Siege of Narbonne (752-759)

Siege of Narbonne (752–59)
Part of the Islamic invasion of Gaul
Arab-Berber troops leaving Narbonne in 759
Date 752 - 759 Location Narbonne Result Frankish victory – conquest of the city
Belligerents
Province of Al-Andalus (752-56) Emirate of Córdoba (756-59)	Francia Septimanian Goths
Commanders and leaders
Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman (752-56) Abd al-Rahman I (756-59)	Pepin the Short Ansemund †
Narbonne Location in France

The Siege of Narbonne took place between 752 and 759 led by Pepin the Short against the Umayyad stronghold defended by an Andalusian garrison and its Gothic and Gallo-Roman inhabitants. The siege remained as a key battlefield in the context of the Carolingian expedition south to Provence and Septimania starting in 752. The region was up to that point in the hands of Andalusian military commanders and the local nobility of Gothic and Gallo-Roman stock, who had concluded different military and political arrangements to oppose the expanding Frankish rule. Umayyad rule collapsed by 750, and Umayyad territories in Europe were ruled autonomously by Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri and his supporters.

In 752, after obtaining the Pope´s recognition and the dignity of King of the Franks and deposing the last Merovingian king, Pepin the Short felt free to focus all his might on subduing the Septimania and Provence. Previously his father Charles Martel failed to conquer the whole region, and left a deep scar by devastating various cities that had failed to support him. While the Gothic magnates did not support the Franks formerly, things were changing this time: Nîmes, Agde and Béziers were handed over to him by the Gothic count Ansemundus. Mauguio surrendered too. Count Miló was at the time ruling in Narbonne as a vassal of the Andalusians, but when Ansemundus handed over several cities to Pepin, Miló did not join, probably deterred by the strong Muslim garrison stationed in the city.

The Frankish king Pepin finally lay siege to the Gothic-Andalusian Narbonne in 752 with a view to seizing it with no delay. However, Pepin suffered a major blow when his main local, Gothic ally Ansemundus was killed by a rival Gothic faction during the besieging operations in 754. The death of the count was followed by a revolt in Nîmes that was put down by Pepin, and a Frankish governor imposed. Furthermore, the Aquitanian rival duke Waifer is recorded about this period leading an army of Basques against the Carolingian king on the rearguard of his siege of Narbonne. The Narbonnese garrison and residents were able to withstand Pepin´s siege thanks to the supplies provided by sea by the Andalusian navy.