After Tours: The Battle of the River Berre

The Battle of the River Berre, occurring in the years after the Battle of Tours, has not seen the same amount of scholarship as that defining battle of the century in Europe. The Umayyad Caliphate in Iberian continue to conduct military operations on the east side of the Pyrenees, controlling Narbonne and most of the province of Septimania, south of Aquitaine and west of Lombardy in the years after. The expansion of the Caliphate had continued almost unabated since 632 CE, controlling Arabia, Persia, the Near East, the Levant, Egypt, North Africa, and finally, the Iberian Peninsula. This astonishing expansion stopped due to internal factors that forced the dynasty to look inward for stability and, ultimately, its dissolution in 750 CE. The Berber Revolt in Tangiers and the Maghreb spread into al-Andalus. They continued until 743 CE, this instability combined with the internal political conflicts with the Caliphs from Damascus focused on consolidation, and an overall curtailment of military operations in Europe ended the expansion into Gaul. In the campaign to control Septimania, Charles Martel and his successor Peppin they continued the Frankish military tradition of the shield-wall reinforced with mounted calvary troops that formed a reserve, mobile scouting force and maneuvering from centers of power in the regions before any military campaign. It was not until 759 CE when Charles Martel's son and successor took back southern Gaul to the Frankish throne, Pepin III, or Pepin the Short. When Pepin recaptured Narbonne in 759 CE, the last Umayyad strongholds in western Europe, east of the Pyrenees, were taken. This operation, alongside others, was made possible by the defeat at the Battle of Tours/Poitiers and the barely remembered Battle of the River Berre in 737 CE. In that battle, Charles Martel's Frankish forces defeated the Umayyad forces around Avignon and kept western Provence in the Frankish kingdom.