Visigothic Kingdom

Quick Facts: Who was Visigothic Kingdom?

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Visigothic Kingdom

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A Germanic kingdom ruling Iberia from the 5th to the 8th century, key in early medieval Iberian history.

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Origins & Early Life

The Visigothic Kingdom, Visigothic Spain or Kingdom of the Goths (Latin: Regnum Gothorum) was a barbarian kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th century. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was originally created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of Gallia Aquitania in southwest Gaul by the Roman government and then extended by conquest over all of Hispania. The Kingdom maintained independence from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, whose attempts to re-establish Roman authority in Hispania were only partially successful and short-lived. The Visigoths were romanized central Europeans who had moved west from the Danube Valley. They became foederati of Rome, and sought to restore the Roman order against the hordes of Vandals, Alans and Suebi.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD; therefore, the Visigoths believed they had the right to take the territories that Rome had promised in Hispania in exchange for restoring the Roman order. Under King Euric—who eliminated the status of foederati—a triumphal advance of the Visigoths began. Alarmed at Visigoth expansion from Aquitania after victory over the Gallo-Roman and Breton armies at Déols in 469, Western Emperor Anthemius sent a fresh army across the Alps against Euric, who was besieging Arles. The Roman army was crushed at the nearby Battle of Arles, resulting in Euric capturing Arles, securing much of southern Gaul. Sometimes referred to as the Regnum Tolosae or Kingdom of Toulouse after its capital Toulouse in modern historiography, the Visigothic kingdom lost much of its territory in Gaul to the Franks in the early 6th century, except the narrow coastal strip of Septimania.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The kingdom of the 6th and 7th centuries is sometimes called the Regnum Toletanum or Kingdom of Toledo after the new capital of Toledo in Hispania. A civil war starting in 549 resulted in an invitation from the Visigoth Athanagild, who had usurped the kingship, to the Byzantine emperor Justinian I to send soldiers to his assistance. Athanagild won the war, but the Byzantines took over Cartagena and a good deal of southern Hispania, until 624 when Swinthila expelled the last Byzantine garrisons from the peninsula, occupying Orcelis, which the Visigoths called Aurariola, what is today Orihuela in the Province of Alicante. Starting in the 570s Athanagild's brother Liuvigild compensated for this loss by conquering the Kingdom of the Suebi in Gallaecia, which corresponds roughly to present-day Galicia and the northern part of Portugal, and annexing it, and by repeated campaigns against the Basques. The ethnic distinction between the Hispano-Roman population and the Visigoths had largely disappeared by this time, with the Gothic language losing its last and probably already declining function as a church language when the Visigoths renounced Arianism in 589.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Visigothic Kingdom

True or False: “The Visigothic Kingdom maintained continuous political control over all of Hispania throughout its entire existence.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): The kingdom lost significant territory to the Franks in Gaul and was ultimately conquered by Umayyad troops from North Africa between 711 and 719.

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