ABSTRACT
The accession of Charles the Great serves to mark the commencement of a new epoch in the art of war, as in most other spheres of human activity in Western Europe. The conquests of Charles combined all the kingdoms of the Teutonic West into a single State, with the exception of England and the obscure Visigothic survival in the Asturias. Charles is also, as the last clause of the summons shows, very anxious to avoid the cardinal vice of the old Merovingian hosts—the plundering of the districts through which the troops had to march before reaching the frontier. When all the royal commands were carried out under the royal eye,—and Charles was ubiquitous,—it is obvious that the host of the early ninth century must have been a very different weapon from the tumultuary hordes of the Merovings. But perhaps the most important of all Charles' innovations is his systematic use of fortified posts.
