Lecture: The Battle of Toulouse in 721

On 4 December 2026 at 3.00 pm, come along to a talk on the Battle of Toulouse in 721 or the true story of the Battle of Poitiers in 732, presented by Didier Coquillas.
Charles Martel is said to have halted the Arabs at Poitiers in 732… a classic event in the history of France as written by the Second Empire and the Third Republic in the second half of the 19th century.
But what if this ‘incident’ was merely the tip of the iceberg of a much more significant event?
A few ancient manuscripts recount another battle, far more spectacular and far more serious: that of Toulouse, won by Prince Eudes in 721… And yet this battle has been forgotten in that very same history of France, whilst the Arab world has long commemorated its heavy losses at the foot of Toulouse’s ramparts.
So what really happened in 732 or in 721? Why has official history retained only the event at Poitiers in 732? Why was the Battle of Toulouse, eleven years earlier, suppressed? Who benefits from this ‘rewriting’ of history, and who is truly responsible for it?
A genuine mystery in the history of France.
Didier Coquillas-Sistach holds a PhD in ancient and medieval history and is a lecturer at Michel-Montaigne University in Bordeaux.
In his capacity as a palaeoenvironmentalist, he has served as a scientific and cultural liaison in the fields of history, landscape history and archaeology since April 2001 for the Terre et Océan association (a knowledge transfer unit at the University of Bordeaux). Among the projects he has carried out or in which he is involved are:
- the use of archaeological data to understand the evolution of the Gironde coastline, Autumn 2020, Saint-Androny, Anglade and Braud-et-Saint-Louis areas (Gironde)
- participation in the preparatory work and production of the documentary film ‘The Perpetual Movement of the Coasts: 6,000 Years of Aquitaine’s Coastal History’
As part of his research, Didier Coquillas-Sistach has also compiled an archaeological inventory of all the communes in the Médoc, from the Neolithic period through to the Middle Ages.
Venue: Hourtin Port event hall
Admission: Members €5 • Non-members €8