decision, a group of Swabian cities formed a league. War
broke out the following spring, by which time twenty-
eight cities had joined the Swabian city league, with the
aim of achieving the status of free imperial cities.
Confl ict also ensured from Charles’s determination
to return the papacy to Rome. He was able to convince
Pope Gregory XI and the curia to return to Rome in
September 1377, but after Gregory’s death (March 26,
1378), a series of disputes between the newly elected
Pope Urban VI and Charles ultimately resulted in the
Great Schism.
Charles IV died in Prague on November 29, 1378.
He was married four times: to Blanche of Valois (1316–
1348), Anna of Wittelsbach (1329–1353), Anna von
Schweidnitz (1339–1362), and Elizabeth of Pomerania
(1347–1393). At his death the Luxembourg lands were
divided between his sons, Wenceslas IV (Bohemia and
Silesia), Sigismund (Brandenburg), and Johann (Gör-
litz), and his brothers Johann Heinrich (Moravia) and
Wenceslas (Luxembourg and Brabant).
See also Wenceslas
Further Reading
Seibt, Ferdinand. Karl IV. und Sein Kreis., Munich: Oldenbourg,
1978.
——. ed. Karl IV Staatsmann und Mäzen. Munich: Prezel, 1978.
Spevacek, Jirí. Karel IV. Zivot a dílo. Prague: Svoboda (Rudé
právo), 1979.
——. Karl IV. Sein Leben und seine staatsmänische Leistung.
Prague: Academie nakladatelstri Ceskoslovenské akademi
ved, 1978.
Werunsky, E. Geschishte Kaiser Karls IV. und seiner Zeit. Inns-
bruck: Wagner, 1880–1892.
Zeumer, Karl. Die Goldene Bulle Kaiser Karls IV. Weimar:
Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1908.
William Bradford Smith
CHARLES MARTEL (ca. 688/9–741)
The founder of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles Martel
was the dominant fi gure of western Europe in the fi rst
half of the 8th century. As sole mayor of the palace, he
ruled the Frankish kingdom as a virtual monarch, and
in his active career he reestablished Frankish unity and
restored Frankish authority over most of the surrounding
regions. His most celebrated victory was over a Muslim
raiding expedition, near Poitiers in 732, the fi rst serious
check on the advance of Islam in Europe. His activities
paved the way for the even greater careers of his son
Pepin the Short and his grandson Charlemagne.
Charles was the illegitimate son of Pepin II of Heri-
stal, the last of the Pippinid, or Arnulfi ng, mayors of the
palace. Pepin II’s death in 714, with the only legitimate
heirs his young grandchildren, led to an intense power
struggle within the Frankish kingdom and invasions by
Frisians and Aquitanians. Aided by the powerful Austra-
lian relatives of his mother, Alpaide, Charles was able to
defeat his opponents and by 723 had established himself
as the sole mayor of the palace under the nominal king-
ship of the Merovingian Theuderic IV.
Charles, now usually styled princeps, then extended
his rule over the neighboring regions, waging successful
campaigns against the Frisians, Saxons, and Alemanni.
As part of his effort to dominate the Germanic territo-
ries, he supported Anglo-Saxon missionaries, especially
the disciples of Willibrord in Frisia and Boniface in
Thuringia and Hesse. Boniface’s close ties to the pa-
pacy led to warm relations between Charles and popes
Gregory II and Gregory III.
The advance of the Muslims into southern France
after the fall of the Visigothic kingdom threatened the
Aquitanians, whose duke, Eudes, appealed to Charles
for military assistance. The victory won by Charles
at Moussais, near Poitiers, on October 25, 732, was
not the battle that saved Europe from Islam, but it did
lead to his being given the sobriquet Martel—from the
Latin martellus “hammer”—in the 9th century. His
campaigns in the south for the rest of the 730s did halt
Muslim advances and led to his conquest of Provence,
which realized the old Frankish dream of gaining direct
access to the Mediterranean. Charles, however, was not
able to bring Aquitaine fully under his authority. He
paid for manpower for his many wars in the 730s in
part by appropriating church lands and giving them to
his military followers, supposedly to be held from the
church. Historians consider these grants the beginning
of feudal institutions in the Frankish kingdom.
King Theuderic IV died in 737. Charles did not allow
a Merovingian successor to be recognized, and he ruled
the last four years of his life without a nominal king.
In 739, Pope Gregory III recognized Charles’s position
as the most powerful Christian ruler of western Europe
by appealing to him for assistance against the Lombard
king Liutprand. But Charles and Liutprand were close
allies, and this initial effort to bring in the Franks as
papal allies against the Lombards failed.
Charles’s death in 741 temporarily broke the unity
of the Frankish kingdom. His elder son, Carloman, was
made mayor over Austrasia, Alemannia, and Thuringia,
while the younger, Pepin the Short, received Neus-
tria, Burgundy, and Provence. Charles was buried in
Merovingian royal style at Saint-Denis.
See also Pepin III the ShortFurther Reading
Wallace-Hadrill, J.M., ed. and trans. The Fourth Book of the
Chronicle of Fredegar with Its Continuations. London:
Nelson, 1960.CHARLES IV