In the last lecture, we looked at the history of the Carolingian family up to Pippin of Herstal. In this lecture, we zoom in and look at the life of his son, Charles the Hammer, Charlemagne’s grandfather. As we will see, Charles rose to prominence because of his military prowess. He is largely regarded as one of the greatest medieval generals for, among other things, his halt of the Umayyad dynasty’s advance into southern France.