The Battle of Poitiers (732) is part of the context of the Muslim expansion led in the West by Governor Abd al-Rahman of Andalusia, which is heading towards the Frankish kingdom and Tours. Its advance was stopped, near Poitiers, by the army of Charles Martel, mayor of the palace of Merovingian Gaul, who had come to support the Duke of Aquitaine. The confrontation, which lasted several days, ended in victory for the Franks. This decisive battle symbolizes the end of the Muslim offensive in the West. Let's put this battle, its issues and its consequences into context, to analyze the impact it may have had thereafter, up to the present day.
The context of the battle of Poitiers
This attack on Frankish Gaul takes place within the framework of the Muslim expansion in Ifriqiya (current Libya, Tunisia, Algeria) between 642 and 711, and of course in Visigothic Spain. It was conquered between 711 and 714, and became Al Andalus. Successive governors choose first to settle internal problems with the Visigoths, then to turn to Gaul, in particular Septimania, an extension on the other side of the Pyrenees of the Visigothic kingdom of Spain. The first raids began in 719, when Narbonne was taken. In 721, Frankish Septimania was conquered, with the exception of Toulouse, defended by the Duke of Aquitaine Eudes:it was the first defeat of Muslims in the West (they had previously failed before Constantinople, in 717) since their problems against the Berbers at the end of the previous century.
There are then other short raids, including one that goes all the way to Autun in 725 [Editor's note 2011:H. Mouillebouche disputes this in the Annales Bourguignonnes, T .52]! In 732, the Andalusian governor Abd al-Rahman al-Ghâfîqî decided to attack this time from the West. No source - especially Arabic - speaks of a desire for conquest (only Paul Deacon possibly, but there is confusion in his chronology, where he seems to mix the battles of Toulouse and Poitiers), and the primary objective of the expedition was probably the looting of the rich abbeys and monasteries of Aquitaine, with Saint-Martin-de-Tours as a highlight.
The situation in the Frankish kingdom
The ancient kingdom of Clovis has exploded since the death of Pepin II. It is exploded in kingdoms, duchies or principalities such as Neustria, Austrasia or Aquitaine. It has been led since 681 by Eudes, who considers himself an independent king. Allied with Rainfroi's Neustria and the Merovingian puppet king Chilpéric II, he fought between 718 and 720 against the mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, Charles Martel. The latter, son of Pepin II, succeeded in getting rid of his troublesome mother-in-law Plectrude and her Frisian and Saxon allies. As soon as the Austrasian aristocracy rallied to his cause, he put Clotaire IV on the throne but exercised power himself. He beat Eudes and Rainfroi, and signed a treaty with them in 720. In 731, he finally got rid of Rainfroi and eyeed the rich Aquitaine.
Hero of Toulouse, Eudes is not unaware that his situation is untenable. He is stuck between an increasingly aggressive Muslim Andalusia, and a Charles who will soon cross the Loire to get his hands on his province. He then decided to ally himself with a dissident Berber chief, Munnuza, to whom he would have married his daughter Lampégie in 729 (some historians dispute the reality of this marriage, the sources being very imprecise on the subject, which does not not prevented the appearance of myths and fantasies around this union). But the governor of Al Andalus does not see it that way:according to some sources, Munnuza is beaten and beheaded, and Lampegia sent to the harem of the Caliph of Damascus! But this agreement with Munnuza is subsequently exploited by pro-Carolingian sources who will accuse Eudes of treason, and thus justify Charles' expedition...
The call to Charles and the battle of...Moussais?
Eudes has only one chance to save his kingdom:to call Charles Martel for help. This one does not need to be asked, and crosses the Loire to meet the Muslim troops. Accurate sources on the battle are very rare. The Mozarabic chronicle of 754, written by a Christian living under Islamic domination in Spain, is the most detailed and evokes the halted charge of the Saracens on a "wall of ice" of the Franks. Frédégaire's Continuator, pro-Charles Martel, is less specific and welcomes Charles' charge, while Paul Deacon notes the active participation of Eudes. Arabic sources, very later, content themselves with noting that the Andalusian emir died as a martyr.
The location and date continue to be debated. If there is a memorial of the battle at Moussais, near Chatellerault, other sites are sometimes advanced, such as Ballan-Miré. The battle probably happened between Poitiers and Tours, difficult to know more. For the date, Philippe Sénac affirms that on October 25, 732 almost all historians agree, but translations from Arabic sources also speak of 733...
Charles Martel victorious at the Battle of Poitiers
The real winner of the "battle of Poitiers" is obviously Charles:he beat the Arabs, and supplants Eudes, previously champion of the Church, thanks to his victory at Toulouse. He took the opportunity to turn him into a client, and would end up getting his hands on Aquitaine after the death of the duke in 735 (even if Aquitaine became truly Frankish only under Charlemagne).
Charles continues his fight against the Arabs in the following years. They avoid Aquitaine, but continue their incursions further east. Taking advantage of an alliance with the Provençaux, they took Arles and Avignon in 735, but the latter was taken over in 737 by Charles's brother, Childebrand. The two brothers failed in front of Narbonne in 737 (taken by Pépin le Bref in 751), but crushed a large Muslim army near La Berre, in Sigean, the same year. From then on, the Arabs will almost cease their attacks in these regions.In the meantime, Charles has become a model champion of the Church and kingdom. He doesn't end up king though.
Sequels and recoveries
The term "European (Europenses) is used in one of the best-informed sources on the Battle of Poitiers, the Mozarabic Chronicle (written by a cleric from Cordoba, mid-8th century). The Europeans are assimilated there to the Franks (or people from Austrasia, from the North), in opposition to the Arabs, also called "Saracens" or "Ismaelites". Contrary to what some later asserted, the cleavage was not primarily religious:Islam, very little known, was then considered only as a simple heresy, in the same way as Eastern Monophysitism or Nestorism, and more like paganism. The cleavage is therefore very political. The posterity of the battle and of Charles is all relative. First, Poitiers was not considered a major battle for a long time, particularly in the Middle Ages. It reappears sporadically, depending on the context, but it was especially in the 19th century that it really began to be used for ideological purposes, notably by Chateaubriand, who saw in it an opposition between Christianity and Islam, or during the conquest of Algeria. During the Third Republic, it had a nationalist significance, but was not seen as a symbol of a clash between two religions. We have to wait for that for the end of the 90s, with Huntington, the theoretician of the clash of civilizations. His theses are taken up by part of the French extreme right which, in the context of a rise in Islamophobia, has found its historical symbol. As for Charles, he was for a very long time considered a usurper, and above all the spoliator of Church property, far from the image of defender of Christianity that we try to stick to him today. This relative place of Charles and the Battle of Poitiers in history is logically verified in school curricula. If the man and the event are present, it is always much less than other figures and events like Saint Louis, or even for a time, Bouvines. Today only the lapidary formula remains:"In 732, Charles Martel arrested the Arabs at Poitiers", which does not say much about the facts and their context, and is only a formula to be learned by heart. .as 1515-Marignan. Non-exhaustive bibliography
- W. Blanc, C. Naudin, Charles Martel and the Battle of Poitiers. From history to identity myth, Libertalia editions, 2015.
- De Salah Guermiche:Abd er-Rhaman vs. Charles Martel, The True Story of the Battle of Poitiers. Editions Perrin, May 2010.
- F. MICHEAU, “The battle of Poitiers, from reality to myth”, in History of Islam and Muslims in France from the Middle Ages to our days, under the dir. by M. Arkoun, Paris, Albin Michel, 2006, p. 7-15.
- P. SENAC, The Carolingians and Al-Andalus (8th-9th centuries), Maisonneuve-Larose, 2002.
- F. MICHEAU, "732, Charles Martel, leaders of the Franks, defeats the Arabs in the battle of Poitiers", in 1515 and the Grandes dates de l' history of France, Seuil, 2005.