 689 - 741 (52 years)
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| Name |
Charles 'the Hammer' MARTEL |
| Suffix |
Mayor of Austrasia and Neustria |
| Born |
23 Aug 689 |
Heristal, Leige, Belgium  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
22 Oct 741 |
Quierzy-sur-Oise, Aisne, PicarDE, France |
| Buried |
Monastere DE Saint Denis, Saint Denis, Il-de-France, France |
| Person ID |
I5911 |
adkinshorton |
| Last Modified |
2 Jan 2013 |
| Father |
Pepin II "the Young" OF HERSTAL, b. 635, Heristal, Leige, Belgium , d. 16 Dec 714, Junille, Meuse, Haure-Marne, Champagne-ArDEnnes, France (Age 79 years) |
| Mother |
Aupaide OF SACHSEN, b. 654, Austrasia, France , d. 748 (Age 94 years) |
| Married |
Mistress |
| Family ID |
F25266 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Duchess Rotrude de Moselle OF AUSTRASIA, b. 690, Moselle, Lorraine, France , d. 724 (Age 34 years) |
| Married |
Abt 710 |
Liege, Belgium |
| Children |
| + | 1. Bernard DE HERISTAL |
| | 2. Hieronymus MARTEL |
| | 3. Mayor of the Palace CARLOMAN, Mayor of the Palace |
| + | 4. Pepin III "the Short", King of France, b. 714, Jupille-sur-Meuse, Austrasia , d. 24 Sep 768 (Age 54 years) |
| | 5. de Heristal, Duchess of Bavaria CHILDRUDE, de Heristal, Duchess of Bavaria, b. Abt 716, Austrasia, Gaul , d. Yes, date unknown |
| | 6. de Moselle GRIFON, de Moselle, b. Abt 726, Moselle, Lorraine, France , d. Yes, date unknown |
|
| Family ID |
F25270 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
-
| Notes |
- Latin - Carolus Martellus, German Karl Martell, mayor of the palace of Austrasia (the Eastern part of the Frankish Kingdom) from 715 to 741. He reunited and ruled the entire Frankish realm and stemmed the Muslim invasion in 732. His byname, Martel, means "the hammer". Charles was the illegitimate son of Pepin of Herstal, the mayor of the palace of Austrasia. By this period the Merovingian kings of the Frankish realm were rulers in name only. The burden of rule lay upon the mayors of the palace, who governed Austrasia, the eastern part of the Frankish kingdon, and Neustria, its western portion. Neustria bitterly resented its conquest and annexation in 687 by Pepin, who, acting in the name of the king, had reorganized and reunified the Frankish realm.
The assination of Pepin's only surviving legitimate son in 714 was followed a few months later by the death of Pepin himself. Pepin left as heirs three grandsons, and until they came of age, Plectrude, Pepin's widow, was to hold power. As an illegitimate son, Charled Martel was entirely neglected in the will. But he was young, strong and determined, and an intense struggle for power at once broke out in the Frankish kingdom.
Both Charles and Plectrude face rebellion througout the Frankish kingdom when Pepin's will was made known. The king, Chilperic II, was in the power of Ragenfried, mayor of the palace of Neustria, who joined forces with the Frisians in Holland in order to eliminate Charles. Plectrude imprisoned Charles and tried to govern in the name of her grandchildren, but Charles escaped, gathered an army, and defeated the Neustrians in battles at Ambleve near Liege (716) and at Vincy near Cambrai (717). His success made resistance by Plectrude and the Austrasians useless; they submitted, and by 719 Charles alone governed the Franks as mayor.
Assured of Austrasia, Charles now attacked Neustria itself, finally subduing it in 724. This freed Charles to deal with hostile elements elsewhere. He attacked Aquitaine, whose ruler, Eudes (Odo), had been an ally of Ragenfrid, but Charles did not gain effective countrol of southern France until late in his reign. He also conducted long campaigns, some as late as the 730s, against the Frisians, Saxons, and Bavarians, whose brigandage endangered the eastern frontiers of his kingdom. In order to consolidate his military gains, Charles supported St. Boniface and other missionaries in their efforts to convert tribes on the eastern frontier to Christianity.
Ever since their arrival in Spain from Africa in 711, the Muslims had raided Frankish territory, threatening Gaul and on one occasion (725) reaching Burgundy and sacking Autun. In 732 Abd ar-Rahman, the govenor of Cordoba, marched to Bordeaux and defeated Eudes. The Muslims then proceeded north across Aqutaine to the city of Poitiers. Eudes appealed to Charles for assistance, and Charles' cavalry managed to turn back the Muslim onslaught at the Battle of Poitiers. The battle itself may have been only a series of small engagements, but after it there were no more great Muslim invasions of Frankish territory.
In 733, Charles began his campaign to force Burgundy to yield to his rule. In 735 word arrived that Eudes was dead, and Charles marched rapidly across the Loire River in order to make his power felt around Bordeaux. By 739, he had completely subdued the petty chieftains of Burgundy, and he continued to fend off Muslim advances into Gaul during the decade. Charles' health began to fail in the late 730s, and in 741 he retired to his palace at Quierzy-sur-Oise, where he died soon after. Before his death he divided the Merovingian kingdom between his two legitimate sons, Pepin and Carloman. He continued to maintain the fiction of Merovingian rule, refraining from transferring the royal title to his own dynasty.
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