In the United States, a group called the Charles Martel Society funds the publication of a pseudo-intellectual and deeply racist journal, The Occidental Quarterly. Most modern historians are skeptical of the notion that the battle of Poitiers constituted such a watershed moment.
While the defeat of the Andalusian army by a Western European force was certainly significant, it was not unprecedented. Only a few years prior, Odo of Aquitaine crushed another Muslim army outside Toulouse, but this battle never acquired the same mythological symbolism of the battle of Poitiers.
Indeed, we are told that the prime target of this raid was a wealthy religious sanctuary located at Saint Martin de Tours and filled with gold and precious fabrics. Hugh Kennedy has noted that the defeat seems to have had little resonance in the wider Arabo-Muslim world, and he views it as one symptom of many that marked the steady decline of the Syrian-based Umayyad Caliphate.
In the wake of his victory, Charles Martel chose not to press his advantage by invading the Iberian peninsula. It would be reductive to present the battle of Poitiers as the military manifestation of some age-old existential struggle between Christendom and Islam.
The Christianity of 8th-century France had yet to acquire the doctrinal rigidity of the later Middle Ages, and co-existed with or incorporated more rustic forms of faith and religious practice. As one detailed study of the Carolingian world stated:. Many might further have accepted that public profession of this belief should be made through the initiation ritual of baptism.
Beyond that, though, all was variety. Holy writ—the Bible—was by no means universally known, and there were in any case numerous interpretations of it. In short, there was not one Christianity, but many Christianities, not one Church, but many churches. Religious differences could cut across tribes, kingdoms, and ethnicities. For example, along the Pyrenees resided the fiercely independent Basques, some of whom were Muslim, some of whom were Christian, and a portion of whom practiced more ancient forms of belief.
This historical gaffe provides yet another indication of our tendency to overlook the rich tapestry of political and religious actors in early medieval Europe in favor of more binary models. Indeed, it is often forgotten that weaker European polities did not hesitate to ally with Muslim rulers against more powerful Christian kingdoms. This was the case in Provence, where local rulers frequently formed temporary partnerships with Moorish war chiefs in an unsuccessful attempt to counterbalance northern Frankish military might.
One of the best-known and most tragic cases of cross-cultural alliance formation occurred in , when Odo of Aquitaine sought to establish a buffer zone across the Pyrenees by marrying off his beautiful daughter to a rebellious Berber leader, Munnuza.
The latter subsequently adopted a policy of passive neutrality, refusing to conduct raids into Aquitaine and Southern Gaul. Following a bloody siege of his fortress, the Berber warlord was summarily executed by his vengeful Arab overseer.
Last but not least, it would be simplistic to view Charles Martel as a saintly champion of Christendom. Marching hard down the Via Domitia, the Franks covered the 10 miles to the River Berre in a half day, encamping for the night near an old Visigoth palace. Rising early the next morning as the sun burned off the morning mist, they filtered out of camp and assumed their traditional battle formation—an even line, infantry to the front, with archers and horsemen behind.
The infantrymen stood close together, their 3-foot-wide, half-inch-thick round shields overlapping and their deadly 8-foot iron-tipped spears angled forward. The average Frankish infantryman was a part-time soldier, called out for spring and summer campaigning before returning to his farm for the harvest.
He wore an iron helmet but generally could not afford a chain mail shirt or a sword and scabbard. Some 15 to 20 percent of the Frankish force comprised archers, armed with simple European self bows with a range of about yards. The archers stood to the rear of the infantry, while the leudes—who acted as flank guards and messengers for Charles and the others—formed up just behind the bowmen.
The mounted men were equipped with spears, swords and bows as well as shields, helmets and chain mail armor. Trained to quickly dismount and fight on foot in a pinch, they could serve as a reserve to close gaps in the infantry line or reinforce the archers. Though surprised by the sudden appearance of their enemy, the Moors had likely already assumed their traditional five-part battle formation—a vanguard, with two equal-sized units slightly to the rear, and light and heavy cavalry, infantry and archers to the left and right of the van.
In the center, protected by cavalry, were ibn-Chaled and his messengers. Directly to their rear, a small infantry and archer reserve stood ready to plug any breech. At about yards, the maximum range of their recurve bows, the Moorish archers unleashed an arrow storm at the Franks. At that point the Moorish light cavalry—Berbers on mountain ponies—galloped to within yards of the Frankish line, hurled javelins and rode quickly away, hoping to lure the Christians out of formation.
Sheltering behind yard-wide shields, its well-trained horsemen wielded yard-long swords and 9-foot lances. Their saddles were fitted with stout iron stirrups that enabled a rider to stand and stab downward with devastating force. On this occasion, though, that ability proved useless, as the Arabians largely shied away from the rows of Frankish infantry spears. Nor did their heavy swords make much of an impact on the shield wall. Meanwhile, the Franks stabbed back with spear and sword, aiming their blows at the unarmored flanks and legs of the horses and unprotected legs of the cavalrymen.
As the Moorish cavalry bounced off the compact Frankish infantry formation, Muslim foot soldiers moved forward. Each bore a foot spear known as a rumh, which they held with both hands. Unable to hold a shield as they advanced, the lightly armored Muslims proved easy targets for Frankish archers.
When the Moors dropped their spears to bring shields and swords into play, they opened themselves to attack by Frankish spearmen. As the Moors fell back, the Franks moved forward, their line like a living threshing machine intent on reaping men. Halting to absorb another Moorish charge, it again moved relentlessly forward, the cries of wounded men and screams of injured horses filling the air.
Unable to stop the European juggernaut and jammed into shrinking ground between the Berre, the swamp, the sea and the enemy, ibn-Chaled organized one last desperate charge.
The attempt failed, and he was killed. The survivors broke and fled. Alternatief: Gedoopt op 8-jarige leeftijd of later door het priesterschapsgezag van de LDS-kerk. Beroepen: France in France.
Hij is begraven op 22 oktober in Monastery of St. Denis, Paris, Seine, France. Visualiseer een andere verwantschap Voorouders en nakomelingen van Charles "Martel" the Hammer de France. Deze functionaliteit is alleen beschikbaar voor browsers met Javascript ondersteuning. Klik op de namen voor meer informatie. Bekijk de informatie die Open Archieven heeft over De France.
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Sluit venster. That year he was imprisoned byhis step-mother Plectudis, but escaped later in the year to lead the Austrasian and Neustrian nobles.
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