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Pre-Industrial The Hammer broken at Tours

Death of Charles Martel and the Second Frankish Civil War

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On October 10, 732 an Umayyad army under Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi clashed with Frankish and Aquitanian troops in western Gaul. The joint army of of Frankish and Aquitanian soldiers initially held their ground in the beginning of the battle, though eventually the repeated cavalry charges ordered by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi broke into the Frankish square and despite the best efforts of Martel's liege men, Charles Martel was killed.[1] With their commander dead, the Frank army fell apart and retreated. The Aquitanians as well retreated under their commander, Odo when it became clear the battle was lost. The death of Charles Martel rapidly led to the shattering of the kingdom of Francia. Unsurprisingly, the Aquitanians under Odo were the first to assert their independence followed by the Patrician of Provence, Maurontius and the Frisians, led by Poppo. While this was ongoing domestic conspiracies and foreign attacks would add to the troubles would of the troubled realm of the Franks. Saxons, Avars and Arabs raiders taking advantage of the chaos would launch raid after raid to seize whatever loot they could. Nobles plotted and the sons of Martel would find themselves the targets of a number of plots, one of which likely succeeded as on January 29th 733, Peppin the Short suddenly died under mysterious conditions.


His brother, Carloman while devastated by the likely murder of his brother was quick to take advantage by adding his brother piece of the realm to his own while having his half brother Grifo imprisoned in a monastery to help secure his position. Though Pepin's death had seemingly benefited Carloman, it only added to the ongoing violence in Francia. In March, a group of nobles would rise in rebellion against Carloman and in May, the rebellious nobles armies would attack the Abbey of Chelles, and freed the Merovingian king Theuderic IV who had been placed there not long after becoming king by Charles Martel. With the king under their protection, the rebel nobles were soon joined by formerly neutral nobles. The latter had been watching the unfolding Second Frankish Civil War and weighing which side to throw their backing behind. Most of the opening battles had been won by the rebels though it was freeing the king, that convinced many of the neutral nobles to throw their support behind the now cause of Theuderic IV. While Carloman would win a number of victories after this, the tide of war steadily turned against him.


While the Second Frankish Civil War raged, Odo the Great of Aquitaine found himself with his own problems as Arab raiders continued to attack and loot all along his southern and eastern borders while the forces of Theuderic IV were limited raided along his northern border due to most of their forces being in the north east. With few options available, Odo sought to make an arrangement with the Arabs in order to preserve the independence of Aquitaine and the Franks. So Odo dispatched an envoy to Rahman, the governor of Al-Andalus who proved receptive to the offer. In the resulting treaty known as Pax Septimania, ceded parts of Vasconia to the Arabs and established a system of tribute with them. Rahman, as part of his side of the agreement, ended raids into Aquitaine and in a rather bit of irony sent an army of composed former raiders to bring an end to the raids on Aquitaine northern border. Which was quickly accomplished when word spread to Theuderic of Arab backing for Odo and the raids rapidly ceased. Odo was not the only one to seek aid from the Arabs.

In 734, Maurontius of Provence found himself dealing with a number of issues including raids and rebellion by a number of pro-Frankish nobles. To avoid being overthrown, made a similar deal as Odo and ceded Arles, Avignon and some territory along with providing tribute to the Umayyad. With troops provided by Rahman, the pro-Frank nobles revolt was ended along with the raids. By 735, after two plus years of war, Carloman realm had all but collapsed from fighting a four front war against Theuderic IV, the Frisians under Poppo, the Saxons and finally the Bavarians led by duke Hugbert. Carloman, his ragged army and what few nobles that were still loyal to him made their final stand near Metz on August 18 against the forces of Theuderic IV. The fighting was fierce, bloody and no mercy was shown on either side as both sides sides fought to claim victory. But in the end the greater numbers of Theuderic army won him the battle and Carloman was slain near the end of the fighting. The death of Carloman however did not result in a return of peace for the Franks.

Foreign armies still occupied lands the Franks viewed as rightfully theirs. War would continue for another nearly two and a half years of war. Though by the time of the Battle of Battle of Metz, the Franks had known little peace since 715 and so by this time of 735 were a realm that was having increasing trouble funding the war and shrinking manpower. So out of a need for pragmatism, peace was concluded with the Bavarians in late 736 resulting in the Bavarians keeping most of their gains and allowing Theuderic to shift troops north to fight the Saxons and the Frisians. Through a year of fighting both groups were pushed back across the Rhine. By this point the Franks did not have the strength to hold territory beyond the Rhine and so peace was concluded in early 738 with the Saxons and Frisians. After nearly five years of war, the Second Frankish Civil War was finally over allowing the Franks to focus on rebuilding their war torn nation and some governmental reforms.

The reforms mainly concerning the Majordomus in order to prevent another like Charles Martel from taking power. Therefore it was decided that the Majordomus would be elected by the Frankish nobles. The power of the office was reduced as well in favor of more autonomy for the nobles. By this point King Theuderic IV was well aware by this point that he was more of a figurehead and so focused on rebuilding and preparing his nation to the best of his ability for the next inevitable war however soon or far away it was.
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[1] In OTL the liege men protected Martel and in the end the Franks won the Battle of Tours.
 
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