Pages

Thursday, October 25, 2012


Today Is Charles Martel Day


(Thanks to our Anonymous Commenter who reminded me to post this.)
October 25, 732, Charles Martel beat back an invading Muslim army at the Battle of Tours:


Charles Martel - Also known as Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum (737–43) at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks. In 739 he was offered the title of Consul by the Pope, but he refused. He is remembered for winning the Battle of Tours (also known as the Battle of Poitiers) in 732, in which he defeated an invading Muslim army and halted northward Islamic expansion in western Europe.

A brilliant general, he is considered to be a founding figure of the Middle Ages, often credited with a seminal role in the development of feudalism and knighthood, and laying the groundwork for the Carolingian Empire. He was also the father of Pepin the Short and grandfather of Charlemagne.

A Moslem army, in a crusading search for land and the end of Christianity, after the conquest of Syria, Egypt, and North Africa, began to invade Western Europe under the leadership of Abd-er Rahman, governor of Spain. Abd-er Rahman led an infantry of 60,000 to 400,000 soldiers across the Western Pyrenees and toward the Loire River, but they were met just outside the city of Tours by Charles Martel, known as the Hammer, and the Frankish Army.

Martel gathered his forces directly in the path of the oncoming Moslem army and prepared to defend themselves by using a phalanx style of combat. The invading Moslems rushed forward, relying on the slashing tactics and overwhelming number of horsemen that had brought them victories in the past. However, the French Army, composed of foot soldiers armed only with swords, shields, axes, javelins, and daggers, was well trained. Despite the effectiveness of the Moslem army in previous battles, the terrain caused them a disadvantage. Their strength lied within their cavalry, armed with large swords and lances, which along with their baggage mules, limited their mobility.

The French army displayed great ardency in withstanding the ferocious attack. It was one of the rare times in the Middle Ages when infantry held its ground against a mounted attack. The exact length of the battle is undetermined; Arab sources claim that it was a two day battle whereas Christian sources hold that the fighting clamored on for seven days. In either case, the battle ended when the French captured and killed Abd-er Rahman. The Moslem army withdrew peacefully overnight and even though Martel expected a surprise retaliation, there was none. For the Moslems, the death of their leader caused a sharp setback and they had no choice but to retreat back across the Pyrenees, never to return again.

7 comments:

  1. This dude's one of my heroes. Yes, I know he wasn't perfect. But he at least had balls and a will to stand up for something.

    Europeans of today should be ashamed of themselves, they have got nothing left to stand for. Bending over and getting effed is all they know now. And those who refuse to follow their lead are branded racist and islamophobes.

    So I raise my glass and say, "F*** you Europeans, you deserve what you're getting right now since you couldn't even learn from your better ancestors like Charles Martel. So F*** you!!!!!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. At least you can choose to be drunk, if that's what you want.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lol. True. Never been drunk, not my thing but I love the fact that I can get drunk if I wanted to.

    Freedom is a weird thing, it is the idea that you can do something because its your right to do so that is so sacred. Whether you do it or not does not matter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree.

    Like, I am not gay, and I do not want to cheat on my wife, but I think it would be incredibly oppressive for there to be laws against either.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That´s my boy!!! You destroyed them! Well done! A group of French young people chose Poitiers to show their readiness to fight the savages. Let´s hope you are their inspiration, and that their thoughts and actions find support in the coward elders of France and the rest of Europe!

    And by the way, we are not doing so well here ...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Pasto,

    Exactly.

    No matter how much I don't want to do something, or no matter how much it offends me, a right is a right. There's no two ways about it.

    Yet this is something Muslims and their demented accomplices (lefties) will never understand.

    ReplyDelete