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The Hispano-Roman population did not easily absorb the Visigoths. Because the Suebi maintained an independent kingdom in Galicia and the Basques steadfastly opposed all attempts at subjugation, the Visigoths did not control the entire peninsula. To the great satisfaction of the Hispano-Romans, Byzantine authority was restored in the southeast early in the 6th century. However, in the second half of the century Leovigild (568–586), the most effective of the Visigothic monarchs, advanced the unification of the peninsula by conquering the Suebi and subduing the Basques. Ruling from Toledo in the centre of the peninsula, he transformed Visigothic kingship by adopting the throne and other Roman symbols of monarchy. A committed Arian Christian, Leovigild sought to unify the kingdom by encouraging conversion of the Catholic Hispano-Roman population to his faith. Despite his efforts to bring the Arian faith more in line with Catholic teaching and his emphasis on conversion rather than compulsion, Leovigild’s attempt was ultimately unsuccessful and may have contributed to the failed revolt of his son Hermenegild (later St. Hermenegild), who had accepted Roman Catholicism and hoped, perhaps, to become king. Hermenegild’s rebellion, however, may have been incidental to his conversion, and Leovigild’s policy of uniting this people through religion would be vindicated by his other son, Reccared.
Recognizing that the majority of the people adhered to the Catholic faith, Reccared (586–601) repudiated his father’s religion and announced his conversion to Catholicism. As the Gothic nobles and bishops followed his lead, a principal obstacle to the assimilation of Visigoths and Hispano-Romans was lifted. Thereafter, the Hispano-Romans, no longer expecting deliverance by Byzantium, developed a firm allegiance to the Visigothic monarchy. As a consequence, Swinthila (621–631) was able to conquer the remaining Byzantine fortresses in the peninsula and to extend Visigothic authority throughout Spain.
Not only was the conversion of the Visigoths a sign of the predominance of Hispano-Roman civilization, but it also brought the bishops into a close relationship with the monarchy. Indeed, both Hermenegild and Reccared had close ties with St. Leander of Sevilla, who was involved with their conversions and was the brother of the encyclopaedist Isidore. Kings, imitating Byzantine practice, exercised the right to appoint bishops, the natural leaders of the Hispano-Roman majority, and to summon them to the Councils of Toledo. Although the Councils of Toledo were essentially ecclesiastical assemblies, they had an exceptional impact on the government of the realm. The bishops, once they had heard a royal statement concerning current issues, enacted canons relating to church affairs, but they also touched on secular problems, such as royal elections or cases of treason. Through their councils the bishops provided essential support for the monarchy, but, in striving to achieve a peaceful and harmonious public order, the bishops sometimes compromised their independence.
The hostility of the nobility to hereditary succession and an absence of natural heirs tended to preserve the elective character of the monarchy. Because the Visigoths had a reputation for assassinating their kings, the bishops tried to safeguard the ruler by means of an anointment ceremony. The holy oil manifested to all that the king was under God’s protection and now had a sacred character. The bishops, hoping to eliminate the violence associated with a royal election, also devised the procedures to be followed. The royal household (officium palatinum), which imitated the Roman imperial model, assisted the king in governing, but when necessary the king also consulted assemblies of magnates and notables (aula regia). Dukes, counts, or judges were responsible for the administration of provinces and other territorial districts surviving from Roman times. Self-government had long since disappeared in the towns. Agriculture and animal husbandry were the mainstays of the economy. Evidence suggests that commercial and industrial activity were minimal.
The predominance of the law of the Hispano-Roman majority over that of the Visigoths was another manifestation of the ascendancy of Roman civilization. The form and content of the Liber Judiciorum, a code of law promulgated about 654 by the Visigothic king Recceswinth (649–672), was fundamentally Roman. Although Germanic elements (such as the test of innocence by the ordeal of cold water) were included, the code consistently accepted the principles of Roman law, and, unlike Germanic customary law, it was meant to have territorial rather than personal application. The Liber Judiciorum was a principal part of the Visigothic legacy received by medieval Spain.
The extraordinary cultural achievements of the 7th century also testify to the continuing impact of the Roman heritage. The most prolific author was St. Isidore, bishop of Sevilla (Hispalis) from about 600 to 636, a friend and counselor of kings. In addition to his history of the Visigoths and theological treatises, his chief contribution to medieval civilization was the Etymologiae (Etymologies), an encyclopaedic work that attempted to summarize the wisdom of the ancient world.
Toward the end of the 7th century, a critical time in Visigothic history began. The deposition, through deception, of King Wamba (672–680), a capable ruler who tried to reform the military organization, was a portent of future problems. As agitation continued, Wamba’s successors made scapegoats of the Jews, compelling them to accept the Christian religion and threatening them with slavery. After the death of Witiza (700–710), the persistent turbulence of the nobility thwarted the succession of his son and allowed Roderick, duke of Baetica (710–711), to claim the throne. Determined to oust Roderick, Witiza’s family apparently summoned the Muslims in North Africa to their aid. Subsequently, Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād, the Muslim governor of Tangier, landed at Calpe (Gibraltar) in 711 and routed King Roderick and the Visigoths near the Guadalete River on July 19. The triumphant Muslims rapidly overran Spain, meeting only feeble resistance from the leaderless Visigoths. Although the kingdom of the Visigoths vanished, its memory inspired the kings of Asturias-León-Castile to begin the reconquest of Spain.
Christian Spain from the Muslim invasion to about 1260
Despite ongoing warfare among its various Christian kingdoms, a recurring theme in Christian Spain from the Islamic invasion of the 8th century to the coming of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, in the late 15th century was the unification of the Iberian Peninsula under Christian rule. The Islamic conquest disrupted whatever measure of unity the Visigoths had achieved and raised new religious, cultural, legal, linguistic, and ethnic barriers to assimilation with the native population. A number of tiny Christian states eventually rose from obscurity in the northern mountains and, prompted by self-preservation and religio-cultural hostility toward Islam, initiated the Reconquista (Reconquest). Christian success was in direct proportion to the strength of Islamic Spain at any given time. When Islamic power waned, the Christians usually advanced their frontiers. The kings of Asturias-León-Castile, declaring themselves the heirs of the Visigoths, claimed hegemony over the entire peninsula. However, the rulers of Portugal, Navarre (Navarra), and Aragon-Catalonia (Spanish: Cataluña; Catalan: Catalunya), whose frontiers began to be delineated in the 11th and 12th centuries, repudiated and often undermined the aspirations of their larger neighbour. The Reconquista was nearly completed by the middle of the 13th century, by which time the Muslims retained only the small kingdom of Granada (Arabic: Gharnāṭah) in vassalage to Castile until 1492.
The Trastámara dynasty, which came to power in Castile in the late 14th century, gave a new impetus to the search for peninsular unity by using marriage, diplomacy, and war to acquire dominion over the neighbouring Christian kingdoms. At the same time, the Trastámaras struggled to extend royal power against the resistance of the nobles. Ferdinand and Isabella linked Aragon and Castile by marriage and also brought the Reconquista to a conclusion by conquering Granada. However, as they were unable to incorporate Portugal into a family union by marriage, the unification of the peninsula was incomplete. The political union of Castile and Aragon could not by itself, of course, overcome the two realms’ centuries-old diversity of languages, laws, and traditions.
The Christian states, 711–1035
Soon after the Islamic invasion, fleeing Visigothic nobles and the mountaineers of Asturias united under the leadership of Pelayo (718–737), a Gothic lord, in opposition to the Muslim forces. Later generations acclaimed Pelayo’s victory over the Muslims at Covadonga, about 718, as the beginning of the Reconquista and the “salvation of Spain.” Alfonso I (739–757) expanded the Asturian kingdom by occupying Galicia after the withdrawal of rebellious Imazighen garrisoned there. He also created an uninhabited no-man’s-land between Christian and Islamic Spain by devastating the Duero River valley to the south. The Basques apparently recovered their independence in the western Pyrenees, while the Franks drove the Muslims from Septimania (southwestern France) and moved into northeastern Spain. Although Charlemagne failed to take Zaragoza (Saraqusṭah) in 778, his troops captured Barcelona in 801 and occupied Catalonia. This region, later known as the Spanish March, consisted of several counties under Frankish rule and long maintained strong political and cultural connections first to the Carolingian empire and then to the kingdom of France. Thus, for several centuries Catalans looked to the north.
By contrast, the Asturians turned to the south. After advancing his chief seat to Oviedo, Alfonso II (791–842) attempted to recreate Visigothic institutions. In the late 9th century Alfonso III (866–910) took advantage of internal dissension in Islamic Spain to plunder enemy territory and to seize notable strongholds such as Porto. He also initiated the repopulation of the lands reaching southward to the Duero that had been deserted for about a century. His construction of numerous castles to defend his eastern frontier against Muslim assaults gave that area its distinctive character and thus its name, Castile. During this time the earliest known Christian chronicles of the Reconquista were written, and they deliberately tried to demonstrate the historical connection between the Visigothic and Asturian monarchies. Portraying themselves as the legitimate heirs of Visigothic authority and tradition, the Asturians self-consciously declared their responsibility for the Reconquista of Islamic Spain.
However, Asturian leadership did not go unchallenged: King Sancho I Garcés (905–926) began to forge a strong Basque kingdom with its centre at Pamplona in Navarre, and Count Wilfred of Barcelona (873–898)—whose descendants were to govern Catalonia until the 15th century—asserted his independence from the Franks by extending his rule over several small Catalan counties.
The apparent weakness of Islamic Spain and the growth of the Asturian kingdom encouraged García I (910–914) to transfer the seat of his power from Oviedo southward to the city of León. Nevertheless, any expectation that Islamic rule was set to end was premature. During the 10th century the caliphs of Cordóba (Qurṭabah) not only restored order and unity in Islamic Spain but also renewed their raids on the Christian north. Although the Christians suffered great destruction, they occasionally won some victories. The triumph of Ramiro II (931–951) over the great caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III at Simancas in 939 was extraordinary, but within his own dominions Ramiro encountered increasing hostility from the Castilians. As a frontier people hardened by exposure to the dangers of daily Islamic raids, they were disinclined to bow to Leonese tradition and law. Fernán González (c. 930–970), the count of Castile, defied Ramiro and established the foundations for the later independence of Castile.
With Islamic power steadily increasing in the later 10th century, the Christians suffered a corresponding decline. When ambassadors representing Ramiro III of León (966–984), Sancho II Garcés of Navarre (970–994), Count Borrell II of Barcelona (c. 940–992), and García Fernández, count of Castile (970–995), pledged homage and paid tribute to the caliph at Cordóba, the abject status of the Christian rulers was manifest for all to see. Yet, despite their acknowledgement of Islamic hegemony, the Leonese kings, adhering to Asturian custom, continued to assert their rights as heirs to the Visigothic tradition. Their claim to domination over the entire peninsula was now expressed in the idea of a Hispanic empire centred at León. As the century drew to a close, the imperial idea surely offered some comfort when Abū ʿĀmir al-Manṣūr (Almanzor), who exercised dictatorial authority in the caliph’s name, regularly ravaged all the Christian states. His semiannual plundering expeditions in the north not only brought many slaves to Cordóba but also helped to divert the Muslims from his usurpation of power. After defeating Count Borrell in 985, he burned Barcelona and three years later plundered León; in 997 he sacked the great Christian shrine of Santiago de Compostela. However, with the death of al-Manṣūr, the caliphate of Cordóba disintegrated.
The demise of Islamic rule allowed the Christian states to breathe easily again. The ensuing civil wars among the Muslims enabled Ramon Borrell, count of Barcelona (992–1018), to avenge past affronts by sacking Cordóba in 1010. Alfonso V of León (999–1028) exploited the situation to restore his kingdom and to enact the first general laws for his realm in a council held at León in 1017. Once the threat of Islam seemed to be removed, the Christian rulers resumed old quarrels. Sancho III Garcés (the Great), king of Navarre (1000–35), was able to establish an undisputed ascendancy in Christian Spain for some years. As communication with the lands of northern Christendom increased, French influence grew ever stronger. French pilgrims trod the newly developing route to Compostela; monastic life was reformed according to the Cluniac observance; and various northern social ideas and customs altered the life of the nobility. Already in control of the counties of Aragon, Sobrarbe, and Ribagorza, and including Count Berenguer Ramon I of Barcelona (1018–35) among his vassals, Sancho III continued his aggrandizement by overrunning the county of Castile and challenging Bermudo III of León (1028–37). Sancho completed his triumph by seizing the city of León and taking the title of emperor in 1034, but his death the next year brought an end to the unity he had achieved.
The medieval empire, 1035–1157
By extending his rule over all the Christian states except Catalonia, Sancho III made an apparent advance toward the unification of Christian Spain. By choosing to treat his dominions as a private patrimony to be divided among his sons, however, he turned away from the Leonese tradition of a united, indivisible kingdom. He assigned the kingdom of Navarre to García III (1035–54); Castile to Ferdinand I (1035–65); and Aragon to Ramiro I (1035–63), who annexed Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in 1045 after the murder of a fourth brother, Gonzalo. As each of the brothers assumed the title king, Castile and Aragon thenceforward were regarded as kingdoms. Bermudo III recovered León after Sancho III’s death, but Ferdinand I defeated and killed him in 1037. Taking possession of the kingdom of León, he also assumed the imperial title. During the ensuing 30 years Ferdinand sought hegemony over all of Spain, triumphing over his brothers on the battlefield, capturing Coimbra, and reducing the Muslim rulers (reyes de taifas) of Toledo (Ṭulayṭulah), Sevilla (Ishbīliya), and Badajoz (Baṭalyaws) to tributary status.
Meanwhile, Count Ramon Berenguer I of Barcelona (1035–76) was actively fostering Catalan interests and relationships among the lords of Languedoc in southern France. He also published the earliest legal texts included in the compilation of Catalan law later known as the Usatges de Barcelona (“Usages of Barcelona”).
Adhering to his father’s practice, just before his death Ferdinand I divided his realms between his sons: Sancho II (1065–72) received Castile, and Alfonso VI (1065–1109) obtained León. However, the two brothers quarreled, and, following Sancho’s murder in 1072, Alfonso VI assumed the kingship of both Castile and León. Before acknowledging him as their monarch, the Castilian nobility forced Alfonso to swear that he had not caused his brother’s death. Among Alfonso’s new Castilian vassals was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known to history as El Cid Campeador (from the Arabic sīdī, meaning “lord”). Driven into exile by jealousies at court, he entered the service of the Muslim king of Zaragoza and later provided protection for the king of Valencia.
At first Alfonso VI took advantage of the disunity among the kingdoms of Islamic Spain to demand tribute from them, but he eventually determined to subjugate them. The surrender of Toledo in 1085 not only extended his frontiers to the Tagus River but also had great symbolic value. Possession of Toledo, the ancient seat of the Visigothic monarchy, enhanced Alfonso’s claims to peninsular supremacy, which he expressed when he styled himself “Emperor of Toledo” as well as “Emperor of Spain.” According to Muslim sources, he described himself as “Emperor of the Two Religions,” thus underscoring his dominion over both Christians and Muslims. Thousands of Muslims and Jews, who in earlier times usually had retreated southward rather than submit to Christian rule, elected to remain within his kingdom. Also living in Toledo and the vicinity were many Mozarabs, or Arabic-speaking Christians. In succeeding generations the interaction among these differing religious and cultural traditions became especially tense.
Frightened by the fall of Toledo, the other Muslim kings of Spain appealed for help to the Almoravids of Morocco, an ascetic Islamic sect of Amazigh (Berber) zealots. After routing Alfonso’s army at Zalacca (Al-Zallāqah) in 1086, the Almoravids also overran Islamic Spain’s petty kingdoms. By restoring Islamic Spain’s unity, the Almoravids halted any further progress in the Reconquista and forced Alfonso to remain on the defensive thereafter. Although El Cid successfully repulsed the Almoravid attack on Valencia, his followers had to abandon the city after his death in 1099. Subsequently all of eastern Spain as far north as Zaragoza came under Almoravid domination.
As Christians and Muslims contended for control of the peninsula, steadily increasing northern European influences emphasized the links of Christian Spain with the wider world of Christendom. The leading proponent of the general reform of the church, Pope Gregory VII (1073–85), demanded liturgical uniformity by requiring the acceptance of the Roman liturgy in place of the native Mozarabic rite that dated to earliest times. He also claimed papal sovereignty over Spain, but, when the Spanish rulers ignored him, he did not pursue the issue. While French monks and clerics found opportunities for ecclesiastical advancement in Spain, numerous French knights came to take part in the wars of the Reconquista. The most fortunate among them, the cousins Raymond and Henry of Burgundy, married Alfonso VI’s daughters, Urraca and Teresa, and thereby became the ancestors of the dynasties that governed León and Portugal until the late 14th century.
After succeeding her father, Urraca (1109–26), then widowed, married Alfonso I (the Battler), who served as the king of Aragon and Navarre from 1104–34. The tension and conflict that plagued their marriage from the beginning finally caused Alfonso I to withdraw to Aragon. Alfonso VII (1126–57), Urraca’s son by Raymond of Burgundy, restored the prestige of the Leonese monarchy. His coronation as emperor—the first and last imperial coronation in Spain—in the cathedral of León in 1135 was intended to assert Leonese claims to ascendancy throughout Spain; however, the newly formed federation of Aragon and Catalonia and the newly independent kingdom of Portugal soon offered a daunting challenge to Leonese predominance.
After dissolving his marriage to Urraca, Alfonso I extended his frontiers to the Ebro River by seizing Zaragoza in 1118. Then, marching directly into the heart of Islamic Spain, he liberated the Mozarabs of Granada (Gharnāṭah) and settled them in Aragon. Thereafter, the Mozarabic population left in Islamic Spain appears to have been minimal. Before he died, Alfonso willed his realms to the military orders of the Hospitallers (Knights of Malta) and Templars and to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, but his people rejected this arrangement. The Navarrese, who had been ruled by the kings of Aragon since 1076, chose their own monarch, García IV Ramírez (1134–50), and the Aragonese asked Ramiro II (1134–37), the deceased king’s brother, to leave the monastic life and accept the kingship. After marrying and fathering a child, Petronila, who could inherit the kingdom, Ramiro returned to his monastery. Petronila was betrothed in 1137 to Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona (1131–62), who assumed responsibility for the governance of the kingdom. Alfonso II (1162–96), the child of this marriage, united under his rule the kingdom of Aragon and the county of Barcelona. Usually referred to as the Crown of Aragon, the federation of the kingdom and the county endured until the Middle Ages despite countless vicissitudes and disparate linguistic and cultural traditions. Catalonia soon emerged as a maritime power in the Mediterranean, while Aragon, an inland kingdom with an agricultural and pastoral economy, was controlled by a landed aristocracy. Both regions retained their characteristic customs and laws and vigorously opposed all efforts at assimilation.
The county of Portugal—originally part of the kingdom of León—which Alfonso VI had assigned to Teresa and Henry of Burgundy, also began to move from autonomy to independence. Teresa and Henry’s son, Afonso I Henriques (1128–85), repudiated Leonese suzerainty and took the royal title about 1139. By becoming a papal vassal and promising to pay a yearly tribute, he hoped to safeguard himself against Leonese reprisals. Only in 1179 did the pope formally address him as king.
Meanwhile, internal dissension and the rise of the Almohads, a new Islamic Amazigh confederation based in Morocco, led to the disintegration of the Almoravid empire. The Christian rulers, seizing the opportunity offered by civil war among the Muslims, raided at will throughout Islamic Spain and conquered some important places. Afonso I, aided by a fleet of Crusaders from northern Europe, captured Lisbon in 1147, while Alfonso VII and Ramón Berenguer IV, supported by a fleet from Pisa (Italy), seized the great seaport of Almería (Al-Marīyah) on the southeastern coast. The fall of Tortosa (Ṭurṭūshah) and Lérida (Lāridah) to the count of Barcelona in the next year advanced the county’s frontier to the mouth of the Ebro and concluded the expansion of Catalonia. Nevertheless, the Almohads, after crushing the Almoravids, invaded the peninsula and recovered Almería in 1157. By subjugating all of Islamic Spain, the Almohads were effectively able to halt any further Christian advance.