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Spain History - Barbarian Period (409 - 476)
The main tribe in the history of the Barbarian occupation of the peninsular
were the Visigoths who originated from what is now known as Germany
who first appeared in 415 AD . Their
style of living, dress and rule was in complete contrast to the Romans.
Four years later their occupation was so successful that the
Visigoth king Wallia formed a new kingdom of Toulouse which included
the most of the northern part of the peninsular. This area was
extended by King Euric by 484 to extend from the Loire River down to
the south coast of Spain. Of
the 34 Visigoth Kings in their rule of the peninsular only 15 died of natural
causes. Very little physical evidence remains today to indicate their culture
other than some churches, a number of pieces of jewellery and records of an
obscure form of administrative law. This is all that can be positively
related to their reign of just over three hundred years, from 409 until 711
AD. Despite this they controlled at one time the strongest and largest kingdom
in Europe which constantly suffered from internal strife and disunity.
The early invaders were reputed to have been the Suevi (Swabians) from the
Upper Danube and the famous Vandals from the Vistula River area. Within a
very short period they took possession of most of the peninsular including
that of the area of Cantabria which had not succumbed to the Romans for the
previous two centuries. As the Suevi swarmed over the Pyrenees into Galicia
the Vandals arriving by boat attacked from the south. The success of the
invasion was undoubtedly considerably assisted by the decline and
disintegration of the Roman Empire.
Rome had already been taken by the Visigoths in 410 and had set up a puppet
Roman ruler. The new ruler made an attempt to take the peninsular by setting
one tribe against another. They commissioned the Goths under the leadership
of Atawulf but after successfully defeating the Vandals they retired to make
their kingdom north of the Pyrenees at Toulouse. The defeated Vandals, always
thirsty for new aggression, then moved to North Africa and took and settled
in the areas now known as Algeria and Morocco. The defeated Suevi retreated
to the northwest and ruled this area for another 180 years.
When Rome finally and completely fell in 476 AD the Visigoths found themselves
at first rulers of a massive kingdom but this was soon disrupted when the
Franks took Gaul so they moved their power base to Hispania. They chose the
town of Toledo as their capital marvelling at the construction of the previous
Roman rulers. It is possible to consider that at any one given time the
Barbarians did not number much in excess of 200,000 during their period of rule.
They successfully ruled over several million Hispano- Romans by allowing them
to continue with their own positions of authority and not trying to impose
their own culture upon a society that was already well established. However,
in matters they considered important they were efficiently brutal in applying
their rules. A large difference of attitude existed however in the area of
religion. The Barbarians had an Arian form of Christianity which denied the
Trinity, whilst the local inhabitants practiced the "Roman Religion" and many
country folk still believed in Pagan style ceremonies.
In the 6th Century a new seat of power for the old Roman Empire had been
established in far of Constantinople. The new Byzantine rulers eyed the
peninsular as their rightful property and Justinian led a series of
successful invasions of North Africa to end up conquering the town of
Septum (Ceuta). This location was viewed as an excellent base from which to
attempt the re-conquer of the peninsular. From here they successfully later
took Málaga and Cartagena and also the Balearic Islands to create a new
province which they called Spania.
During this whole period the one race which remained stubbornly independent
of any overlord was the Basques. As with other invaders they did not take
kindly either to the Barbarians and at one point they swept successfully
down the Ebro Valley to Barcelona before retreating back to their own lands.
Under the rule of King Leovigild the Visigoths however did manage to rid
the peninsular of the Suevi in the far northwest. His rule was noted for
battle successes and he also crushed an uprising in Cantabria.
However, history had recorded that as from 507 the empire of the
Visigoths tribe began to slowly crumble. It is recorded that King
Recared, the successor to Leovigild, became a convert to the Christian religion
in 589.
This King converted to Catholicism and banned the previous Arian religion.
Toledo then became not only a seat of regal power but also the seat of
religion thus binding the two together. This move gave new powers to the
church which previously they had not enjoyed and was to become the root
cause of problems much later. The inhabitants in general appeared to
readily accept this new situation and its effect filtered into the culture
and society itself. As the Visigoths had their own smiths and potters
examples of their work are evident but they in the areas of architecture
and the fine arts they seemed to have been seriously lacking. One
outstanding person from this era was St. Isidore (560 - 636), who as an
intellectual compiled an encyclopaedia, copies of which were then
distributed to almost every Monastery in Europe. He also was recorded as
being the author of the first anti-Jewish treatise and Bishop of
Seville in 600. The Jewish population
of the peninsular was at that time larger than that of the Barbarians and
had enjoyed a certain amount of tolerance through the previous centuries.
They now suffered the first taste of hard persecution by being forced to
either accept Catholicism or leave for other lands. Many refused to change
their religion and a sizable majority fled to North Africa.
The problems caused by a Byzantines invasion on the south coast
in 554 under General Belisarius were removed in 624 AD when their
hold over part of the coastal regions was finally overcome. This was the
first time with the exception of the Basques that the Visigoths effectively
ruled under one King the entire peninsular. However, this situation was
short lived and the situation returned to normal with internal strife. A
plot was discovered where leading Jews had linked up with the North Africa
Moors and invited an invasion of the peninsular. After this invasion
failed King Wamba ordered general bloodletting and many Jews were
slaughtered. This episode was the forerunner of what was on the
horizon and at the 4th Synod of Toledo two important rulings were introduced.
Firstly, The official language in all matters became Latin, and secondly, all
Jews were required to be baptised in the Christian faith. The King then took the mistaken decision to order all priests to become
part of his army. The revolt was quick to come with the church siding with
rebel nobles and under the leadership of Ervigius they took the
throne away from Wamba. Some
years later the relative quick downfall of the Barbarians came to an end
when the then ruler King Witiza attempted to pass his throne to his son.
Again the nobles objected and sided with a new leader by the name of
Roderick caused a civil war to start which they duly won. King Roderick
and his Visigoth followers were short-lived as rulers because they
failed to unite the peninsular under one kingdom. In 711 the
Moslem leader Tariq Ibn Ziyad landed with a strong invasion force at
Gibraltar and commenced his rapid Moorish conquest of the peninsular by
defeating King Rodrigo at Guardelete.
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