Charles Martel was a son of the Frankish statesman Pepin of Herstal and Pepin's mistress, a noblewoman named Alpaida.
39 Facts About Charles Martel
2.
Alongside his military endeavours, Charles Martel has been traditionally credited with a seminal role in the development of the Frankish system of feudalism.
3.
Pepin's son Charlemagne, grandson of Charles Martel, extended the Frankish realms and became the first emperor in the West since the fall of Rome.
4.
Charles Martel had a brother named Childebrand, who later became the Frankish dux of Burgundy.
5.
Charles Martel had little time to gather men, or prepare, and the result was inevitable.
6.
Charles Martel retreated to the hills of the Eifel to gather men, and train them.
7.
Many of the enemy fled and Charles Martel's troops gathered the spoils of the camp.
8.
Charles Martel's reputation increased considerably as a result, and he attracted more followers.
9.
Richard Gerberding points out that up to this time, much of Charles Martel's support was probably from his mother's kindred in the lands around Liege.
10.
Soon Chlotar IV died and Odo surrendered King Chilperic in exchange for Charles Martel recognizing his dukedom.
11.
Between 718 and 732, Charles Martel secured his power through a series of victories.
12.
Charles Martel defeated them in the Teutoburg Forest and thus secured the Frankish border in the name of King Chlotaire.
13.
When Chilperic II died in 721, Charles Martel appointed as his successor the son of Dagobert III, Theuderic IV, who was still a minor, and who occupied the throne from 721 to 737.
14.
Charles Martel was now appointing the kings whom he supposedly served although they were mere figureheads.
15.
Between 720 and 723, Charles Martel was fighting in Bavaria, where the Agilolfing dukes had gradually evolved into independent rulers, recently in alliance with Liutprand the Lombard.
16.
Charles Martel forced the Alemanni to accompany him, and Duke Hugbert submitted to Frankish suzerainty.
17.
Charles Martel forced the Alemanni to capitulate to Frankish suzerainty and did not appoint a successor to Lantfrid.
18.
In 731, after defeating the Saxons, Charles Martel turned his attention to the rival southern realm of Aquitaine, and crossed the Loire, breaking the treaty with Duke Odo.
19.
Between his victory of 732 and 735, Charles Martel reorganized the kingdom of Burgundy, replacing the counts and dukes with his loyal supporters, thus strengthening his hold on power.
20.
Charles Martel was forced, by the ventures of Bubo, Duke of the Frisians, to invade independent-minded Frisia again in 734.
21.
Charles Martel ordered the Frisian pagan shrines destroyed, and so wholly subjugated the populace that the region was peaceful for twenty years after.
22.
Charles Martel, titling himself maior domus and princeps et dux Francorum, did not appoint a new king and nobody acclaimed one.
23.
The interregnum, the final four years of Charles Martel' life, was relatively peaceful although in 738 he compelled the Saxons of Westphalia to submit and pay tribute and in 739 he checked an uprising in Provence where some rebels united under the leadership of Maurontus.
24.
Charles Martel used the relative peace to set about integrating the outlying realms of his empire into the Frankish church.
25.
Charles Martel erected four dioceses in Bavaria and gave them Boniface as archbishop and metropolitan over all Germany east of the Rhine, with his seat at Mainz.
26.
Nonetheless, the pope's request for Frankish protection showed how far Charles Martel had come from the days when he was tottering on excommunication, and set the stage for his son and grandson to assert themselves in the peninsula.
27.
Charles Martel was buried at Saint Denis Basilica in Paris.
28.
Charles Martel's territories had been divided among his adult sons a year earlier: to Carloman he gave Austrasia, Alemannia, and Thuringia, and to Pippin the Younger Neustria, Burgundy, Provence, and Metz and Trier in the "Mosel duchy".
29.
Charles Martel divided his realm among his sons without opposition.
30.
For many historians, Charles Martel laid the foundations for his son Pepin's rise to the Frankish throne in 751, and his grandson Charlemagne's imperial acclamation in 800.
31.
However, for Paul Fouracre, while Charles Martel was "the most effective military leader in Francia", his career "finished on a note of unfinished business".
32.
Charles Martel married twice, his first wife being Rotrude of Treves, daughter either of Lambert II, Count of Hesbaye, or of Leudwinus, Count of Treves.
33.
Charles Martel married a second time, to Swanhild and they had a child named Grifo.
34.
Charles Martel had a known mistress, Ruodhaid, with whom he had:.
35.
For early medieval authors, Charles Martel was famous for his military victories.
36.
Indeed, as Charles Martel was the progenitor of the Carolingian line of Frankish rulers and grandfather of Charlemagne, one can even say with a degree of certainty that the subsequent history of the West would have proceeded along vastly different currents had 'Abd al-Rahman been victorious at Tours-Poitiers in 732.
37.
The memory of Charles Martel is a topic of debate in contemporary French politics on both the right and the left.
38.
In 1620, Andre Favyn stated that among the spoils Charles Martel's forces captured after the Battle of Tours were many genets and several of their pelts.
39.
Charles Martel gave these furs to leaders amongst his army, forming the first order of knighthood, the Order of the Genet.