ABODE OF PEACE
An Alternate History by ‘Bertie Wooster’
In 732, the Umayyad Caliphate, one of the largest empires the world had ever seen, the second Caliphate of Islam, and the foremost military power of its day, set out across the Pyrenees, with a force estimated as high as fifty thousand men, under the command of the great Abdul Rahman al Gafiqi. They were faced and defeated at Tours by another Dark Age giant – Charles Martel, mayor of the palace in the Frankish state, repelling Islam’s furthest advance over the mountains and into Western Europe.
What if they triumphed and the banner of the Prophet was raised on the Loire?
Before the Battle of Tours, Frankish forces arranged themselves in a defensive phalanx on a wooded hill – a good position, as it hid the size of their army – which was smaller than the Caliphate forces. Martel had no heavy cavalry, and relied entirely on Frankish infantry – well trained and hardened – and a mass of irregular levies.
Abdul Rahman had a larger force of heavy cavalry, which had earlier inflicted a heavy defeat on Odo of Aquitaine and plundered southern Gaul. His army broke up to loot, and attacked fairly late in the year, due to the need to grow crops to eat.
On the day itself, after a few days of skirmishing, Abdul Rahman decided to send a force of cavalry to assess the Franks – they discovered that a high slope would have to be advanced up in order to reach their positions. However, with winter approaching, an attack had to be made. Several charges of Arab horsemen were repulsed by the Franks, until one of the attacks that broke through the square managed to get through, and kill Martel, although they were repulsed afterwards. The Frankish irregulars panicked and fled down the hill into the Umayyad army, where they were massacred, before encirclement forced the Franks still on the height to come down, where they were killed.
[I believe this fairly closely follows history – the Arabs did indeed break through several times, and I believe it is fairly plausible one may have managed to kill Martel and break morale]
The battle of Tours was a heavy defeat inflicted on Christendom – irreplaceable Frankish troops were lost and a military genius killed, as well as the political leader, paralysing Francia.
The Umayyads sacked Tours, but with the advancing winter, coupled with the fact that the Arabs had only tents to sleep in, led to the Umayyad army returning home, burning and killing as they went. The real damage of Tours was not wrought in territory, but in prestige - the Franks were defeated by an infidel as far north as Neustria and the Loire, their leader killed and a holy shrine sacked and plundered - the Merovingian King was left untouched, but his realm would never now achieve the power it could have.
PS: This is still very draft-y, and in need of much work.
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