The Historians' History of the World 07

Eudo, who after his defeat on the Dordogne had taken refuge with his more merciful enemy Charles, was present in the battle and took part in the pursuit and plunder. It was after this glorious triumph over the most formidable enemies of his country and religion that Charles received the surname of Martel (the hammer), by which he has since been known in history.

The importance of this victory to all succeeding ages has often been enlarged upon, and can hardly be exaggerated. The fate of Europe, humanly speaking, hung upon the sword of the Frankish mayor; and but for Charles, and the bold German warriors who had learned the art and practice of war under him and his glorious father, the heart of Europe might even now be in the possession of the Moslem; and the mosque and the harem might stand where now we see the spire of the Christian church, and the home of the Christian family.q

FOOTNOTES

[119] [His soldiers sang a song which Vopiscusc quotes:

“Mille Sarmatas, mille Francos, semel et semel occidimus

Mille mille mille mille mille Persas quærimus.”

This song which became a street song in Rome is perhaps the first appearance of the name in Roman history.]

[120] [He is also called Hlodowig and Chlodwig, and succeeded his father in 481.]

[121] [Also spelled Hlothehild and Clothildis.]

[122] [Clovis defeated the Alamanni in 496, but not, as is wrongly stated, at Tolbiacum or Zülpich.]

[123] [The absorption of the Burgundian kingdom by the Franks is vaguely reflected in the great German epic, the Nibelungenlied.]

[124] [Henri Martinw says that Luco-Fago appears to be the same as Latofao, where a great battle had already been fought in 596, and which is identified with the village of Lafaux

between Laon and Soissons.]

[125] [According to Strabox this town, called in Roman times Pompelo, derived its name from Pompey the Great, who rebuilt it in 68 B.C.]

CHAPTER IV

CHARLES MARTEL TO CHARLEMAGNE

[732-768 A.D.]

Though an effective check had been given to the progress of the Saracens’ arms, and they themselves had been deprived of that chief support of fanatic valour, the belief in their own invincibility, yet their power was by no means broken, nor was Charles in a condition to improve his victory. The Neustrians and Burgundians were far from being reconciled to the supremacy which the German Franks had acquired over themselves under the mighty Carlovingian mayors. Their jealousy of Charles Martel’s success and their hatred of his person, were so much stronger than their zeal in the cause of Christendom, that even while he was engaged in his desperate conflict with the Saracens, they were raising a rebellion in his rear. But the indefatigable warrior was not sleeping on the fresh laurels he had won. No sooner had he received intelligence of their treacherous designs, than he led his troops, fresh from the slaughter of the infidels, into the very heart of Burgundy, and inflicted a terrible retribution on his domestic foes. He then removed all whom he had reason to suspect from their posts of emolument and honour, and bestowed them upon men on whom he could depend in the hour of danger.

In the following year, 734 A.D., he made considerable progress in the subjugation and, what was even more difficult, the conversion of the Frisians, who hated Christianity the more because it was connected in their minds with a foreign yoke. The preaching of Boniface was powerfully seconded by the sword of Charles, who attacked them by land and sea, defeated their duke, Poppo, destroyed their heathen altars, and, like Alfred in the case of the Danes, gave them the alternative of Christianity or death.

[735-737 A.D.]