The Children of Adam and Eve

Charles Martel (circa 688-741), Carolingian ruler of the Frankish kingdom
of Austrasia (in present northeastern France and southwestern Germany).
Charles, whose surname means the hammer, was the son of Pepin of Herstal
and the grandfather of Charlemagne. Pepin was mayor of the palace under
the last kings of the Merovingian dynasty. When he died in 714, Charles,
an illegitimate son, was imprisoned by his father's widow, but he escaped
in 715 and was proclaimed mayor of the palace by the Austrasians. A war
between Austrasia and the Frankish kingdom of Neustria (now part of
France) followed, and at the end of it Charles became the undisputed ruler
of all the Franks. Although he was engaged in wars against the Alamanni,
Bavarians, and Saxons, his greatest achievements were against the Muslims
from Spain, who invaded France in 732. Charles defeated them near Poitiers
in a great Battle in which the Muslim leader, Abd-ar-Rahman, the emir of
Spain, was killed. The progress of Islam, which had filled all Christendom
with alarm, was thus checked for a time. Charles drove the Muslims out of
the Rhone valley in 739, when they had again advanced into France as far
as Lyon, leaving them nothing of their possessions north of the Pyrenees
beyond the Aude River. Charles died in Quierzy, on the Oise River, leaving
the kingdom divided between his two sons, Carloman (circa 715-54) and
Pepin the Short.