The Roman Empire, which dragged a strong crisis in the third century, ended up disappearing, which happened in the year 476. The essential cause of this catastrophe was found in the serious internal problems, both political and military as well as social and economic, but The pressure exerted from outside its borders by the so-called barbarian peoples also contributed to its downfall. , which, as is well known, for the most part belonged to the Germanic group. The Iberian Peninsula experienced, at the beginning of the 5th century, specifically the year 409, the invasion of these peoples, specifically the Suevi and the Vandals , both belonging to the German stock, and the alanos , the latter of Asian origin. Shortly after, the Visigoths made an appearance on the Iberian site. , who had sealed a pact with Rome in the year 416, with the aim, apparently, of eliminating the aforementioned invaders from Hispania. In any case, the Suevos managed to settle in the peninsular northwest.
The Visigothic kingdom was established in the south of France. Hence, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Suevian kingdom was found in Gallaecia and north of the Pyrenees with the Visigothic kingdom of Tolosa . Shortly after the Byzantine Empire , led by Justinian, who intended to recompose the old Western Roman Empire , launched an offensive in the western Mediterranean, managing to establish himself on the Mediterranean coast of Hispania. However, since the beginning of the 6th century, and in particular after his defeat at Vouillé by the Frankish king Clovis , in the year 507, the Visigoths moved to the Iberian Peninsula, while leaving the domains of their former kingdom of Tolosa.
Consolidation of the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania
The Vigidodo settlement in the Iberian Peninsula was carried out, as a preferred area, in the area of the plateau, an area characterized by the predominance of cereal agriculture, but also by its low population and its weak urban development. However, the Visigoths, compared to the bulk of the Hispano-Roman population, were still a minority. This did not prevent, however, the assertion of its military and political power. There had been a displacement of the Visigoth kingdom from the French city of Tolosa to Toledo, which became its central nucleus in the Iberian territory. Important steps towards the consolidation of the Visigoth kingdom of Hispania were taken by the Monarch Leovigildo , which, in the year 585, put an end to the Swabian kingdom of Gallaecia, after defeating its king Myron. Leovigildo also fought the indomitable Vascones, erecting the stronghold of Vitoriaco in front of them. Leovigildo, on the other hand, had serious problems with his son Hermenegildo, who embraced Catholicism, which meant abandoning Arianism, a heterodox current to which the Visigoth people had adhered years ago. However, a few years later, in 589, his son and successor to the throne, Recaredo, achieved religious unification by abandoning the Arian heresy at the III Council of Toledo and accepting the postulates of the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon. , or what is the same:Catholicism. The decisive step towards the political unity of the peninsular complex was reached in the first decades of the 7th century, when the Suintila monarch put an end to the Byzantine presence on the Levantine coast . The Visigothic monarchs, who had originally adopted the title of reges gottorum , were renamed reges Hispaniae , since its sovereignty extended over the entire territory of ancient Roman Hispania, although in some regions, such as those of the Vascones, its inhabitants continued to fight for their independence. The last great step towards the unification of the peninsular space was taken in the middle of the 7th century with the monarch Recesvinto, when he promulgated, in the year 654, the Líber Iudicum , text better known as the Juzgo Law , which was based, logically, on the Principles of Roman Law. This text meant the legal unification, for all purposes, between the Hispano-Roman population, which was the majority, and the Visigoths.
The period of Visigoth rule, without a doubt, had its roots in the tradition of Roman times. After all, the Visigoths were one of the Germanic peoples that had been most strongly Romanized, beginning with the use of the Latin language. However, in various aspects, both material and spiritual, there is a setback with respect to Roman times. Economic activity declined , perceptible for example, in fields as significant as mining or commercial activity. In Visigothic Hispania, the rural world overwhelmingly predominated, while urban life had entered a phase of decline. The structure of society faithfully reproduced the scheme of Roman times. The dominant sector, which included both the old Hispano-Roman aristocracy and the Visigoth nobles, was characterized by the possession of large territorial domains. The popular sector included the artisans and small merchants of the cities and, basically, the peasantry, most of whom worked as settlers in the great domains of the powerful or of the Church. Likewise, the servi subsisted. , that is, the slaves, although, apparently, in retrograde. The rural environment was sometimes witness to social upheavals, such as the armed revolts of the rustici of the Cordovan countryside of the times of the monarch Leovigildo. It also seems that the heresy of Priscilianism, which had indisputable social connotations, spread throughout broad sectors of the peasantry, especially in the northwest of the peninsula. At the same time, the elements that, in the future, were to characterize feudal society were taking shape in the Visigoth Hispanic society. At the same time that relations of a public nature were weakening, those of a personal nature triumphed. The kings had fideles regis and gardenings , who were a kind of vassals. For their part, the members of the high nobility also had their own entrusted, the bucelarios and the saiones . Likewise, in the rural environment, the authority of the owners of the land over their cultivators or settlers was strengthened day by day, which heralded the future manorial regime.
Visigothic culture, strongly steeped in Roman tradition, was nevertheless clearly at the service of Roman religion. Hence, the most relevant figures belonged to the ecclesiastical sphere. In order to guarantee a good formation of the catholic clergy diverse episcopal schools arose from which it is possible to mention those of Toledo, Seville and Saragossa. Among the most distinguished names of that time, Braulio de Zaragoza, Eugenio de Toledo, Fructuoso de Braga, Julián de Toledo or Valerio del Bierzo. However, the most emblematic name of the culture of the Visigoth times was, without a doubt, the Bishop of Seville Isidore. Trained in the school created in Seville by his brother, Archbishop Leandro, Isidoro was the author of numerous works, from chronicles of the events of the time to theological writings and epistles of great literary quality. Isidore was, in another order of things, one of the most outstanding defenders of the political theory that manifested the supremacy of the spiritual power over the temporal. But Isidore of Seville is first of all known for the Etymologies. This work, with undoubted pedagogical pretensions and whose main objective was to save the cultural legacy of the ancient world, has traditionally been considered as the first Christian encyclopedia . The Etymologies exerted a great influence on Christian Europe in later centuries.
Organization of the power of the Visigothic Kingdom
The Visigothic monarchy, however, had very weak foundations. The kings did not accede to the throne by hereditary means, but by choice of the powerful, who had to choose people of Gothic lineage and good customs , as established in the VI Council of Toledo . However, in practice, many monarchs managed, by way of prior association, that their children succeeded them on the throne. But this did not prevent the violent actions against the kings, frequent throughout the trajectory of the Visigothic kingdom of Hispania. The kings, whose power came from God, according to the prevailing theories at the time, were aided by people they trusted, who formed the Palatine Office . There were also two very important institutions, the Aula Regia and the Councils. The Royal Classroom It was made up of magnates close to the king, its main function being to advise the monarch. The Councils were ecclesiastical institutions, but in Visigothic times they played a leading political role, not only because of the decisions that were made in them, but also because the kings were their conveners. The kingdom as a whole was divided into circumscriptions, heirs to Roman times, headed by a dux .
Fall of the Visigoth Kingdom
The last decades of the 7th century and the first of the 8th century witnessed a profound crisis in Visigothic Spain. The plague caused great mortality in the year 693 , and the bad harvests converged with the increase in banditry, as well as with the unstoppable decline of morality. Numerous peasants, overwhelmed by the growing fiscal pressure, fled their farms. The Jewish minority, for its part, was the object of drastic persecutory measures. The unity of the Visigothic kingdom was on the verge of breaking down when, in the last decades of the 7th century, Doge Paulo, who ruled the region of Septimania, not only revolted, but even proclaimed himself king. But the crisis was visible above all in the terrible struggle between two great families of the high Visigothic nobility to occupy the throne, those of Chindasvinto and Wamba , names of two monarchs from the second half of the 7th century. That was a real civil war, which led to the invasion of Hispania by the Muslims .
