| Siege of Narbonne (752–759) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theIslamic invasion of Gaul | |||||||||
 Arab and Berber Muslim troops retreating fromNarbonne after theFrankish conquest in 759. Illustration byÉmile Bayard, 1880. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Al-Andalus(752–56) Emirate of Córdoba (756–59) |  Kingdom of Francia[1][2]Septimanian Visigoths[1][2] | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri (752–756) Abd al-Rahman I (756–759) | Pepin the Short Ansemund † | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 7,000 | 29,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
  Narbonne Location in France | |||||||||
Thesiege ofNarbonne took place inFrance between 752 and 759, led by theFrankish kingPepin the Short against theUmayyad stronghold defended by an garrison ofArab andBerber Muslim troops who had invadedSeptimania and occupied theVisigothic Kingdom and itsGallo-Roman inhabitants since 719.[1][2] The siege remained as a key battlefield in the context of the Carolingian expedition south toProvence and Septimania starting in 752.[1][2]
The region of Septimania was up to that pointin the hands of Andalusi military commanders and the local Visigothic and Gallo-Roman nobility, who had concluded different military and political arrangements to oppose theexpanding Frankish realm.[3] Umayyad rule collapsed by 750, and Umayyad territories in Europe were ruled autonomously byYusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri and his supporters.
The region ofSeptimania, in southern Gaul, was the last unconquered province of theVisigothic Kingdom.[4] The incursion into Septimania was motivated by the need to secure theirterritorial gains in Iberia.[4] Arab and Berber Muslim forces began to campaign in Septimania in 719.[4]
The region of Septimania wasinvaded byal-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani,wāli (governor-general) ofal-Andalus,[5] in 719, and subsequently occupied by the Arab and Berber Muslim forces in 720.[1][2] The region was renamedArbūnah and turned into a military base for future operations by theAndalusian military commanders.[6]
By 721, al-Samh was reinforced and ready to lay siege toToulouse, a possession that would open up the bordering region ofAquitaine to him on the same terms as Septimania. But his plans were thwarted in the disastrousbattle of Toulouse in 721; theAquitanianChristian army led byOdo the Great,Duke of Aquitaine defeated the Umayyad Muslim army and achieved a decisive and significant victory.[7] The surviving Umayyad forces drove away from Aquitaine with immense losses, in which al-Samh was so seriously wounded that he soon died at Narbonne.[7]
Arab and Berber Muslim forces, soundly based in Narbonne and easily resupplied by sea, struck in the 720s, conqueringCarcassonne on the north-western fringes of Septimania (725) and penetrating eastwards as far asAutun (725). In 731, the Berber lord of the region ofCerdagne,Uthman ibn Naissa, calledMunuza by the Franks, was an ally of the Duke of AquitaineOdo the Great after he revolted against theEmirate of Córdoba, but the rebel lord was killed by the ArabUmayyad commanderAbd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi. Following his success at thesiege of Avignon in 737,Charles Martel sieged Narbonne[8] but his forces were unable to take the city,[9] after which the Frankish army marched onNîmes,Agde, andBéziers.[8][9]
During theEarly Middle Ages, anAndalusian garrison of Arab and Berber Muslim troopsinvaded the region ofSeptimania in 719 and deposed the localVisigothic Kingdom in 720.[1][2] In 752, after theCarolingian kingPepin the Short obtained thePope's recognition and the dignity ofKing of the Franks and deposing the lastMerovingian king, Pepin felt free to focus all his might on subduing theSeptimania andProvence.[1]
After capturingBordeaux on the wake ofDuke Hunald's detachment attempt, theCarolingian kingCharles Martel directed his attention to Septimania andProvence.[8] While his reasons for leading a military expedition south remain unclear, it seems that he wanted to seal his newly secured grip onBurgundy,[8] now threatened by Umayyad occupation of several cities lying in the lower Rhône, or maybe it provided the excuse he needed to intervene in this territory ruled byVisigothic andRoman law, far off from the Frankish centre in the north of Gaul. In 737,the Frankish king went on to attack Narbonne,[8][9] but the local nobility ofGothic andGallo-Roman stock had concluded different military and political arrangements to oppose theexpanding Frankish realm.[10]Charles Martel attempted to conquer the whole region of Septimania andsieged Narbonne in 737[8] but his forces were unable to take the city.[9] However, when the Arabs sent reinforcements from Muslim-ruled Iberia, theFrankishChristian armyintercepted them at the mouth of the River Berre (located in the present-day Département ofAude) and achieved a decisive and significant victory,[7][8] after whichthe Frankish army marched on Nîmes.[8][9]
While the Gothic magnates did not support the Franks formerly, things were changing this time:Nîmes,Agde, andBéziers were handed over to him by the Gothic countAnsemund.[11] Mauguio surrendered too.Count Miló was at the time ruling in Narbonne as a vassal of theAndalusians, but when Ansemund handed over several cities to Pepin, Miló did not join, probably deterred by the Arab-Berber Muslim garrison stationed in the city.
TheFrankish kingPepin the Short finally lay siege to the Gothic-Andalusian Narbonne in 752 with a view to seizing it with no delay. However, Pepin suffered a major blow when his main local, Gothic allyAnsemund was killed by a rival Gothic faction during the sieging operations in 754. The death of the count was followed by a revolt in Nîmes that was put down by Pepin, and a Frankish governor imposed. Furthermore, the Aquitanian rivalduke Waifer is recorded about this period leading an army ofBasques against the Carolingian king on the rearguard of his siege of Narbonne. The Narbonnese garrison and residents were able to withstand Pepin's siege thanks to the supplies provided by sea by the Andalusian navy.
In 759, Narbonne was not receiving reinforcements from al-Andalus, rife as it was with internal fights.[2]Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri,wali of al-Andalus, had to quash a rebellion inZaragoza in 756, and immediately head south to fightAbd ar-Rahman I, who defeated him.[2] Northeastern Iberia and the remainder of Septimania was left without any relevant commander in charge. Finally, theGothic andGallo-Roman defenders of Narbonne surrendered to the Frankish forces, proceeding to eliminate the Andalusian garrison after killing the Arab-Berber Muslim troops, and opening the gates of the stronghold to the investing forces of the Carolingian king.[1][2] Previously, the king Pepin had promised to uphold and respect the Gothic laws and probably their own government, so garnering the allegiance of the Gothic nobility of Septimania.[12]
After the Frankish conquest of Narbonne in 759, the Muslim Arabs and Berbers were defeated by the Christian Franks and expelled to their Andalusian heartland after 40 years of occupation, and theCarolingian kingPepin the Short came up reinforced.[1][2] The government of the city was assigned to the Gothiccount Miló, who had fled the city five years before when it was besieged, and had retreated toTrausse (Aude). The submission of Septimania allowed the Frankish king to divert his attention to his only remaining opponent,duke Waifer, the independent ruler (princeps) of Aquitaine. In the wake of Narbonne's submission, Pepin tookRoussillon, and then directed his effort againstToulouse,Rouergue, andAlbigeois in Aquitaine, leading to thebattle for Aquitaine.
After three months,Eudo the Great,Duke of Aquitaine, lifted the siege. Eudo's army decimated theMoors, killedAs-Sahm and drove the survivors fromAquitaine.
After 734Charles Martel advanced against the nobles inBurgundy and placed the region ofMarseilles under the authority ofhis counts. [...] Charles marched afterwards toNarbonne and sieged it. Then an army ofSaracens came to relieve Narbonne. Charles marched against them anddefeated them along the banks of the Berre. Charles still devastated the area aroundNîmes,Agde, andBéziers, but an uprising inSaxony caused him to make an expedition to hold onto that land. [...] Charles Martel had subjected the whole ofGallia, again by battles, and had to siegeAvignon and Narbonne there. He did not have the time to conquerSeptimania.
It would be quite anachronistic that theProvençalaristocracy would or those whose primary interests lay in the south would welcome the extension into their region of the authority of theeastern Frankish Mayors of the Palace, or that a sense of Christian solidarity should mean more than the dictates ofrealpolitik. For that matter it was not with any sense of obligation to free formerly Christian lands from Islamic rule thatCharles Martel launched a raid into western Provence in 737.He took Avignon, but clearly did not retain it, and advanced to siege Narbonne, the centre of Arab control in the March. The Frankish chronicles record his victory over a relieving force sent by the governorʿUqba, but their uniform silence makes it clear that despite this he failed to take the city itself.