army of invasion on French soil, and stopped the invasions that had already conquered most of the Iberian peninsula and much of southern France. Martel's victory turned the tide of Islamic advance, and the unification of the Frankish kingdom under Charles Martel, his son Pepin the short, and his grandson Charlemagne successfully prevented the Ummayad kingdom from expanding over the Pyrenees.
Charles Martel (Martel means "the Hammer") was the son of Pepin II, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, and his concubine Alpaida. On the death of Pepin in 714, the succession was passed to an infant grandson, Theodoald. The faction of Austrasian nobles who supported that grandson were led by his stepmother, Pepin's widow, Plectrude. Charles, who was already an adult, led a rival faction and prevailed in a series of battles against both invading Neustrian Franks and the forces of Plectrude. Between 718 and 723, Charles secured his power through a series of victories and by winning the loyalty of several important clerics. This he accomplished in no little way by donating lands and money for the foundations of abbeys such as Echternach.
In the subsequent decade, Charles led the Frankish army against the eastern duchies, Bavaria and Alamania, and the southern duchies, Aquitaine and Provence. He dealt with the ongoing conflict with the 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.