biography
| name: |
Charles Martel
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| |
(Old French, ‘the hammer’)
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pronunciation:
[mah(r)tel]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.688–741)
|
| biography:
| Mayor of the palace for the last Merovingian kings of the Franks, the illegitimate son of Pepin of Herstal, and the undisputed head of the Carolingian family by 723. He conducted many campaigns against the Frisians and Saxons, as well as in Aquitaine, Bavaria, and Burgundy. He halted Muslim expansion in W Europe at the Battle of Poitiers (732). Established as effective ruler of much of Gaul, but never crowned king, he left the kingdom to his sons, Carloman and Pepin, and in 751 Pepin was anointed as the first Carolingian king of the Franks. |
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