Charles Martel
Explanation:
Charles Martel (c. 688- October 22, 741) was the military and uncrowned political leader of Frankia, a kingdom that included parts of what are now France and Germany from 718 until his death. He was grandfather to Charlemagne, the first man to claim the title of Holy Roman Emperor and who was also credited with coalescing parts of western Europe into a Christian state. Charles Martel is particularly known for his military engagements with Umayyad Caliphate, especially at the Battle of Tours/Poitiers (October 10, 732), in which he successfully halted the advance of Islamic forces advancing north of the Pyrenees (following their conquest of Iberia in 711). Martel is often invoked as a paragon of Christian virtue within a clash of civilizations between a perceived Christian West and Islamic East, even though in his own time these divisions were not so broadly drawn. Moreover, Martel did not rule over a homogenous and religiously unified polity. His reign, much like those of his Carolingian successors required a delicate balancing of various identity groups subject to Frankish rule. The adversarial narrative of East versus West behind the Tours/Poitiers campaign does not account for this complexity and mischaracterizes identity and issues of group cohesion in the eighth century.
Examples:
Christchurch Massacre, March 15 2019. Shooter Brenton Tarrant displayed the name Charles Martel on his weapons. Source: Lisa Martin and Ben Smee, “What do we know about the Christchurch attack suspect?”, The Guardian, 3/15/2019 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/15/rightwing-extremist-wrote-manifesto-before-livestreaming-christchurch-shooting.
“Militant Islam had a spirited try at routing Christianity, and when it was repulsed from France and Spain, it returned in strength 800 years later as a largely secular Turkish force under Sulieman the Magnificent. It laid siege to Vienna in 1529, and again in 1683, but was repulsed on both occasions, the latter by Poland’s King Jan Sobieski. Turkey lost its bid for control of the Mediterranean at Lepanto in 1571.” (Conrad Black, “Defending the Christian West”, National Post 1/10/2015 https://nationalpost.com/opinion/conrad-black-defending-the-christian-west)
“Zemmour claims not only that Charles Martel’s defeat of the Umayyad caliphate near Poitiers in 732 gave rise to the Frankish empire but also that this confrontation between civilizations is being repeated today. For him, the juridico-political system of early Islamic empires, imposed on the vanquished, erases the distinction between religion and civil code. The implication is that nothing has changed.” (Elizabeth Zerofsky, “The Right-Wing Pundit ‘Hashtag Triggering’ France: The pop historian Eric Zemmour has fashioned himself as an evangelist of French culture – and become a driving force for French conservatism.” The New York Times Magazine 2/6/2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/magazine/eric-zemmour-france-far-right.html)
The Charles Martel Society was founded in 2001, a far-right, white-nationalist organization named after Martel’s reputation as a “savior of Europe.” From the SPLC:
“The organization is named in honor of Charles Martel, who is credited with saving Europe by defeating an invading Muslim force at the Battle of Tours in 734. In keeping with the actions of its namesake, the Charles Martel Society seeks to protect what it sees as the white European heritage of America from a perceived ethnic and ideological invasion by non-Europeans.”
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/occidental-quarterly
Preferred use: Charles Martel – eighth-century ruler of medieval Frankia who defeated the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate at the Battle of Tours in 732.
References/Further Reading:
James T Palmer, “The fake history that fueled the accused Christchurch shooter”, The Guardian, 3/18/2019 https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/03/18/fake-history-that-fueled-accused-christchurch-shooter/.
Gillian Brockel, “The accused New Zealand shooter and an all-white Europe that never existed”, The Washington Post 3/16/2019 https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/03/16/accused-new-zealand-shooter-an-all-white-europe-that-never-existed/.
William E. Watson, Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003).
James Carroll, “The war against Islam”, Boston.com 6/7/2005 archive.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/06/07/the_war_against_islam/)