FOOTNOTES: 

[69] Gibbon remarks that if the Saracen conquests had not then been checked, “perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.”

[70] Of the Hegira.

[71] Probably the Loire.

[72] An.  Heg.

FOUNDING OF THE CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY

PEPIN THE SHORT USURPS THE FRANKISH CROWN

A.D. 751

FRANCOIS P.G.  GUIZOT

The Merovingians, the first dynasty of the Frankish kings in Gaul, was founded by the greatest of their kings, Clovis, who in 486 overthrew the Gallo-Roman sway under Syagrius, near Soissons.  After his death in 511 his kingdom was divided among four sons who were mere boys ranging from twelve to eighteen years of age.  The young princes extended the conquests of their father until they had secured from the emperor Justinian title to the whole of Gaul.  The last survivor of the brother-kings was Clotaire I. Under his rule the whole Frankish empire had been united in one; but on his decease it was again divided among sons.  This division cut the kingdom into three separate sovereignties.

The reign of these brothers was one of horrible cruelty and bloodshed.  A second Clotaire survived them and brought the monarchy under one sceptre.  But power slipped fast from this royal representative of the Merovingian race, and the mayor of the palace (major-domus) began to exercise an authority which in time resulted in supremacy.  When Pepin of Heristal, the greatest territorial lord of Austrasia, took upon himself the office of major-domus, he compelled the Merovingian King, at the battle of Testry in 687, to invest him with the powers of that office in the three Frankish states, Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy.  This being accomplished Pepin was practically dictator, and the Merovingians, though allowed to remain on the throne, were simply figure-heads from that time forth.  Charles Martel was a son worthy of Pepin of Heristal.  His most notable achievement was the defeat of the Saracen invaders at the battle of Tours, A.D. 732, which ended the advance of Mahometanism through Western Europe.

Charles Martel died October 22, 741, at Kiersey-sur-Oise, aged fifty-two years, and his last act was the least wise of his life.  He had spent it entirely in two great works:  the reestablishment throughout the whole of Gaul of the Franco-Gallo-Roman Empire, and the driving back, from the frontiers of his empire, of the Germans in the North and the Arabs in the South.  The consequence, as also the condition, of this double success was the victory of Christianity over paganism and Islamism.