Yet if it was not original, medieval knighthood was still revolutionary. Once the western Roman Empire collapsed, the only settled powers in Europe who used horses to a significant degree on the battlefield were the Arabs and Visigoths. The Franks knew how to trade, breed, and deploy warhorses. But for a long time, when it came to the biggest clashes between their armies and those of foreign powers, the Franks fell back on foot soldiers. When Charles Martel defeated the great Arab army at the battle of Poitiers of 732, the Frankish army stood as an immovable wall to repel the Arab cavalry. Yet
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