• General Notes

  TITLE:  Mayor of PALACE
  NICK:  "Martel" ("The Hammer")
  1ST WIFE:  Rotrude of TREVES, m. ABT. 713 in AUSTRASIE
  2NF WIFE: Swanhilde of BAVARIA, m. 725 in <Austrasie, FRANCE>
  NOTE:
  Plantagenet Ancestry of King Edward III and Queen Philippa by George Andrew Moriarty Mormon Pioneer Genealogical Society SLC 1985 pp 5-220; The Plantagent Ancestry by W.H.Turton DSO Genealogical Publishing Co. Baltimore 1984 pp 8, 171; Royal Ancestors of Some American Families by Michel Call SLC 1989 chart 11201,11602,11624,11227,11701; Descents From Antiquity; The Augustan Society Torrance Ca 1986 chart W; Some sources from Paula Evans 1992;
  Internet search, 17 Sep 1995: "Charlemagne and His Descendants"
  After the death of his father there was a period of anarchy. His nephews, grandchildren of Plectrude, were proclaimed rulers and Charles was thrown into prison. Austrasia (eastern portion of France) and Neustria (western France) were still separate. He escaped and defeated the Neustrians at Ambleve in 716 and at Vincy the following year. He also took the title of mayor of the palace of Austrasia, thus uniting the northern part of the country. In 719 he forced Duke Odo of Aquitaine to recognize his suzerainty. He also became renowned for his victories over the Moors. They had conquered Spain in 711 and later crossed the Pyrenees and advanced on Gaul as far as Tours. His brilliant victory, in October, 732, over the Moors ended the last of the Arab invasion and led to his being called Martel (the Hammer). He then took the offensive against them in southern France. His victories over the Germans resulted in the annexation of Frisia, the end of the duchy of Bavaria, intervention in Bavaria and the payment of tribute by the Saxons. Pope Gregory III attempted to obtain his aid against the Lombards but was unsuccessful. For a few years before his death there was no king of the Merovingian line, and in 741 he divided the kingdom between his two sons as though he were master of the realm.
  Alt Birth: 689 Heristal, Liege, Belgium
  Victor over the Saracens at Tours, Poitiers.
  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.
  SOURCES:
  Charles Martel (Andre Roux: Scrolls, 191.)
  (Paul, Nouveau Larousse Universel.)
  (Rosamond, Frankish kingdom under Carolingians.)
  (Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, Page 129, Line 171-43.)
  (Andre Castelot, Histoire de La France, Tome 1, Pages 271 - 273, 369).
  Born: in 686 in Chateau de Franchemont, Belgium, son of Pepin II d'Heristal and Aupais=Alpaide N? , The Chateau de Franchemont is near Spa and also Verviers, which may have encompassed Heristal. During World War II, the resistance used the tunnels under the castle to hid

Details of (Mayor) Charles "Martel"'s family with Swanhilde Of BAVARIA