The New Student's Reference Work/Charles Martel

Charles Martel, meaning Charles the Hammer, was born about 688. He was mayor of the palace under the last Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty, and was the real ruler of the Franks. He carried on wars with the Saxons, the Alamanni and the Bavarians; but his great service to Europe was his driving back of the Saracens. They had already taken Bordeaux and had advanced to the Loire, when Charles met them in 732, and after a hard-fought battle wholly defeated them. This was one of the most important victories in the world's history, and probably kept Europe from becoming a Mohammedan country and being to-day no further advanced than Arabia. Charles died in 741.