Charles Martel, The Hammer
688-741
Born: Heristal, Leige, Belgium
Died: Quierzy, Aisne, Picardie, France
688-741
Born: Heristal, Leige, Belgium
Died: Quierzy, Aisne, Picardie, France
<p>Born about 688; died at <!--2ref=u83=12608a.htm-->Quierzy<!--k01--> on the Oise, 21 October, 741. He was the <!--3ref=u44=x84242.htm-->natural<!--k03--> son of <!--2ref=u29=11662b.htm-->Pepin<!--k01--> of <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Herstal<!--k03--> and a woman named <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Alpaïde<!--k03--> or Chalpaïde. <!--3ref=u29=11662b.htm-->Pepin<!--k07-->, who died in 714, had outlived his two <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->legitimate<!--k03--> sons, <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Drogon<!--k03--> and Grimoald, and to <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Theodoald<!--k03-->, a son of the latter and then only six years old, fell the burdensome inheritance of the <!--3ref=u44=x62415.htm-->French<!--k03--> monarchy. <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k03-->, who was then twenty-six, was not excluded from the <!--2ref=u76=01641a.htm-->succession<!--k01--> on account of his birth, <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Theodoald<!--k06--> himself being the son of a concubine, but through the influence of <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Plectrude<!--k03-->, Theodoald's grandmother, who wished the power invested in her own descendants exclusively. To prevent any opposition from <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> she had him cast into prison and, having established herself at Cologne, <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->assumed<!--k03--> the <!--2ref=u68=07051a.htm-->guardianship<!--k01--> of her grandson. But the different nations whom the strong hand of <!--3ref=u29=11662b.htm-->Pepin<!--k07--> of <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Herstal<!--k06--> had held in subjections, shook off the yoke of oppression as soon as they saw that it was with a woman they had to deal. Neustria gave the signal for revolt (715), <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Theodoald<!--k06--> was beaten in the forest of Cuise and, led by <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Raginfrid<!--k03-->, mayor of the palace, the enemy advanced as far as the Meuse. The Frisians flew to arms and, headed by their duke, <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Ratbod<!--k03-->, destroyed the Christian mission and entered into a confederacy with the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Neustrians<!--k03-->. The <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Saxons<!--k03--> came and devastated the country of the Hattuarians, and even in Austrasia there was a <!--2ref=u66=03539b.htm-->certain<!--k01--> faction that chafed under the government of a woman and child. At this juncture <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> escaped from prison and put himself at the head of the national party of Austrasia. At first he was unfortunate. He was defeated by <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Ratbod<!--k06--> near <!--3ref=u44=x57421.htm-->Cologne<!--k03--> in 716, and the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Neustrians<!--k06--> forced <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Plectrude<!--k06--> to acknowledge as king Chilperic, the son of Childeric II, having taken this Merovingian from the <!--2ref=u79=04060a.htm-->seclusion<!--k01--> of the cloister, where he lived the name of <!--2ref=u00=04620a.htm-->Daniel<!--k01-->. But <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> was quick to take revenge. He surprised and conquered the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Neustrians<!--k06--> at Amblève near <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Malmédy<!--k03--> (716), defeated them a second time at Vincy near <!--3ref=u91=03209c.htm-->Cambrai<!--k03--> (21 March, 717), and pursued them as far as Paris. Then retracing his steps, he came to <!--3ref=u44=x57421.htm-->Cologne<!--k04--> and compelled <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Plectrude<!--k06--> to surrender her power and turn over to him the <!--2ref=u73=15571a.htm-->wealth<!--k01--> of his father, <!--3ref=u29=11662b.htm-->Pepin<!--k07-->. In order to give his recently acquired authority a semblance of <!--3ref=u44=x83703.htm-->legitimacy<!--k03-->, he proclaimed the Merovingian Clotaire IV King of Austrasia, reserving for himself the title of Mayor of the Palace. It was about this time that <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> banished <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Rigobert<!--k03-->, the Bishop of Reims, who had opposed him, appointing in his stead the warlike and unpriestly Milon, who was already Archbishop of Trier.<!--BIBLE-SUMMA-FATHERS--><!--k95--></p><p>The ensuing years were full of strife. Eager to chastise the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Saxons<!--k07--> who had invaded Austrasia, <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> in the year 718 laid waste their country to the banks of the Weser. In 719 <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Ratbod<!--k06--> died, and <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> seized Western Friesland without any great resistance on the part of the Frisians, who had taken possession of it on the death of <!--3ref=u29=11662b.htm-->Pepin<!--k02-->. The <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Neustrians<!--k06-->, always a menace, had joined forces with the people of Aquitaine, but <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> hacked their army to pieces at Soissons. After this defeat they realized the <!--2ref=u66=10733a.htm-->necessity<!--k01--> of surrendering, and the death of King Clotaire IV, whom <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> had placed on the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->throne<!--k03--> but two years previously, facilitated reconciliation of the two great fractions of the Frankish <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Empire<!--k03-->. <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> acknowledged Chilperic as head of the entire monarchy, while on their side, the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Neustrians<!--k06--> and <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Aquitainians<!--k03--> endorsed the authority of <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08-->; but, when Chilperic died, the following year (720) <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> appointed as his <!--3ref=u44=x85999.htm-->successor<!--k03--> the son of Dagobert III, <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Thierry<!--k03--> IV, who was still a <!--3ref=u44=x84018.htm-->minor<!--k03-->, and who occupied the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->throne<!--k04--> from 720 to 737. A second expedition against the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Saxons<!--k07--> in 720 and the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->definitive<!--k03--> submission of <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Raginfrid<!--k05-->, who had been left the county of <!--3ref=u44=x52169.htm-->Angers<!--k03--> (724), re-established the Frankish Monarchy as it had been under <!--3ref=u29=11662b.htm-->Pepin<!--k07--> of <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Herstal<!--k06-->, and closed the first series of <!--k23-->Charles Martel's struggles. The next six years were <!--2ref=u64=15459a.htm-->devoted<!--k01--> almost exclusively to the <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->confirming<!--k03--> of the Frankish authority over the dependent Germanic tribes. In 725 and 728 <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> went into Bavaria, where the Agilolfing dukes had gradually rendered themselves independent, and re-established Frankish suzerainty. He also brought thence the Princess Suanehilde, who seems to have become his mistress. In 730 he marched against Lantfrid, <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Duke<!--k03--> of the Alemanna, whom he likewise brought into subjection, and thus Southern Germany once more became part of the Frankish <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Empire<!--k08-->, as had Northern Germany during the first years of the reign. But at the extremity of the empire a dreadful storm was gathering. For several years the Moslems of Spain had been threatening <!--3ref=u44=x62716.htm-->Gaul<!--k03-->. <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Banished<!--k03--> thence in 721 by <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Duke<!--k08--> <!--2ref=u23=05596a.htm-->Eudes<!--k01-->, they had returned in 725 and penetrated as far as Burgundy, where they had destroyed <!--3ref=u91=02144a.htm-->Autun<!--k03-->. <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Duke<!--k08--> <!--3ref=u23=05596a.htm-->Eudes<!--k06-->, unable to resist them, at length contented himself by negotiating with them, and to <!--2ref=u24=11351a.htm-->Othmar<!--k01-->, one of their chiefs, he gave the hand of his daughter But this compromising alliance brought him into disfavour with <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08-->, who defeated him in 731, and the death of <!--3ref=u24=11351a.htm-->Othmar<!--k04--> that same year again left <!--3ref=u23=05596a.htm-->Eudes<!--k06--> at the mercy of Moslem enterprise. In 732 <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Abd-er-Rahman<!--k03-->, Governor of Spain, crossed the Pyrenees at the head of an immense army, overcame <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Duke<!--k08--> <!--3ref=u23=05596a.htm-->Eudes<!--k06-->, and advanced as far as the Loire, pillaging and burning as he went. In October, 732, <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> met <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Abd-er-Rahman<!--k06--> outside of Tours and defeated and slew him in a battle (the <!--2ref=u89=02350c.htm-->Battle<!--k01--> of Poitiers) which must ever remain one of the great events in the <!--3ref=u44=x83178.htm-->history<!--k03--> of the world, as upon its issue depended whether Christian Civilization should continue or Islam prevail throughout Europe. It was this battle, it is said, that gave <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> his name, <em>Martel</em> (<em>Tudites</em>) "The Hammer", because of the merciless way in which he smote the enemy.<!--BIBLE-SUMMA-FATHERS--><!--k94--></p><p>The remainder of <!--k23-->Charles Martel's reign was an uninterrupted series of triumphant combats. In 733-734 he suppressed the rebellion instigated by the Frisian duke, <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Bobo<!--k03-->, who was <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->slain<!--k03--> in battle, and definitively subdued Friesland, which finally <!--3ref=u44=x80408.htm-->adopted<!--k03--> Christianity. In 735, after the death of <!--3ref=u23=05596a.htm-->Eudes<!--k02-->, <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> entered Aquitaine, quelled the revolt of <!--3ref=u44=x63909.htm-->Hatto<!--k03--> and <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Hunold<!--k03-->, sons of the deceased duke, and left the duchy to <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Hunold<!--k06-->, to be held in fief (736). He then banished the Moslems from <!--3ref=u44=x53020.htm-->Arles<!--k03--> and Avignon, defeated their army on the River Berre near <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Narbonne<!--k03-->, and in 739 checked an uprising in Provence, the rebels being under the leadership of Maurontus. So great was <!--2ref=u29=03625a.htm-->Charles'<!--k01--> power during the last years of his reign that he did not take the trouble to appoint a <!--3ref=u44=x85999.htm-->successor<!--k08--> to King <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Thierry<!--k06--> IV, who died in 737, but <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->assumed<!--k07--> full authority himself, governing without <!--3ref=u44=x83688.htm-->legal<!--k03--> <!--2ref=u73=13055c.htm-->right<!--k01-->. About a year before <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> died, Pope Gregory III, threatened by <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Luitprand<!--k03-->, King of Lombardy, asked his help. Now <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> was Luitprand's ally because the latter had promised to assist him in the late war against the Moslems of Provence, and, moreover, the Frankish king may have already suffered from the malady that was to carry him off—two reasons that are surely sufficient to account for the fact that the pope's envoys departed without gaining the object of their errand. However, it would seem that, according to the terms of a public <!--2ref=u73=01115a.htm-->act<!--k01--> published by Charlemagne, <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> had, at least in principle, agreed to defend the Roman Church, and death alone must have prevented him from fulfilling this agreement. The reign, which in the beginning was so full of bloody conflicts and later of such incessant strife, would have been an impossibility had not <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> procured means sufficient to attract and <!--2ref=u73=04185a.htm-->compensate<!--k01--> his partisans. For this purpose he conceived the idea of giving them the usufruct of a great many ecclesiastical lands, and this spoliation is what is referred to as the <!--2ref=u79=13677a.htm-->secularization<!--k01--> by <!--k23-->Charles Martel. It was an expedient that could be excused without, however, being <!--2ref=u76=08573a.htm-->justified<!--k01-->, and it was <!--2ref=u76=01061a.htm-->pardoned<!--k01--> to a certain extent by the amnesty granted at the <!--3ref=u44=x57900.htm-->Council<!--k03--> of <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Lestines<!--k03-->, held under the sons of <!--k23-->Charles Martel in 743. It must also be <!--2ref=u66=10174a.htm-->remembered<!--k01--> that the Church remained the <!--3ref=u44=x83688.htm-->legal<!--k08--> owner of the lands thus alienated. This spoliation and the conferring of the principal ecclesiastical dignities upon those who were either totally unworthy or else had naught but their military qualifications to recommend them—as, for instance, the assignment of the <!--3ref=u44=x82441.htm-->episcopal<!--k03--> <!--3ref=u79=05001a.htm-->Sees<!--k01--> of Reims of Reims and Trier to Milon—were not calculated to <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->endear<!--k03--> <!--k23-->Charles Martel to the clergy of his time. Therefore, in the ninth century Hincmar of Reims related the story of the <!--3ref=u44=x86502.htm-->vision<!--k03--> with which <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->St. Eucher<!--k03--> was said to have been favoured and which showed <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08--> in hell, to which he had been condemned for <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->robbing<!--k03--> the Church of its property.<!--BIBLE-SUMMA-FATHERS--></p><p>But notwithstanding the almost exclusively warlike <!--3ref=u44=x81343.htm-->character<!--k03--> of his reign, <!--k23-->Charles Martel was not <!--2ref=u94=07759a.htm-->indifferent<!--k01--> to the superior interests of civilization and Christianity. Like Napoleon after the French Revolution, upon emerging from the years 715-719, <!--3ref=u44=x56475.htm-->Charles<!--k08-->, who had not only <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->tolerated<!--k03--> but perpetrated many an <!--3ref=u73=01115a.htm-->act<!--k02--> of violence against the Church, set about the establishment of <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->social<!--k03--> order and endeavoured to restore the rights of the Catholic hierarchy. This explains the protection which in 723 he accorded St. Boniface (Winfrid), the great <!--2ref=u74=01626c.htm-->apostle<!--k01--> of Germany, a protection all the more <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->salutary<!--k03--> as the saint himself explained to his old friend, Daniel of Winchester, that without it he could neither administer his <!--3ref=u44=x81429.htm-->church<!--k03-->, defend his clergy, nor prevent idolatry. Hence <!--k23-->Charles Martel shares, to a certain degree, the <!--2ref=u49=06585a.htm-->glory<!--k01--> and <!--2ref=u76=10202b.htm-->merit<!--k01--> of Boniface's great work of civilization. He died after having divided the Frankish <!--3ref=u44=xxyyyk.htm-->Empire<!--k08-->, as a patrimony between his two sons, Carloman and <!--3ref=u29=11662b.htm-->Pepin<!--k02-->.<!--BIBLE-SUMMA-FATHERS--><!--fountain4--></p>