VIDEO - Battle of Tours 732 AD (Charles Martel, known as the Hammer, Savior of Europe)

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[VU4G10]

October 10, 732 AD marks the conclusion of the Battle of Tours, arguably one of the most decisive battles in all of history.

A Moslem army, in a crusading search for land and the end of Christianity, after the conquest of Syria, Egypt, and North Africa, began to invade Western Europe under the leadership of Abd-er Rahman, governor of Spain. Abd-er Rahman led an infantry of 60,000 to 400,000 soldiers across the Western Pyrenees and toward the Loire River, but they were met just outside the city of Tours by Charles Martel, known as the Hammer, and the Frankish Army.

[Former Fetus]

If y’all go to Spain, y’all must go to the cathedral of Burgos and see El Cid’s grave. His sword used to be on display also.

[Timber Rattler]

In Central Asia at roughly the same time, the Chinese were not so fortunate and we're still dealing with the consequences of their defeat there today...

Battle of Talas

[Fiji Hill]

If y’all go to Spain, y’all must go to the cathedral of Burgos and see El Cid’s grave. His sword used to be on display also.

I visited the cathedral in Burgos on a cold, rainy afternoon in late December, 1965.

[Happy Rain]

The most terrifying weapon in the hands of the Franks was the fransisca—the throwing ax—which even caused panic in the infantry ranks of Rome.
They would chunk the heavy headed things in volleys and the infernal things would bounce off the ground as predictable as a football- breaking up formations worried about getting disemboweled or even worse.
The fransisca was to the Franks as the longbow was to the English.
Couldn't tell from the video but did the weapon contribute much to the defeat of the evil Muslim barbarians in this particular battle?

[Charles Martel]

Wow. Let’s be Frank...

Heh... Merovingian-Carolingian humor. Such opportunities are certainly rare.

[RedMDer]

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[MattinNJ]

Bttt

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. Educational.

Fislam

[gorush]

It figures a guy with your screen name would get it... :{)

[NELSON111]

You are correct. I couldn't even read my own family tree. Charles Martel is my 41st Great Grandfather

Hello cousin. Charles Martel is both my 38th, 40th and 43rd GGF....and those are the lines I know of. The 40th/43rd is through the Nevilles and through the Waldegraves. 38th through the Irish side of Robert De Brus and the Cathcarts.

[Charles Martel]

Thanks for the ping. BTW, when I first learned of my namesake, it was in high school. Granted, a Catholic high school in the 1970s, but still... I later surprised a college history professor with a question about the Battle of Tours.

I learned that even then - long before our modern entanglements in the Middle East - that many in academia were profoundly uncomfortable with Charles and what he accomplished. Beyond the generic white liberal guilt thing, I've never been able to pin down exactly what seems so shameful about *winning* a battle. I guess academics have been generally anti-Christian for a long time now, so anything that represented a victory and a "pin in the map" for the ascendance of Christianity has generally been avoided.

Nowadays, according to my college-age niece, the professors' talking point is that the Battle of Tours is overblown in its importance, as it was just a Saracen raiding party that the Franks fought, not a major invasion. How about that... on the current map of France, Tours is around one-third of the way up from the Spanish border. Not as deep a thrust in 732 (when Frankish lands extended into modern Germany as well), but a *raiding party*? Come on.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks VU4G10. Of course, one quibble, the calendar was adjusted 800 years later (in the English-speaking world, for the most part, over 1000 years later) to drop a few accumulated unnecessary leap days. Bravo for the Hammer! Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[rfreedom4u]

Let’s not forget Jan III Sobieski at Vienna in 1683!

[bcsco]

I had a chess set named after Charles Martel.

[mountainlion]

I followed something back form Charles Martel back to around 800 BC but have not verified it. It was headed to Troy. You are probably related to a bunch of Crusaders, Kings and Queens also.