TOURS, FRANCE · OCTOBER 732
THE HAMMER
Charles Martel and the Battle of Tours
ONLY THE YOUNG · PART ONE
Four Frankish leaders built the kingdom that became France.
Charles Martel was not a king. He was Mayor of the Palace — the man who really ran the Franks.
711Umayyad armies cross from North Africa and take most of Spain.
732Abd al-Rahman, governor of al-Andalus, leads an army north over the Pyrenees.
He crushes Duke Odo near Bordeaux, then heads for the rich abbey of St. Martin at Tours.
Between Poitiers and Tours, Charles Martel is waiting.
Charles de Steuben, The Battle of Poitiers, October 732 (1837)
For about a week the two armies watched each other.
The Franks stood shoulder to shoulder on high ground.A Spanish chronicler wrote they held motionless as a wall, frozen together like ice.
Charge after charge broke against them. Late in the day, Abd al-Rahman was killed.
Hold the line!
Let them come to us!
Let them come to us!
Most of Martel's men fought on foot — and they did not break.
MARTEL
“the Hammer”
Later writers gave Charles the nickname Martel for the way he hammered his enemies.
He never took the title of king. He didn’t need it.
That night the Umayyad army slipped away south, leaving its tents standing.
Frankish chroniclers
Tours / Poitiers
A great victory that stopped the raiders and made Martel the strongest man in Western Europe.
ONE BATTLE · TWO MEMORIES
Arab historians
Path of the Martyrs
Balat al-Shuhada — remembered for the fallen, a raid that went too far from home.
Historians still argue about how much this one battle changed Europe’s future.
his son · first Carolingian king, 751
his grandson · emperor, 800
The Hammer’s grandson would become Charlemagne.
NEXT
778
Roncevaux Pass. Charlemagne’s rear guard is trapped in the mountains — and young Roland raises his horn.
RONCEVAUX PASS · AUGUST 778
THE HORN
Roland and the Rear Guard of Charlemagne
ONLY THE YOUNG · PART TWO
778Charlemagne — Martel’s grandson — marches into Spain.
Zaragoza shuts its gates. The siege fails, and the army turns for home.
On the way he tears down the walls of Pamplona, a Basque town.
In the narrow pass of Roncevaux, the rear guard is cut off from the main army.
French manuscript, 15th c. — “The Battle of Roncevaux and the Death of Roland and Oliver”
Commanding the rear guard: the young knight Roland.
See the horn at his hip? Legend calls it the Oliphant — carved from an elephant’s tusk.
ROLAND
OLIVER
OLIVERRoland, they’re everywhere! Sound your horn — Charlemagne will turn back!
ROLANDNever! I won’t shame France. Our swords will answer them.
Three times Oliver asked. Three times Roland refused.
ROLANDOur men are falling… Now I’ll sound the horn.
OLIVERNow? Too late, my friend. Courage is not the same as pride.
CHARLEMAGNE, MILES AWAYThat is Roland’s horn! He is in battle!
GANELONRoland? He’s just out hunting rabbits, sire.
Ganelon was lying. He had betrayed the rear guard to the enemy.In the poem, Roland blew so hard his temples burst.
When the emperor arrived, the rear guard lay dead in the pass.
He found Roland beneath a pine tree, his face turned toward Spain — sword and horn at his side.
LEGEND vs. HISTORY
The Song of Roland
poem written about 1100 — 300 years later
- A giant Saracen (Muslim) army
- Roland is Charlemagne’s nephew
- Betrayed by the traitor Ganelon
- Written as the Crusades began
What happened in 778
from Einhard, Charlemagne’s biographer
- Basque mountain fighters, not Muslims
- They ambushed the baggage and rear guard
- Among the dead: Hruodland, guardian of the Breton border
- Then they vanished into the mountains
One line in a history book grew into the most famous poem in France.
THE AGE OF FAITH
Roland’s last wish was a Christian burial for the French dead.
Faith like his shaped a thousand years — so this time is sometimes called the Age of Faith.
Faith like his shaped a thousand years — so this time is sometimes called the Age of Faith.
THE MIDDLE AGES
500A.D.
732Tours
778Roncevaux
800Emperor
c. 1100Song of Roland
1500A.D.
Medieval comes from Latin words meaning “middle age.”
Historians of the 1500s named it — the time between ancient days and their own.
Historians of the 1500s named it — the time between ancient days and their own.
Towns
Universities
Great Cathedrals
Not a dull stretch between two bright eras.
REVIEW GAME
SOUND THE HORN!
Help Roland call Charlemagne’s army back to Roncevaux. Answer the questions to sound the horn!
▶ Play the Review GameTHE MIDDLE AGES BEGIN
ONLY THE YOUNG
Charles Martel at Tours · Roland at Roncevaux
Music: Journey, “Only the Young” (1983)