Though the Merovingian princes had lost all real power in the state, yet there still attached to the name of the family a prestige in the eyes of the nation, which rendered the continued existence of “Kings” chosen from among the descendants of Clovis, a matter of political necessity. Charles wisely resolved therefore, to put himself in this respect on equal terms with Raganfried; and he accordingly invested with the insignia of a sham royalty another scion of the long-haired line, yclept Clotaire, fourth of that name. An expedition against the Saxons, to chastise them for their predatory incursions into the Frankish territories, was eminently successful, and the son of Pepin displayed his victorious banner on the Weser (718); but receiving information that Raganfried had made an alliance against him with the valiant Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine (of Merovingian descent), and dreading lest the united power of the two might prove too strong for him, he resolved to attack the former before a junction of the allied forces could be effected, and accordingly led his army with his accustomed celerity from the banks of the Weser to the banks of the Seine. After totally routing Raganfried at Soissons (719), he compelled Paris to surrender. The wretched Chilperic[101] sought refuge with his ally, Eudes. Charles marched on to the Loire, and was preparing to carry his arms into Aquitaine, when the death of Clotaire led to an arrangement with Chilperic, who, acknowledging Charles as major domûs in the three kingdoms, was permitted to continue in the enjoyment of his fictitious royalty. In the same year still (719), Charles was delivered by death from another of his opponents, Radbodus, the brave duke of the Frisons. He promptly took advantage of this event to re-annex West Friesland to the Frankish dependencies, and to induct Bishop Willibrod into his see of Utrecht, from which Radbodus had kept him excluded.
In the year 720, Chilperic was gathered to his fathers; Charles replaced him by a child of the Merovingian race, taken from the monastery of Lala (Thierry IV.) In 721 Charles crossed the Rhine at the head of a powerful army, to subject the Alemanni, the Bavarians, and the Thuringians again to the Frankish sway. As he saw in the conversion of these stubborn nations to Christianity one of the most efficient means to secure their allegiance in future, he had himself attended by Winifried,[102] and other missionaries, who, now that they were supported by the arms of the Frankish chief, were brilliantly successful in their missionary labors, in some of the very places among others, where they had on former occasions been treated with derision and contumely, or whence they had been forcibly expelled.
In 722, Charles drove the Saxons from the Hassian (Hessian) district which they had invaded; but when he followed them into their own country, with the intention of subjecting them altogether to his sway, he experienced such determined resistance that he wisely resolved to leave them alone. In 725, he compelled the Suabians and Alemanni, and their duke, Lantfried, to acknowledge his sovereignty.
Since 553, after the extinction of the Gothic kingdom of Italy, the Agilolfingian dukes of Bavaria “enjoyed” the “protection”[103] of the Frankish kings; although, whenever the dissensions among the members of that amiable family, or the contentions among the mayors of the palace, afforded a fitting opportunity, the Bavarians invariably took occasion to “thank” them for their protection, and to decline further favors. But the persuasive force of Pepin of Heristal, and of his son Charles, fully succeeded in the end in restoring the amicable relations between the two nations, to the old footing. Duke Theodo II., a most pious prince, who greatly favored and furthered the extension of Christianity in his dominions, committed the capital blunder so common at the time (and so natural withal)—to divide his dominions between his three sons, Theodoald (Theudebaud), Theudebert, and Grimoald. Theudebaud had married Pilitrudis, the fair daughter of Plectrudis; he died in 716, and his brother Grimoald deemed it no harm to marry the beautiful widow of the departed; but Saint Corbinian happened to think very differently; and his zealous exhortations, and the fearful picture which he drew of the pains and penalties that awaited him who should have committed, what the holy man was pleased to call, “incest,”[104] frightened poor Duke Grimoald into giving his consent to a divorce from his dearly beloved wife. Mistress Pilitrudis, however, was by no means pleased with the pusillanimous conduct of her second husband; and the exile of the meddlesome ecclesiastic speedily showed him, that a woman offended may prove more than a match even for a priest and a saint. Theudebert also died (724), leaving behind a son, named Hugibert, and a daughter, named Guntrudis, and who was married to Liutprand, King of the Lombards. After his second brother’s death, Grimoald seized upon his dominions to the prejudice of his nephew. Hugibert, finding all his remonstrances disregarded, claimed the intercession of the Duke of the Franks, in his capacity as Protector of Bavaria. Charles accepted the offer of mediator between the contending parties; and called upon Grimoald to deliver up to Hugibert the provinces which he was unjustly withholding from him. Grimoald refusing, Charles entered Bavaria at the head of his army, and the Bavarian duke was defeated and slain in the first battle (725). Hugibert now succeeded to the government of all Bavaria,[105] with the exception, however, of a large slice of the Northern provinces, which he ceded to Charles in reward of his services.[106] The unfortunate Pilitrudis was despoiled by the “magnanimous” victor of all she possessed, except a mule, or donkey, to carry her to Pavia to her relations. A new irruption of the Saxons, called Charles again to the Weser; he defeated and drove back the invaders (729). Whilst he was thus occupied on the Saxon frontier, the Suabians and Alemanni took advantage of his absence, to throw off once more the yoke of the Franks. Charles confounded them, however, by the rapidity of his movements; he appeared on the Mein before they were well aware that he had left the banks of the Weser. The battle which ensued, terminated in the total defeat of the “rebels;” Duke Lantfried was slain, and the humbled nation submitted to the rule of the conqueror (730).
We are now approaching the most important and most interesting period in the life and career of Charles, viz., his encounter with the Saracens; we will, therefore, resume here the thread of the history of the Moslem invasion, broken off at [page 88], where we left the Saracen general, El Zama, laying siege to Thoulouse. A branch of the Merovingian family, descended from Clotaire’s (II.) younger son Charibert (631), had established the independent[107] duchy of Aquitaine in the south of France. At the time of the Arab invasion, Eudes (Eudo, or Odo), an able and energetic prince, was Duke of Aquitaine. This prince, seeing his capital threatened by the Moslems, collected a numerous army of Gascons, Goths, and Franks, and marched bravely to the rescue. He attacked the Arabs under the walls of Thoulouse, and succeeded in inflicting on them a most disastrous defeat (721). El Zama fell in the battle, and the discomfited Moslems were saved from total destruction only by the prudence and valor of Abdalrahman Ben Abdallah (Abderrahman, or Abderame), a veteran officer, whom they had elected by acclamation in the place of their late general.
The Khalif, however, did not ratify the choice of the army, but named Anbesa to the government of Spain. The new governor advanced again into Aquitaine in 725; he took Carcassone by storm, and penetrated as far as Burgundy; but the valiant Eudes succeeded ultimately in driving him back, and also in defeating several subsequent attempts of the Arabs to gain possession of Aquitaine.
In the year 730, the Khalif Hesham, yielding to the wishes of the people and the army of Spain, restored Abdalrahman to the government of that part of the Arab dominions. That daring and ambitious commander proposed to subject to his sway, not only Aquitaine, but the entire Frank empire; and collected a formidable host to carry his resolve into execution. But, at the very threshold of his enterprise, he met with an obstacle which, though he indeed triumphantly overcame it, yet cannot be denied to have exercised a powerful adverse influence upon its final issue. This was the rebellion of Othman, or Munuza, a Moorish chief, who, as governor of Cerdagne, held the most important passes of the Pyrenees. The fortune of war had placed the beauteous daughter of Eudes in the hands of Munuza; and the political Duke of Aquitaine, justly appreciating the advantages of an alliance with the man who might be said to hold the keys of his house, had willingly consented to accept the African misbeliever for his son-in-law. The skill, rapidity, and decision, of Abdalrahman’s movements undoubtedly disconcerted the strategic combinations of the two allies, and Munuza was overcome and slain, ere Eudes could hasten to his assistance; the head of the rebel, and the daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine, were sent to Damascus. But much precious time was consumed, and a great number of combatants were lost, in this unexpected prelude to the invasion of France. However, immediately after the overthrow of Munuza, Abdalrahman advanced rapidly to the Rhone, crossed that river, and laid siege to Arles; Eudes attempted to relieve the beleaguered city, but his army was totally routed, and Arles fell into the hands of the invaders (731). Abdalrahman speedily conquered the greater part of Aquitaine, and advanced to Bordeaux. The intrepid Eudes met him once more, at the head of a numerous army; but neither the valor and skill of the Christian leader nor the bravery of his troops could save them from a most disastrous defeat. Bordeaux fell, and the Saracens overran the fairest provinces of France (732). Charles, who would most probably have remained deaf to the most urgent entreaties of Eudes, whom he regarded in the light of a rival, comprehended the necessity of a speedy and vigorous action, from the moment that he saw his own dominions threatened. He, therefore, rapidly collected his faithful Austrasians and the auxiliary contingents of the Alemanni, the Thuringians, and the Bavarians; and ordered the Neustrian and Burgundian nobles to join him with their followers; and although many of the Burgundian nobles hung back, yet a most powerful host of the nations of Germany and Gaul gathered under the banner of the Christian leader, who was joined also by Eudes and the remains of the Aquitanian army. In the centre of France, between Tours and Poitiers, the Franks and the Moslems met, in the month of October, 732. Six days were spent in desultory warfare, and many a gallant heart had ceased to beat, ere as the red sun of the seventh day rose, the day on which it was to be decided whether mosque or cathedral should prevail in Europe. The battle raged fiercely from noon till eventide; the fiery sons of the South fought with tenfold their accustomed valor, and Abdalrahman emulated the glory of Kaled “the Sword of God.” The Germans stood firm as rocks, and fought as heroes; and the heavy battle-axe of Charles, wielded with irresistible strength, spread death and dismay in the Arabian ranks; the mighty strokes which the Christian hero dealt with that formidable weapon, gained him the epithet of Martel, the Hammer. Eudes, burning with the resentment of former defeats, strove to rival the prowess of his ally. Still, for many hours, the balance hung equipoised. The life-blood of thousands of Christians and thousands of Moslems, that had ere just raced so fiercely through its channels, mingled in sluggish streams on the ground. Evening set in, and still the contest raged with unabated fury; the Orientals had, indeed, repeatedly been forced to give way to the superior weight and strength of the Germans but their heroic chief had as often rallied them and led them on again to death and glory. At length, a German spear struck him to death: his fall decided the fate of the battle; the Saracens, disheartened by the loss of their great commander, retired to their camp. There was no leader left among them of sufficient renown and authority to replace the fallen hero; despairing of their ability to renew the fight next day with the slightest chance of success, they resolved upon a hasty retreat; and taking with them the richest and most portable portion of their spoil, they abandoned their camp in the middle of the night.
Next morning, when Charles was marshalling forth his troops to renew the contest, his spies both surprised and rejoiced him with the welcome intelligence that the enemy were in full retreat to the south. The victory gained was decisive and final: the torrent of Arabian conquest was rolled back; and Europe was rescued from the threatened yoke of the Saracens. But the losses of the Christians also had been very great, and Charles wisely declined incurring with his sadly diminished forces, the possible mischances of a pursuit.[108]
Leaving to Eudes the task of reconquering his own land from the flying foe, Charles proceeded now to call the Burgundian nobles to account for their hesitation and lukewarmness in his cause. To secure their future allegiance, he placed officers of his into the Burgundian cities and castles; to little purpose, however, it would appear, as their presence did not prevent the discontented Burgundian nobles, a few years after, from calling in the Saracens, and actually delivering the city of Avignon into the hands of Jussuf Ben Abdalrahman, the Arabian governor of Narbonne (735).
In 734, Charles defeated Poppo, the Duke of the Frisons, and regained the western part of Friesland. In 735, Duke Eudes died, and as his two sons, Hunold and Hatto, quarrelled about the succession, Charles proffered his “armed mediation,” and settled the dispute finally by naming Hunold Duke of Aquitaine, after having exacted and obtained from that prince an oath of allegiance, not to the nominal king of the Franks, but to himself personally, and to his two sons of his first marriage, Carloman and Pepin. In 736, Charles had to repel another invasion of the Saxons, which prevented him from proceeding to Burgundy against the disaffected nobles and their allies, the Arabs; he sent, however, his brother Childebrand. In 737, he came himself; he speedily reduced Avignon, and expelled the Arabs from the Burgundian territory; the nobility and clergy, who had treasonably conspired against him with the enemy, or had acted in a hostile manner to him, he deprived of their possessions, bishoprics, &c., which he bestowed upon his friends and followers.[109] In 738 he advanced into Septimania, and laid siege to Narbonne. He totally defeated Omar Ben Kaled, the Arabian general, who was marching to the relief of the beleaguered city; but the governor of Narbonne defended the place so valiantly and successfully, that the Franks were compelled to raise the siege. However, though Septimania remained in the hands of the Arabs till 755, when Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, recovered it, an effectual and final check had been put to their further advance into France.