It was in the hour of need that Charles Martel appeared as a champion
for Christendom. Gathering a powerful army, he met the Saracens between
Tours and Poitiers (_pwät-yea´_). A desperate battle, which lasted for
seven days, ensued; but on the seventh day the Saracens were defeated
with great slaughter, A.D. 732.
This victory arrested forever the progress of the Mohammedan arms in
Europe, and procured for Charles the expressive surname of “the Hammer”
(_Martel_), by which he is known in history.
While the Saracens were stopped from pushing their conquests farther
into Europe, they firmly established themselves in Spain, where they
founded a kingdom that lasted for seven hundred years,--that is, till
the very close of the Middle Ages.