A Short History of Spain- Part 3: The Visigothic Legacy
The Visi Who?
The Visigoths. You’ve heard of them, but you can’t really remember why. Often lost in history, the Visigoths (Eastern Goths as opposed the Western Ostrogoths) actually played an oversized role in the transition from Roman Europe to what we commonly refer to as Medieval Europe. Not the least of their contributions to this transition was the sack of Rome itself under their leader Alaric, in 410 AD. While the Western Empire would continue to limp forward for a few more decades, The Visigoths were settling most of Gaul (modern France) and Hispania (The Iberian Peninsula) uncontested.
In the Spanish context, the Visigoths ruled for only 250 years and are often remembered for their tribal infighting and the lack of political organization that facilitated the Umayyad (Muslim) Conquest of the Peninsula in 711 AD. While these may be true, the Visigoths left two often unappreciated legacies to Spain’s history.
A Christian State
First and foremost, the Visigoths made Spain a Catholic nation. This is no small historical milestone. Catholicism became (and remains to some extent) a core feature of the nation’s identity. What do we mean when we say Catholic nation? After all, by the arrival of the Visigoths to the Iberian Peninsula much of the Roman population was already converted to Christianity. Nevertheless, it was a non-political faith that was practiced outside the scope of state power. When the Visigoths arrived, they bought a new Christianity with them. This was not the Nicene Christianity still practiced by the Peninsula’s romanized natives, but rather Arianism, which (without going into detail, did not recognize the Holy Trinity as we understand it today). As the Visigoths began to consolidate power on the Peninsula, they realized that converting to Nicene (Roman) Christianity could be a tool to facilitate further consolidation of national power. Their conversion indeed eliminated much of the friction between the new ruling class and their native Hispanic subjects. The key to change, however, was in establishing this Nicene Christian faith as an element of state power. Rather than a hereditary monarchy, Visigothic kings were to be chosen by a council of bishops. This enormous political influence bestowed upon the clergy would be a key feature of the future Spanish nation, even after the establishment of an hereditary nobility. Furthermore, it would serve as the basis for the ecclesiastic fuero (the legal rights granted in perpetuity to the church as an institution).
Modern Toledo, long ago the capitol city of Visigothic Iberia
The second legacy of the Visigoths is even more fascinating. Although the Visigoths are caricatured as illiterate bearded Germanic barbarians, their enlightened sense of justice resulted in one of the most important legal frameworks since the Hammurabi Code. This is not to say that there had been no law since the Babylonians. The Romans had extensive legal frameworks and were famous for the brutal enforcement of their laws. That being said, these systems were bifurcated providing one set of standards for the ruling class and another for the subject class. In Rome it was the citizen/non-citizen divide.
In 654, the Visigoth King Recceswinth published the Lex Visigothorum. In the same way that the Visigoths closed the gap spiritually with their subjects via their conversion to Roman Christianity, this new legal code took the revolutionary step of applying a common set of laws to all Iberians, both Visigoths and former Roman subjects. It was a universal code. Furthermore, it offered remarkable protection to women, guaranteeing them the right to inherit property and independently manage business interests. Although grossly diluted over time, the Lex would form the basis for Castilian code re-established by Ferdinand III in the thirteenth century and thus permeate an ideal (if not often always well implemented) Iberian legal framework over the centuries.
These “closing of the gaps” in Iberian culture and politics failed to prevent the history-changing Islamic conquest of the Peninsula beginning in 711 AD, but it did create a national identity built around religion and common law that would serve as the spine of the eventual resistance to Muslim rule and the subsequent Reconquista. Visitors in Spain today will see little evidence of the Visigoths. Some architecture remains, especially in Toledo, which served as the capitol of Visigothic Iberia. Spain’s Gothic past is hidden behind the more palpable legacies of the Romans, Arabs, and Catholic monarchies. The Visigoths, while not the bricks of Spain’s edifice, certainly deserve to be recognized as the mortar.
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