Kingdom Visigoth

The conquest of a territory

When peace with the Romans was concluded by the Fœdus from 418, Honorius granted to the Visigoths grounds in the province Aquitaine second. The Sédentarisation in Aquitaine takes place after the death of Wallia. The Visigoths penetrated in Spain as of 414, like federate of the Roman Empire.

Ibérie was then with the hands of the Vandales, installed in Bétique (current Andalusia), of the Suèves and the Alains; the Visigoths crushed the latter, which were rejected in Lusitanie, and badgered the Vandals who ended up leaving towards the Roman Africa into 439.

Always as federated, Théodoric Ier fought at the sides of Aetius against Attila, and found death into 451 there.

The king Euric (466-484) breaking the Fœdus after the disappearance of the imperial family, increases his territory at the expense:

of the Suèves which it beat in Hispanie into 468,
and of the Gallo-Romans combined with the Armoricains with the Bataille of Déols, facing Ægidius and Ecdicius;

In 475 it was made officially concede by Julius Nepos the Aquitaine first, the Narbonnaise first and the Hispanie.

But the center of the kingdom Visigoth remained still the Aquitaine, and they are only after to be rejected Gaulle by Clovis that the Visigoths transported their capital to Tolède (554).

Confined in Galicia, the Royaume suève was subjected in 575. The second unification of the Iberian peninsula, after that of the Romans, is thus due to the Visigoths.

Birth of a kingdom

Relations between the Roman imperial mode and the episcopate, kings Wisigoths had inherited the concept of statue divine the monarch which, under the influence of the Arianisme, established an analogy between the subordination of the Son to the Father and that due to a king who received “directly from God his sacralization and his mission of leading the men to the hello”. Head of the Christian Church of its people, the king was it also of the Church to which its Roman subjects belonged. The policy of the Kings Visigoths towards the bishops dependant on the pope was in general placed under the sign of the tolerance. Alaric II convened even the Concile of Agde in September 506 to manage a reconciliation between Christians (ariens) and the bishops trinitaires.

The Suèves remained in Galicia, the north of Italy was conquered as of 487 by the Ostrogoths of Théodoric and, in the east the the Rhone, the Burgondes had founded a kingdom which reached banks of the Mediterranean. At the edge of the Loire, finally, the Francs will gather around Clovis, which converts with Catholicism towards 496-499. Clovis occupies the kingdom of Toulouse while the Visigoths folded up themselves in the south of the the Pyrenees, preserving at north only the Septimanie . A new period started which was going to last a little more than two centuries and would link the Visigoths with the Iberian peninsula indissolubly.

Hispanie wisigothe

Formerly Hispanie Roman, the Iberian peninsula becomes the Hispanie wisigothe as from the 5th century. It is the same, right from the start, for the Occitanie Roman.

Although the Visigoths started to be established in Spain since the end of Ve century, their installation was not done without difficulties. Too much very few to occupy all the peninsula, the people Visigoth is especially established in the north of the Meseta, between the Tage and the Èbre, being established in these mountainous regions and timbered with the hard climate rather than in Andalusia and on the coast the Mediterranean. Perhaps that by grouping Goths in these little populated and romanisées grounds of North, their kings thus wanted to preserve national cohesion, thus avoiding a fast romanisation and an absorption among the mass hispano-Roman of the southern half of the kingdom. One estimates a population wisigothe, and more largely germano-barbarian (because the Visigoths were made up in addition to Goths, other tribes) with 200.000 individuals to the maximum for an Iberian population estimated at 3/4 000.000 individuals. Moreover, they ran up against the resistance of the urban elites in the deeply romanized provinces of the Bétique (current Andalusia) and of the Lusitanie (Extrémadure and Portugal) and thus occupied mainly the center of the Peninsula.

The domination wisigothe is thus especially soldier. They confine troops in the principal cities of Spain. Indeed, since the arrival of the Visigoths as a Gaulle in 412 then, after their first forwardings in Spain a few months to later fight Vandals, Suèves and Alains with the pay of Rome, the Visigoths regularly launched military raids to affirm their power vis-a-vis the autochtones but especially vis-a-vis Suèves, organized in small kingdom in the North-West of the country. In 476, Euric, one of the largest kings goths, appendix all Spain; his/her son and successor Alaric II will start colonization wisigothe in the north of the country and place also best of its troops. Certain historians saw in that the cause of the defeat of the king Visigoth vis-a-vis the franc Clovis: Alaric not having of the integrality of its troops and the famous cavalry wisigothe, it enlisted in its army of many Gallo-Romans motivated pro-Visigoths but little aguerris and.

During its greater extension, before the year 507, the kingdom Visigoth included/understood the Aquitaine like all the Iberian peninsula, put aside part of the north of the peninsula, pertaining to the Basque S, Vascons, Astures and Cantabres (mountain populations of celtiberic origins) and the kingdom of the Suèves in the North-West.

In 507, after the Battle of Vouillé, the Francs took the control of Aquitaine and, in 554, Grenade and the Andalusia became Byzantine possessions at the time of the “reconquest of the West” by the Byzantine Empereur Justinien I {{er}}.

The territorial and political unification of the Hispanie (current Languedoc, Spain and Portugal) was accomplished under the reign of Léovigild (569-586), established in its capital of Tolède, and that of his/her son Récarède I {{er}} (586-601). The kingdom of the Visigoths becomes thus such a “Hispanic empire”, equal to the Roman Empire. Léovigild took the name of Flavuis, struck currency with its effigy and adopted like symbols of the capacity the crown, the sceptre and the royal coat. It promulgated laws which supplemented the Breviary of Alaric and, following the example Roman Emperors, founded cities like Vitoria and, into 578, Récopolis upstream of Tolède. In 586, the Visigoths in reprisals of the invasion of the Septimanie by Gontran in 585, launch a campaign around the area of Arles flooding the city by diverting water of the Rhone.

Récarède continued the wisigothic unification of the kingdom but either in favor of the Hérésie arienne, but well under the aegis of the Roman Église. This capital decision in the Histoire of Spain was made under the influence of Léandre (587) before being officialized in IIIe council of Tolède in 589. The Visigoths of Hispanie brought also a Queen of France to the mérovingiens with the queen Brunehilde.

The Visigoths annexed the kingdom of Suèves in 585 and drove out in 624 the Byzantine of the southernmost areas.

Herménégild the son rebels

The kingdom Visigoth knows his apogee with Léovigild, which associates with the government its two sons, Herménégild and Récarède, in order to ensure the continuity of monarchy in its own family. That could be the cause of the many conspiracies appeared during its reign, within the nobility, and which were repressed with force. Let us recall that monarchy wisigothe was theoretically, elective, according to a Germanic principle. The oldest son of the king Visigoth, Herménégild, professed the religion of his fathers - the Arianisme - until, under the influence of his wife and Leandre saint, bishop of Seville, it converts with the theses of the council of Nicée (trinitaires). In front of the persecution unchained by his father against the trinitaires, he declares the war to him supported by the Suèves the Byzantine and the Francs into 582. Overcome and been captive by his father, the weather dies (585) martyr of its faith, in its prison with Tarragone.

First European kingdom successor of Rome

As long as the kings Visigoths had exerted to be able on the populations autochtones only in the name of the Roman Empire and under the terms of titles such as “ main of the army ”, the doctrinal unification did not take place to be. As from the moment when to be able to them replaced that of the empire fully, it could not tolerate any more the existence of two Churches with their respective hierarchies and the possibilities of sedition that such a situation supported. Léovigild initially tries to unify the Hispania under the banner arienne, by systematically favouring the prelates and the noble ones of this religion. Influenced by Léandre of Seville, Reccared chooses contrary to abjuring the arianism and embracing the faith trinitaire.

The ceremony took place into 587 and was solemnly ratified at the time of the council which the king convenes in Tolède two years later; this event, which consisted only of the abandonment of certain points of doctrines, was magnifié by the historians of the 19th century which sought a baptismal certificate of the “ Spanish nation so as to compare the Spanish identity to Catholicism militant of the sovereigns of the meeting of the crowns of Aragon and Castille, after Reconquista. The adhesion of the sovereigns Visigoths to the dogma trinitaire was marked by discriminatory measures taken against the Juifs, such as prohibition to have Christian slaves. The king Sisebut (612-621) forced the Jews of the kingdom which would not convert to leave this one; in 694, finally, the king Egica reduced the Jews to slavery.

IVe council of Tolède

Traditions Roman, commercial relations and cultural

Under the government of the Visigoths, the Peninsula preserves its Roman and Mediterranean traditions, and if its inhabitants all were described as “Goths”, it was to distinguish them from the “Romans” or Byzantines. The old legal social categories and (free, freed and slaves) lost of their relevance to the profit of a division based on fortune: vis-a-vis the “powerful ones” which had vast domains and exerted the power political and military thanks to army private customers and slaves, the “humble ones” were gradually reduced to a statute of semi-dependence which ensured protection, grounds or offices in exchange of fidelity to a “owner”.

Commercial relations and cultural will link Spain at the southernmost coasts of the Mediterranean, the south and the center of Gaules, the Atlantic coasts and to Ireland. The cities preserved their role while evolving/moving to adapt to their times. Within the walls, the curiales , assemblies of magistrates and citizens, and took the taxes on a population of tradesmen and craftsmen organized in “colleges” professional among which abounded the workers of the building, the goldsmiths of school and the doctors.

In the great urban centres like Mérida, Tolède, Hispalis (Seville), Cordoue, Lisbon, Carthagène, Barcelona or Saragossa, of the religious buildings had replaced older buildings. Measures were taken in favor of many beggars pushed by the famine, the plagues and misery. Outside the walls were installed the monasteries, the centers of worship to martyrdoms and the cemeteries where the Christians could be buried close to the saints.

The reception of the driven out intellectuals of North Africa

Large bishops, who were also of great authors, made their episcopal sees of the intellectual centers by equipping them with libraries and schools. Most famous of them was undoubtedly Isidore of Seville (towards 570-636), whose works were read and commented on hang all the Moyen-âge. Spain wisigothe, where the intellectuals of North Africa took refuge driven out by the Vandales, the Byzantine then the Musulmans, specialized in compilations and the anthologies, while producing original works in history, right and theology. Its schools, which transmitted the traditional culture, as well trained clerks and the laic ones, and many sale contracts preserved on slate testify to the diffusion of the writing in the rural communities.

Innovation of architecture and art Visigoth

Sudden fall of the kingdom

List kings Visigoths

One can define three times: kings in Toulouse, then kings of arienne confession in Tolède, and to finish, kings of trinitaire confession.

See also: List of the sovereigns wisigoths#Royaume Visigoth

Posterity

The posterity of the kingdom Visigoth is considerable taking into consideration trace left by the tour of Goths in Europe; this is with the fact that the kingdom will perdura until the Early middle ages, sufficiently a long time so that the Art Visigoth moults in Gothic art during the Bas the Middle Ages, possibly is increased floral reasons on the planks inspired of Mudéjars, and diffuses as an alternative to the Romanesque art.

This posterity also relates to the family toponyms and patronyms on the grounds where they lived, doubled linguistic transmissions of the Gotique.

See too

References

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