Charles

Charles, surnamed Martel ('the Hammer'), was the natural son of Pepin of Heristal, mayor of the palace under the last Merovingian kings, and was born about 688. After his father's death in 714, he was chosen as their duke by the Austrasian Franks, and at the close of a struggle with the Neustrian Franks became in 720 undisputed mayor of the palace and real ruler of the Franks, the titular kings being mere puppets in his hands. He had much hard fighting with the Saxons and other stubborn Teutonic races, as the Alemanni and Bavarians, but his great service to Christendom and to civilisation was that he rolled back the surging tide of Moslem conquest. The Saracens had already taken Bordeaux, overrun the duchy of Aquitania, and advanced to the Loire, when Charles met them between Tours and Poitiers (732), and after a desperate battle, in which their leader, Abd-nr-Rahmân, fell, completely defeated them. This was one of the most important victories in the world's history, and saved western civilisation from hopeless retrogression and ruin. 'But for it,' says Gibbon, 'perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.' Charles finished his work by defeating the Saracens again in 737, when they had advanced in the Burgundian territories as far as Lyons, and by driving them out of Languedoc. He died on 22d October 741 at Quiercy on the Oise, in the midst of his victories, his projects, and his greatness, leaving the government of the kingdom to be divided between his two sons—Carloman and Pepin the Short.