Charles Martel

CHARLES MARTEL. - Illegitimate son of Pepin of Herstal, he succeeded in establishing himself, after a long struggle lasting from 714 to 717, in his father's office of mayor of the palace of Austrasia and then of Frankish Neustria, and in bringing about the union of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks; he also succeeded in warding off the danger of attacks from the Frisians and the Saxons of the north. He then turned to fighting the Arabs of Spain, who for years had been invading southern France, and decisively defeated 'Abd ar-Rahman at Poitiers in 732, freeing the country forever from the danger, although the fighting did not yet cease entirely. In 723 Pope Gregory II entrusted St. Boniface, who was setting out to evangelize Hesse and Thuringia, to his protection, although in those years, out of the need to reward his companions and defenders in the kingdom, he confiscated a good part of the property of the Frankish Church and unscrupulously distributed bishoprics and abbeys to rough soldiers as a reward, creating a warrior and violent clergy that was dragging the hierarchy and the people toward barbarism. When Liutprand, king of the Lombards, set about occupying the Roman duchy, pushing as far as Rome itself, Gregory III in 739 appealed by letter for Charles's intervention, but he, bound in friendship with Liutprand, did not take up the Pope's invitation. He died on 22 October 741, leaving the kingdom to his sons Pepin and Carloman.