The last reigns of the Visigothic kings need not be chronicled, except as they relate to the entry of the Mohammedans into Spain. King Witiza endeavored to procure the throne for his son Achila without an election by the nobility, and Achila in fact succeeded, but in the ensuing civil war Roderic, the candidate of the nobility, was successful, being crowned king in the year 710. What followed has never been clearly ascertained, but it seems likely that the partisans of Achila sought aid of the Moslem power in northern Africa, and also that the Spanish Jews plotted for a Moslem invasion of Spain. At any rate the subsequent invasion found support among both of these elements. Once in 709 and again in 710 Moslem forces had effected minor landings between Algeciras and Tarifa, but in 711 the Berber chief Tarik landed with a strong army of his own people at Gibraltar,[10] and marched in the direction of Cádiz. Roderic met him at the lake of Janda,[11] and would have defeated him but for the treacherous desertion of a large body of his troops who went over to the side of Tarik. Roderic was utterly beaten, and Tarik pushed on even to the point of capturing Toledo. In the next year the Arab Musa came from Africa with another army, and took Mérida after an obstinate siege which lasted a year. Up to this time the invaders had met with little popular resistance; rather they had been welcomed. With the fall of Mérida, however, it began to be clear that they had no intention of leaving the country. At the battle of Segoyuela[12] Musa and Tarik together won a complete victory, in which it is believed that Roderic was killed. Musa then proceeded to Toledo, and proclaimed the Moslem caliph as ruler of the land.
The family in Visigothic law.
There were four principal racial elements in the peninsula in the Visigothic period: the indigenous peoples of varying grades of culture; the Germanic peoples; the western Roman, which formed a numerous body, more or less completely Romanized; and the Byzantine Roman, which influenced even beyond the Byzantine territories in Spain through the support of the clergy. The two last-named elements were the most important. The Germanic tribes, especially the Visigoths, had already become modified by contact with Rome before they reached Spain, and tended to become yet more so. The Visigoths reverted to the family in the broad sense of all descended from the same trunk as the unit of society, instead of following the individualistic basis of Rome, although individuals had considerable liberty. Members of the family were supposed to aid and protect one another, and an offence against one was held to be against all. A woman could not marry without the consent of her family, which sold her to the favored candidate for her hand. She must remain faithful to her husband and subject to his will, but he was allowed to have concubines. Nevertheless, she had a right to share in property earned after marriage, and to have the use of a deceased husband’s estate, provided she did not marry again. A man might make a will, but must leave four-fifths of his property to his descendants. Children were subject to their parents, but the latter did not have the earlier right of life and death, and the former might acquire some property of their own.
Social classes in the Visigothic era.
The great number of social classes at the close of the Roman period was increased under the Visigoths, and the former inequalities were accentuated, for the insecurity of the times tended to increase the grades of servitude and personal dependence. The nobility was at first a closed body, but later became open to anybody important enough to enter it. The kings ennobled whomsoever they chose, and this was one of the causes of the conflict between them and the older nobility. Freemen generally sank back into a condition of dependence; in the country they became serfs, being bound by inheritance both to the land and to a certain type of labor. Freemen of the city, however, were no longer required to follow the trade of their fathers. Men of a higher grade often became the retainers of some noble, pledged to aid him, and he on his part protected them. Few were completely free. The Suevians took two-thirds of the lands and half of the buildings in the regions they conquered, and it is probable that the Visigoths made some such division after Euric’s conquest, although they seem to have taken less in Spain than they did in France.
Social customs.
The Visigoths were not an urban people like the Romans. The tendency of this age, therefore, was for a scattering of the city populations to the country, where the fortified village or the dwelling of a Visigothic noble with his retinue of armed followers and servants formed the principal centre. The cities therefore remained Hispano-Roman in character, and their manner of life was imitated more and more by the Visigoths. There was a laxity in customs which went so far that priests openly married and brought up families, despite the prohibitions of the law.[13] Superstition was prevalent in all classes.[14] One of the popular diversions of the period seems to have been a form of bull-fighting.
Royal power under the Visigoths.
Before the Visigoths reached Spain the monarchy was elective, but within a certain family. The king’s authority had already increased from that of a general and chief justice to something approaching the absolutism of a Roman emperor. With the extinction of the royal family there was a long period of strife between rival aspirants for the throne. Leovgild was the first to take on all the attributes, even the ceremonial, of absolutism, and was one of many kings who tried to make the throne hereditary. Despite the support given to the kings by the clergy, who hoped for peace through enhancing the royal power, the nobles were able to procure laws for an elective monarch without limitation to a specified family; an assembly of nobles and churchmen was the electoral body. These conflicts did not modify the absolute character of the king’s rule; the king had deliberative councils to assist him, but since he named the nobles who should attend, both appointed and deposed bishops, and in any event had an absolute veto, these bodies did no more than give sanction to his will. Heads of different branches of administration also assisted the king. The real limitation on absolutism was the military power of the nobles.
Visigothic administration.