TOWNLEY - a name born on the battlefield and baptized in the blood of a thousand French Knights
Chapter 2 - Great Warriors
This chapter we will cover four men that were direct ancestors of ours and made a great impact on world history. All of these men were great leaders and fierce warriors. Physically they were immense by today's standards. All were from 6'8" to 7'0" in height, weighing around 250 pounds. The only exception was Pepin "the Short" who was only 6'0" tall. They were all skilled in the art of combat and usually led the charge in battle. They were aggressive in their lust to expand their empires, and can truly be called War Lords.
All of these men were direct descendants of Saint Arnold through his son Anseghigel. Anseghigel served King Sigebert III of Austrasia. He was killed before 679; slain in a feud by his enemy Gundewin.
Pepin II
Anseghigel's son Pepin II, was a Frankish statesman and military leader who de facto ruled Francia as the Mayor of the Palace from 680 until his death. Pepin is our 3rd generation direct ancestor. He took the title Duke and Prince of the Franks upon his conquest of all the Frankish realms. Pepin was the grandson and namesake of Pepin I "the Elder" through the marriage of Pepin I's daughter Begga to Ansegisel. He was also the grandfather of Pepin "the Short" and great-grandfather of Charlemagne. That marriage united the two houses of the Pippinids and the Arnulfings which created what would be called the Carolingian dynasty. Pepin worked to establish his family, the Pippinids, as the strongest in Francia. Pepin subsequently embarked on several wars to expand his power. He united all the Frankish realms by the conquests of Neustria and Burgundy in 687, and began calling himself Duke and Prince of the Franks. The Neustrians barely tolerated an Austrasian overlord, but Pepin preferred to put these local resistances aside to deal with Germany. Over the next several years, Pepin subdued the Alemanni, Frisians, and Franconians, bringing them within the Frankish sphere of influence. This gave the Franks control of important trade routes on the Rhine to the North Sea. He also began the process of evangelization in Germany. Around 670, Pepin had married Plectrude, who had inherited substantial estates in the Moselle region. She was the mother of Drogo of Champagne and Grimoald II, both of whom died before their father. However, Pepin also had a mistress (or possibly, a second wife) named Alpaida, who bore him two more sons: Charles Martel and Childebrand. Just before Pepin's death, Plectrude convinced him to disinherit the sons he had with his mistress Alpaida in favor of his grandson, Theudoald; who was still a young child (and amenable to Plectrude's control). Pepin died suddenly at the age of 79 on 16 December 714, at Jupille (in modern Belgium). His grandchildren through Plectrude claimed themselves to be Pepin's true successors and, with the help of Plectrude, tried to maintain the position of mayor of the palace after Pepin's death. However, Charles (son of Pepin and Alpaida) had gained favor among the Austrasians, primarily for his military prowess and ability to keep them well supplied with booty from his conquests. Despite the efforts of Plectrude to silence her child's rival by imprisoning him, he became the sole mayor of the palace; after a civil war which lasted for more than three years after Pepin's death. This leads us to our next ancestor; our 4th generation direct ancestor. Carles Martel.
Charles 'the Hammer" Martel
as mentioned above Charles was a son of Pepin II and Alpaida; as a result he is our 4th generation direct ancestor. Charles also had a brother named Childebrand. Pepin's death occasioned open conflict between his heirs and the Neustrian nobles who sought political independence from Austrasian control. On 26 September 715, Ragenfrid's Neustrians met the young Theudoald's forces at the Battle of Compiègne. Theudoald was defeated and fled back to Cologne. Before the end of the year, Charles Martel had escaped from prison and been acclaimed mayor by the nobles of Austrasia.
In 716, Chilperic and Ragenfrid together led an army into Austrasia intent on seizing the Pippinid wealth at Cologne. The Neustrians allied with another invading force and met Charles in battle near Cologne, which was still held by Plectrude. Charles had little time to gather men, or prepare, and the result was inevitable. The Battle of Cologne is the only defeat of Charles Martel's career.
Charles retreated to the hills of the Eifel to gather men, and train them. Having made the proper preparations, in April 716, he fell upon the triumphant army near Malmedy as it was returning to its own province. In the ensuing Battle of Amblève, Martel attacked as the enemy rested at midday. Many of the enemy fled and Martel's troops gathered the spoils of the camp. Martel's reputation increased considerably as a result, and he attracted more followers. This battle is often considered by historians as the turning point in Charles's struggle.
Charles was also known as "The Hammer" (in Old French, Martel), successfully asserted his claims to power as successor to his father as the power behind the throne in Frankish politics. Up to this time, much of Martel's support was probably from his mother's kindred in the lands around Liege. After Amblève, he seems to have won the backing of the influential Willibrord, founder of the Abbey of Echternach. The abbey had been built on land donated by Plectrude's mother, Irmina of Oeren. Plectrude's army began burning churches and killing many missionaries. Willibrord and his monks were forced to flee to Echternach. Willibrord had decided that the chances of preserving his life's work were better with a successful field commander like Martel than with Plectrude in Cologne. Willibrord subsequently baptized Martel's son Pepin "the Short".
Charles took time to rally more men and prepare. By the following spring, Charles had attracted enough support to invade Neustria. Charles sent an envoy who proposed a cessation of hostilities if Chilperic would recognize his rights as mayor of the palace in Austrasia. The refusal was not unexpected but served to impress upon Martel's forces the unreasonableness of the Neustrians. They met near Cambrai at the Battle of Vincy on 21 March 717. The victorious Martel pursued the fleeing king and mayor to Paris, but as he was not yet prepared to hold the city, he turned back to deal with Plectrude and Cologne. He took the city and dispersed her adherents. Plectrude was allowed to retire to a convent. Between 718 and 732, Charles secured his power through a series of victories. Having unified the Franks under his banner, Charles was determined to punish the Saxons who had invaded Austrasia. Therefore, late in 718, he laid waste their country to the banks of the Weser, the Lippe, and the Ruhr.
Continuing and building on his father's work, he restored centralized government in Francia and began the series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul. According to a near-contemporary source, Charles was "a warrior who was uncommonly effective in battle". Martel gained a very consequential victory against an Umayyad invasion of Aquitaine at the Battle of Tours, at a time when the Umayyad Caliphate controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula. Alongside his military endeavors, Charles has been traditionally credited with a seminal role in the development of the Frankish system of feudalism.
Between his victory of 732 and 735, Charles reorganized the kingdom of Burgundy, replacing the counts and dukes with his loyal supporters, thus strengthening his hold on power. He was forced, by the ventures of Bubo, Duke of the Frisians, to invade independent-minded Frisia again in 734. In that year, he slew the duke at the Battle of the Boarn. Charles ordered the Frisian pagan shrines destroyed, and so wholly subjugated the populace that the region was peaceful for twenty years after. Charles used the relative peace to set about integrating the outlying realms of his empire into the Frankish church. He erected four dioceses in Bavaria (Salzburg, Regensburg, Freising, and Passau) and gave them Boniface as archbishop and metropolitan over all Germany east of the Rhine.
Charles Martel died on 22 October 741, at Quierzy-sur-Oise, and was buried at Saint Denis Basilica in Paris. Charles Martel laid the foundations for his son Pepin's rise to the Frankish throne in 751, and his grandson Charlemagne's imperial acclamation in 800.
Pepin "the Short"
The younger son of the Frankish prince Charles Martel and his wife Rotrude, and is our 5th generation direct ancestor. Pepin's upbringing was distinguished by the ecclesiastical education he had received from the monks of St. Denis. Succeeding his father as the Mayor of the Palace in 741, Pepin reigned over Francia jointly with his elder brother Carloman. Pepin ruled in Neustria, Burgundy and Provence, while his older brother Carloman established himself in Austrasia, Alemannia and Thuringia.
The brothers were active in suppressing revolts led by the Bavarians, Aquitanians, Saxons and the Alemanni in the early years of their reign.
In 743, they ended the Frankish interregnum by choosing Childeric III, who was to be the last Merovingian monarch, as figurehead king of the Franks. In 747 Carloman either resolved to or was pressured into entering a monastery. This left Francia in the hands of Pepin as sole mayor of the palace. As mayor of the palace, Pepin was formally subject to the decisions of Childeric III who had only the title of king but no power. Since Pepin had control over the magnates and actually had the power of a king, he now addressed to Pope Zachary a suggestive question:
"In regard to the kings of the Franks who no longer possess the royal power: is this state of things proper?"
Pope Zachary welcomed this move by the Franks to end an intolerable condition and lay the constitutional foundations for the exercise of the royal power. The Pope replied that such a state of things is not proper. Under these circumstances, the wielder of actual power should be called King. After this decision, Childeric III was deposed and confined to a monastery. He was the last of the Merovingians.
Pepin's first major act as king was to go to war against the Lombard king Aistulf, who had expanded into the ducatus Romanus. After a meeting with Pope Stephen II at Ponthion, Pepin forced the Lombard king to return property seized from the Church. The Frankish king went on to invest Narbonne, the main Umayyad stronghold in Septimania, but could not capture it from the Iberian Muslims until seven years later in 759. In 763, Pepin advanced further into the heart of Waiofar's domains and captured major strongholds (Poitiers, Limoges, Angoulême, etc.), after which Waiofar counter-attacked and war became bitter. Pepin opted to spread terror, burning villas, destroying vineyards and depopulating monasteries.
By 765, the brutal tactics seemed to pay off for the Franks, who destroyed resistance in central Aquitaine and devastated the whole region. The city of Toulouse was conquered by Pepin in 767 as was Waiofar's capital of Bordeaux. Pepin died during a campaign, in 768 at the age of 54. He was interred in the Basilica of Saint Denis in modern-day Metropolitan Paris. His wife Bertrada was also interred there in 783. Charlemagne rebuilt the Basilica in honor of his parents and placed markers at the entrance. The Frankish realm was divided according to the Salic law between his two sons: Charlemagne and Carloman I. History often seems to regard Pepin as the lesser son and lesser father of two greater men, (ie: son of Charles the Hammer; and father of Charlemange) - though he was a great man in his own right. He continued to build up the heavy cavalry which his father had begun. He maintained the standing army that his father had found necessary to protect the realm and form the core of its full army in wartime. He not only contained the Spanish Muslims as his father had, but drove them out of what is now France and, as important, he managed to subdue the Aquitanians and the Gascons after three generations of on-off clashes, so opening the gate to central and southern Gaul and Muslim Spain. He continued his father's expansion of the Frankish church (missionary work in Germany and Scandinavia) and the institutional infrastructure (feudalism) that would prove the backbone of medieval Europe. His rule was historically important and of great benefit to the Franks as a people. Pepin's assumption of the crown, and the title of Patrician of Rome, were harbingers of his son's imperial coronation. He made the Carolingians the ruling dynasty of the Franks and the foremost power of Europe. Known as a great conqueror, he was undefeated during his lifetime.
Charlemange (also called "Charles" here)
was the eldest son of Pipin "the Short". He is our 6th generation direct ancestor. He was born before their canonical marriage. The most likely date of Charlemagne's birth is reconstructed from several sources. The date of 742—calculated from Einhard's date of death of January 814 at age 72—predates the marriage of his parents in 744. Charlemagne's exact birthplace is unknown, although historians have suggested Aachen in modern-day Germany, and Liège (Herstal) in present-day Belgium as possible locations.
With the king Pepin "the Short" dying at St-Denis, near Paris, the two "lords" were "elevated to kingship". Charles on 09 October in Noyon, Carloman on an unspecified date in Soissons. If born in 742, Charles was 26 years old, but he had been campaigning at his father's right hand for several years, which may help to account for his military skill. Carloman was 17. As mentioned, there was a single joint inheritance and a joint kingship tenanted by two equal kings, Charles and his brother Carloman. As before, distinct jurisdictions were awarded. Charles received Pepin's original share as Mayor: the outer parts of the kingdom bordering on the sea, namely Neustria, western Aquitaine, and the northern parts of Austrasia; while Carloman was awarded his uncle's former share, the inner parts: southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence, and Swabia, lands bordering Italy.
The brothers maintained lukewarm relations with the assistance of their mother Bertrada, but in 770 Charles signed a treaty with Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria and married a Lombard Princess (commonly known today as Desiderata), the daughter of King Desiderius, to surround Carloman with his own allies. Though Pope Stephen III first opposed the marriage with the Lombard princess, he found little to fear from a Frankish-Lombard alliance.
Less than a year after his marriage, Charlemagne repudiated Desiderata and married a 13-year-old Swabian named Hildegard. The repudiated Desiderata returned to her father's court at Pavia. Her father's wrath was now aroused, and he would have gladly allied with Carloman to defeat Charles. Before any open hostilities could be declared, however, Carloman died on 5 December 771; apparently of natural causes.
They had co-ruled their respective lands until Carloman death in 771. At that time Charlemange became sole ruler over all the areas.
Charlemagne had eighteen children with seven of his ten known wives or concubines. Among his descendants are several royal dynasties, including the Habsburg, and Capetian dynasties. By consequence, most if not all established European noble families ever since can genealogically trace some of their background to Charlemagne.
The name Charlemagne, by which the emperor is normally known in English, comes from the French Charles-le-magne, meaning "Charles the Great". By the 6th century, the western Germanic tribe of the Franks had been Christianized, due in considerable measure to the Catholic conversion of Clovis. Francia, ruled by the Merovingians, was the most powerful of the kingdoms that succeeded the Western Roman Empire.
In the Spring of 774, Charlemange entered Rome for the first time. Everything was done to give his entry an air of Triumph in ancient Rome. This being the salute afforded Roman Conquerors when they returned to Roam after victorious conquest of foreign lands. The Judges met him 39 miles from the city; the militia laid the banner of Rome at his feet; and Charlemange kissed the threshold of the Apostles. The crowd hailed him as Emperor and he was consecrated on Easter as the First Champion of the Catholic Church.
During the first peace of any substantial length (780–782), Charles began to appoint his sons to positions of authority. In 781, during a visit to Rome, he made his two youngest sons kings, crowned by the Pope. The elder of these two, Carloman, was made the king of Italy, taking the Iron Crown that his father had first worn in 774, and in the same ceremony was renamed "Pepin". The younger of the two, Louis, became King of Aquitaine. Charlemagne ordered Pepin and Louis to be raised in the customs of their kingdoms, and he gave their regents some control of their subkingdoms, but kept the real power, though he intended his sons to inherit their realms. He did not tolerate insubordination in his sons.
Charles was determined to have his children educated, including his daughters, as his parents had instilled the importance of learning in him at an early age. His children were also taught skills in accord with their aristocratic status, which included training in riding and weaponry for his sons, and embroidery, spinning and weaving for his daughters. The sons fought many wars on behalf of their father. Charles was mostly preoccupied with the Bretons, whose border he shared and who insurrected on at least two occasions and were easily put down. He also fought the Saxons on multiple occasions. In 805 and 806, he was sent into the Böhmerwald (modern Bohemia) to deal with the Slavs living there. Charlemagne kept his daughters at home with him and refused to allow them to contract sacramental marriages (though he originally condoned an engagement between his eldest daughter Rotrude and Constantine VI of Byzantium, this engagement was annulled when Rotrude was 11). Charlemagne's opposition to his daughters' marriages may possibly have intended to prevent the creation of cadet branches of the family to challenge the main line. However, he tolerated their extramarital relationships, even rewarding their common-law husbands and treasuring the illegitimate grandchildren they produced for him.
The conquest of Italy brought Charlemagne in contact with the Saracens who, at the time, controlled the Mediterranean. Charlemagne's eldest son, Pepin the Hunchback, was much occupied with Saracens in Italy. Charlemagne conquered Corsica and Sardinia at an unknown date and in 799 the Balearic Islands. In Hispania, the struggle against the Moors continued unabated throughout the latter half of his reign. Louis was in charge of the Spanish border. In 785, his men captured Girona permanently and extended Frankish control into the Catalan littoral for the duration of Charlemagne's reign. Charlemagne was engaged in almost constant warfare throughout his reign. In the Saxon Wars, spanning thirty years and eighteen battles, he conquered Saxonia and proceeded to convert it to Christianity. Charlemagne returned rapidly to Saxony in 776, where a rebellion had destroyed his fortress at Eresburg. The Saxons were once again defeated, but their main leader, Widukind, escaped to Denmark, his wife's home. Charlemagne built a new camp at Karlstadt. Many more successful campaigns were led by Charlemange over the years.
In 799, Pope Leo III had been assaulted by some of the Romans, who tried to put out his eyes and tear out his tongue. Leo escaped and fled to Charlemagne at Paderborn. Charlemagne, advised by scholar Alcuin, travelled to Rome, in November 800 and held a synod. On 23 December, Leo swore an oath of innocence to Charlemagne. His position having thereby been weakened, the Pope sought to restore his status. Two days later, at Mass, on Christmas Day (25 December), when Charlemagne knelt at the altar to pray, the Pope crowned him Imperator Romanorum ("Emperor of the Romans") in Saint Peter's Basilica. Charlemagne used these circumstances to claim that he was the "renewer of the Roman Empire", which had declined under the Byzantines. The title of Emperor remained in the Carolingian family for years to come.
In 813, Charlemagne called Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine, his only surviving legitimate son, to his court. There, Charlemagne crowned his son as co-emperor and sent him back to Aquitaine. He then spent the autumn hunting before returning to Aachen on 01 November. Charlemange loved roast meat. In fact, he had a full-time huntsman employed to keep meat on the table for all meals. Charlemange developed gout in later life due to his love of meat.
In January, he fell ill. He took to bed on 21 Jan 814 with a high fever; and then he prescribed for himself, abstinence from food; thinking that fasting would drive the fever away. But his fever worsened and he developed pleurisy. He would sip on soup to try and regain his strength. On 28 Jan 814, after receiving Holy Communion and atoning for his sins the great Christian War Lord died. He was 72 years old and had been the leader of the Frankish Kingdon for 47 years. He was buried the same day in Aachen Cathedral. Louis succeeded him as Charles had intended. He left a testament allocating his assets in 811 that was not updated prior to his death. He left most of his wealth to the Church, to be used for charity. His empire lasted only another generation in its entirety; its division, according to custom, between Louis's own sons after their father's death laid the foundation for the modern states of Germany and France.