Charles the Younger

Charles the Younger (c.772 - 811) was the eldest legitimate son of Charlemagne, born to his second wife, Hildegarde. Like all Charlemagne's children, he was educated and brought along on his father's travels.

About 789, his father looked for a suitable marriage. The plan was to marry him to Ælfflad, the daughter of King Offa of Mercia. Offa was willing, but also wanted one of Charlemagne's daughters, Bertha, to marry Offa's son Ecgfrith. Given the sexism of the time, Charlemagne liked the idea of his son possibility inheriting Mercia, but did not like the idea of a Mercian's offspring to potentially have a claim to Frankish lands. He rejected both marriages. Charles was later married to Juliana of Ingelheim; they produced no heirs.

His father involved him in running Francia and Saxony and named him Duke of Maine. Although Charlemagne intended to distribute his lands among three of his sons, Charles the Younger was crowned (co-)King of the Franks on 25 December 800, the same day that Charlemagne was named Holy Roman Emperor.

He died of a stroke on 4 December 811, prior to his father's demise, so the kingdom would have to go to a younger son. Maybe that would be Carloman, the next in line who was renamed Pepin? We'll see.

Pepin the Hunchback

Charlemagne's first known child was Pepin the Hunchback by his concubine Himiltrude. Born about 768, he was raised at his father's court. Charlemagne had strong feelings about his children, insisting that they all be raised well, educated, and given advantageous positions and marriages.

The chronicler Paul the Deacon refers to Pepin being born ante legale connubium ("before legal marriage"), but does he mean Charlemagne and Himiltrude were eventually married? Or that perhaps they had a Germanic form of marriage bond (called Friedelehe, "lover marriage") that was less formal than what we now think of as marriage? Pope Stephen III in a letter to Charlemagne refers to him being married at a time when Himiltrude was the only female in his orbit. Himiltrude disappears from records in 770 when Charlemagne marries Desiderata of the Lombards, and then Hildegarde a year later.

Whatever the case, questions of legitimacy were raised about Pepin. About 781, on a visit to Italy, Charlemagne has another son, Carloman, by his wife Hildegarde, baptized by the Pope and rechristened "Pepin of Italy." This seems to signal that he was "replacing" the older Pepin.

Perhaps anger about being replaced built in the older Pepin, and in 792 he and a group of Frankish nobles rebelled against Charlemagne. 792 saw a famine after a poor harvest, and Charlemagne had been making some legal changes to consolidate his authority and prevent abuse in local courts. He also created a new loyalty oath and insisted that it be taken by all nobles. The Royal Frankish Annals (mentioned here) also cite the cruel Queen Fastrada as a reason to make changes at the top.

Pepin and the nobles planned a coup while Charlemagne was away in Bavaria. A Lombard learned of the plot and informed the king. (The informant was named Abbot at St. Denis for his loyalty.) The plotters had their lands confiscated, and some were executed. Pepin's life was spared, but he was tonsured and forced into a monastery. The Lorsch Annals state in 793 that, post-rebellion, Charlemagne lavishly rewarded all those nobles who were still loyal to him.

Pepin's monastery was Prūm, far from court. When Charlemagne decreed that, upon his death, his kingdom would be divided into three for his three "remaining" sons, it was clear that the still-living Pepin was being completely ignored.

The Royal Frankish Annals list his death as 8 July 810.

The musical Pippin is a highly fictionalized account of his life.

Those three "remaining" sons who would each inherit one-third of the kingdom were Charles the Younger, Pepin of Italy, and Louis. I'll tell you about them next time, and whether they managed to be satisfied with only one-third of the father's realm.

Charlemagne's Wives & Concubines, Part 4

Charlemagne outlived his third wife, Fastrada, who died in August 794. Before the year was out, the 50-year-old monarch had acquired a fourth spouse. She was Luitgard, the daughter of Count Luitfrid II (740 - 802) of Sundgau (on the eastern edge of France). She was kind and virtuous and his children from previous wives and concubines all liked her. Alcuin said of her:

"The queen loves to converse with learned men; after his devotional exercises, it is his dearest pastime. She is full of complaisance for the king, pious, blameless and worthy of all the love of such a husband."

On a trip through Neustria, Luitgard died on 4 June 800 while visiting the monastery of Saint Martin of Tours, months before Charlemagne's trip to Rome when he was declared Holy Roman Emperor. Her tomb is supposedly at the monastery, but its exact location is unknown.

Charlemagne did not remarry, but he did have more children by concubines. In 801 he had a son by Regina, Drogo, who became the bishop of Metz in 823 and abbot of Luxeuil Abbey. Regina also bore him Hugh in 802, who became chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire.

His final known concubine was Ethelind, who added two more sons to his tally of a dozen and a half children. Richbod lived from 805 to 844, and became abbot of Saint-Riquier. One of Charlemagne's grandchildren by his daughter Bertha had been abbot there previously. There was also Theodoric, born 807.

Some of Charlemagne's children did not survive into adulthood. Those who did survive did well for themselves—well, perhaps not for themselves: they were given their careers or had arranged marriages. We will take a brief look at the lives and careers of his children next.

Charlemagne's Wives & Concubines, Part 3

Just because Charlemagne was married doesn't mean he didn't also have concubines. Charlemagne's biographer Einhard describes four concubines whom he says the king took after the death of his last wife, but Einhard was determined to praise his subject. Wetti of Reichenau, on the other hand, refers to Charlemagne's "undiminished and extramarital sexual energy." There seems to be evidence of births, however, that suggests he maintained concubines during his marriage to Hildegarde.

Gersuinda, described by Einhard as a Saxon, gave him a daughter, Adaltrude, born in 774, and then largely disappeared from history.

Madelgard produced a daughter in 775, Ruodhaid, who became abbess of Faremoutiers from 840 to 852, a Merovingian Benedictine nunnery that was a common destination for Carolingian royalty.

After Hildegarde's death in 783, Charlemagne married Fastrada in October of that same year. Fastrada's father was Count Rudolph of the East Franks, and the political advantage of this marriage was an alliance with lands east of the Rhine where Saxons were a problem for the Franks. Fastrada was considered cruel by Einhard (who, to be fair, did not come to Charlemagne's court until after Fastrada was out of the picture). When Charlemagne's oldest son, Pepin the Hunchback (by his first concubine, Himiltrude), tried to rebel unsuccessfully against his father, supposedly it was Fastrada who ordered him to be humiliated by being publicly tonsured.

Fastrada bore two daughters, Hiltrude and Theodrada, who became the abbess of the monastery at Argenteuil. Argenteuil had been connected to St. Denis, but a record in 828 states that Argenteuil became independent when Charlemagne gave her the position, but that Theodrada wanted it to go back under St. Denis, so long as Theodrada were allowed to live there for life.

Fastrada died on 10 August 794 in Frankfurt, where she had traveled with her husband for the Synod of Frankfurt. She was buried in St. Alban's Abbey in a tomb of white marble, but her tomb today can be seen in Mainz Cathedral where it had been transferred after the destruction of St. Albans in 1552.

Fastrada appears in the musical Pippin, a fictional version of the life of Pepin the Hunchback, about whom I have lots more to tell you, but that will have to come after one more wife and a couple more concubines. Stay tuned.

Charlemagne's Wives & Concubines, Part 2

Continuing with Hildegard of Vinzgau, Charlemagne's official second wife (as opposed to a concubine like Himiltrude): with her he had nine children (including twins). As with many women at that time, what we know about her is only what is known related to her connection with her husband.

They were married 30 April 771, the same year that he repudiated Desiderata and sent her home, and months before his brother and co-ruler Carloman died. She came from Carloman's territory, and so Charlemagne may have married her for the political value of having an ally in the midst of his brother's (and rival's) land.

Because the Franks and the Church followed Roman law, a girl reached marriage age at 12; it is thought that Hildegard was likely 12 or 13 when they were wed. She went through eight pregnancies (they had twins) between 771 and 783. Charlemagne took her on campaign with him; their first daughter, Adelaide, was born at the Siege of Pavia. She also went with him and the family to Rome in 780-81, where their sons Louis (later "the Pious" and king) and Carloman (named after Charlemagne's brother but renamed "Pepin" at Rome) were baptized by Pope Adrian I. A 2019 biography of Charlemagne expresses the belief that Hildegarde was interested in astronomy and is referred to as the "Astronomer" in a chronicle about Charlemagne's campaign in Spain.

Hildegarde was devout: she was a friend of St. Leoba, and made many donations to the monasteries of St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, and others. A Hildegarde Chapel at the Monastery of Kempten commemorates her, and they mention her as a founder. She managed to gain benefits for her siblings through her husband. She is the only wife of Charlemagne who was still married at the time of her death. She died on 30 April 783 and was buried on May Day in the Abbey of Saint-Arnould in Metz.

This series started yesterday on International Women's Day, but is far from a one-day sequence. More tomorrow.

Charlemagne's Wives & Concubines, Part 1

Charlemagne (747 - 814), King of the Franks and Lombards, Holy Roman Emperor, and champion of Christendom, was a serial marryer. It was common for nobles to make politically advantageous marriages, and Charlemagne was no different. His marriage to the daughter of King Desiderius of the Lombards was extremely brief and may have been designed as a political move against his own brother.

When their father, Pepin the Short, died, his two sons, Carloman and Charles (not yet called "the Great"), became "joint kings" with equal power. Charles was the elder, and no doubt would have preferred to inherit the entire country. Although they were considered co-equal, they were granted separate geographical areas to see to. Charles got western Aquitaine, Neustria, and the northern parts of Austrasia; Carloman got southern Austrasia, eastern Aquitaine, Septimania, Burgundy, and Swabia bordering Italy.

By marrying Desiderata in 770, Charles made an alliance with King Desiderius of the Lombards; a secondary result is that Charles now had a powerful ally on the other side of Carloman's territory, effectively surrounding his brother's lands. Tension between the two, recorded by Einhard, suggests that they were very close to outright war at the time of Carloman's death in December 771. Charles repudiated Desiderata—a medieval practice by which a husband can declare the marriage annulled—and sent her back to Lombardy. (Another theory of his marriage to Desiderata is that it was arranged by Charles' mother, and he simply did not like her and ended the marriage for strictly personal reasons.)

Desiderata may not have been Charles' first wife. He already had a son, Pippin the Hunchback, from a relationship that may have been with a wife or a concubine. She is known as Himiltrude. References to her disappear starting with his marriage to Desiderata. Einhard called her a concubine, and Paul the Deacon says Pippin's birth was "before legal marriage." A letter from Pope Stephen III, however, prior to the marriage to Desiderata, speaks of Carloman and Charles as both married and urges them not to put away their wives. A grave at the monastery of Nivelles of a 40-year-old woman is believed to be Himiltrude, suggesting that she lived past Charles' marriage in 770. The fact that Pippin was not considered eligible to inherit after Charlemagne's death supports the idea of his illegitimacy.

In the same year that Charles sent Desiderata back to her father, he married Hildegard of the Vinzgau, daughter of Count Gerold of Kraichgau. Gerold possessed lands in Carloman's territory, so this marriage helped create more ties with the lands formerly ruled by his brother. They had several children, one of whom did succeed Charlemagne. I'll continue this tomorrow.

King Desiderius

I mentioned here how Charlemagne fought and defeated Desiderius, King of the Lombards, and sent him to live out his days in a monastery. An interesting note in their relationship is that Desiderius was also Charlemagne's father-in-law.

Was his father-in-law. Charlemagne married Desiderius' eldest daughter, Desiderata, in 770. Marrying her was a political move, forging an alliance between the Lombards and the Franks. The marriage was annulled in 771, however, and she was sent back to her father.

The political alliances of Desiderius were all over the map, so to speak. When he was named King of the Lombards upon the death of his predecessor, King Aistulf, Aistulf's predecessor, his brother Rachis, who had been in a monastery, left it and tried to take the throne. Desiderius defeated him with the help of Pope Stephen II, after promising that he would give lands to the pope. The pope went for this, since Aistulf had made raids against papal lands. Desiderius, however, was not very forthcoming about handing control of the territories over to the papacy, so by the time Pope Stephen III came along, he was opposed to Charlemagne's marriage to Desiderata, and pushed for the annulment. It didn't really require what we think of as "annulment"; in the Middle Ages, "repudiation" was sufficient: the husband "repudiated" his wife and sent her back to her family. It was a holdover from Roman law. There were at least two dozen repudiated queens in the Middle Ages

Desiderius later tried, like Aistulf, to encroach on papal-controlled lands around Rome, and this time Pope Hadrian I called on Charlemagne's aid. It was expedient for Charlemagne to take up the request, since it allowed him to do a favor for the pope and annex Lombardy.

There was another "family connection" between Charlemagne and Desiderius. In 774, Charlemagne's brother Carloman died. Carloman's wife, Gerberga, might have expected her sons to inherit his territory, but Charlemagne simply absorbed it into his own. Gerberge fled with her sons to Pavia (and later, Verona) and took refuge with Desiderius. Desiderius, unhappy with the treatment of his daughter by Charlemagne, took in the refugees. This contributed to Charlemagne's willingness to besiege Pavia in aid of Pope Hadrian. The family was likely sent to monasteries, just like Desiderius, who was surely sorry that he ever got mixed up with the Frankish royal family.

What did Charlemagne do for a wife after Desiderata? He had three more. Let me tell you about them tomorrow.

Conquest of Lombardy

Although there once existed an agreement between the papacy and the Lombards, the desire of King Aistulf to take more land on the Italian Peninsula started an attempt by the popes to curtail Lombardy's power. To do so, they not only pointed out the hostility to them presented by the Lombards, but also their "heathenism" because of the type of Christianity they practiced. The years-long process culminated in calling on their most devout and powerful champions, Charlemagne.

The immediate precursor to the war between the Franks under Charlemagne and the Lombards came when Pope Hadrian I expelled the Lombard officials from the papal curia. King Desiderius then invaded papal territory, and Hadrian sent to Charlemagne for help.

Awkwardly, there were ties between the Frankish and the Lombard royal families. Charlemagne's co-ruler was his brother Carloman, whose widow Gerberge had gone to shelter at Desiderius' court, later settling in Verona. Desiderius claimed that her children should have a stake in ruling Gaul. Even more awkwardly, Charlemagne had married Desiderius' daughter, Desiderata, but had divorced her after a year and sent her back to her father—a grave insult.

Charlemagne brought at least 10,000 troops to the city of Pavia in September of 773. Although he had brought no siege engines with which to take the fortified city, Pavia had under-prepared for a siege anyway, having neglected to stock extra supplies. (The illustration shows part of the original medieval outer wall, now incorporated into housing inside the city.) Desiderius had sent his son, Adelchis, to Verona to guard Gerberge and her family. Charlemagne sent a small troop to Verona, taking it easily after Adelchis fled to Constantinople.

Charlemagne spent the first months of 774 subduing the land around Pavia. By summer, famine was a real problem in Pavia; Desiderius surrendered in June. Charlemagne declared himself Rex Langobardorum, "King of the Lombards." It was unusual to take the title of king over a subjugated land, rather than simply annex it to yours.

Although Desiderius was no longer king, he was allowed to live another 42 years. Let us look at his life and career next.

Pepin's Godfather

Liutprand was King of the Lombards from 712 - 744. During his reign he conquered much of the Italian Peninsula, made an agreement with Pope Gregory (pictured) that donated lands that began the Papal States, established several sets of laws, and raised the first Carolingian king.

One of Liutprand's important law reforms was the Notitia de actoribus regis ("Notice concerning royal administrators"). It significantly prevented local administrators from illegally appropriating lands of the lower classes. It required the administrator to swear on the Gospels that any irregularity in ownership would be reported to the king, and that a royal charter 

Liutprand had been allied with Charles Martel, King of the Franks. They had enough respect for each other that, prior to Pope Gregory negotiating a peace with Liutprand, Gregory had sent to Martel for aid. Martel refused to fight his former ally, forcing Gregory to have the meeting at Sutri in which he allowed Liutprand to go through Italy at will, so long as the papacy in Rome was spared.

Martel's son Pepin the Short, when he achieved his majority, was sent to Lombardy to be presented with arms by Liutprand. I have mentioned before that a king might send his bastard children to be raised at some removed but noble household. It was also common to have legitimate royal children exposed to other courts. The ritual investing of a prince with his first arms and welcoming him into manhood made him symbolically Liutprand's adopted son. It also meant closer ties between the two kingdoms. Pepin did eventually turn on Lombardy, but that was after Liutprand's death when one of his successors, Aistulf, declared himself King of the Romans and reneged on Liutprand's promise to leave Rome alone. You can read the result here.

Aistulf's thirst for more power led to conflict with the Franks, and ultimately led to the end of an independent Lombardy when Pepin's son Charlemagne conquered them. Next time we'll see how that went.

Liutprand of the Lombards

In order to preserve Western Europe for Christendom and repel the Muslim invasions, Charles Martel enlisted the aid of Liutprand, King of the Lombards (c.680 - 744). His reign from 712 until his death in 744 was one of the longer and more productive reigns in Lombardy.

He almost didn't make it. Due to political intrigue, his family was destroyed by rivals: the usurper Aripert II exiled his father King Ansprand to Bavaria, blinded his brother, and cut off the ears and noses of his mother and sister. Liutprand was young enough to be considered harmless, and so was spared and sent to Bavaria with his father.

King Ansprand returned with an army of Bavarians and Austrians. Aripert fled towards Gaul, but drowned crossing a river. On Ansprand's deathbed, the Lombard nobles called Liutprand and declared him his father's co-ruler. This practice—declaring a co-ruler—made succession clear and ensured there would always be a functioning ruler. Liutprand did the same with his own son in later years when Liutprand was ill. Ansprand died the next day.

The illustration shows a large part of the Italian Peninsula under Lombard rule, and Liutprand can take credit for that by taking advantage of local hostilities. Byzantine Emperor Leo III made edicts against icons in 726. Pope Gregory II, however, rejected iconoclasm. Some parts of the peninsula (remember that at this time "Italy" is not a country but a large number of independent states) accepted Leo's edicts; some did not. The clash was serious: for example, the Byzantine Duke of Naples was killed by a mob while trying to destroy religious icons.

Liutprand took advantage of the civil discord to take his armies south and conquer much of the peninsula. On approach to Rome, he was met by Pope Gregory at the ancient city of Sutri, where the two negotiated a deal by which the papacy would get control of Sutri and some other towns as a donation to the pope (the start of establishing the Papal States), and Liutprand was allowed to take as much other territory as he was able.

As the longest-reigning Lombard king, it would be inappropriate to try to summarize his rule in one brief post. His later relationships with popes and the Carolingians and his legal reforms deserve their own attention. Stay tuned.

Abd-al-Raḥmân al-Ghafiqi

During the Battle of Toulouse in 721 and the defeat of the Muslim attempt to make inroads to Aquitaine and Gaul, the Muslim general was killed. A succession of Muslim leaders replaced him until they settled on Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah Al-Ghafiqi. In 730, he was made governor of Al Andalus back in northern Iberian Peninsula.

For a 731 attempt by the Umayyad Caliphate to cross the Pyrenees and invade Western Europe, al-Rahman was put in charge of the army. This time, the Muslim army made swift progress. Toulouse had been won by surprise, but this time Duke Odo's light infantry faced a Muslim cavalry in open battle. Al-Rahman took Bordeaux and then defeated Odo at the battle of Garonne.

Odo fled northward to Charles Martel, who had declined to help him in 721. Martel had been planning since then, however, and with a financial loan from Pope Gregory II had hired, trained, and equipped a standing army to defend Christendom from the invading Saracens. He marched his people south and set up on a hill south of Tours.

Al-Rahman came upon Martel's army on 10 October 732 and paused. Martel had taken a superior position: high ground, with a wooded area at its foot that would impede the organized progress of the cavalry. After seven days when neither army made an offensive move, al-Rahman finally decided he could not delay. His cavalry charged uphill and broke through the Frankish phalanxes several times. The phalanxes did not scatter, however, and little progress was made by the Muslims.

Al-Rahman was killed in one of the charges, and the remaining officers could not agree on a leader or a new strategy. They were also concerned with the spoils of war they had gathered along the way, and the risk of losing and having their camp plundered motivated them to retreat.

Four years later, al-Rahman's son made another attempt at the request of the Caliph, this time by sea. His fleet landed at Narbonne on the Mediterranean coast, proceeded to Arles on the coast (already under Muslim rule), and then prepared to march north.

Charles Martel was ready. He brought his army south, along with help from King Liutprand of the Lombards. They liberated Avignon, Nîmes, and others. He then drove the Muslims out of Arles and burned the city to the ground to prevent its future use as a Muslim base. Once again, the Muslim invasion of Europe was turned back.

Liutprand of the Lombards was one of the most successful Lombard rulers, and we'll take a closer look at him next time.

The Battle of Tours, Part 2

As the army of the Umayyad Caliphate, led by Abd-al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, moved north into Gaul from Aquitaine in 732, their progress was slowed by the need to live off the land. Finding provisions for an army of at least tens of thousands was difficult. The most plentiful source of food would have been the wheat harvest, but in late summer and early autumn the harvest wasn't ready.

Still, their approach to Tours galvanized Charles Martel to bring his army south to meet them after he got word from Odo the Great. He arranged his army south of Tours in defensive mode, rather than going on the offensive. He set up his army in phalanxes on hills with a wooded area in front of them, which would force the Muslims to break up among the trees. The trees also prevented the Muslims from seeing beforehand the size and arrangement of the Frankish forces. The hills also meant that the Umayyads would have to attack while running uphill.

Al-Rahman's army arrived to the area on 10 October, but he did not want to attack immediately. After seven days of waiting, the Umayyads attacked, leading with their cavalry. The cavalry charged several times at the Frankish phalanxes, breaking through them repeatedly. The phalanxes were well-trained infantry, hired and extensively trained by Martel over recent years thanks to financial support from Pope Gregory II. They were disciplined and did not scatter.

The Mozarabic Chronicle of 754 goes on to say:

The northern peoples remained as immobile as a wall, holding together like a glacier in the cold regions. In the blink of an eye, they annihilated the Arabs with the sword. ... But suddenly, within sight of the countless tents of the Arabs, the Franks despicably sheathed their swords postponing the fight until the next day since night had fallen during the battle. Rising from their own camp at dawn, the Europeans saw the tents and canopies of the Arabs all arranged just as they had appeared the day before. Not knowing that they were empty and thinking that inside them there were Saracen forces ready for battle, they sent officers to reconnoiter and discovered that all the Ishmaelite troops had left. They had indeed fled silently by night in tight formation, returning to their own country.

Call it luck or call it the result of clever strategy by Charles Martel, the Umayyad Caliphate retreated to the Iberian Peninsula, abandoning Europe to Europeans. Al-Rahman was killed in battle. Despite the defeat, he is praised for being an able commander, and we should take a closer look at him next time, as well as his son, who attempted another invasion of Gaul just a few years after Tours!

The Battle of Tours, Part 1

On 10 October 732, the next attempt by the Umayyad Caliphate to invade Gaul was stopped at the Battle of Tours. This was the second attempt, the first having been stopped at the Battle of Toulouse in 721.

We have very little detail about the battle. Most of what we think we know is from the Mozarabic Chronicle of 754, a Latin history by a Christian chronicler which mentions the Europeans defeating Saracens at Tours. (The word it uses for the victors, europenses—"people of the place Europa"—is the first use of the word that became modern "Europe" and "Europeans." Europe is called that because of a Greek myth.)

Modern historians estimate that the Umayyad force outnumbered the Frankish force under Charles Martel by about 80,000 to 30,000, but some maintain that bringing and supporting 80,000 troops into Gaul was logistically impossible. Armies like this had to live off the land, and the land could not have easily supported feeding the tens of thousands involved. On the other hand, scarce rations and the subsequent low energy levels could explain the defeat of a large army forced to fight in unfamiliar territory.

One "casualty" at the time was Odo the Great's army. Although successful 11 years earlier at Toulouse, for the Umayyads to get to Tours they had to go past Toulouse again, which they managed to do. Odo's surprise attack in 721 did not translate to victory in 732: his army was defeated at Bordeaux and Garonne, largely because they were foot soldiers fighting Muslim cavalry. The devastation in southern Gaul this time spurred Martel to gather as large a force as he could.

In fact, Martel had been preparing for this since Toulouse, even though he had chosen not to help Odo. He had taken out a large loan from the Pope Gregory II in order to hire and train and equip a large army. How he used this army, and what we know about how he directed the fighting is a topic for tomorrow.

The Battle of Toulouse

The expansion by the Umayyad Caliphate brought Muslims into the first major conflict with Western Europe in 721 CE.

The Umayyads had already taken over the southern coast of the Mediterranean, but it was their presence in the Iberian Peninsula that put them up against the borders of Aquitaine, whose Christian duke, Odo the Great, prepared to ensure the stability of his borders. Anticipating the potential conflict, he left his capital of Toulouse to gather military support. When the Umayyad army under Malik al-Khawlani besieged Toulouse, Odo was away.

Odo tried to gather help from Charles Martel, but "The Hammer"—who is often given credit for protecting the Christian West from the Muslim East—refused Odo, preferring to take a "wait and see" attitude about the spread of Islam. (To be fair, Odo and Charles were rival rulers, not friends, so Charles may have been happy to see his southern neighbor get weakened.)

The siege lasted three months before Odo returned with his gathering of Aquitanian, Frankish, and Gascon troops. (The Frankish troops were not likely part of Charles Martel's people; there were Franks living closer to Odo's territory who were not necessarily formally part of the Carolingian culture.) The Umayyad army had grown overconfident after three months of no opposition, so they had minimal outer defenses, making Odo's attack unexpected and hard to counter, especially when folk from inside Toulouse joined the fight. The Umayyads scattered, al-Khawlani died very soon afterward, and no secondary attempt on Toulouse was made.

Odo claimed (in a letter to Pope Gregory II, who like the caliphate was also focused on spreading his chosen faith, though with a less-warlike approach) that he had killed 375,000 Saracens and lost only 1500 men. Odo was praised as a champion of Christianity and received gifts from Gregory.

Eleven years later, however, Charles Martel could no longer "wait and see" when the Umayyads tried another surge into Western Europe, resulting in the Battle of Tours, which happens to be our next topic.

The Umayyad Caliphate

After the Rashidun Caliphate came the Umayyad Caliphate in 661 CE, with a dynastic rule starting with Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of Syria. The Umayyad Caliphate used Damascus as their capital, rather than Medina.

The Umayyad Caliphate saw a period not only of expansion, but also of unification and reform. One example was when an earlier policy of paying stipends to retired military and their descendants was deemed an untenable drain on financial resources and was eliminated in favor of only paying active military.

The Byzantine gold solidus—a standard in the eastern Mediterranean and beyond—was replaced in 693 by the dinar (see an example here). The dinar originally had the head of the caliph on it, but this use of images lasted only a few years before religious objections replaced it with quotations from the Koran. Other coinage used in Muslim-ruled lands also had imagery replaced in the next few years.

Arabic became the official language of all territories of the caliphate, and government officials who spoke Persian and Greek needed to learn Arabic to keep their posts.

The Dome of the Rock was completed in Jerusalem in 691/692. Although Mecca retained importance for Muslims, it is thought that the Umayyad creation of the Dome of the Rock was intended to take some of the importance away from Mecca, since the Umayyads were originally condemned in Mecca by those faithful to the previous Rashidun Caliphate.

The Umayyad expansion consolidated all of Northern Africa and moved into the Iberian Peninsula. It is their presence in Spain that led to the first big clash with Western Europe, when in 721 Odo the Great fought them at the Battle of Toulouse. I'll tell you about Toulouse tomorrow.