Charles Martel

The Carolingian dynasty took its name from Charles Martel, though he himself never wore a crown. A son of Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace and effective ruler of the Frankish kingdoms, and of Alpaida, Charles was excluded from the succession arrangements made at his father's death in 714, which favored a young grandson under the regency of Pepin's widow Plectrude. Imprisoned and then escaping, he fought his way to power, defeating his Neustrian opponents at Amblève in 716 and Vincy in 717. By the early 720s he controlled both Austrasia and Neustria as mayor of the palace, governing in the name of Merovingian kings who retained the title but little of the substance of rule.

His most celebrated victory came in 732, between Tours and Poitiers, where his army defeated an Umayyad force from Spain under Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, who was killed in the fighting. The battle ended the deepest Muslim incursion into Frankish territory and contributed to the byname Martellus, "the Hammer," attached to him by later writers. He campaigned widely elsewhere as well, asserting Frankish authority in Burgundy and Provence and fighting the Frisians and Saxons on the northern frontiers.

Charles supported the Anglo-Saxon missionary Boniface in his work east of the Rhine, while at the same time drawing on church lands to reward and equip his followers, a practice that drew complaints from later ecclesiastical reformers. After the death of King Theuderic IV in 737 he governed without placing a new Merovingian on the throne, an indication of how completely real power had passed to his family.

Before his death Charles divided authority between his sons in the manner of a king, assigning Austrasia to Carloman and Neustria to Pepin the Short. He died at Quierzy in October 741 and was buried at Saint-Denis, the necropolis of Frankish royalty. Within a decade Pepin had converted the family's power into kingship, and Charles's grandson Charlemagne carried it to imperial rank.