Who Was Charles Martel and Why Is He Called the Hammer?
On October 22 741 Frankish leader Charles Martel died. Considered by many historians to be both the saviour and one of the founders of modern Europe, Charles was a formidable warrior and statesmen who thoroughly deserved his nickname of “the hammer.”
Born to rule
Martel was born in 686 in Frankia – one of the Christian kingdoms which would rise out of the ashes of the Roman Empire – and the predecessor state of modern France and Germany. Charles’ father, Pepin of Herstal, was Mayor of the palace, a title which had come to mean de facto leader of the Frankish state. Like in modern Britain, the monarch held little power, and the authority of kingship rested in the hands of the mayor.
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Charles never lost a battle in his entire military career after this brilliant start.
Charlemagne’s grandfather, too.
Look, anybody who goes down in history as Charles the Hammer has got to have been a great great man. Then again there was also Edward I “Longshanks” a.k.a. The Hammer of the Scots (malleus Scotorum).