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a concubine of Charlemagne.

Drogo of Metz

Drogo, also known as Dreux or Drogon(June 17, 801-December 8,855) was an illegitimate son of Frankish emperor Charlemagne by the concubine Regina.

As one of the few children to outlive his father, Drogo's prospects for political power were very favourable. Only one older son of Charlemagne remained, and was eager to ensure his few opponents were placated.He became a cleric in 818, abbot of Luxeuil in 820, acceded to become bishop of Metz in 823 and archchapter in 834 and remained in the position for the duration of his life. His younger (full) brother, Hugh was also ordained. He remained extremely loyal to his (half) brother, Louis I and amassed great power under him. Drogo's influence began to wane after Louis' death, and his influence fell even more after the death of his only full brother Hugh in 844. He is interred at Abbey Church of St. Arnulf in Metz.

Hugh, son of Charlemagne


Hugh (802-844) was the illegitimate son of Charlemagne and his concubine Regina, with whom he had one other son: Bishop Drogo of Metz (801-855).

Hugh was the abbot of several abbacies: Saint-Quentin (822-823), Lobbes (836), and Saint-Bertin (836). In 834, he was made archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire by Louis the Pious, his half-brother.

Mayor of the Austrasian Palace

Charles Martel (Charles "the Hammer", German: Karl Martell) (August 23, 676 _ October 22, 741) was born in Herstal, in what is now Wallonia, Belgium, the illegitimate son of Pippin the Middle (635 or 640-December 16, 714) and his concubine Alpaida or Chalpaida.

On Pippin the Middle's death in 714, the succession passed to an infant grandson, Theodoald. The faction of Austrasian nobles who supported Theodoald was led by his stepmother, Pippin's widow, Plectrude. Charles, who was already an adult, led a rival faction and prevailed in a series of battles against both invading Neustrian Franks and the forces of Plectrude. Between 718 and 723, Charles secured his power through a series of victories and by winning the loyalty of several important clerics, both bishops and abbots. This he accomplished in part by donating lands and money for the foundations of abbeys such as Echternach.

In the subsequent decade, Charles led the Frankish army against the eastern duchies, Bavaria and Alemannia, and the southern duchies, Aquitaine and Provence (in Avignon, Nîmes, Montfrin (736). He dealt with the ongoing conflict with the Frisians and Saxons to his northeast with some success, but full conquest of the Saxons and their incorporation into the Frankish empire would wait for his grandson Charlemagne. But probably most importantly, instead of concentrating on conquest to his east, he prepared for the storm gathering in the west. Well aware of the danger posed by the Muslims after the Battle of Toulouse, in 721, he used the intervening years to consolidate his power, and gather and train a veteran army that would stand ready to defend Christianity itself at Tours. Moreever, after his victory at Tours, Martel continued on in campaigns in 736-7 to drive other Muslim armies from bases in Gaul after they again attempted to get a foothold in Europe beyond Al-Andalus. Gibbon calles Martel "the paramount prince of his age,"

Although he was Mayor of the Palace of the three kingdoms of the Franks, Martel is best remembered for winning the Battle of Tours in 732, which has traditionally been characterized as saving Europe from the Emirate of Cordoba's expansion beyond the Iberian Peninsula. Martel's Frankish army defeated an Arab army, which had crushed all resistance before it. The Cordoban Emirate had previously invaded Gaul and had been stopped in its northward sweep at the Battle of Toulouse (721). The hero of that less celebrated event had been duke Odo of Aquitaine, who was not the progenitor of a race of kings and patrons of chroniclers, however. In the interim, the arrival of a new emir to Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, who brought with him a huge force of Arabs and Berber horsemen, triggered a far greater invasion. Odo, hero of Toulouse, was badly defeated in the Muslim invasion of 732 at the Battle of the River Garonne, where the western chroniclers stated, "God alone knows the number of the slain," and fled to Charles, seeking help. Thus, Odo faded into history, and Charles marched into it.

Main article Battle of Tours.

Battle of Tours
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Battle of Tours

The Battle of Tours earned Charles the cognomen "Martel", for the merciless way he hammered his enemies. Many historians, including the great military historian Sir Edward Creasy, believe that had he failed at Tours, Islam would probably have overrun Gaul, and perhaps the remainder of Catholic Europe. Other reputable historians that echo Creasy's belief that this battle was central to the halt of Islamic expansion into Europe include William Watson, and Edward Gibbon believed the fate of Christianity hinged on this battle.

The Battle of Tours probably took place somewhere between Tours and Poitiers. The Frankish army, under Charles Martel, consisted of veteran infantry, somewhere between 15,000 and 75,000 men. Responding to the Muslim invasion, the Franks had avoided the old Roman roads, hoping to take the invaders by surprise. Martel believed it was absolutely essential that he not only take the Muslims by surpirse, but that he be allowed to select the ground on which the battle would be fought, ideally a high, wooded, plain where the Islamic Horsemen, aleady tired from carrying armour,would be further exhausted charging uphill. Further, the woods would aid the Franks in their defensive square in patially impeding the ability of the Muslim horesmen from making an unimpeded charge. From the Muslim accounts of the battle, the Muslims were indeed taken by surprise to find a large force opposing their expected sack of Tours, and they waited for six days, scouting the enemy. They did not like charging uphill, against an unknown number of foe, who seemed well disciplined and well disposed for battle. But the weather was a factor. The Germanic Franks, in their wolf and bear pelts were more used the cold, better dressed for it, and despite not having tents, which the muslims did, were prepared to wait as long as needed, the fall only growing colder. On the seventh day, the Muslim army, consisting of between 60,000-400,000 horsemen and led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, attacked. During the battle, the Franks defeated the Islamic army and the emir was killed. While Western accounts are sketchy, Arab accounts are fairly detailed that the Franks formed a large square and fought a brilliant defensive battle. Rahman had doubts before the battle that his men were ready for such a struggle, and should have had them abandon the loot which hindered them, but instead decided to trust his horsemen, who had never failed him. Indeed, it was thought impossible for infantry of that age to withstand armoured mounted warriors. Martel managed to inspire his men to stand firm against a force which must have seemed invincible to them, huge mailed horsemen, who in addition probably badly outnumbered the Franks. But Rahman's death led to bickering between the surviving generals, and the Arabs abandoned the battlefield the day after his death, leaving Martel a unique place in history as the savior of Europe, and the only man to ever manage such a victory between such disparate forces. Martel's Franks, virtually all infantry without armour, managed to withstand mailed horsemen, without the aid of bows or firearms, a feat of arms unheard of in medieval history.

In the subsequent decade, Charles led the Frankish army against the eastern duchies, Bavaria and Alemannia, and the southern duchies, Aquitaine and Provence (in Avignon, Nîmes, Montfrin (736). He dealt with the ongoing conflict with the Frisians and Saxons to his northeast with some success, but full conquest of the Saxons and their incorporation into the Frankish empire would wait for his grandson Charlemagne. But probably most importantly, instead of concentrating on conquest to his east, he prepared for the storm gathering in the west. Well aware of the danger posed by the Muslims after the Battle of Toulouse, in 721, he used the intervening years to consolidate his power, and gather and train a veteran army that would stand ready to defend Christianity itself at Tours. Moreever, after his victory at Tours, Martel continued on in campaigns in 736-7 to drive other Muslim armies from bases in Gaul after they again attempted to get a foothold in Europe beyond Al-Andalus. Gibbon calles Martel "the paramount prince of his age," In his vision of what would be necessary for him to withstand a superior and larger force, superior technology, (the Muslim horsemen had the stirrup, which made the first "Knights" possible, while Martel, dared not send his few stirrupless horsemen agaisnt the Islamic Cavalry, so he trained his army to fight in a formation used by the ancient Greeks to withstand superior numbers and weapons essentially by discipline, courage, and wilingness to die in their cause in a Phalanx).

The defeats Martel inflicted on the Muslims were absolutely vital in that the split in the Islamic world left the Caliphate unable to mount an all out attack on Europe via its Iberian stronghold after 750. It was during the period from 721 to 750, the age of Charles Martel in Europe, that the Christian heartland lay in his hands to defend. His ability to meet this challange, until the Muslims self destructed, is unquestionably of macrohisorical importance, anda whey Dante writes of him in Heaven as one of the "Defenders of the Faith." The struggle between the Umayyads, and the Abbasids, which came to a head during this period, (from the defeat of the Muslim at Tours in 732 to the fall of the Umayyads in 750 -- except in Al-Andulus) -- left the Arabs unable to mount another massive invasion before they lost the base they needed to do it from. The door to Europe, the Iberian Emirate, was in the hands of the Umayyads, while most of the remainder of the Muslim world came under the control of the Abbasids, making an invasion of Europe a logistical impossibility while the two Muslim empires battled. There was no unified Caliphate to mount an invasion, and no foothold to launch such an invasion from -- instead, Al-Andalus, the Umayyad Emirate was busy fighting off challanges from the Abbasids in Bagdad to think of invading Europe, and the Abbasids, needed the foothold in Iberia which they lacked, could not think of expansion into Europe. Simply put, there was no militarily easy route for an invasion of Europe. It would be centuries later, during the Ottoman Empire, that Islam again threatened Europe -- and they did so by way of the Balkans. It is vital to note that Martel's victories at Tours, and his later campaigns, prevented invasion of Europe while the unified Caliphate was able to do so. In doing so, Martel probably preserved christianity and western civilization as we know it. Although it took another two generations for the Franks to drive all the Arab garrisons out of Septimania and across the Pyrenees, Charles Martel's halt of the invasion of French soil turned the tide of Islamic advances, and the unification of the Frankish kingdoms under Martel, his son Pippin the Younger, and his grandson Charlemagne prevented the Emirate of Cordoba from expanding over the Pyrenees.

As noted, Gibbon called him "the paramount prince of his age." A strong argument can be made Gibbons was correct.


Charles Martel married two times:

1. Chrotrud or Rotrude (690-724), with children:
1. Hiltrude (d. 754), married Odilo I of Bavaria, Duke of Bavaria.
2. Carloman
3. Landres of Hesbaye, married Sigrand, Count of Hesbania.
4. Auda or Alane Martel, married Thierry IV, Count of Autun and Toulouse.
5. Pippin the Younger
2. Swanachild, with chid:
1. Grifo
2. Bernhard (b. ca. 700)

Charles Martel died on October 22, 741 at Quierzy in what is today the Aisne département in the Picardy region of France. He was buried at Saint Denis Basilica in Paris. His territories were divided among his sons, Carloman, Pippin the Younger, and Grifo.

Charles Martel married two times:

1. Chrotrud or Rotrude (690-724), with children:
1. Hiltrude (d. 754), married Odilo I of Bavaria, Duke of Bavaria.
2. Carloman
3. Landres of Hesbaye, married Sigrand, Count of Hesbania.
4. Auda or Alane Martel, married Thierry IV, Count of Autun and Toulouse.
5. Pippin the Younger
2. Swanachild, with chid:
1. Grifo
2. Bernhard (b. ca. 700.)

Carloman (716-754) was the son of Charles Martel, major domo or Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia and Chrotrud. He was a member of the family later called the Carolingians and it can be argued that he was instrumental in consolidating their power at the expense of the ruling Merovingian kings of the Franks.

After the death of his father in 741, power was initially divided among Carloman and his brothers Pippin III and Grifo. By 742, Carloman and Pippin had ousted Grifo, and each turned his attention towards his own area of influence as major domo, Pippin in the West and Carloman in the East.

Carloman strengthened his authority in part via his support of the Anglo-Saxon missionary Winfrid (Boniface), the so-called "Apostle of the Germans", whom he charged with restructuring the chuch in the Frankish Empire. This was in part a continuation of a policy begun under his grandfather Pippin of Herstal and continued to a lesser extent under Charles Martel. Carloman was instrumental in convening the Concilium Germanicum in 742, the first major Church synod to be held in the eastern parts of the Frankish kingdom. Chaired jointly by him and Boniface, the synod ruled that priests were not allowed to bear arms or to host females in their houses and that it was one of the primary tasks to eradicate pagan beliefs. While his father had frequently confiscated church property to reward his followers, Carloman sought to increase the assets of the church. He donated, for instance, the land for one of Boniface's most important foundation, the monastery of Fulda.

Carloman could be ruthless towards real or perceived opponents. In 746, he convened an assembly of all alamanni dukes and nobles at Cannstatt and then had most of them, numbering in the thousands, arrested and executed for high treason in the blood court at Cannstatt. This eradicated virtually the entire tribal leadership of the Alamanni and ended the independence of the tribal duchy of Alamannia which was thereafter governed by counts appointed by their Frankish overlords.

These actions strengthened Carloman's position, and that of the family as a whole, especially in terms of their rivalries with other leading families such as the Bavarian Agilolfings.

In 747, Carloman renounced his position as major domo and withdrew to a monastic life in Monte Soracte and Monte Cassino. He died on 17 July 754 and was buried in Monte Cassino.

Auda or Alane Martel, married Thierry IV, Count of Autun and Toulouse.