Charlemagne’s Frankish Empire is arguably one of the more glorious polity’s of the Early Medieval Ages. At the time of Charlemagne’s death and the peak of his empire it covered an area close to that of the size of Alaska across Western Europe. Charlemagne’s success as a leader came from successful military expeditions, the unification of his people through Christianity and savvy political tactics. However if it was not for the changes made in military tactics and style along with the political reconstruction of the Franks made by early Carolingians. Charlemagne and his glorious Frankish Empire viewed so highly in the eyes of history would not have been nearly as successful in their expansion across the Western Europe. The rise of the Germanic tribes after the fall of the Roman Empire in the west was arguably filled very little organization both in military action and in the political sphere and left unifying a nation nearly impossible. During the rise of the Carolingian family two of their early monarchs can be attributed to transforming the Franks from various axe wielding, disorganized kingdoms with little nationalistic lens into the political and military powerhouse that it would eventually become. Charles “The Hammer” Martel and Pepin the Short essentially laid down the necessary groundwork making the necessary changes within military organization and tactics of the Carolingian empire in order for the glorious kingdom of Charlemagne to have the tremendous success that it did.
The Carolingians family found themselves in charge during a time when the decentralization of Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire made ruling over a large area very difficult to do. The Carolingians then began almost a century of offensive warfare in order to unify the Franks under the Carolingian name. Charles Martel is argued to be the Carolingian that was able to make some of the first necessary steps in the long-term strategy of his father Pippin II of politically unifying Regnum Francorum or the region viewed as being the traditional area ruled by the leader of the Frankish people. Charles Martel made significant leaps and bounds in both securing new territories in neighboring provinces along with making crucial changes to the military organization and tactics of the Carolingian forces that led to even grater success down the road. Charles Martel first inherited his title from his father Pippin II and immediately was plunged into a civil war within the area of Austrasia due to his stepmother attempting to over turn the inheritance to that of her nephews. Charles was also facing rebellion forces from Neustria and Frisian, two areas recently conquered by the late Pippin II. Charles Martel immediately displayed his military prowess by crushing the rebellion attacks from two different fronts and maintaining the territory gained by his father. Charles then turned his attention to areas such as Bavaria, Provence and parts of Aquitaine to add to the...
