in the year 714 the Moors from North Africa Muslim invaders attacked Spain by 724 they occupied
three-fourths of the country by 724-26 they had made invasions into southern France in
the province known as Aquitaine by 728 the danger to Christian Europe was so acute
that one man stood up a young nobleman who had become a future king of France Charles of
Herstal he created a coalition of allies that would later defeat a much larger Muslim force
in the year 732 to save Christian Europe preserve Christianity and establish europe and the world as
we know it today my name is Colin Heaton I'm a former history professor I'm a book author and
a military historian and today we will examine the history and the significance of Charles
Martel known as the hammer the grandfather of Charlemagne now on forgotten history
Charles Martel was born around 686 to 688 a.d son of Pepin ii and his mistress Alpeda
Charles was the oldest son although illegitimate in the eyes of the church
he later would become significant because he would be the unifying factor in
helping defeat the greatest danger towards Christianity in the history of the religion
one thing about Charles it must be understood is that he did not have a major support mechanism
behind him he did not have the support of the church until Pope Constantine blessed
his ambitions to fight the Muslim incursions into southern France Charles was able through diplomacy
tactical genius and an application of logic and using his belief in his god and in his religion
to create a coalition of former enemies that was unheard of and unparalleled and the first time
in European history that such an alliance had been created Charles was approached by the former enemy
of his father Duke Odo of Aquitaine Odo had been fighting the Muslim incursions for almost 10 years
realizing that he could not fight them on his own he came to Charles and offered a peace treaty
Charles accepted but he realized that the force was greater than either of the two armies of the
Aquitanians and Charles' force could even hope to contain Charles then branched out and reached
out to his father's former enemies he managed to get the alliances of the Saxons the Burgundians
the Bavarians the alimony the aquatanians under odo and the friesians as well as the lombards
this was done with the blessing of pope constantine but then pope constantine
died the next pope his successor pope gregory hated charles and his father hated the franks
believed them to be pagans in christian and name only and therefore charles and his alliance
were all alone with no support other than what they could devise themselves this became crucial
as in 730 the magnitude of the incursions of the muslims became so bad that the monasteries
the convents and the churches were being destroyed charles's brother-in-law archbishop milo was able
to give him a lot of support he needed it because his stepmother pled trudeau wanted
to kill him but she could not just assassinate him without creating a major problem with the church
pepin died that left him vulnerable milo saw the critical need to have this alliance
galvanized under a single manner the flag of the pope the papal banner of constantine was given to
the alliance milo summoned charles to aachen and he told him this will give you speed in victory
this will give you the alliance galvanization you need this will give you the spirit and will
to win your great battle this is the spear of destiny legend has it that milo had the
spear of destiny the original spear that pierced the side of christ on golgotha
and therefore whoever held the spear would always be victorious in battle charles according to
legend took this spear showed it to the alliance leaders including his new father-in-law after his
wife rotruda died he married swan hilda who was the daughter of theodiber the duke of bavaria
who brought the largest force in the coalition into the plan showing the spear of destiny having
the papal banner gave the christians and even the pagans the friesian danes that came on board
under the leadership of bobo son of redbad they all saw that charles had something special and
they saw that charles had a chance to really change the face of europe to benefit them all
charles had only one major problem he didn't have anything resembling the sizable force
necessary to combat the 40 000 muslims that had already occupied southern france
charles was now the leader of a six-nation coalition his adversary was the muslim leader
abdul al-rahman who was the governor general of the spanish acquired territories under
the islamic state of spain as it was at that time the caliphate
what charles needed to do was deceive al-raqman as to the size of his force
he knew that al-rahman had forty thousand men and growing more were coming charles on a good
day had 20 000 to 25 000 men in total so what he needed to do was use his tactical genius
and his ability to deceive to accomplish three things the first thing he had to do was choose
the battleground that he knew he could win on the second thing he had to do was devise a tactic
that would lure his enemy into the kill zone and make it a complete victory without having to go
back and do the job all over again the third thing that charles had to do was make sure
that it was a victory so complete that even his alliance members who were former enemies would
think twice before they betrayed the alliance and attacked him again so he had many things going on
in order to assure that he could create a nation-state of france as we know it today
al-rahman had his spies always probing and peering and observing what the franks were doing
martel and odo only allowed the spies of the muslims to see about five thousand
of their soldiers they only saw five thousand men they never saw what was
hiding in the woods they never saw what was behind the hills they didn't even see any major cavalry
so over a period of a month the muslims firmly believed that even though it was october and
the winter weather was coming and there was a 12-day reign that had been prophesied by swan
hilda through the visions of charles and her she was considered a seer someone who could see the
future who could prophesize she was considered a witch by some and a clairvoyant by others
everything that she believed and everything she dreamed and what charles dreamed came true
during the 12 days of rain one beam of light shined on one part of the valley that was where
charles decided that was god telling him that was where his battlefield had to be it turned out to
be the most perfect place in the entire region for a battle he had the river on one side which
prevented a flanking maneuver he had the forest on the other side which prevented a flanking maneuver
by his enemy but it held five thousand of his archers his cavalry was hidden behind the hills
his infantry was dug in and also hidden with only the minimal number observed by the muslims
charles decided to allow the moors to attack they attacked standard procedure with their cavalry
first they attacked with calvary but they were bogged down in the mud his archers on the flanks
and the front cut them down the story in the chronicles of the arab scholars estimate that 5
000 of his calvary horse and man died in the first 25 to 30 minutes of that battle al-rahman believed
that he would push again with more cavalry he pushed again he kept sending wave after wave
after wave of calvary that kept getting cut down by the archers then he followed with his infantry
infantry similarly bogged down in the mud cut down by the archers by the end of the battle charles
decided to release his infantry to engage and his cavalry to attack on the flank along the wood line
they encircled the muslims and totally destroyed them on all sides so complete was the destruction
that muslim scholars called it the road of the martyrs or the highway of the martyrs because the
dead strung all the way from south of tours the battle of torres at poitiers all the way to the
spanish border that very few survived and those who did survive were allowed to survive to spread
the word of the christian victory therefore taking the warning back to spain do not attack christian
europe you will not be successful god is on our side in the story so decisive was the victory that
charles martel had managed to secure western europe and secure christianity for all time
the legacy was the creation of nation-states later the creation of colonial powers
and today's legacy of martel's victory is seen in over 100 countries that have been created as a
example of post-colonial europe if you've enjoyed this segment on forgotten history
please subscribe and stay tuned for more in the future thank you
you