Charles Martel

Frankish mayor of the palace (719-741)

• Born: c. 688
• Birthplace: Herstal, near Liège (now in Belgium)
• Died: October 22, 0741
• Place of death: Quierzy-sur-Oise, Aisne (now in France)

Through skill, good fortune, and ruthless ambition, Charles Martel rose to dominate the kingdom of the Franks and its weak Merovingian kings, laying the groundwork for his son Pépin III the Short to be recognized as the first Carolingian king of the Franks and for his grandson Charlemagne to emerge as the first Holy Roman Emperor. Charles also led Frankish forces to check the Muslim advance into southern France.

Early Life

In 687, two years before Charles Martel (shahrl mahr-tehl) was born, his father, Pépin II of Herstal, became sole “mayor of the palace” after defeating his Neustrian rival near Aachen. This position gave Pépin, an Austrasian, dominant power in the Frankish kingdom. A weak series of kings of the Merovingian family held mainly symbolic power during the seventh century under strong mayors (a term that meant “first man of the house”) who controlled land appointments and government policies. Charles's mother, Apaida, was part of a large landholding family in the lower valley of the Muese. The land bordered the area under the direct control of Pépin's family.

Although a marriage contract was drawn between Pépin and Apaida, Pépin was already married to Plectrude, who had borne him three sons. Although polygamy was still common among higher noble families in the early Middle Ages, Charles's “illegitimacy” made him an unlikely candidate to succeed his father as mayor. Charles spent most of his life at Pépin's court learning the intricacies of the mayor's power. Loyal followers were bought with land grants, and Pépin had already begun the process of taking land from the church to increase his power base. Meanwhile, Pépin's oldest son, Drago, died in 708. His second son became bishop of Rouen in 720, taking him out of the line of succession. The youngest son, Grimoald, was murdered in 714 while praying at the shrine of Saint Lambert at Liège. Coincidentally, the shrine was in territory controlled by the family of Charles's mother. Charles thus became a logical candidate for the mayor of the palace position.

Pépin II died on December 16, 714, leaving Charles with no inheritance. Power and the treasury were transferred to Pépin's wife Plectrude, to rule in the name of her young grandson Theudoald, who was the son of the recently murdered Grimoald. Fearing revolt, Plectrude immediately had Charles imprisoned. However, he soon escaped and fled to his mother's family in the lower Muese. Plectrude would face not only forces raised by an enraged Charles but also Neustrian armies eager to retake the mayor's position from any of Pépin's heirs. By 716, the mayor's position was taken by the Neustrian leader Ragenfred, who immediately began purging from church and governmental office all appointees of Pépin II.

Life's Work

With a tenuous claim on the inherited mayorship, and faced by so many adversaries, Charles might well have engaged in a venture less risky than trying to gain a position as powerful as that held by his father Pépin. Charles, though, gathered around him a band of followers who would be richly rewarded with land and church possessions in the event of his succession. Charles attacked Neustrian forces at Amblève (716) and won a decisive victory. A further triumph at Vincy (717) caused the Neustrians to flee to Paris. Charles chose not to follow the entrenched Neustrian forces. Instead, he turned his attention back to affairs in Austrasia. To consolidate his powers, Charles defeated Plectrude's forces and forced Plectrude to turn over to him the remainder of Pépin II's treasury. After declaring himself Austrasian mayor of the palace, Charles had a member of the Merovingian family crowned as King Choltar IV. In the meantime, the crippled Neustrians gained aid from the duke of Aquitaine. Charles, however, was able to defeat the forces of his combined enemies at Soissons (719), fragmenting their power. By 721, he was able to appoint his own candidate to the Merovingian throne, Theodoric IV, and to gain recognition as sole Frankish mayor of the palace.

To ensure his continued domination of Neustria, Charles took every opportunity to appoint relatives and loyal supporters to every possible position, both lay and ecclesiastic. Every excuse was used to secularize ecclesiastic lands and goods. While working out feasible consolidation strategies, Charles was also interested in expansion deep into neighboring German territories. He launched a dual land-and-sea attack, a rarity in early medieval warfare, against the Frisians, and he succeeded in killing the Frisian king Bubo and sacking pagan temples. Campaigns against the Saxons, Alamanni, and Bavarians were also successful. Yet in order to expand his control in a meaningful way, Charles supported, using Frankish armies, the work of such noted Anglo-Saxon missionaries as Willibrord's followers in Frisia and Boniface's disciples in Thuringia and Hesse.

While trying to introduce into the continent the Roman variety of Christianity, Charles was also able to use religion as a vehicle to introduce his own interpretation of political rule in Germany. Paradoxically, while standing as the major secular force in the spread of Roman Catholicism, Charles used every opportunity to appoint his supporters, even lay people, to head abbeys and bishoprics. Ultimately, Charles was able to annex both Frisia and Alamannia, drive the Saxons across the Rhine River, and extend Frankish domination over Bavaria. His relationship with Bavaria was sealed when, after the death of his wife Chorotrude, Charles married Sunnichild, a relative of the duke of Bavaria.

The rapid increase of the number of Charles's followers related to his liberal awarding of estates for life to those warriors who took an oath of loyalty to him, fought for him, and continued to serve him after becoming vassals. During the early Middle Ages, land served as a substitute for money payments and was the major source of power, privilege, and status. Yet oaths alone were not enough to explain Charles's success. He had also pioneered the use of calvary with the newly introduced stirrup, which enabled heavily armored Frankish calvary to remain stable in the saddle while swinging swords or leveling lances at their adversaries. Stirrups, though, had to be purchased with “hard” money, and Charles's most readily available assets were in the form of church property.

Frankish stability faced a danger of another sort. Arabic invaders had entered Spain in 711. With their superior cavalry, they extended Islamic rule throughout most of Visigothic Spain. In 732, Islamic expeditionary forces under ՙAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ghāfiqī, the Moorish governor of Spain, crossed the Pyrenees and rode through southern France. In response, Charles gathered together an army and won a victory near Poitiers; the engagement became known as the Battle of Tours . ՙAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ghāfiqī was killed in the battle. For his victory, Charles was given the surname Martel, the Hammer, and gained renown as the savior of Christian France. Charles, though, failed to take advantage of his victory, allowing the defeated enemy to fade away overnight. Islamic forces continued to seize southern towns, including Arles and Avignon, and to destroy cities in Provence. Eventually, Charles would stop the remaining Islamic forces at Narbon, causing them to return to Spain.

The Islamic invasion not only raised Charles's stature throughout Europe but also provided him with a golden opportunity to extend his own control throughout southern France. He took Bordeaux in 735, ousted the current bishop, and replaced him with his own appointee. Whenever he faced opposition, Charles followed a scorched-earth policy, thus making prolonged resistance uneconomical for the local nobility. Consequently, Charles emerged from southern France in control of a large empire.

When the Merovingian “puppet king,” Theodoric IV, died in 737, Charles did not even bother to replace him. Instead, he made decisions in the dead king's name. The Franks could have no clearer message about who was in charge of the kingdom. To establish administrative control in this large kingdom, Charles set up an annual assembly of nobles known as the campus martius.

In 739, as Pope Gregory III was battling against his northern neighbors, the Lombards, he offered Charles the ancient Roman position of consul, or chief executive, if Charles would come to his aid. The pope was grateful for Charles's support of Anglo-Saxon missionaries in Germanic territories, such as the work of Boniface and his disciples in Thuringia and Hesse and the work of Willibrord in Frisia. However, in this and all of his ventures, Charles followed his own interests. He used missionaries to extend his control in German territories and used bishoprics and abbeys to install his own relatives and close supporters. One of his nephews, Hugo, received the archbishopric of Rouen, the bishoprics of Paris and Bayeux, and two rich abbeys. Clearly, the church was an institution to control for patronage and political power. Hence, Charles found it easy to reject the pope's request for aid, since Charles wanted good relations with the Lombards’ king Liutprand, whose support he might need if Islamic forces returned to France.

By 740, Charles became increasingly ill, and his thoughts turned to the matter of succession. He had produced many sons, both legitimate and illegitimate. Charles decided to make Carloman, his eldest son, mayor of Austrasia, Alamannia, and Thuringia. His younger son, Pépin III the Short, who had been educated by the clergy at Saint-Denis, would receive control of Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence. When he died on October 22, 741, in his palace at Quierzy, Charles Martel's remains were taken to Saint-Denis to be buried alongside the Merovingian kings. Ten years later, Pépin III, now sole mayor of the Franks, would use his close ties with the pope to depose the Merovingian Dynasty, establishing Charles's Carolingian family as hereditary heirs to the Frankish throne.

Significance

Against unbelievable odds and a wide variety of enemies, Charles was able not only to fight his way into the mayor's position formerly held by his father but also to expand the Frankish kingdom deep into Germany and southern France. In so doing, he was able to dominate both the weak Merovingian king and the church. His masterful use of political patronage in awarding feudal fiefs, bishoprics, and abbeys introduced feudalism throughout the kingdom along with secular control of the Frankish church. His support of missionary work helped to spread Roman Catholicism in Germany along with his own political control.

By employing mounted knights, which would become the dominant military force of the Middle Ages, Charles was able to check the advance of Islam in southern France and to earn a somewhat undeserved status as “savior” of Christian Europe. He also gained the opportunity to incorporate southern France into his kingdom and to pass this area as an inheritance to his son Pépin III the Short. The powers Charles amassed enabled Pépin to depose the puppet Merovingian king and establish the Carolingian Dynasty on the Frankish throne, an act that was legitimized by the pope. Following in his grandfather's footsteps, Charlemagne, who reigned from 800 to 814, extended Carolingian control over a vast empire by waging almost continual warfare.

The Carolingian Kings

Reign

• Ruler

687-714

• Pépin II of Heristal (mayor of Austrasia/Neustria)

714-719

• Plectrude (regent for Theudoald)

719-741

• Charles Martel (the Hammer; mayor of Austrasia/Neustria)

747-768

• Pépin III the Short (mayor of Neustria 741, king of all Franks 747)

768-814

• Charlemagne (king of Franks 768, emperor 800)

814-840

• Louis the Pious (king of Aquitaine, emperor)

840-855

• Lothair I (emperor)

843

• Treaty of Verdun divides Carolingian Empire into East Franks (Germany), West Franks (essentially France), and a southern and middle kingdom roughly corresponding to Provence, Burgundy, and Lorraine)

843-876

• Louis II the German (king of Germany)

843-877

• Charles II the Bald (king of Neustria 843, emperor 875)

855-875

• Louis II (emperor)

877-879

• Louis II (king of France)

879-882

• Louis III (king of France)

879-884

• Carloman (king of France)

884-887

• Charles III the Fat (king of France)

887-898

• Odo (Eudes; king of France)

887-899

• Arnulf (king of Germany 887, emperor 896)

891-894

• Guy of Spoleto (Wido, Guido; emperor)

892-898

• Lambert of Spoleto (emperor)

893-923

• Charles III the Simple (king of France)

915-923

• Berengar I of Friuli (emperor)

923-929?

• Robert I (king of France)

929-936

• Rudolf (king of France)

936-954

• Louis IV (king of France; Hugh the Great in power)

954-986

• Lothair (king of France; Hugh Capet in power 956)

986-987

• Louis V (king of France)

Note: The Carolingians ruled different parts of the Frankish kingdom, which accounts for overlapping regnal dates in this table. The term “emperor” refers to rule over what eventually came to be known as the Holy Roman Empire.

Bibliography

Bledsoe, Helen Wieman. “Destined to be Great.” Calliope 9, no. 7 (March, 1999). Discusses the lives of Charles and his son Pépin the Short and grandson Charlemagne.

Fouracre, Paul. The Age of Charles Martel. New York: Longman, 2000. Provides historical background on the Merovingian Dynasty and Charles’s connections with Burgundy, Aquitaine, Provence, Southern Germany, and other areas. Also discusses Charles’s military, his family, and his relations with the Church.

Geary, Patrick J. Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Provides an interesting regional breakdown of Merovingian feudal politics. Chapters 5 and 6 contain a comprehensive analysis of how Charles contributed to Merovingian obsolescence.

Gerberding, Richard. The Rise of the Carolingians and the Liber “Historiae Francorum.” Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1987. Chapter 7 provides in-depth analysis of the career of Charles using primary source documents.

James, Edward. The Origins of France: From Clovis to the Capetians, 500-1000. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982. A study of the sociopolitical institutions that helped form early France. Chapter 6 provides a solid study of the mayor of the palace position, and chapter 7 provides keen insights about the Carolingian experiment.

McGill, Sara Ann. “The World of Knights and Lords: The Feudal System.” Events and People of the Middle Ages (2000). This journal article discusses the development of the feudal system during the time of Charles and its further development under Charlemagne. A short but detailed text. No journal issue number.

Riché, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Translated by Michael Allen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993. Provides excellent background material and a good account (chapter 4) of the reign of Charles.

Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. Early Medieval History/Middle Ages. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1976. An excellent source for the major themes and background information related to the age of Charles, along with details of his career.

Wood, Ian. The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751. New York: Longman, 1994. Chapters 15 and 16 provide a detailed look at Charles’s role in Merovingian politics, based on an analysis of documentary materials.