GERMANIC TRIBES ON THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

INVASIONS

• Entered the Iberian peninsula in 409: Suebi, Vandals and Alans
• The Roman army, weak, signs a treaty with the Visigoths, already in the Roman Empire. They need their help to control the other Germanic tribes.
• The Visigoths expelled the Vandals and Alans from Hispania.
• The Suebi resisted in the Northwest.
• The Visigoths, with a capital called Tolosa, controlled Hispania and Gaul until they were defeated by the Franks in 507.

THE IBERIAN PENINSULA IN THE 6^TH CENTURY

• Suebi had a kingdom in the Northwest, the capital was Bracara Augusta. They were defeated by the Visigoth in 585.
• The Cantabrian area was occupied by the Cantabri and the Vascones
• Part of the southern peninsulas was occupied by the Byzantine Empire.

THE VISIGOTHIC KINGDOM OF TOLEDO

• When the king Leovigildo (572-586) the Visigoths had the capital in Toledo.
• They controlled the Peninsula until 711, when the Muslims conquered their territory.
• They ruled by elective monarchy though they progressively changed to an hereditary system.
• They progressively changed from Roman Law to the Visigothic code by King Recesvinto (Liber Iudiciorum)

INSTITUTIONS

• Assembly of free men chose the king
• Aula regia nobles and religious men who helped the king

RELIGIONS AND COUNCILS

• They were Arian Christians, but King Recaredo converted to Catholicism