Charles Martel and the battle of Poitiers

A statesman and a warrior, the life and exploits of Charles Martel (688-741), and the battle of Poitiers in particular, have become quasi-mythical elements of history, recovered in particular by extreme identities. right. Back on the history of this confrontation between the Frankish world and the Islamic empire.

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It is a date that appears in all chronologies as one of the greatest feats of arms of the Middle Ages: in 732, the battle of Poitiers opposed the Arab-Berber troops of Abd al-Rahmân to the Franks of Charles. Martel, who wins. Since Samuel Huntington and his essay “The Clash of Civilizations” (1996), the event has been seen as the symbol of a struggle between two civilizational models. But what is it really?

The beginnings of the Carolingian dynasty

Heir to the Pipinnid line, Charles Martel is the son of the Mayor of the Palais Pépin de Herstal (the highest dignitary of the Frankish kingdoms, after the king), and his second wife, Alpaïde – polygamy, then, was still legal. Not without complications: on the death of Pépin “le Gros” in December 714, two potential heirs clash for his succession. On the one hand, his first wife Plectrude intends to assume the regency to preserve the throne for his grandson Théodebald; on the other, his son Charles is defended by supporters of Alpaïde. The succession conflict triggers a four-year civil war, which shook the Pippinid lineage. But Charles Martel finally won in 718.

The first years of his “reign” (because Charles Martel, let us remember, was not a king) were devoted to the pacification of the Frankish kingdom. He crushes his former opponents of the Civil War, then pushes back the eastern border of the kingdom, conquering between 720 and 738 the equivalent of present-day Austria and southern Germany. He also seized the western part of the Netherlands in 734 by defeating the Frisians of Poppo I, who were Christianized in the process.

The Battle of Poitiers, a much debated historical event

But it was after the Battle of Poitiers in 732 that Charles Martel definitely entered the legend. His Frankish troops confront the Arab-Berber forces of Abd al-Rahmân, the Emir of Cordoba. A clash of titans, therefore, between two great military powers which clash in the south of the Frankish kingdom. The battle was presented as a victory for the Christians over the Muslims, who wanted to invade Gaul. The extreme right-wing French identity, in particular, reinvested since the 2000s this episode, interpreted as the victorious end of a mass colonization of Muslim populations, which resonates with the current myth of the “great replacement”.

However, historical reality has little to do with this interpretation, explained in 2018 the historian William Blanc, co-author with Christophe Naudin of “Historiens de garde”, “Charles Martel and the Battle of Poitiers, from History to the Identity Myth. “, sure France Culture. First of all, there is no consensus on the very date and place of the event: Anglo-Saxon historians, in particular, call the episode “the battle of Tours”. Likewise, the forces present and their military and geostrategic objectives are still being debated. “There was a third thief in the affair, explains William Blanc during this conference: Eudes, the Duke of Aquitaine. For a long time he opposed the Islamic troops, he defeated them once in Toulouse in 721, and he tried to ally with them. There is therefore a third camp: the whole of southern Gaul, which is playing a sort of double game between the Frankish steamroller in the north and the Islamic empire in the south. “ Indeed, Charles Martel has great ambitions for the south of Gaul, which he wants to put back into the orbit of the kingdom of the Franks.

The extension of the Frankish kingdom

But for William Blanc and Christophe Naudin, it is necessary to get out of this binary vision of a clash of civilizations. The religious dimension exists, but it is only very secondary. On the Christian side, the concept of crusade does not yet exist, nor does that of armed jihad on the Muslim side. Above all, Abd al-Rahmân’s troops did not seem to want to conquer Gaul, or even Poitiers, but rather to intend to plunder the Frankish riches of the south. “The big loser of the case, says William Blanc, it is not even Abd al-Rahmân. It is Eudes, the Duke of Aquitaine, who loses a large part of his autonomy, because he is obliged to appeal to Charles Martel. “ The operation was repeated a few years later, this time with the Provençaux, in the south of Burgundy. These Christians from Burgundy, a more or less independent region, allied with the troops of the Islamic Empire, which gave Charles Martel a pretext to intervene in 737. “Once again, William Blanc analysis, those who will lose in this battle are the Provençaux who will lose their autonomy. “

Charles Martel’s ambition will last under the reign of his son Pépin le Bref, who will become king of the Franks. It will be taken over by Charles’ grandson, Charlemagne, who not content with having taken over Aquitaine and Provence, will extend the Frankish kingdoms to the west and will become the first emperor of the West since the fall. from Rome.

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