Editing Battle of Tours (section)

===Umayyad advance towards the Loire===
In 732, the Umayyad advance force was proceeding north towards the [[Loire]] River, having outpaced their supply wagons and a large part of their army. Having easily destroyed all resistance in that part of Gaul, the invading army had split off into several raiding parties, while the main body advanced more slowly.

The Umayyads delayed their campaign late in the year probably because the army needed to live off the land as they advanced. They had to wait until the area's wheat harvest was ready and then until a reasonable amount of the harvest had been stored.

Odo was defeated so easily at Bordeaux and Garonne, despite winning eleven years earlier at the Battle of Toulouse, because at Toulouse he had managed a surprise attack against an overconfident and unprepared foe: the Umayyad forces were mostly infantry, and what cavalry they did have were never mobilized. As [[Herman of Carinthia]] wrote in one of his translations of a history of al-Andalus, Odo managed a highly successful encircling envelopment which took the attackers completely by surprise, resulting in the slaughter of the Muslim forces.

At Bordeaux and again at Garonne, the Umayyad forces were mostly cavalry and had the chance to mobilize, which led to the devastation of Odo's army. Odo's forces, like other European troops of that era, had [[Great Stirrup Controversy|no stirrups at that time]] and therefore no heavy cavalry. Most of their troops were infantry. The Umayyad heavy cavalry broke Odo's infantry in their first charge and then slaughtered them as they fled.

The invading force went on to devastate southern Gaul. A possible motive, according to the second continuator of the ''[[Chronicle of Fredegar]]'', were the riches of the [[Abbey of Saint Martin of Tours]], the most prestigious and holiest shrine in western Europe at the time.<ref name="Riche, 1993, p. 44">Riche, 1993, p. 44.</ref> Upon hearing this, Austrasia's [[Mayor of the Palace]], Charles Martel, prepared his army and marched south, avoiding the old Roman roads, hoping to take the Muslims by surprise.