Charles spent the years that followed his great victory in regulating
the government of Burgundy, where he replaced most of the counts and
dukes by followers of his own, and in completing the subjection of
Frisia. The peaceful duke Aldgisl had been succeeded by a fierce pagan
named Boddo, whom the great mayor was soon forced to attack, when he
commenced to kill or drive away the missionaries of Willibrord and
Boniface. After slaying Boddo in battle, and burning every heathen
shrine in Friesland, Charles left the country so tamed that it did not
revolt again for full twenty years.
In 735, however, new troubles began in the south. Duke Eudo died, and
Charles thought the time was ripe for the complete incorporation of
the great southern duchy with the Frankish realm. He rode through the
land and forced its inhabitants to do him homage, but their subjection
was only the result of fear, and when he had returned home the
southerners proclaimed Eudo’s son Hunold as their duke. Hunold would
probably have been put down had not the Saracens begun once more to
stir. [Sidenote: Wars with Hunold of Aquitaine, 735-40.] Headed by
Yussuf-aben-Abderahman, the son of the chief who had fallen at
Poictiers four years before, they sallied out of Narbonne, crossed the
Rhone, and seized the old Roman city of Arles. The years 736-39 were
mainly occupied in driving back three successive Moslem inroads into
south-eastern Gaul, and Charles was so engrossed in this strife that
he consented to recognise Hunold as duke of Aquitaine, so that he
might have his hands entirely free for the greater struggle. Complete
success at last crowned his arms: Provence was swept clear of the
Arabs; Arles and Avignon, which the Infidels had seized and held for a
space, were recovered; Nismes, Agde, and Béziers, which they had
possessed since the great invasion of Septimania in 725, were taken,
dismantled, and burnt, and a great host was defeated in front of
Narbonne. That city, however, did not yet fall into the hands of the
Franks; together with the southern half of Septimania it still
remained a Saracen outpost, covering the passes of the eastern
Pyrenees. For twenty years more it was fated to remain unconquered;
not Charles but his son was destined to move forward the Frankish
boundary to the foot of the mountains. Meanwhile the Saracens of
Spain, cowed by the crushing blows of Charles the Hammer, abandoned
their attempt to push northward, and plunged into a weary series of
civil wars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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