During the remainder of the Caliphate of Yezid II.,[11] several governors followed each other in rapid succession after the death of Elzemah.[12] None of their actions merit recital, but, during this period, the brave Pelagius aggrandized his petty state, advancing into the mountains of Leon, and, in addition, making himself master of several towns.
This hero, whose invincible daring roused the Asturians and Cantabrians to struggle for liberty, laid the foundations of that powerful monarchy {39} whose warriors afterward pursued the Moors even to the rocks of the Atlas.
The Moslems, who dreamed only of new conquests, made no considerable efforts against Pelagius: they were confident of checking his rebellion with the utmost ease when they should have accomplished the subjugation of the French dominions; and that desire alone fired the ardent soul of the new governor Abdalrahman, or, as he is commonly called, Abderamus.
His love of glory, his valour, his genius, and, above all, his immeasurable ambition, made the Mussulman governor regard this conquest as one that could be easily effected; but he himself was destined to be the vanquished.
Charles Martel, the son of Pepin d'Heristel, and the grandfather of Charlemagne, whose exploits effaced the recollection of those of his father, and whose fame was not eclipsed by that of his grandson, was at this time mayor of the palace, under the last princes of the first race; or, rather, Charles was the real monarch of the French and German nations.
Eudes, duke of Aquitania, the possessor of Gascony and Guienne, had long maintained a quarrel with the French hero. Unable longer, {40} without assistance, to resist his foe, he sought an alliance with a Moor named Munuza, who was the governor of Catalonia and the secret enemy of Abderamus. These two powerful vassals, both discontented with their respective sovereigns, and inspired as much by fear as dislike, united themselves in the closest bonds, in despite of the difference in their religious faith. The Christian duke did not hesitate to give his daughter in marriage to his Mohammedan ally, and the Princess Numerance espoused the Moorish Munuza, as Queen Egilona had espoused the Moorish Abdelazis.
Abderamus, when informed of this alliance, immediately divined the motives which had induced it. He soon assembled an army, penetrated with rapidity into Catalonia, and attacked Munuza, who was wounded in a fruitless endeavour to fly, and afterward perished by his own hand. His captive wife was conducted into the presence of the victorious governor Abderamus, struck with her beauty, sent the fair Numerance as a present to the Caliph Haccham, whose regard she elicited; and thus, by a singular chance, a princess of Gascony became an inmate of the seraglio of a sovereign of Damascus.
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Not content with having so signally punished Munuza, Abderamus crossed the Pyrenees, traversed Navarre, entered Guienne, and besieged and took the City of Bordeaux. Eudes attempted, at the head of an army, to arrest his progress, but was repelled in a decisive engagement. Everything yielded to the Mussulman arms: Abderamus pursued his route, ravaged Perigord, Saintonge, and Poitou, appeared in triumph in Touraine, and paused only when within view of the streaming ensigns of Charles Martel.
Charles came to this rencounter followed by the forces of France, Asturia, and Bourgogne, and attended by the veteran warriors whom he was accustomed to lead to victory. The Duke of Aquitania was also in the camp. Charles forgot his private injuries in the contemplation of the common danger: this danger was pressing: the fate of France and Germany—indeed, of the whole of Christendom, depended on the event of the approaching conflict.