Tours 732 AD

[Erpingham]

Not in the usual format, but here is a collection of the main sources for the battle.

This is a battle about which a great mythology has evolved and great theories of the rise of Western chivalry have featured it, so it's interesting to see how thin and contradictory the evidence is.

[Imperial Dave]

More a skirmish than a big battle.....?

[Nick Harbud]

I thought Anthony was posting about something to do on one's holidays.... 

[Ian61]

I thought Anthony was posting about something to do on one's holidays.... 

More like a day trip gone wrong!

[Erpingham]

More a skirmish than a big battle.....?

Depends a bit whether we are just talking size or also intensity of action and strategic result.

[Imperial Dave]

He's not that old 

[Duncan Head]

More a skirmish than a big battle.....?

One of the points made on the blog page discussion is that none of the sources give us any real impression of the army sizes involved. So whatever your threshold for "skirmish", I think the answer is "we don't know". 

[Imperial Dave]

thanks Duncan. Cant for the life of me remember where I read it ages ago but one commentator (modern) claimed it was more likely an opportune large skirmish that defined strategic limitations of the Muslim forces push into Europe

[Nick Harbud]

The same sort of wargaming model that defined the American Civil War then - two armed mobs chasing each other around the countryside?

 

[Imperial Dave]

works for me