Charles Martel (Charles "the Hammer", or Karl Martell in German) (August 23, 676 – October 22, 741) was born in Herstal, in what is now Wallonia, Belgium, the illegitimate son of Pippin the Middle (635 or 640-December 16, 714) and his concubine Alpaida or Chalpaida.

Although he was Mayor of the Palace of the three kingdoms of the Franks, Martel is best remembered for winning the Battle of Tours in 732, which has traditionally been characterized as saving Europe from the Emirate of Cordoba's expansion beyond the Iberian Peninsula. Martel's Frankish army defeated an Arab army, which had crushed all resistance before it. The Cordoban Emirate had previously invaded Gaul and had been stopped in its northward sweep at the Battle of Toulouse (721). The hero of that less celebrated event had been duke Odo of Aquitaine, who was not the progenitor of a race of kings and patrons of chroniclers, however.

In the interim, the arrival of a new emir to Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, who brought with him a huge force of Arabs and Berber horsemen, triggered a far greater invasion. Odo, hero of Toulouse, was badly defeated in the Moslem invasion of 732 at the Battle of the River Garonne, where the western chroniclers stated, "God alone knows the number of the slain," and fled to Charles, seeking help. Thus, Odo faded into history, and Charles marched into it.

The Battle of Tours earned Charles the cognomen "Martel", for the merciless way he hammered his enemies. Many historians, including the great military historian Sir Edward Creasy, believe that had he failed at Tours, Islam would probably have overrun Gaul, and perhaps the remainder of Catholic Europe. Other reputable historians that echo Creasy's belief that this battle was central to the halt of Islamic expansion into Europe include William Watson, and Edward Gibbon believed the fate of Christianity hinged on this battle.

The Battle of Tours probably took place somewhere between Tours and Poitiers. The Frankish army, under Charles Martel, consisted of veteran infantry, somewhere between 15,000 and 75,000 men. Responding to the Moslem invasion, the Franks had avoided the old Roman roads, hoping to take the invaders by surprise. From the Moslem accounts of the battle, the Moslems were indeed taken by surprise to find a large force opposing their expected sack of Tours, and they waited for six days, scouting the enemy.

On the seventh day, the Moslem army, consisting of between 60,000-400,000 horsemen and led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, attacked. During the battle, the Franks defeated the Islamic army and the emir was killed. While Western accounts are sketchy, Arab accounts are fairly detailed that the Franks formed a large square and fought a brilliant defensive battle. Rahman had doubts before the battle that his men were ready for such a struggle, and should have had them abandon the loot which hindered them, but instead decided to trust his horsemen, who had never failed him. Indeed, it was thought impossible for infantry of that age to withstand armoured mounted warriors.

Martel managed to inspire his men to stand firm against a force which must have seemed invincible to them, huge mailed horsemen, who in addition probably badly outnumbered the Franks. But Rahman's death led to bickering between the surviving generals, and the Arabs abandoned the battlefield the day after his death, leaving Martel a unique place in history as the savior of Europe, and the only man to ever manage such a victory between such disparate forces. Martel's Franks, virtually all infantry without armour, managed to withstand mailed horsemen, without the aid of bows or firearms, a feat of arms unheard of in medieval history.

Although it took another two generations for the Franks to drive all the Arab garrisons out of Septimania and across the Pyrenees, Charles Martel's halt of the invasion of French soil turned the tide of Islamic advances, and the unification of the Frankish kingdoms under Martel, his son Pippin the Younger, and his grandson Charlemagne prevented the Emirate of Cordoba from expanding over the Pyrenees.

On Pippin the Middle's death in 714, the succession passed to an infant grandson, Theodoald. The faction of Austrasian nobles who supported Theodoald was led by his stepmother, Pippin'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, both bishops and abbots. This he accomplished in part 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 Alemannia, and the southern duchies, Aquitaine and Provence (in Avignon, Nîmes, Montfrin (736). He dealt with the ongoing conflict with the Frisians and 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. But probably most importantly, instead of concentrating on conquest to his east, he prepared for the storm gathering in the west. Well aware of the danger posed by the Moslems after the Battle of Toulouse, in 721, he used the intervening years to consolidate his power, and gather and train a veteran army that would stand ready to defend Christianity itself at Tours.

Moreever, after his victory at Tours, Martel continued on in campaigns in 736-7 to drive other Moslem armies from bases in Gaul after they again attempted to get a foothold in Europe beyond Al-Andalus. The defeats Martel inflicted on the Muslims were absolutely vital in that the split in the Islamic world left the Caliphate unable to mount an all out attack on Europe via its Iberian stronghold after 750. The struggle between the Umayyads, and the Abbasids, which came to a head during this period, (from the defeat of the Moslems at Tours in 732 to the fall of the Umayyads in 750 -- except in Al-Andulus) -- left the Arabs unable to mount another massive invasion before they lost the base they needed to do it from. The door to Europe, the Iberian Emirate, was in the hands of the Umayyads, while most of the remainder of the Moslem world came under the control of the Abbasids, making an invasion of Europe a logistical impossibility while the two Moslem empires battled.

There was no unified Caliphate to mount an invasion, and no foothold to launch such an invasion from, instead, Al-Andalus, the Umayyad Emirate was busy fighting off challanges from the Abbasids in Bagdad to think of invading Europe, and the Abbasids, needed the foothold in Iberia which they lacked, could not think of expansion into Europe. Simply put, there was no militarily easy route for an invasion of Europe. It would be centuries later, during the Ottoman Empire, that Islam again threatened Europe -- and they did so by way of the Balkans. It is vital to note that Martel's victories at Tours, and his later campaigns, prevented invasion of Europe while the unified Caliphate was able to do so. In doing so, Martel probably preserved Christianity and Western civilization as we know it. Gibbons called him "the paramount prince of his age." A strong argument can be made that Gibbons was correct.

Charles Martel died at Quierzy in what is today the Aisne department in the Picardy region of France. He was buried at Saint Denis Basilica in Paris. His territories were divided among his sons, Carloman, Pippin the Younger, and Grifo. A true Hero of Western Christian Civilization.

30 Dec 2005