THE VISIGOTHS

The Visigoths from the 4th until the 6th century

• The Visigoths were Germanic people from the Eastern Europe

• They moved to the Roman Empire in 376 to escape from the Huns, who were Barbarian people from Asia.

• The Visigoths attacked Rome in 410. As a result, the Emperor Honorius made a deal with them:If they expelled other Germanic peoples from Spain (the Suevi, the Vandals and the Alans), they would received lands in the south of France.

• After defeating Vandals and Alans – the Suevi remained in Galicia and Portugal – the Visigoths founded a kingdom which took place in the south of France in 418. When the Western Roman Empire disappeared in 476, they also extended their lands to Spain.

The Visigoths from the 6th until the 8th century

• The Franks defeated the Visigoths in the battle of Vouillé in 507. They had to leave France and as a result they fixed the capital in Toledo.

• King Leovigildo extended his lands defeating the Suevi and the Byzantines. He was the king of the Visigothic Kingdom from 568 to 586 and he made new laws.

• Leovigildo’s son was King Recaredo. He became Catholic as well as his kingdom in 587

• During the second half of the 7th, there was a constant fight between the kings and nobles and the kingdom was weaker.

• In 711, the Muslims took advantage of the war between the Visigoths and invaded most of the Peninsula. The Visigothic Kingdom was over.