Charles Martel - The Hammer

[EndtheMadnessNow]

In the 8th century, the fate of Europe teetered on a knife’s edge.

A vast caliphate swept westward—unstoppable, unchallenged.

But in the heart of Gaul a man rose to stop the Muslim invasion in a final battle that saved Western Civilization.



The year is 732.

In the heart of Europe, the world holds its breath.

A storm approaches from the south, an empire on horseback, forged in the deserts of Arabia, now sweeping westward with the force of destiny itself.



Within a century of Muhammad’s death, Islamic armies conquer Persia, the Levant, Egypt, and North Africa.

Their banners catch the winds of victory. Now, they turn their gaze to the green, vulnerable fields of Gaul.



Crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in 711 AD, Muslim forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad smash the Visigothic kingdom.

Spain falls almost without a struggle.
Europe’s defenses are shattered.
The path north lies wide open.




By 732, the Muslim general Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi leads a great army beyond the Pyrenees.

Wealth, conquest, and glory await. The Frankish lands, rich and weak, seem ripe for the taking—and no one stands in their way.



Their horsemen ride swift and deadly, razing towns and sacking churches.

From Bordeaux to the River Loire, the countryside burns.
Pilgrims flee.

Monasteries fall silent.
Europe seems ready to fall into darkness forever.

Yet not all in Gaul are defenseless.
In the north, a warrior-king gathers his forces.

His name is Charles—Mayor of the Palace, son of Pippin, leader of the Franks.

He has spent years hardening his army for this moment.



Charles is no king; he holds no crown.
But power answers to strength, not ceremony.

He has clawed his way to command by sheer force of will and now he prepares to hammer history into shape with blood and iron.

The Frankish army is different from the foes the Muslims have crushed. They fight not with dazzling cavalry, but with disciplined infantry. Heavy armor, long spears, and brutal, unbreakable ranks define them.



Charles watches the invaders carefully.
He refuses rash battle.

Instead, he shadows them, learning, choosing his ground carefully. He knows the future of Christendom itself will be decided in a single, terrible clash.

At a high, wooded plain between Tours and Poitiers, Charles sets his trap. He forms his men into a dense, bristling wall—deep ranks of armored warriors, unmoving as stone. Here, the fate of Europe will be written.



For days, the two armies stare at each other across the cold fields.

Neither side dares to move first.
The Franks stand silent, grim, patient.

Charles knows: it is not the first blow that matters, but the last.

Abd al-Rahman is confident.
His cavalry has shattered mighty foes before—why should a band of stubborn Franks be any different?  At last, growing restless, he orders the charge.



The Muslim horsemen thunder across the fields, armor flashing, banners snapping in the wind. Their lances gleam like stars as they lower their points toward the Frankish line, ready to break it in a single sweep.

The ground quakes beneath the hooves.
Closer, closer.

Charles shouts no commands.
His men do not flinch.

They tighten formation, shields braced, spears leveled forward.

The wall of warriors wait for the storm.



The impact is brutal.
Swords clash, lances shatter, bloody screams fill the air.

But the Frankish shield wall holds firm, absorbing the fury of the first assault like a great stone against crashing waves.

Continue...

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Time and again the Muslim cavalry pulls back, reforms, and charges again.

Each time, they strike with savage force.
Each time, the Frankish wall holds, bleeding but unbroken.


Larger size

Charles fights among his men, hammering enemies with his own battle-axe.
His presence is electric, his courage infectious. Where the line wavers, he is there, roaring defiance into the chaos.

As the day drags on, the Muslim forces grow frustrated.
Accustomed to breaking weaker foes, they now bleed for every inch.

Momentum shifts.

The hunters feel themselves becoming the hunted.

Then, at the critical moment, word spreads among the Muslim ranks: Frankish scouts have raided their camp. Their treasure, their families, their very lifeline—under attack!



Panic ripples through Abd al-Rahman's army. Soldiers break from the fight, turning back toward the camp. Cohesion shatters. In an instant, what had been an unstoppable force becomes chaos.

Seeing his moment, Charles orders the advance.
The Frankish infantry surges forward, still tight, still disciplined.

They strike like an iron fist into the disordered enemy ranks.



Abd al-Rahman himself is caught in the maelstrom. In the press of men, swords, and fear, he falls—cut down amid the confusion he cannot control.

Leaderless, the Muslim army collapses.
Those who can flee vanish into the night.

Those who cannot are slaughtered where they stand.
The field is won—but it is soaked in blood.
At dawn, Charles surveys the battlefield.
Thousands lie dead.
But Europe stands.
The Muslim army of the Umayyad Caliphate based in Damascus, Syria is defeated.

Charles does not pursue the fleeing enemy recklessly. He knows his work is not to annihilate—but to survive. The victory is enough. Gaul is saved.

For now.

Later chroniclers will call it the Battle of Tours. Others, the Battle of Poitiers.

It hardly matters what name they choose:

The meaning is the same—Europe refused to fall.

The battlefield cannot be exactly located, but it was fought somewhere between Tours and Poitiers, in what is now west-central France.

For centuries, historians will argue how decisive the battle truly was. But to those who lived it, the meaning was clear: If Charles had fallen, the heart of Europe might have been forever lost.

The Muslim forces never again pushed so deeply into Frankish territory. The tide that had seemed unstoppable was finally turned back.

Charles' victory echoes beyond the battlefield. It gives the Franks new confidence, new unity. Out of the shattered Merovingian dynasty, a new power will soon rise.



Charles' grandson, Charlemagne will build an empire from the pieces Charles saved. He will be crowned Emperor of the Romans, carrying the dream of Christendom forward.



But none of that future would have been possible without the Hammer at Tours.
One man, one stand, against the darkness.

Yet Charles does not seize a royal crown. He is content to wield power behind the throne. His life is not about titles, but about action.

The men who fought at Tours were not professional soldiers. They were farmers, villagers, monks, ordinary men, made extraordinary by necessity. Their victory was not due to greater numbers or better weapons. It was won by discipline, training, terrain, patience and the iron will of their leader.



Charles reforms the Frankish military after the battle. He recognizes cavalry’s growing importance, planting the seeds for the mighty armored knights of medieval Europe.



The victory at Tours is not the end of war between Christendom and Islam. It is only the beginning of a long, complex, often brutal, bloody story stretching across centuries.



But had Charles failed that day, Europe's story might have ended there—rewritten under different banners, different laws, and a different faith.

In 732, when the world seemed ready to fall, Charles Martel stood his ground.

He swung his hammer.

And history itself rang with the sound.

21st century bonus: Taylor Swift is the 39th Great-granddaughter to Charlemagne King of the Franks on her father's side through the Bernard of Italy line.



"But history is relentless. Rome and Constantinople. Arab caliphs and Genghis Khan. The rise and inglorious death of Napoleon. "Sunset" in the colonies of mighty Britain. Europe of Charlemagne. Incas and Persians. Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia. On which of these pages you open the volumes of the world chronicle, you will find the same thing. After the heyday of the empire and its golden age, there is a long way to the same final: to disintegration and war or war and disintegration. This is the world law. And so it happened with us, with the USSR, only in a delayed version. The war could have happened earlier, in the 1990s, in the first two decades of the 21st century, but it has flared up now. This development of events is connected with the inexorable and cruel course of world history. A large country dies - a war begins. Sooner or later. The accumulated internal contradictions and resentments are too strong. Dense nationalism, primitive envy and greed arise. And, of course, the strongest catalyst for war after the death of an empire is always the countries around it, which want to further divide the collapsed power. In our case, it was the frostbitten and cynical position of the Western world. The Anglo-Saxon civilization, completely outraged by its impunity, which simply went crazy on the basis of the ideas of exclusivity and fictitious messianism."

— Dmitry Medvedev, former President of Russia (2008-2012).

[FCD]

Fantastic read!!!

Thank you!  WOW!!

As a history nut, even I learned something!  That was great!  I mean really great!

I have (3) comments:

1. - I've long been fascinated by the life and times leading up to the Crusades.  It was such a strange time really.  I have also long been fascinated just by life in general during these times.  Even basic day to day existence and survival was amazing, and then to read something like this story!  People in the west today see war as some distant thing; young soldiers train and then go to some far away land to fight.  Some come home and some don't, but the average person back home does not understand the battle; truly understand it.  This fight, during the 700's, came to their doorstep, and much like today the common person took little notice.  But Martel wasn't the 'common person' and he recognized it for what it was...and then acted...decisively.  His plan was not exotic, but steadfast.  There was no 'trick play'.  No, instead there were organized tactics and above all discipline.  The discipline alone is remarkable in that it is one thing to have a cohesive force in battle, but it is a whole other thing to lay in wait for an enemy to attack.  And, while some may see this as a simple defensive posture, in reality it is so much more.  It is a tactic which not only capitalizes on an enemy's weaknesses, it actually creates those weaknesses.  That is altogether different.

People often hear about the Crusades, but more often than not these stories are presented from an ideological perspective and seldom a historical one.  It's like people realize these events took place, but they don't understand why, other than from a religious perspective.  It's hard for most to put the Crusades into a historical context, and for this reason it is even harder to comprehend the motivations which led up to them.  This is especially true when one considers the lack of effective media back during these times.  It wasn't like some warrior stepped up and published an article in the New York Times which said..."Okay folks, Crusade part #1 (of 8) is going to start on Thursday.  Support our troops!  Buy War Bonds!"  But these epic battles were every bit as big as any World War since then, possibly even bigger.  People marvel at the resolve it took in the great conflicts like WW1 and WW2.  When added together, those World Wars took (8) years.  The Crusades went on for nearly...300 years, three hundred years!  Just take a moment to imagine this for a moment.  A single family would cycle through nearly six (6) entire generations from start to end.  That is mettle beyond anything modern civilization can comprehend today.  Just think about what was going on in your own family history (6) generations ago.  Do you even know who they were???  These people did.  Now, granted, many of the individual Crusades were short (i.e. 2-4 years), but some of them, like the 4th Crusade lasted for nearly 200 years.  That is just mind blowing.

--------------------------------------------------------------

2. - Dammit!  Is there not one single area of modern human existence which does NOT involve Taylor Swift?????  Keee-rist almighty!  I got all the way to the end before reading about Taylor Swift and I almost launched my laptop out the window into the front yard!  Dammit!  Just DAMMIT!!  (grumble, grumble, fucking Taylor Swift!)

--------------------------------------------------------------

3. - I find a bit of irony, or maybe even some sort of propaganda based drama, in Dmitry Medvedev's commentary at the end.  It is as if he is trying to prognosticate about the future of the west, following in Russia's footsteps.  Perhaps he could be right, but I have my doubts.  The mindset of the people is different, and this is a big factor in the final outcome.  The ideological structure in the east tolerates total power and the only way to change it is by destroying it.  This is unlike the west where the balance of power can change with a single check mark on a piece of paper (at least in theory anyway).  I'm not sure when Medvedev made that statement, but I would assume it was some time ago now.  However, it is words like these which should make people truly appreciate the last election cycle in America.

[F2d5thCav]

My comments would reflect much of what FCD wrote.

And yeah, that "21st century" bit ... what a useless echo of history, and that is being as kind as I can be on that topic.

Speaking of the 21st century.  Spain will again fall without a fight.  The Spanish are too busy pissing and moaning at each other about their civil war 90 years ago to realize they are on the verge of losing control of their country to outsiders.

France ... kind of doubt they have more Charles Martels.  Their confidence took a heavy hit at Waterloo and Germany finished that job at Verdun.  Everything since then been the plugging of fingers into the dike ... and they've run out of fingers.  Doesn't help when ten per cent of their army is dedicated, permanently, to internal security duties within France itself.

But I'm sure tools like Macron will happily dance the "Virtue Signal" as western civilization collapses in Europe.

[FCD]

Yeah, it's not looking good for France and western Europe.  I see some glimmers of hope every now and then in the UK, but then the usual suspects come along with hoses and buckets of water and extinguish the flickers.  France (and many other western European countries), on the other hand, hang "Welcome!" signs on the main gate, then bend over and spread their cheeks as their new "guests" march in.

Martel, has positively...left the building!

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Fantastic read!!!

Thank you!  WOW!!

As a history nut, even I learned something!  That was great!  I mean really great!

I have (3) comments:

1. - I've long been fascinated by the life and times leading up to the Crusades.  It was such a strange time really.  I have also long been fascinated just by life in general during these times.  Even basic day to day existence and survival was amazing, and then to read something like this story!  People in the west today see war as some distant thing; young soldiers train and then go to some far away land to fight.  Some come home and some don't, but the average person back home does not understand the battle; truly understand it.  This fight, during the 700's, came to their doorstep, and much like today the common person took little notice.  But Martel wasn't the 'common person' and he recognized it for what it was...and then acted...decisively.  His plan was not exotic, but steadfast.  There was no 'trick play'.  No, instead there were organized tactics and above all discipline.  The discipline alone is remarkable in that it is one thing to have a cohesive force in battle, but it is a whole other thing to lay in wait for an enemy to attack.  And, while some may see this as a simple defensive posture, in reality it is so much more.  It is a tactic which not only capitalizes on an enemy's weaknesses, it actually creates those weaknesses.  That is altogether different.

People often hear about the Crusades, but more often than not these stories are presented from an ideological perspective and seldom a historical one.  It's like people realize these events took place, but they don't understand why, other than from a religious perspective.  It's hard for most to put the Crusades into a historical context, and for this reason it is even harder to comprehend the motivations which led up to them.  This is especially true when one considers the lack of effective media back during these times.  It wasn't like some warrior stepped up and published an article in the New York Times which said..."Okay folks, Crusade part #1 (of 8) is going to start on Thursday.  Support our troops!  Buy War Bonds!"  But these epic battles were every bit as big as any World War since then, possibly even bigger.  People marvel at the resolve it took in the great conflicts like WW1 and WW2.  When added together, those World Wars took (8) years.  The Crusades went on for nearly...300 years, three hundred years!  Just take a moment to imagine this for a moment.  A single family would cycle through nearly six (6) entire generations from start to end.  That is mettle beyond anything modern civilization can comprehend today.  Just think about what was going on in your own family history (6) generations ago.  Do you even know who they were???  These people did.  Now, granted, many of the individual Crusades were short (i.e. 2-4 years), but some of them, like the 4th Crusade lasted for nearly 200 years.  That is just mind blowing.

--------------------------------------------------------------

2. - Dammit!  Is there not one single area of modern human existence which does NOT involve Taylor Swift?????  Keee-rist almighty!  I got all the way to the end before reading about Taylor Swift and I almost launched my laptop out the window into the front yard!  Dammit!  Just DAMMIT!!  (grumble, grumble, fucking Taylor Swift!)

--------------------------------------------------------------

3. - I find a bit of irony, or maybe even some sort of propaganda based drama, in Dmitry Medvedev's commentary at the end.  It is as if he is trying to prognosticate about the future of the west, following in Russia's footsteps.  Perhaps he could be right, but I have my doubts.  The mindset of the people is different, and this is a big factor in the final outcome.  The ideological structure in the east tolerates total power and the only way to change it is by destroying it.  This is unlike the west where the balance of power can change with a single check mark on a piece of paper (at least in theory anyway).  I'm not sure when Medvedev made that statement, but I would assume it was some time ago now.  However, it is words like these which should make people truly appreciate the last election cycle in America.

Thanks FCD!

100% on your first comment!

Sorry about the Swifty irony. I was bemused when I discovered that. Like WTF?

Yes, Medvedev is well known for his twisted irony and drama. He's a hoot on twitter, @MedvedevRussiaE.

That's just a snippet of what he published Feb 27, 2023, titled: Points of no return (Russian site)

[FCD]

You know, when people contemplate the Crusades in modern times, the most common thought is..."These other (foreign) people were trying to exterminate our religion, and that's why the Crusades happened.  Christianity Rules!!"  I mean, I know this sounds silly, but that's about all the due it is given in western education systems.  It's like..."Okay so, Noah loaded all these cool animals in a boat, then it rained, and then Jesus came.  Jesus was awesome.  After that, this really cool period in history happened called the "Dark Ages" where people burned all the books (and partied all the time).  So, we don't know a lot about that.  Then the Crusades happened where these brave men killed all the infidels and non-believers.  And this brings us up to one of the most interesting times in history, the "Middle Ages" where there were there were Kings and princesses, castles and knights on horseback and all sorts of other cool stuff."  The really kind of funny part is, I just covered History lessons in Grades 1-6.  Sadly, now though, even that tiny bit of education has been corrupted by the liberal education system.

Now the education system in the west is like..."Okay, so the woman appeared one day, we won't get into the 'how' part.  Then she invented fire, and after that the wheel.  Woman was happy with the wheel and fire for a really, really, long time.  Then the cis-gender people showed up.  Woman celebrated this arrival, and life was good, there was total harmony on Earth.  But then men showed up...and they fucked everything up.  These bastards ate all the food, murdered all the pretty birds and beat the shit out of all the innocent cis-gendered people...and women too (or so they say).  Then the plagues happened, which was God's way of trying to kill this new parasite called "men".  Then the Dark Ages happened, where all the men burned everything, including all the history books which PROVED beyond any reasonable doubt that the WOMAN and MIDDLE-SEX people were here first and were the more superior beings.  But that's all gone now.  Destroyed by, yep, you guessed it...MEN!  But not just any men..."WHITE" men.  Then the Crusades happened, which was men's way of showing off their over the top toxic masculinity.  Now, keep in mind here, children...these were all "WHITE" men doing all this pillaging and slaughtering.  All the women, cis-genders and colored folk had NOTHING to do with it!  Remember this kids...NOTHING!  The women and cis-genders would have done it completely differently.  We would have talked about it behind their backs, gossiped about it, and created a couple reality shows.  Yeah sure, there would have been a few cat-fights here and there, but the streets wouldn't have run red with blood like what all the "WHITE" men did.  Not even close!  So after this, there were a bunch of gay Kings which was a really interesting period (much more on this later).  And right after that the "WHITE" men were back at it again, this time destroying the environment and creating "Global Warming".  And ever since then it has just gotten worse.  And that is World history from the beginning until now.  So, after class today, children, you will find a confessional just outside the classroom where you can apologize to whatever higher power you believe in, or you can just masturbate in the parking lot, and right next to that you will find a pit full of spikes which you can hurl yourself into.  And, it's okay...we'll notify your Mom you did the right thing."

[Ninurta]

A rousing rendition of the Battle of Tours. Yes, Tours. "Battle of Potiers"? Pshaw! Everyone that was there knows that it took place just south of Tours. Just ask BIAD and that grizzly old sidekick and time-travel companion of his.

Personally, I believe it was the raid on the plunder caravan that decided the battle. Plunderers tend to realign their priorities when their plunder is being plundered. Of course, Charles Martel already knew that, which is why he sent the raiders  for the caravan in the first place. Nothing like stealing their shit while they're otherwise occupied in trying to bash your skull in to get a raider's attention! Makes 'em wonder what the real distraction is - the raid or the battle - but they know where their priorities fall!

But you realize that none of the raiders that took the Muslims' shit ever gave it back to the folks it was originally plundered from, right? There is an old axiom in war and plundering - "to the victor go the spoils". The guys that raided the baggage train and plunder caravan were just the most recent in the line of victors, so that crap became theirs.

It was disheartening to discover that Taylor Swift is a relative. That bummed me out a bit, but you know what they say - you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family. See, I'm the 40th great grandson of Charles Martel. 

When I channeled gramps to tell him about this, he was pretty disappointed, too. He blamed it on the Italian branch of the family, and muttered something about Mussolini. According to gramps, when folks do you dirt, you get off your ass and DO something about it. He allowed as how writing pitiful whiny songs about past exes seeking sympathy instead of actual retribution did not amount to "DOING something" about it. Lopping off heads counts, but not prancing around whining.

I'm reliably informed that gramps has disinherited Ms. Swift from the will. He says she'a already gotten enough cash from millions of other whiners, and asked me how I can stand to live in the modern world of whinery.

Fun with maths. "40th great grandson" puts me at 45 generations from Charles Martel, counting both his generation and mine in that total. In Martel's time, the entire world population was about 230 million people. in that generation back from me, I have 35,184,372,088,832 ancestors That's over 35 TRILLION with a "T" ancestors, just in that generation - every generation doubles the number in it, and you know that old thing about a single penny doubled for 30 days... What that means is that for every single person on Earth at that time, I have 157,545 ancestors. That's a lot of overlapping and merging branches on the family tree that far back. It's even more overloaded when you consider that in my case, Asians, Australian Aborigines, Siberians, etc don't count, because they aren't in my family tree. It's mostly western Europeans, American Indians, and one thin branch of Africans in Nigeria that populate it. So, yeah, that figure for how many times each ancestor has to appear in my family tree at that date should probably be increased by about a factor of 4 at least.

S'ok, though. Taylor Swift's family tree is just as twisted up as mine that far back. We're even.

But she still has more money until the inheritance from Gramps comes in. I'm expecting 45 generations of interest to come with it.

.

[FCD]

So, if I'm reading you right here, Ninurta, what you're really saying is...Taylor Swift is your SISTER!  Or, is she your Aunt?

[Ninurta]

So, if I'm reading you right here, Ninurta, what you're really saying is...Taylor Swift is your SISTER!  Or, is she your Aunt?

Cousin. She's my cousin, several times removed. I'm probably more closely related to George Washington - he's my cousin 6 times removed.

But I still ain't gonna kiss her. Getting involved with that woman would be trouble, and a virtual guarantee that she's gonna do you dirty and then write a nasty song about you to add insult to your injuries. Then, to make it even worse, she's going to make bank talkin' shit about you.

I've met more stand-up crack whores.

.

[F2d5thCav]

At FCD--

Along those lines, people don't realize how much was lost in the Dark Ages.  The Roman "recipe" for their concrete mix has only recently been re-discovered.  Losing knowledge is not a path to success.