The Battle of Tours
16 Jan, 2014
940 History of Europe
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Tours. In 732 a large Arab army invaded Gaul from northern Spain, and travelled as far north as Poitiers. There they were defeated by Charles Martel, whose Frankish and Burgundian forces repelled the invaders. The result confirmed the regional supremacy of Charles, who went on to establish a strong Frankish dynasty. The Battle of Tours was the last major incursion of Muslim armies into northern Europe; some historians, including Edward Gibbon, have seen it as the decisive moment that determined that the continent would remain Christian.
Guests
- Hugh Kennedy
11 episodes
Professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London -
Rosamond McKitterick No other episodes
Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge - Matthew Innes
2 episodes
Vice-Master and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London
Reading list
-
The Age of Charles Martel
Paul Fouracre (Routledge, 2000) Google Books → -
Late Merovingian France: History and Hagiography, 640-720
Paul Fouracre and Richard Gerberding (ed.) (Manchester University Press, 1996) Google Books → -
The Rise of the Carolingians and the Liber Historiae Francorum
Richard Gerberding (Clarendon Press, 1987) Google Books → -
Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900
Guy Halsall (Routledge, 2003) Google Books → -
Introduction to Early Medieval Western Europe, 300-900: The Sword, the Plough and the Book
Matthew Innes (Routledge, 2007) Google Books → -
Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus
Hugh Kennedy (Routledge, 1996) Google Books → -
The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In
Hugh Kennedy (Phoenix, 2008) Google Books → -
The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751-987
Rosamond McKitterick (Longman, 1983) Google Books → -
The New Cambridge Medieval History II c.700-c.900
Rosamond McKitterick (ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 1995) Google Books → -
The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar with its Continuations
J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (trans.) (Oxford University Press, 1960) -
Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain
Kenneth Wolf (trans.) (Liverpool University Press, 1999) Google Books → -
The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751
Ian Wood (Routledge, 1993) Google Books →
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Programme ID: b03pm7dv
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03pm7dv
Auto-category: 944.01 (France - History - Middle Ages, 987-1515)