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 just two generations later, Frankish methods on the battlefield had moved on.
