CHARLEMAGNE. 159 



they were also without shoes, and had only their bits.' 

 MM. Durrich and Menzel, in their interesting search 

 at Oberflacht, found an almost complete equipment of a 



horse, but no shoes.^ Thus nothing is more 



common than the bridle bit, and nothing so scarce as 

 shoes.' 3 It was the extreme rarity of these articles that 

 led the Abbe to doubt Chifflet's reported discovery of 

 one in the grave of Childeric. 



It would also appear that with the second or Carlo- 

 vingian dynasty, shoeing, and indeed the value of cavalry, 

 was still held in little esteem. The war with the Moors 

 began during the reign of Charles Martel, but every 

 engagement only showed the advantages of cavalry on 

 the one side, and infantry on the other. This monarch 

 would have gained a far more decisive battle at Tours, 

 had the solidity of his infantry been supplemented by 

 cavalry to crush the defeated and retreating Moors, who 

 got away undisturbed ; and though the world was saved 

 from Mahommedanism, yet this equestrian people, by 

 their courage and rapidity of movement, harassed the 

 Franks long afterwards. 



Charlemagne seems to have become aware of the 

 necessity for mounted troops, and to have organized a 

 large body of cavalry, to which he owed many of his 

 victories. His army appears to have been extensively 

 horsed from Spain, the successes of his lieutenants in that 

 country, in their contentions with the Moors, giving them 

 an opportunity for making captures.* From this source 



' Das Germanische Todtenlager, bei Selzen, pp. 6, 28. 

 ^ Die Heidengraber am Lupfen, p. 31. 

 3 LeTombeau de Childeric, p. 154. 

 ** Eginhard. Annales, p. 213. 



