The Visigothic Kingdom.—The line of the Visigothic kings of Spain begins, strictly speaking, with his successor Theudis (531-548), an Ostrogoth appointed by Theodoric to act as guard ian of Amalaric. He had acquired great possessions in the valley of the Ebro by marriage with a Roman lady. It was a Govern ment, and not a people, which was established in Spain with Theu dis. The Visigoths had been much Romanized during their estab lishment in Gaul. Their monarchy was elective. Until the death of Amalaric the choice was confined to one family, but he was the last of his line. The kings tried to make the Crown hereditary, and the nobles, Visigothic seniores, and Roman senatores seized every opportunity to keep it elective. Of the 23 kings between Theudis and Roderic five were certainly murdered, one was de posed, and three were tonsured by tricks or open force.
The administration which these kings of unstable authority had to direct was essentially the Roman system. The great owners, whether nominally Visigoth or nominally Roman—seniores or senatores—continued to enjoy all the privileges and exemptions of the ordo senatorius in the last days of the empire. They lived surrounded by multitudes of semi-servile coloni, or farmers, bound to the soil, of actual slaves, and of buccelarei, who were free swordsmen to whom they gave rations (buccelatum, soldiers' bread, or buccella, a portion). The curiales remained as before the victims of the fisc.
Theudis, who made his headquarters at Seville, endeavoured to complete his mastery of the diocese of Spain by occupying Mauritania Tingitana, but he was defeated by the imperial of ficers at Ceuta. He was in due course murdered at Seville by Theudigisel (548-549) who was himself promptly slain. The reigns of his two successors, Agila (549-554) and Athanagild coincided with the reign of Justinian and the tempo rary revival of the Eastern empire. Athanagild called on the imperial officers to help him against Agila, and paid for their assis tance by the surrender of the province of Baetica. On his death there was an obscure interregnum of five months, which ended by the election of Liuva (567-572), the governor of Narbonne, the surviving remnant of the Visigoth power to the north of the Pyrenees. Liuva did not come to Spain, but associated his brother Leovigild (567-586) with him. The reigns of Leovigild and of his son Reccared are the greatest in the list of the Visigoth kingdom in Spain. The father was the first Visigothic king who wore the crown, and it would appear that he threw off all pretence of alle giance to the empire. The series of the Visigothic gold coins begins with him, and it is to be noted that while the earliest are struck in the name of the emperor Justinian, the imperial superscription disappears in the later. Leovigild drove the imperial officers from Seville and Cordova, though they still retained control of the coast. The reign of Reccared (586-601) is famous in Spanish history for the establishment of Catholicism as the religion of the State. He made the change at the Third Council of Toledo. If Reccared hoped to secure the perpetuance of his dynasty he was mistaken. His son Liuva II. (601-603) was murdered by an Arian reaction headed by Witteric (603-61o). The Catholics regained power by his overthrow, but they could not give stability to the State. A
succession of obscure "priests' kings," who are but names, fol lowed : Gunthemar (610-612), Sisebut (612-620), Reccared II. (62o-621), Swintilla, associated with his son Reccimer (621-631), Sisinand (631-636), Chintila (636-64o), Tulga (64o-641), Chin daswinth (641-65 2 ) , Recceswinth (649-67 2) . The growing weak ness of the Merovingians saved them from serious attack, though not from occasional invasion on the north. The prostration of the empire in the East by Avar and Persian invasions enabled them to drive the imperial officers from the coast towns. But the kingdom was growing internally weaker. Wamba (672-68o) is credited with an attempt to reform the State, but he was tonsured while unconscious from illness or poison, and disappeared into a religious house. His successors again are but names, Euric (68o-687) and Egica (687-701). Witiza (697-710) has more substance. With Roderic, whose "tumultuous" election was the work of Witiza's enemies, the line of the Visigoth kings is considered to have ended. The Mohammedan Conquest.—During the reign of Witiza the Muslim masters of northern Africa had pressed the town of Ceuta, the last remnant of the Byzantine possessions, very closely. It seems to be certain that Julian, the imperial count or governor of Ceuta, acting in concert with the family and faction of Witiza, who sought his help against Roderic, provided vessels to transport the Berber Tarik (Tariq) across the straits. Tarik, the general of the caliph's governor in northern Africa, Masa. b. Nosair, came with a small force, but with the certainty of finding allies, and on being joined by another detachment of Berbers marched inland. On July 19, 711, he met Roderic near the Lago de la Janda be tween Medina Sidonia and Vejer de la Frontera. He had perhaps already been joined by Spanish allies. It is at least certain that in the battle the enemies of Roderic passed over to the invader. The Visigoth king was routed and disappears from authentic history. There is some probability that he did not perish in the battle, but escaped to fall two years later, at Seguyjuela near Salamanca, in action with Merwan the son of Musa. Before the end of 711 Tarik had advanced as far north as Alcala. Cordova fell to a de tachment of his army. In 712 Miisa joined his lieutenant, and the conquest of the south was completed. Merida was the only town which offered an honourable resistance. During 713 and 714 the north was subdued to the foot of the mountains, and when Musa and Tarik were recalled to Damascus by the caliph the progress of the Muslims was not delayed. In 718 they crossed the Pyrenees, and continued their invasions of Gaul till they met the solid power of the Austrasian Franks at Poitiers 732 (see CHARLES MARTEL and CALIPHATE) . The great landowners south of the Pyrenees, to whom patriotism was unknown and whose religious faith was tepid, were as ready to pay tribute to the caliph as to render serv ice to one of their own body who had become king by violence or intrigue. On the part of the Arabs, who, though a small minor ity of the invaders, were the ruling element, there was a marked absence of proselytizing zeal. They treated the occupation of Spain as a financial speculation more than as a war for the faith.