Photo Credit: With a Christian cross prominently displayed at left, Charles Martel’s Frankish forces beat back Muslim invaders at Tours in Charles Steuben’s 19th-century painting.

Charles The Hammer At Tours

An army of fast-moving Muslim raiders collided with a phalanx of Frankish heavy infantry under Charles “the Hammer” Martel at Tours in ad 732. It would be the highwater mark of the Islamic tide in Europe.

This article appears in: December 2010

By William E. Welsh In the late spring of ad 732, an 80,000-man-strong Muslim army spilled northward through gaps in the western Pyrenees onto the verdant, gently rolling landscape of Gascony. The invaders crossed the 3,800-foot Roncesvalles Pass, shedding extra layers of clothing they had worn as they passed through the snow-covered mountains. As they descended, the air became pleasantly warm in the Duchy of Aquitaine and they were greeted by heavy rains in sharp contrast to the desert air wit