A History of Medieval Spain

Joseph F. O'Callaghan

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780801468711
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

Medieval Spain is brilliantly recreated, in all its variety and richness, in this comprehensive survey. Likely to become the standard work in English, the book treats the entire Iberian Peninsula and all the people who inhabited it, from the coming of the Visigoths in the fifth century to the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Integrating a wealth of information about the diverse peoples, institutions, religions, and customs that flourished in the states that are now Spain and Portugal, Joseph F. O'Callaghan focuses on the continuing attempts to impose political unity on the peninsula.O'Callaghan divides his story into five compact historical periods and discusses political, social, economic, and cultural developments in each period. By treating states together, he is able to put into proper perspective the relationships among them, their similarities and differences, and the continuity of development from one period to the next. He gives proper attention to Spain's contacts with the rest of the medieval world, but his main concern is with the events and institutions on the peninsula itself. Illustrations, genealogical charts, maps, and an extensive bibliography round out a book that will be welcomed by scholars and student of Spanish and Portuguese history and literature, as well as by medievalists, as the fullest account to date of Spanish history in the Middle Ages.

PART I

The Visigothic Era

415–711

Gothorum antiquissimam esse gentem certum est…. Nulla enim gens in orbe fuit, quae Romanum imperium adeo fatigaverit.

Certainly the Gothic race is very ancient…. No people in the whole world so distressed the Roman Empire.

Isidore of Seville, Historia Gothorum, 1–2

CHAPTER 1

The Visigothic Kingdom

The Visigoths

During the fifth century, Spain slipped gradually away from Roman rule into the hands of the barbarian tribes driven westward by the general tide of invasion. Vandals, Alans, and Suevi occupied the south, west, and north early in the century bringing war and destruction to the Hispano-Romans who seemed incapable of defending themselves. At the end of the century the Visigoths, the most powerful of the tribes to enter Spain, began to settle in Old Castile where their presence has been evident ever after in place names, racial structure, and customary law. They gradually extended their rule over the other tribes and conquered the last Roman outposts, but it was not until the seventh century that they established effective government over the entire peninsula. Their great misfortune was their inability to create a stable monarchy based on the principle of hereditary succession. Civil war was endemic during the centuries of their rule and ultimately contributed to the sudden collapse of their kingdom before the onslaughts of the Muslims early in the eighth century.

While the Visigoths, numbering perhaps 200,000 to 300,000, constituted the military ruling class, they did not radically alter the civilization of the peninsula. Due to differences in language, customs, and religion, their assimilation by the Hispano-Roman population of about six to nine million was difficult. The persistence of the name Hispania, rather than its replacement by some Germanic alternative, suggests the continuing strength of the Hispano-Roman tradition. The cultural ascendancy of the Hispano-Roman population is also manifest in the adoption by the Visigoths of the Latin language, the orthodox Christian religion, the imperial administrative system, Roman ideas of the state, of rulership, and of a written code of laws applicable to all men, regardless of racial origin. The substance of Hispano-Roman civilization, modified in various respects, survived throughout the Visigothic era, and it was this essentially Romance, rather than Germanic, legacy that was handed on to future generations. And yet, in spite of their cultural superiority, Hispano-Romans such as St. Isidore of Seville acknowledged the political and military achievements of the Visigoths and took patriotic pride in recording them. In this sense the Hispano-Romans accepted the Visigoths as their own.

The most significant element in the legacy of the Visigothic era was the concept of an indivisible kingdom embracing the whole of Spain. Inspired by this ideal and by the memory of the Visigoths, whose heirs they considered themselves to be, the rulers of the Christian kingdom of Asturias-León set as their goal the expulsion of the Muslim invaders and the reconstitution of the Visigothic state. Remembrance of the Visigothic kingdom thus gave an ideological justification to the reconquest.

The Kingdom of Toulouse

Settled along the Danube frontier in the late fourth century and already converted to Arian Christianity, the Visigoths were the first Germanic people to enter the Roman Empire in force. Fearing to suffer the fate of their neighbors, the Ostrogoths, who had been subjugated by the Huns, they requested permission in 376 to settle in the empire as federati or allies. Although Emperor Valens gave the necessary authorization, imperial officials dealt fraudulently and dishonestly with the Visigoths, causing them to rebel and to ravage Thrace. In haste, Valens prepared to crush them, but at Adrianpole in 378 his forces were routed and he was killed. The barbarians continued their rampage until they were brought under control by Emperor Theodosius (379–395) who settled them in Thrace and admitted their troops to the imperial army.

Toward the end of the century the rivalry between the regents governing the empire in the name of Theodosius’s sons gave the ambitious Visigothic king Alaric the opportunity to seek his fortune. Leading his people through Thrace and Macedonia, he occupied Athens in 396; he then pressed westward attempting to enter Italy but was repulsed by the barbarian Stilicho, regent in the west. After Stilicho’s murder in 408 Alaric was able to march unhindered through the peninsula, and in 410 sacked Rome, causing profound shock among the Romans, pagan and Christian alike. After three days the Visigoths left the city and continued southward, intending to cross into Africa, but Alaric’s sudden death in southern Italy caused the abandonment of the project.

Athaulf (410–415), his successor, led the Visigoths through Italy into Gaul, where, under the assaults of the Suevi, Alans, Vandals, Burgundians, and Franks, imperial defenses had already broken down. The Suevi, Alans, and Vandals, who had had little previous contact with the empire, continued their marauding and entered Spain in 409. After laying waste the country for two years, the Suevi settled in the northwestern province of Gallaetia, as did the Asdings, one branch of the Vandal tribe. The Siling Vandals occupied Baetica in the south, while the Alans, an Iranian people, settled in the central provinces of Lusitania and Cartaginensis. Given the small number of barbarians, the occupation of the peninsula was far from complete, and for the moment Tarraconensis was left free of barbarians.

In the meantime, Athaulf, who as Orosius remarked, had dreamed of restoring the glory of the Roman empire, failed in his attempt to secure imperial permission to settle his people as federati in Gaul. Driven into Tarraconensis by the Romans, for a brief time he made Barcelona his headquarters, but he was assassinated in 415, as was his successor, Sigeric. Under their new king, Wallia (415–418), the Visigoths, threatened by starvation in Spain, tried unsuccessfully to pass into Africa. Thereupon they came to terms with the Romans and were recognized as allies and supplied with food (416). In the emperor’s name the Visigoths now launched a series of campaigns against the other barbarians in the peninsula and nearly exterminated the Alans and the Siling Vandals. The remnants of these tribes joined the Asdings and the Suevi in Gallaetia. In 418, in return for these services, the Visigoths were allowed to settle in Gaul in Aquitania secunda and in part of Narbonensis. This was the beginning of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse.

For the next forty years the Visigoths had little to do with Spain, though they were very much involved in the defense of Gaul against other barbarians, including Attila’s Huns. In Spain the Suevi and the Asdings continued their depredations and fought one another. About 421 the Asdings left Gallaetia and overran the province of Baetica, seizing Seville and Cartagena and even raiding the Balearic Islands. The Vandal king, Gaiseric, led his people across the straits of Gibraltar to North Africa in 429; without great difficulty they conquered the province, and ruled it and the Balearic Islands until the Byzantine reconquest in 534.

The withdrawal of the Visigoths and then of the Vandals allowed the Suevi freedom to plunder the peninsula at will. Their destruction of Gallaetia induced Bishop Idatius to travel to Gaul in 431 to seek aid from the Roman general Aetius, but he could do nothing. Later Idatius tried to negotiate peace with the barbarians but to no avail. In 456 the Visigoths, led by King Theodoric II (453–466), who had recently helped to stop Attila at the Catalaunian Fields, returned to Spain with instructions from the emperor to destroy the Suevi. They easily defeated the Suevi and killed their king, but the Visigothic triumph, rather than benefiting the empire, prepared the way for the eventual Visigothic occupation of the peninsula.

In the next twenty years the chaos in the western empire continued unchecked and reached its culmination in the deposition of Emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476. His downfall also disrupted the fragile alliance between the empire and the Visigoths. Under the leadership of Euric (466–484), who gained the throne by murdering his brother, the Visigoths established an independent kingdom in Gaul and northern Spain. From his capital at Toulouse, Euric ruled the most powerful barbarian state in the late fifth century. The region in Gaul bounded by the Atlantic, the Loire, the Rhone, and the Pyrenees acknowledged his authority. In Spain his people occupied Tarraconensis and parts of Lusitania; the Suevi were forced back into Gallaetia, while Baetica and Cartaginensis were left to fend for themselves.

Despite the general collapse of the imperial government, Roman influence was still strong in the Visigothic kingdom. Not only did the Romans form the majority of the population, but they also filled many of the chief administrative positions, and continued to be governed by the Theodosian Code promulgated in 438. Euric, the ablest of the Visigothic kings, gained fame as the first great Germanic legislator, when the code of law bearing his name was published in Latin about 475. Some years later (506) his son Alaric II (484–507) issued a compilation based on the Theodosian Code known as the Breviary of Alaric. The difficulty of creating a common law for Visigoths and Romans and the persistence of the Visigoths in adhering to the Arian heresy created a broad gap between the rulers and the ruled.

During the reign of Alaric II a serious threat to Visigothic preponderance in Gaul emerged. Clovis (481–511), the greatest king of the Merovingian Franks, had subjected northern Gaul to his rule and by his acceptance of orthodox Christianity gained favor with the Gallo-Romans. As Gregory of Tours tells us, the wily Frank proposed to liberate southern Gaul from the hated and heretical Visigoths. Already Alaric II had revealed that he lacked the will to resist the Franks. When the Roman leader Syagrius, whom Clovis had expelled from northern Gaul, sought refuge at Toulouse, Alaric delivered him up to the mercy of the Franks, but this act of appeasement failed to save his kingdom. Crossing the Loire in 507, Clovis gave battle to the Visigoths at Vouillé (Vogladum) near Poitiers. “The Goths fled as was their custom,” says Bishop Gregory; Alaric was defeated and killed, and the kingdom of Toulouse came to an end.

Following their victory, the Franks overran southern Gaul, occupying Toulouse, Bordeaux, and other cities, while their Burgundian allies entered Narbonne. Gesaleic (507–510), a bastard of Alaric II, could not check the invasion and was forced to flee to Barcelona. The intervention of the Ostrogothic king, Theodoric the Great (493–526), who had recently established his power in Italy, halted the progress of the Franks and Burgundians. No doubt he feared a possible threat to his own position, but he was concerned also to defend the rights of his grandson, Amalaric (510–531), the legitimate heir to the Visigothic throne. Theodoric drove the Franks and Burgundians out of Narbonensis and expelled Gesaleic from Barcelona. Although the Visigothic kingdom survived, it was now reduced to Septimania, a part of the province of Narbonensis, and the northern provinces of Spain. Until Theodoric’s death the kingdom remained an Ostrogothic dependency, ruled by Ostrogothic governors. Much of the peninsula was still free of barbarians, but the inhabitants were abandoned to their own devices by the imperial authorities.

Not long after Theodoric’s death, hostilities between the Franks and the Visigoths were resumed. At first Amalaric, by marrying Clovis’s daughter Clotilde, established friendly relations with his northern neighbors, but his ill treatment of his wife and his attempts to force her to accept Arianism caused the Franks to renew their attack. Amalaric was expelled from Narbonne and fled to Barcelona, where he was murdered in 531. The Franks laid waste to Tarraconensis, seized Pamplona, and besieged Zaragoza, but their hope of extending their dominion south of the Pyrenees was not to be fulfilled. An Ostrogothic general, Theudis (531–548), the newly proclaimed king of the Visigoths, drove the Franks from Spain and regained control of Septimania, the southeastern corner of Gaul comprising the episcopal cities of Narbonne, Carcassonne, Nîmes, Maguelonne, Béziers, Agde, Lodéve, and Elne.

Although Frankish ambitions in Spain had been thwarted, the Visigoths had to face another challenge to their hegemony in the peninsula. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527–565) planned to reconquer the former Roman provinces abandoned to the barbarians by his predecessors. By 534 Byzantine forces had conquered the Vandal kingdom in North Africa and the Balearic Islands and were beginning the long struggle to destroy the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy. Theudis recognized the threat to Spain and occupied Ceuta (Septum) on the North African coast, so as to close the straits of Gibraltar to a Byzantine invasion. In 542, however, the Byzantines were able to take possession of Ceuta. The murders of King Theudis in 548 and of his successor Theudigisil in the next year prepared the way for Byzantine intervention in the peninsula. Commenting on these murders in his History of the Franks (III, 30), Gregory of Tours said, “the Goths have taken up this detestable custom, that if any of their kings displeases them, they go after him with their swords, and then they make king whomever they wish.” Heartened by the Byzantine conquest of North Africa, the Hispano-Romans of Baetica rose in revolt against King Agila (549–554) and routed him in a battle at Córdoba. A rival claimant to the throne, Athanagild, appealed to the Byzantines for help, and in reply Justinian dispatched a small fleet and an army from Sicily. Near Seville in 554 the rebels and their Byzantine allies defeated Agila, who fled to Mérida, where he was killed by his own men. Athanagild (554–567) was now the undisputed king of the Visigoths.

As one might expect, the Byzantines, whom Athanagild had summoned to Spain, did not withdraw, but seized possession of the province of Baetica and part of Cartaginensis, including the towns of Cartagena, Málaga, and Córdoba. Although he was able to wrest Seville from their grasp, Athanagild’s efforts to expel them from the peninsula were futile. For about seventy years the Byzantines maintained a foothold in Spain, stretching along the southern and eastern coast from the mouth of the Guadalquivir to the mouth of the Júcar. Over the years the Visigoths whittled away at this territory, whose limits were never determined precisely, until the final conquest by King Swintila.

The Kingdom of Toledo

By the middle of the sixth century the power of the Visigoths, formerly centered in Toulouse, was located irrevocably in Spain. Since the time of Euric, the Visigoths had been penetrating deeper into the peninsula. In the course of the sixth century, especially after the battle of Vouillé, their settlement increased substantially. Although they were the preponderant power in the peninsula they were not the only one. The Suevi, though weak, still ruled Gallaetia; the Basques remained independent in their mountains, and the Byzantines controlled a large area in the south and east. The principal task facing the Visigoths in the late sixth century was that of unifying the peninsula under their rule. This was not only a political and military problem, involving conflict with the Suevi, Basques, and Byzantines, but there were also important legal, social, and religious differences dividing the Visigoths and Hispano-Romans. Until these were removed the Hispano-Roman majority would only tolerate the Visigoths as unwanted intruders.

During the reign of King Leovigild (568–586), who had been associated on the throne with his brother Liuva (568–573), the initial steps toward the solution of these problems wer...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Abbreviations for Citations
• Hispania
• PART I. THE VISIGOTHIC ERA, 415–711
• PART II. THE ASCENDANCY OF ISLAM, 711–1031
• PART III. A BALANCE OF POWER, FROM THE FALL OF THE CALIPHATE TO LAS NAVAS DE TOLOSA, 1031–1212
• PART IV. THE GREAT RECONQUEST AND THE BEGINNINGS OF OVERSEAS EXPANSION, 1212–1369
• PART V. THE STRUGGLE FOR PENINSULAR UNION, 1369–1479
• EPILOGUE
• GENEALOGICAL CHARTS
• BIBLIOGRAPHY