THE VISIGOTHS

Several Germanic peoples had settled on the Iberian Peninsula before the fall of the
Western Roman Empire. At the time of the fall, the Visigoths established a kingdom with
its capital at Toledo, which dominated the entire peninsular territory. As their dominion
encompassed the Roman area of Hispania, their kingdom was called the Visigothic
kingdom of Hispania. They abandoned their Arian Christian religion and converted to
Roman Christianity to better integrate into Hispano-Roman society. The kingdom
disappeared in 711, when Muslims from North Africa defeated King Rodrigo at the Battle
of Guadalete.

In 409 several Germanic peoples entered the Peninsula: the Vandals, the Alans and the
Suevi. Another of the Germanic peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire, the
Visigoths, sacked Rome in 410 led by their king Alaric.

After the disappearance of the Western Roman Empire, the Visigoths settled in
Hispania, forming a kingdom with its capital in Toledo, known as the Kingdom of
Hispania.

Three major reforms are known thath took place during this period.

1. Territorial reunification took place

during the reign of the king King
Leovigild that expelled the Suevi from the
north-east of the Peninsula and conquered
part of the lands of the Roman Byzantine
Empire that had been settled in the south
of Hispania.

2. The religious reunification that occurred

when King Recaredo decided the
conversion of the Visigoths to Christianity
and the abandonment of Arianism at the
III Council of Toledo (589). From that
moment on, Christianity became the only permitted religion.

3. Finally, King Recesvinto achieved political and social unification for the
kingdom when he promulgated in 654 the Liber Iudiciorum, a book containing a
body of Visigothic laws.

Their political system was an elective monarchy in which the nobles elected the new
king. As they could not agree, there were numerous civil wars, especially when it came
the time to elect a new monarch.

Taking advantage of one of these civil wars, the Muslims arrived on the Peninsula and,
due to serious political problems, the Visigothic kingdom ended up disappearing in 711.