Visigothic Kingdom: A Visual History

The Visigothic Kingdom was founded in 418 when Rome settled Alaric's Goths in Aquitaine under Wallia. From Toulouse they ruled south-western Gaul and most of Spain until Clovis's Franks defeated Alaric II at Vouille in 507, after which the kingdom was centred on Toledo. Leovigild unified the peninsula, Reccared converted the kingdom from Arian to Catholic Christianity in 589, and Recceswinth's Visigothic Code (654) applied to Goths and Romans alike. Faction fighting over the elective throne left it vulnerable: Tariq's Muslim army killed King Roderic at Guadalete in 711 and the kingdom collapsed within a few years.

When it existed: the era ribbon

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Visigothic territory

Timeline of the Visigothic Kingdom

1. 410
   Alaric sacks Rome
2. 418
   Goths settled in Aquitaine
3. 475
   Euric independent
4. 507
   VouilleAquitaine lost to the Franks.
5. 568
   Leovigild
6. 589
   Third Council of ToledoConversion to Catholicism.
7. 654
   Visigothic Code
8. 711
   Guadalete
9. 720
   Septimania falls

Toulouse

After Alaric sacked Rome in 410 his successors led the Visigoths through Gaul and Spain and were settled as federates in Aquitaine. Euric (466-484) threw off Roman authority, took most of Spain and Provence, and issued the first written Gothic laws. Alaric II's Breviary preserved Roman law for his Roman subjects, but he lost his life and Aquitaine to Clovis at Vouille.

Toledo

Reduced to Spain and a strip of Septimania, the Goths were saved by Ostrogothic intervention and then rebuilt: Leovigild (568-586) conquered the Suebi and pushed back the Byzantines, striking coins in his own name and dressing as an emperor. Reccared's conversion at the Third Council of Toledo ended the religious split; the councils of Toledo became a kind of parliament of bishops and nobles. Isidore of Seville's Etymologies made Visigothic Spain a beacon of learning.

Guadalete

The elective monarchy bred conspiracies; kings persecuted Jews and fought rebel nobles. When Roderic seized the throne in 710, rivals appealed abroad. Tariq ibn Ziyad landed at Gibraltar in 711 with a Berber army and destroyed Roderic's host at the Guadalete; Musa ibn Nusayr followed, Toledo fell, and by 720 only Asturias in the north held out, the seed of the Reconquista. Septimania was lost in 720.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Western Roman Empire (395 to 476)
• Francia (Frankish kingdoms) (481 to 843)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)
• Umayyad Caliphate (661 to 750)
• Emirate of Cordoba (756 to 929)
• Huns (370 to 469)

Wars of the same era and region

• Reconquista (718 to 1492)
• Roman-Germanic wars (113 BC to 476)

8 surprising things about the Visigothic Kingdom

1. The Visigothic Code remained the law of Christian Spain for centuries and influenced medieval Spanish and even Louisiana law.
2. Visigothic kings were often murdered; the Franks called it the 'Gothic disease'.
3. The votive crowns of Guarrazar, gold crowns hung in a church by King Recceswinth, were found by peasants in 1858.
4. The Visigoths' Arian bishop Ulfilas had translated the Bible into Gothic in the fourth century, the oldest Germanic literature.
5. Spanish nobility later prized 'Gothic' descent; the Asturian kings and thus all Spanish monarchs claimed it.
6. Gibraltar is named for Tariq: Jabal Tariq, Tariq's mountain.
7. The Visigothic church's councils issued Europe's harshest anti-Jewish laws of the age.
8. The Visigoths ruled Spain for 300 years, longer than the Muslim Umayyads or the Habsburgs.

Sources

• Visigoth Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Visigothic Kingdom Wikipedia
• Visigoths World History Encyclopedia
• Roger Collins, Visigothic Spain 409-711 (2004) Blackwell

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