172 Charles Martel
between the duke of Burgundy and the king of ENGLAND,
the English king, HENRYV, became the heir to the Crown of
France. Charles was disinherited and banished.
COMBAT AND RECONQUESTOn the death of Charles VI in 1422, Charles could
become an alternative king. Charles VII’s army was
defeated at Verneuil in 1424. JOAN OFARCsaved Orléans
from the besieging English and took Charles to RHEIMS,
where he was consecrated king on July 17, 1429. In the
meantime Henry V had died and was succeeded in France
and England by the boy Henry VI (r. 1422–71). Charles
did nothing to help Joan of Arc in her trial and execution
by the English.
Charles negotiated a reconciliation with the duke of
Burgundy, PHILIP THEGOOD, in the Treaty of Arras in 1435
and retook Paris in 1436. Charles made a solemn entry in
1437 into the city but did not reside there. After eight
years of fighting in the Île-de-France, Gascony, and
especially NORMANDY; the Truce of Tours in 1444; and the
Battles of Formigny in 1450 and Castillon in 1453, Charles
regained Normandy and Gascony from the English.
ADMINISTRATIVE AND MILITARY REFORMSThe reform of the army in 1445 was based on 15 regu-
larly paid military companies. A permanent army grew
out of a Scots company, the king’s guard, a modernized
artillery, and reformed infantry divisions. The military
effort required fiscal extractions bargained from provinces
and towns.
This restoration of royal authority after the years
1440–45 triumphed over princely revolts and the sepa-
ratist ambitions of the dukes of Brittany and Burgundy.
Charles VII died on July 22, 1461, at Mehun-sur-Yèvre.
Further reading:R. C. Famiglietti, Royal Intrigue:
Crisis at the Court of Charles VI, 1392–1420(New York:
AMS Press, 1986); P. S. Lewis, ed. The Recovery of France
in the Fifteenth Century(New York: Harper-Row, 1971);
Malcolm G. Vale, Charles VII (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1974).
Charles Martel (the Hammer)(ca. 688–741)founder
of the Carolingian dynasty
Charles Martel was born near Liège about 688, the illegit-
imate son of Pépin II of Heristal and his mistress Alpaide.
In his youth, he showed impressive military and leader-
ship abilities. When his father died, he fought against his
legitimate half-brothers and other members of the Pépin
family, who disputed his heritage, but he succeeded
despite the handicap of illegitimacy in imposing his rule.
In 716, he defeated the Neustrians and united the three
MEROVINGIAN kingdoms of Austrasia, NEUSTRIA, and
BURGUNDY. He later forced AQUITAINEinto submission.
To consolidate his power and authority, he reorga-
nized the Frankish army, creating units of CAVALRY.He
based military service on feudal reciprocity, granting
lands as lifetime benefices to the fighters, or vassals.
These lands were often confiscated from the churches’
estates. His new army proved itself in 732 when it
defeated a Muslim invasion from Iberia at the Battle of
POITIERSon October 25.
The Battle of Poitiers gave him great prestige as the
exaggerated greatest victory of Christianity over ISLAM
since the time of MUHAMMAD and as halting Muslim
progress in Europe. He profited from this to conquer
PROVENCEand advance into southern FRANCE. He refused
to respond to the papal invitations to travel to ITA LYto
protect the papacy. He died on October 22, 741, and was
buried in Saint Denis near Paris.
See alsoCAROLINGIANFAMILY ANDDYNASTY.
Further reading: J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, ed., The
Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar and Its Continua-
tion (London: Nelson, 1960); Bernard S. Bachrach,
Merovingian Military Organization, 481–751(Minneapo-
lis: University of Minnesota Press, 1972); Paul Fouracre,
The Age of Charles Martel(New York: Longman, 2000);
Edward James, The Origins of France: From Clovis to the
Capetians, 500–1000(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982).Charles the Bold or Rash (1433–1477) duke of Burgundy
Charles was born in Dijon on November 10, 1433, the
eldest son of Philip the Good (r. 1419–1467) and Isabella
of Portugal. Though count of Charolais, Charles the Bold
rarely lived in his BURGUNDIANdominions. Known for his
aggressive temperament, he engaged in the War of the
Public Good against King LOUISXI of FRANCE.
Burdened with ruling a collection of principalities,
Charles tried to unify his states with a reformed adminis-
trative structure to integrate the two principal parts of his
Burgundian state, FLANDERSand BURGUNDY. He fright-
ened many of his neighbors in the kingdom of France as
well as SWITZERLANDby this attempt. Between 1471 and
1473 he organized a permanent army of regular compa-
nies with artillery. He was not able to complete the orga-
nization because of fiscal problems.
Charles the Bold clashed with towns such as GHENT,
Beauvais, and Liège, the latter encouraged in its hostility
by King Louis XI. Attacking Louis XI he invaded Picardy,
failed before Beauvais, and then before ROUEN, in 1472.
In 1473 he absorbed Lorraine, obliging its duke, René II
(1409–80), to sign the treaty that gave it to him. In
January 1474, at Dijon, the duke revealed his ambition to
re-create the Kingdom of Burgundy, which included
much of western Switzerland.
The Swiss towns joined together against him. Louis
XI formed an alliance against him with the Swiss, René II,
and the emperor Frederick III (r. 1440–93). After the
reconquest of Lorraine in 1475, he was beaten in the
1476 by the Swiss at Grandson on March 2 and at Morat
on June 22 and lost control of Savoy. In October 1476 he