The Life of Charlemagne (Charles the Great)Hodgkin, Thomas
History
The Life of Charlemagne (Charles the Great)
Hodgkin, Thomas
Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814
It was, however, twelve years before the Mussulman’s hope of adding
Gaul to the Empire of the Caliph received its death-stroke. In 725 they
penetrated as far as Autun, in the very heart of Burgundy, demolished
the city and carried off the treasures of the Church to Spain. The
vigilance of Eudo of Aquitaine seems to have relaxed, and he was now no
longer, as in 720, the great champion of Gaulish Christendom against
the invader. On the contrary he entered into friendly relations with at
least one Mussulman warrior, bestowing his daughter Lampegia on Munuza,
a Berber chieftain, who seems to have been striving to establish a
Moorish kingdom in Spain independent of the Caliphs. It was perhaps
owing to this new combination that Eudo broke through the treaty
which he had made with Charles in 720. There were thus two princes, a
Christian and a Moor, Eudo and Munuza, each rebelling against the state
to which they nominally owed allegiance. However, neither attempt at
independence was destined to succeed: Charles twice crossed the Loire
in the year 731, defeated Eudo in battle, apparently near the city of
Bourges, and returned home with great booty, having effectually checked
the separatist designs of the Aquitanian chief. About the same time
apparently, Abderrahman, the legitimate representative of the Caliph
of Damascus, overthrew the Berber chief Munuza and hunted him into the
Pyrenees, where he was overtaken while resting by a fountain. Munuza
fell pierced with many wounds, and his bride, Eudo’s daughter, was sent
to end her days in the Caliph’s harem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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