In the 7th-8th centuries. several Germanic states existed on the ruins of the former Western Roman Empire. The tribal union was the center of each of them. For example, these were the Franks, who eventually became French. With the advent of the state, kings from the Merovingian dynasty began to rule there. However, this title did not last long at the pinnacle of power. Over time, influence passed to the mayordoms. At first, these were senior dignitaries in charge of the Merovingian palace. With the weakening of royal power, this position became the main one in the state, although the kings remained and existed in parallel with the new rulers of the Franks.
Origin
Pipin of Geristal of the Carolingian dynasty was mayor from 680 to 714. He had three sons, the youngest of whom was Charles Martell. The two older offspring of Pepin died before their father, and therefore the dynastic question arose in the country. From the eldest son, the aged ruler had a grandson, whose name was Theodoald. It was to him that Pepin decided to transfer the throne, based on the opinion of hisambitious wife Plectrude. She was strongly opposed to Karl for the reason that he was born from another woman.
When his father died, Karl was imprisoned, and Plektruda began to rule, who formally was the regent for her young son. Karl Martell did not long languish in prison. He managed to escape after riots broke out in the country.
Unrest in the country
Dissatisfied Franks did not want to see the despotic Plectrude on the throne and declared war on her. Their first attempt ended in defeat in a place near the modern city of Compiègne in Picardy. One of the leaders of the rebels named Theodoald betrayed them and went over to the side of the enemy. Then a new leader appeared in the camp of the Franks - Ragenfred. He was elected mayor of Neustria. The warlord decided that he could not cope alone, and entered into an alliance with the Frisian king Radbor. The combined army laid siege to Cologne, which was the seat of Plectrude. She was saved only by paying off with the great we alth accumulated during the time of her husband Pepin.
Struggle for power
It was at this moment that Karl Martell escaped from prison. He managed to gather around him a large number of supporters who did not want to see any of the other contenders on the throne. At first, Karl tried to defeat Radbor, but he failed in battle. Having quickly gathered a new army, the young commander overtook another rival - Ragenfred. He was in present-day Belgium. The battle took place near the present town of Malmedy. Next came the turn of the ruler of AustrasiaChilperic, who made an alliance with Ragenfred. The victory allowed Charles to gain influence and strength. He persuaded Plectrude to step down from power and hand over his father's treasury to him. Soon the stepmother, because of which the civil strife began, quietly died. In 718, Charles Martel finally established himself in Paris, but he still had to subjugate the rest of the Frankish feudal lords.
Expanding boundaries
It's time to point the weapons to the south. The ruler of Neustria, Ragenfred, allied with Ed the Great, who ruled in Aquitaine. The latter crossed the Loire with the Basque army in order to help an ally. In 719, a battle took place between them and Charles, who managed to win. Ragenfred fled to Angers, where he ruled until his death for several more years.
Ed recognized himself as a vassal of Charles. Both agreed to put the weak Chilperic on the royal throne. He soon died, and Theodoric IV took his place. He obeyed the mayor in everything and did not pose a threat to the ambitious franc. Despite the victories in Neustria, the outskirts of the state continued to exist autonomously from the central government. So, for example, in Burgundy (in the southeast), local bishops ruled, who did not listen to the orders of Paris. The cause of concern was also the German lands, where in Alemannia, Thuringia and Bavaria they had a negative attitude towards the mayor.
Reforms
In order to strengthen his power, the mayor decided to change the order in the state. The first was the beneficiary reform of Charles Martel, carried out in the 30s. It was necessary to strengthen the army. Initially, the Frankish troops were formedfrom the militia or city units. The problem was that the authorities simply did not have enough funds to maintain a large army.
The reasons for the reform of Karl Martell were precisely in this shortage of military specialists in the event of a conflict with neighbors. Now the men who went on a campaign with the mayor received a land allotment for their service. To keep him, they needed to regularly answer the overlord's calls.
The beneficiary reform of Charles Martel led to the fact that the Frankish state received a large combat-ready army of well-equipped soldiers. The neighbors did not have such a system, which made them extremely vulnerable to the state of the mayor's house.
The meaning of the reform of Charles Martel in land ownership affected the property of the church. Secularization made it possible to increase the allotment of secular power. It was these confiscated lands that went to those who served in the army. Only surpluses were taken from the church, for example, the lands of the monasteries remained aside from redistribution.
The military reform of Charles Martel allowed to increase the number of cavalry in the army. Rebellious feudal lords with small allotments no longer threatened the throne, as they were firmly attached to it. All their well-being depended on loy alty to the government. Thus, a new important estate appeared, which became central in the subsequent Middle Ages.
What is the meaning of the military reform of Charles Martel? He wanted not only to increase the number of dependent feudal lords, but also to remove incapable peasants from the army. Instead of an army, they now fell intoproperty to landowners: counts, dukes, etc. Thus, the enslavement of peasants, who had previously been mostly free, began. They received a new status of disenfranchised after they lost their importance in the army of the Franks. In the future, feudal lords (both small and large) will live off the exploitation of the labor of forced peasants.
The meaning of the reform of Charles Martel is the transition to the classical Middle Ages, where everything in society - from the beggar to the ruler - exists within a clear hierarchy. Each estate was a link in the chain of relationships. It is unlikely that the Franks at that moment guessed that they were creating an order that would last for hundreds of years, but nevertheless it happened. The fruits of this policy will appear very soon, when the descendant of Martell - Charlemagne - will call himself emperor.
But that was still a long way off. For the first time, the reforms of Charles Martel strengthened the central power of Paris. But over the decades, it became clear that such a system is an excellent breeding ground for the beginning of the fragmentation of the state of the Franks. Under Martell, the central government and the feudal lords of the middle hand received mutual benefits - the expansion of borders and the work of enslaved peasants. The state has become more defensive.
For every sphere of life, a new reform of Karl Martel was developed. The table shows well what has changed in the state of the Franks during his reign.
| Reform | Meaning |
| Land (beneficial) | Dacha of land in exchange for military service at the mayor's house. The birth of feudal society |
| Military | Increased army and also cavalry. Weakening the role of the peasant militia |
| Church | Secularization of church land and its transfer to the state |
German politics
In the middle of his reign, Karl decided to start organizing the German borders of his state. He was engaged in the fact that he built roads, fortified cities and everywhere put things in order. This was necessary to revive trade and restore cultural ties between the various tribal unions of Western Europe. During these years, the Franks actively colonized the Main River valley, where the Saxons and other Germans used to live. The emergence of a loyal population in this region made it possible to strengthen control not only over Franconia, but also over Thuringia and Hesse.
Weak German dukes sometimes tried to assert themselves as independent rulers, but Charles Martel's military reform changed the balance of power. The feudal lords of Alemannia and Bavaria were defeated by the Franks and recognized themselves as their vassals. Numerous tribes, just included in the state, remained pagans. Therefore, the priests of the Franks diligently converted the infidels to Christianity, so that they feel one with the Catholic world.
Muslim invasion
Meanwhile, the main danger for the mayordom and his state was not at all in the German neighbors, but in the Arabs. This warlike tribe has been for a centuryseized more and more new lands under the shadow of a new religion - Islam. The Middle East, North Africa and Spain have already fallen. The Visigoths, who lived in the Iberian Peninsula, suffered defeat after defeat, and eventually retreated to the borders with the Franks.
The Arabs first appeared in Aquitaine in 717, when Ed the Great still ruled there. Then it was single raids and reconnaissance. But already in 725 cities such as Carcassonne and Nimes were taken.
All this time Aquitaine was a buffer formation between Martell and the Arabs. Its fall would lead to the complete defenselessness of the Franks, since it was difficult for the conquerors to pass the Pyrenees, but on the hills they felt much more confident.
The Muslim commander (wali) Abd ar-Rahman in 731 decided to gather an army from a variety of tribes subordinated to the Caliphate in recent years. His goal was the city of Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast of Aquitaine, which was famous for its we alth. The Muslim army consisted of various Spanish barbarians subjugated by the Arabs, Egyptian reinforcements and large Muslim units. And although the sources of the time differ in their assessment of the number of Islamic soldiers, it can be assumed that this figure fluctuated at the level of 40,000 armed men.
Not far from Bordeaux, Ed's troops fought the enemy. It ended sadly for the Christians, they suffered a heavy defeat, and the city was plundered. Caravans of Moors with booty flowed to Spain. However, the Muslims were not going to stop, and again, after a short respite, they went north. They reached Poitiers, but the inhabitants there hadgood protective walls. The Arabs did not dare to launch a bloody attack and retreated to Tur, which they took with much fewer losses.
At this time, a broken Ed fled to Paris to ask for help in the fight against the invaders. Now it's time to check what is the meaning of the military reform of Charles Martel. Many soldiers stood under his banner, faithfully serving in exchange for land plots. Mostly Franks were called up, but various Germanic tribes were also gathered, which were dependent on the mayor. These were the Bavarians, Frisians, Saxons, Alemanni, etc. The reasons for the reform of Karl Martel turned out to be precisely the desire to assemble large armies at the most crucial moment. This task was completed in the shortest possible time.
Abd ar-Rahman at that time looted a huge amount of trophies, because of which his army received a convoy, which extremely slowed down the advance of the army. Having learned about the intention of the Franks to enter Aquitaine, the Vali ordered to withdraw to Poitiers. It seemed to him that he would have time to prepare for the decisive battle.
Battle of Poitiers
Here the two armies met. Neither Charles nor Abd ar-Rahman dared to attack first, and the tense situation persisted for a whole week. All this time, small maneuvers continued - the opponents tried to find a better position for themselves. Finally, on October 10, 732, the Arabs decided to attack first. At the head of the cavalry was Abd ar-Rahman himself.
The organization of the army under Charles Martel included a wonderful discipline, when each part of the army acted as if it were one. The battlebetween the two sides was bloody and at first did not give an advantage to either one or the other. By evening, a small detachment of Franks broke through in a roundabout way to the Arab camp. A huge amount of booty was stored there: money, precious metals and other important resources.
The Moors as part of the Muslim army felt something was wrong and retreated to the rear, trying to dislodge the enemies who came from nowhere. A gap appeared at the point of their connection with the Arabs. The main Frankish army under the leadership of Martel noticed this weak point in time and attacked.
The maneuver was decisive. The Arabs were divided, and some of them were surrounded. Including the commander Abd ar-Rahman. He died trying to break back to his camp. By nightfall, the two armies dispersed. The Franks decided that on the second day they would finally finish off the Muslims. However, they realized that their campaign was lost, and in the darkness of the night quietly withdrew from their positions. At the same time, they left the Christians a huge convoy of loot.
Reasons for the victory of the Franks
The Battle of Poitiers decided the outcome of the war. The Arabs were expelled from Aquitaine, and Charles, on the contrary, increased his influence here. He received his nickname "Martell" precisely for the victory at Poitiers. Translated, this word means “hammer fighter.”
The victory was important not only for his personal ambitions. Time has shown that after this defeat, the Muslims no longer tried to penetrate further into Europe. They settled in Spain, where they ruled until the 15th century. The success of the Christians is another consequence of Charles's reformMartella.
The strong army that he gathered could not appear on the basis of the old orders that existed under the Merovingians. The land reform of Charles Martel gave the country new capable soldiers. Success was natural.
Death and meaning
Charles Martel's reforms continued when he died in 741. He was buried in Paris, choosing one of the churches of the Abbey of Saint-Denis as a resting place. The mayor house left several sons and a successful state. His wise policy and successful wars allowed the Franks to feel confident surrounded by a variety of neighbors. In a few decades, his reforms would come to fruition when his descendant, Charlemagne, proclaimed himself emperor in 800, uniting most of Western Europe. In this he was helped by the innovations of Martell, including the very feudal estate, interested in strengthening the centralized power.
