1.1: The Iberian Middle Ages

 

There are vestiges of human presence in the Iberian Peninsula dating back tens of thousands of years. The peninsula received this name because the Greeks called the peoples who had lived there since ancient times “Iberians”. Between 900 and 650 BCE, groups from Central Europe, known by the generic name “Celts,” entered. Later, the Phoenicians colonized Mediterranean areas of the peninsula between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE, the Greeks from the 6th century BCE, and the Carthaginians from 500 BCE. In 205 BCE, the Romans expelled the Carthaginians, and by the year 20 BCE, they had consolidated Romanization of the entire peninsula, a territory they designated as Hispania, a term of probable Phoenician origin. The Romans dominated for more than four hundred years and imposed their language, Latin, which centuries later would evolve into the Romance languages of today, such as Castilian, Catalan, and Galician. Several emperors were of Hispanic origin, including Theodosius, who in 380 CE declared Christianity the official religion of the empire. In 409, Hispania was invaded by Germanic peoples, including the Swabians, Vandals, and Alans. In 410, another Germanic people, the Visigoths, sacked Rome, marking the beginning of the decline of the Western Roman Empire. This event traditionally marks the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe.

The Visigothic Kingdom (415-711)

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To resist the Suebi, Alans and Vandals, the Romans of Hispania joined forces with the Visigoths, who began to invade almost the entire peninsula in 415. However, since its power was based on a pact with the Hispanic-Romans, who were the majority of the population, Latin continued to be the predominant language. But the Roman empire continued to deteriorate and, by the end of the 5th century, the Goth kings were autonomously governing much of the peninsula, although areas remained under the control of other groups. The Visigoths regime emphasized agricultural production, and the Germans were the owners of most of the farmland. This agricultural economy favored the progressive disappearance of slavery and generated a large peasant class. Thus, the old slave system was gradually replaced by feudal-type modes of production: agricultural workers (the serfs) were economically and legally dependent on the owner of the land (the feudal lord).

The Visigoths, many of whom were Christians before, adopted Catholicism as their predominant religion. They based their legal system on it, and in the name of Catholicism, they managed to unify a monarchy with its capital in the city of Toledo, although different areas of the peninsula operated with varying degrees of feudal autonomy. By the year 630, much of the territory, referred to by some as “Spain”, was under the authority of a Gothic monarch in Toledo, where regular meetings of bishops (representing the educated Hispanic-Roman population) were held to agree on the laws of the kingdom. This association between religion and political power generated an increasingly intolerant society towards non-Christians. Many Jews, whose ancestors had lived for centuries on the peninsula (which they called Sefarad), had to convert, emigrate or practice their religion in secret, and in many cases lost their property and were forced to live in closed communities (later called aljamas and Jewish quarters). This repression reduced commercial activity, since a large part of the merchant class was Jewish.                 Iberia 560-pt.svg: Medievalist derivative work: Rowanwindwhistler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons">

Struggles for power between feudal lords, along with various internal conflicts and economic crises, led to the weakening of central authority. In 711, Muslims, supported by opponents of Visigoth king Rodrigo, entered the peninsula from Africa, initiating a domination that would last for more than seven hundred years.

Al-Andalus (711-1492)

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Beginning in 711, the Umayyad Caliphate invaded the Iberian Peninsula from the south, supported by some opponents of the Visigoth power after the death of Mohammed in 632. Many Jews and poor peasants also saw Muslims as an opportunity to improve their marginalized or poor situation. Under the command of Tarik Ibn Ziyad (who gave his name to Gibraltar: Gebel Tarik, Mount Tarik), about seven thousand men, mostly from the Berber people of North Africa, crossed the Strait and defeated Rodrigo, the Gothic king, taking parts of the south of the peninsula to his capital, Toledo. The following year, another expedition of approximately eighteen thousand men, mostly Arabs, continued the conquest of nearly all the peninsular territory. Its rapid expansion to the north was finally halted by the defeat of Poitiers, in southern France, in 732, which put an end to the spread of Islam to the rest of Europe. The Muslims referred to the peninsular territories under their control as Al-Andalus. Initially, they were a province of the extensive caliphate of the Umayyad dynasty that had its capital in Damascus (Syria), from where Arab governors were appointed. The Islamic occupation was consolidated through pacts and gestures of tolerance, such as allowing Christians and Jews to practice their religion and hold administrative positions. But there were tensions, especially between Arabs (from Syria and Yemen) and Berbers (from North Africa, considered socially inferior). The Visigoths, for their part, regained control of the northern part of the peninsula.

When the Damascus caliphate disintegrated, the Umayyad heir Abd al-Rahman fled Syria in 749. In 756 he reappeared in the Iberian Peninsula and became the emir (governor) Abderrahman I, who established the capital of the emirate in Córdoba, in the south of the peninsula, with an efficient administration, with great encouragement to the arts and commerce. Al-Andalus was transformed into a prominent economic and cultural power.

In 929, after overcoming strong internal political tensions, the eighth Umayyad emir, Abderrahman III, proclaimed himself an independent caliph, beginning a period of great stability and prosperity for al-Andalus. By 1031, however, the caliphate had become fragmented due to socio-political rivalries. About twenty kingdoms of taifas (groups) were formed, which, divided, facilitated the advance of Christian armies from the north and the occupation of Africa by Berber militias (Almoravids and Almohads), who practiced a much more intolerant religious zeal, forcing the conversion of Jews and Christians to Islam. This further weakened them politically. After a key victory in 1212, Christian armies gained control over more and more territory, and regions governed by Muslims (whom Christians called “Moors”) were shrinking until the last area to the southeast, Granada, capitulated in 1492.

Map of al-Andalus in the year 732, during its greatest extension

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The Christian Kingdoms (722-1400)

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After the Muslims invaded the peninsula in 711-17, some Visigoth leaders took refuge in the mountains to the north, where they won their first victory under Pelayo in 722, at the Battle of Covadonga. For several generations, Christian nobles took advantage of ethnic conflicts between the Muslims themselves to annex other territories to the north, until they reached the Douro River as a border in 910. But in general, these northern kingdoms did not plan a religious reconquest or the permanent union of their crowns. On the contrary, a monarch frequently divided his possessions between two or more heirs, giving rise to dynastic crises that sometimes allowed Muslims to regain territory. The different kingdoms and fiefs united, divided, and changed borders periodically, often due to marriages, wars, and pacts.

An example of this can be seen when King Ferdinand I, around 1065, divided his territories among his sons: Castile for Sancho II, León for Alfonso VI, Galicia and Portugal for Garcia, and the dominion of all the monasteries for his daughters. The brothers fought each other until the kingdoms were united in 1076 under Alfonso who, accused of murdering Sancho, had to swear his innocence before the legendary commander of the Castilian army, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid). The latter, due to suspicions between León and the Castilians, had to go into exile and serve a Muslim master in Zaragoza.

 

The reign of Alfonso IV marked a milestone when, in 1085, he captured the strategic city of Toledo, situated at the center of the peninsula. Thus, it established the hegemony of the new Castile (merged with León) and began its progressive expansion to the south of the peninsula, marked by advances and setbacks, with Portugal to the west and Aragon to the east as both allies and competitors. This process, which centuries later was known as “the reconquest”, became a coherent political project for Christian kingdoms: a means to acquire more wealth and power, to manage internal conflicts, and to sustain an economy of war and land allocation. It also inspired a tradition of songs about the struggles of the frontier (romances) and a unique cultural configuration. Many of the famous castles, for example, were initially built as fortresses by Muslims. Christian nobles adapted or built their own according to their needs, which sometimes included defence against those they governed.

The social structure of the different Christian kingdoms had many elements similar to the feudalism of the rest of Europe: an economy based on land, a hierarchy of three fundamental groups—the nobles, the clergy and the common people—related by values of loyalty, and an ideology centered on religious and warlike discourse. However, the prolonged contact and confrontation with Muslim society revealed crucial differences with French or British feudalism: there were more numerous and populated cities, peasant sectors that owned their own land, and a need to establish strong monarchies with a significant naval industry.

Ideologically, this contact produced two opposite effects. On the one hand, there were periods when much emphasis was placed on cultural dialogue between Jews, Mohammedans and Christians, such as at the court of Alfonso X of Castile, the Wise (1252-1284), who cultivated an influential school of translation and academic production. On the other hand, a sense of nationality based on confessional affiliation was reinforced: the Iberian Peninsula was portrayed as the center of an irreconcilable struggle between those who sought salvation through Catholicism and those who were condemned for not converting. This increasingly authoritarian vision made relations between different religious groups generally hostile from the 14th century until the creation of the Inquisition in 1478 and the expulsion or forced conversion of Jews and Muslims from 1492.

Chronology

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Brief chronology of the Iberian Peninsula from the time of the Celts to the Middle Ages (approximate years)
900-650 BCE*	The Celts penetrated the Iberian Peninsula
700-600	Phoenician colonization
600	Greek colonization
500	Carthaginian colonization
205	Roman colonization
100-300 EC	Christianity reaches Hispania.
380	Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire.
409	Hispania is invaded by Germanic tribes, with the Visigoths dominating them.
576	The Visigoths establish their capital in Toledo
587	The Visigoth monarchy converts to Catholicism. Jews are progressively marginalized.
711	The Muslims invade and defeat the Visigoth king Rodrigo.
718-32	The Visigoths protect their northern domains and contain the Muslim advance.
756	The Umayyad Emirate begins. Abderrahman I becomes the first emir with Cordoba as its capital.
929	The Caliphate of Córdoba began under Caliph Abderrahman III. Economic and cultural splendour.
1031	The caliphate is fragmented into Taifa kingdoms.
1085	Alfonso VI of Castilla-León annexes Toledo to his kingdom.
1139	The Kingdom of Portugal was born to independent life.
1212-1462	The Muslim kingdoms, weakened, are losing territory to the Christian kingdoms of the north.
1479	Union of Castile and Aragon with the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand.
1492	The Christians take Granada, the last Muslim kingdom on the peninsula. Jews are expelled.
* The acronym AEC (before the Common Era) is the non-denominational way of referring to the period before year one that the Catholic Church designated as the birth of Christ. Traditionally, the abbreviation BC (before Christ) is used. For later years, D.C. (after Christ), A.D. (Anno Domini) or, in a non-denominational way, EC (Common Era) are used.

Fuentes

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• Alvarez Palenzuela, Vicente Angel. History of Spain in the Middle Ages. Ariel, 2001.
• Davies, Catherine, ed. The Companion to Hispanic Studies. Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Middle Ages in Spain. https://www.arteguias.com/edadmediaespana.htm
• Kattan Ibarra, Juan. Cultural perspectives of Spain. NTC Publishing, 1990.

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To Review and Think

1. When did the Romans begin the process of Romanizing the Iberian Peninsula, and what language did they introduce that would later evolve into modern Romance languages?
2. What event in 410 CE is traditionally considered the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe?
3. What was the significance of the Battle of Covadonga in 722 for the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula?