In the last four years of his life, Charles encour-
aged the spread of Christianity and made Boniface
archbishop of Germany east of the Rhine. He died at
Quierzy-sur-Oise on 22 October 741 and was buried in
the Saint Denis Basilica in Paris. His immediate legacy
was an empire that would be inherited by his grandson
Charles—who became known as Charlemagne, the first
Holy Roman Emperor. His longer-term legacy was the
firm establishment of Christianity in Germany and the
Netherlands and the fusion of the dukedoms, provinces,
and fiefdoms of the Frankish kingdom into the entity
known today as France. It would be nearly a thousand
years before it was truly unified, but Charles Martel
began the process. He did so by reintroducing the sys-
tem of a regular army and by the development of trained
and armored cavalry. He can be said to have pulled Eu-
rope out of the Dark Ages into the Middle Ages—and to
have saved western Europe from Arab conquest.
References: Costanbeys, Marios, “Martel, Charles,” in
The Oxford Companion to Military History, edited by Rich-
ard Holmes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001),
391–392; Dupuy, Ernest R., and Trevor N. Dupuy, “De-
cline of the Merovingians, 600–731” and “Campaign and
Battle of Tours, 732,” in The Encyclopedia of Military His-
tory, 2d rev. ed. (London: Jane’s, 1986), 203–206; Devi-
osse, Jean, Charles Martel (Paris: Librairie Jules Tallandier,
1978); Fouracres, Paul, The Age of Charles Martel (New
York: Longman, 2000).
Chinggis Khan See genghis khan.
Churchill, John, first duke of Marlborough
(1650–1722) English field marshal
John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough, was the scion
of a famed English family. Born at Ashe, Devon, on 24
June 1650, he was the son of Sir Winston Churchill, a
member of Parliament and adviser to King Charles II of
England, and his wife Elizabeth Drake. The Churchill
family can be traced back to the 11th century. His-
torian William Coxe, writing in his landmark work
Memoirs of John Duke of Marlborough (1818–19), says,
“[Marlborough] was descended from Roger de Courcil,
or Courselle, one of the Coursils of Poitou, who was
a Norman baron, and accompanied William [the Con-
queror] in 1066.”
In 1667, when he was 17, John Churchill received
a commission in the Foot Guards and was sent to
Tangier (now Algeria) in northern Africa, fighting the
Moors there for a period of two years. In 1672, he saw
action in the Third Dutch War (1672–74), especially
on 28 May 1672 at the battle of Sole Bay (also called
Southwold), where a combined English and French
fleet of ships, under the command of James, duke of
York (later King James II of England) fought the Dutch
under Admiral Michel de Ruyter in an indecisive battle.
Churchill was subsequently promoted to captain and
fought with English forces sent to France to help King
Louis XIV against the Dutch; at Nijmegen and Maas-
tricht (1673), he showed the first signs of the leadership
he would display so well later. Promoted to command
a regiment, he served with distinction at Enzheim on 4
October 1674.
In 1685, James II ascended to the throne and em-
ployed Churchill on a special mission to France. For
this service, he was rewarded with a promotion to major
general and given a barony. However, three years later,
when James, a Catholic, was expelled in favor of the
Protestant William of Orange, later William III of En-
gland, Churchill sided with William, for which he wasJohn Churchill, duke of MarlboroughchuRchill, John, FiRSt Duke oF mARlboRough