Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1917 — Battles Which Made the World [ARTICLE]

Battles Which Made the World

TOUBS. Wherein Ch nr lea Mnrtel Seized the Opportunity Provided by the Greed of the Invaders for Loot to Smash the Wave of the Conquering Saraeen. ! . ■ - - ■ '

By CAPT. ROLAND F. ANDREWS

(Copyright, ISIT, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate)

Gibbon called the battle of Tours “one of the events that rescued our ancestors of Britain and our neighbors of Gaul from the civil and religious yoke of the Koran." Fought In the year 732 it broke the power of the Saracen, who was then like to overrun all Europe. Had not Charles Martel then and there won his victory, a mosque might stand today where stands Westminster abbey. The discoverer of America might have been a Barbary corsair. Checking the Arab conquest of western Europe at Tours, Charles Martel rescued Christendom from Islam. The Tours engagement was fought In the same country where rages the heavy fighting of today. It was lost to the Turkish-Arab conqueror largely because his soldiery yielded to the same greed and passion for loot ascribed to the German troops of the present. The modern historians have been forced to obtain their material for. discussion of this battle from the manuscripts of the old Arab writers and from the Illuminated records of the monkish chroniclers. The fight ended strangely. They all agree upon that. But It Is dlfilcult to obtain reliable data as what took place before the rout. Charles Martel, duke of the Australasian Franks, was a man of exceeding boldness and resolution. Hallam thinks he, was rash In risking the fate of Europe on a single battle, but Charles was a tried and experienced soldier, whose Impetuosity was guided by military brilliancy and who doubtless relied in large measure upon the discipline and military order with which he had been able to endow his Frankish militia. He had no standing army, but he knew the weakness, as he knew the strength, of his enemy. In any case he won and won convlncIngly. ——-- The Saracens were led by Abderrahman, of whom it is recorded that he came out of Spain with the largest army the chroniclers had ever seen, all his wives and all his children, yea, even he and all that were with him, as if they were henceforth ever to dwell in France. The Arab writers picture Abderrahman as a model of Integrity and justice. The Christian monks relate that he burned and murdered wherever he went, that he was given over to all manner of vices, and that his Berber cavalry, a force of notable skill and valor, ravaged the country until It was mere barrenness. The rAal historians agree upon practically nothing, save that the Saracens were defeated. The Arabs say that the force of Abderrahman numbered 80,000. The monks do not hesitate to increase this by several hundreds of thousands. One of these latter recorders puts the loss of the invaders in dead at Tours at 375,000. He adds that the number of Christians killed was but 1,007. For this disparity in losses he gives credit to d.-ect Interposition of Providencb. The Count Eudo tried battle with Abderrahman at the river Garonne, but the Moslem shattered Eudo’s army, held a high carnival of slaughter among the prisoners and swept on. It was then that Charles Martel rallied every available man. His first fortunes were like those of Eudo. Abderrahman drove him back, taking large numbers of prisoners and advancing through the country like a desolating storm. The writers set it down that “the men of Abderrahman were puffed up In spirit by their repeated successes and they were full of trust In the valor and war practice of their emir.” Charles Martel had every reason to believe that the death which had been meted out to Eudo would soon be his own portion. All the Franks were trembling at the terrible army of swarthy men which devoured all that faced It. Presently Charles taking stand along the Loire felt strong enough to risk a mighty cast *of the dice. He had gained Important re-enforcements and In spite of the general terrorization he had stiffened the spirit of his men. Abderrahman’s success In entering Tours, with the resultant demoralization of his troops, gave the Frankish leader the opportunity for which he waited. Once it came he pressed It to the full limit of success. Abderrahman stormed Tours almost before the eyes of the army which came to save It. The fury and cruelty of the successful Moslems against the luckless Inhabitants of the fallen town has been'likened to that of raging tigers. Each man of the invaders loaded himself with loot. The sword and torch were everywhere at work. “It was manifest,” says one Arab historian, “that God’s ohastlsement was sure to follow such excesses,” and proceeds to lament the loss of discipline upon the Saracen army. Abderrahman was keenly alive to the danger In the disorder which resulted In the possession of so much spoil by each soldier, yet he dared not venture the displeasure of his men by ordering them to abandon everything except their arms and warhorses. Fearful though he was, he yet trusted to the military skllfbf his tested fighters and to the good luck which had at-, tended him since the start of his expedition.

Determined to ■ have the advantage of being the assailant instead of the defender he attacked Charles furiously as soon as he discovered the Frankish army In position. His Berber horse charged again and again, the frontline Frank battalions resisting stubbornly and dying In their tracks. Nightfall found the two armies still writhing in deadly grip; but the rest brought by darkness was only brief. At dawn the Saracens attacked again, some squadrons of the Berbers hewing their way Into the very heart of the Christian host. Then it was that greed played its part In the undoing of what had promise of becoming another Moslem triumph. Someone raised the cry that a detachment of the enemy was plundering the camp wherein was stored the rich booty taken from luckless Tours and other victims of the Mohammedan march. Instantly a large part of the Berber horse whirled off to the rescue of its goods. The Infantry thought them flying In defeat. Tumult reigned and Abderrahman, striving to rajly his forces, was cut off by a welltimed charge launched by Charles. It Is related that the number of spears run through his body as he fell was not less than a score. With the death of the emir the invaders became completely demoralized. They rushed off the field hotly pursued by the victorious Franks, who butchered them by thousands as they fled. The Turkish host was utterly dissipated. Charles Martel, his son and his grandson, were left at leisure to consolidate and extend their power. Europe was a Christian country.