THE VISIGOTHSA BIT MORE OF HISTORY ...

Since the last years of the 7th century, the visigothic Kingdom had famines and epidemics due to agriculture crisis; in addition they had a politic crisis since their monarchy was elected amongst nobles.

In 702, Witiza became king, but many nobles fought between them, because all of them wanted to be the next king. Finally, when Witiza died, Roderik (another noble) was elected as king. Witiza's children did not recognise Roderik as the new king, and they decided to ask Muslims for help, who were the North of Africa's conquerors. Muslims came into the Iberian Peninsula and defeated Roderik in 711 (The Guadalete's battle).

POLITIC ORGANIZATION

The Visigothic kingdom was ruled by a king, who was elected by the other nobles. This is an elected monarchy and it had many problems because nobles frecuently fought against each other for the crown.The Visigothic king ran the administration, made laws as well as he was the most important judge and the army commander.

The king was helped by the Aula Regia, a board of nobles which advised him. Besides, the king was supported by the Catholic Church through Toledo's councils.

VISIGOTHIC SOCIETY

During the first years in the Iberian Peninsula, the Visigothic were separated from hispanic-roman inhabitants, but finally they mixed with Peninsula's inhabitants.

Servants belonged to a master

Tenants farmer rented and worked a landlord's properties

Free men as peasants, craftsmans or dealers.

The king, the nobility,and seniors official from the Catholic

Church

They had privileges asnot to pay taxes or

their own laws, madefor themselves

They did not have privilegesThey paid many taxesand they had to work

as hard as they could toFeed their families

The Arianism.- For a while the Visigothic and Hispanic-roman were separated because of religion. The Visigothic were Arianists, this means that they rejected that Jesus Christ was a god, which was a main idea for the rest of the Christians. In 589, during the 3rd Toledo's Council, Reccared became a Catholic, and his kingdom also became Catholic.

THE ECONOMY

The main economic activities were agriculture and stockbreeding. They had large estates (latifundium) where cereals, vineyards, vegetables and leguminous plants were grown. Regarding stockbreeding they bred sheep, hogs and cows.

The craftsmanship declined, and only the metallurgy and working with precious metals (goldsmithing or silversmithing) were important. The trade stepped back too, although they kept commercial relationship with the Byzantine Empire. The Visigothic imported luxury products as jewels or clothes made up with high quality fabrics.