2. The Visigoths from the 4th until
the 6th century
• The Visigoths were Germanic people from the
Eastern Europe
• They moved to the Roman Empire in 376 to escape
from the Huns, who were Barbarian people from Asia.
• The Visigoths attacked Rome in 410. As a result, the
Emperor Honorius made a deal with them:
If they expelled other Germanic peoples from Spain
(the Suevi, the Vandals and the Alans), they would
received lands in the south of France.
• After defeating Vandals and Alans – the Suevi
remained in Galicia and Portugal – the Visigoths
founded a kingdom which took place in the south of
France in 418. When the Western Roman Empire
disappeared in 476, they also extended their lands to
Spain.
3. The Visigoths from the 6th until
the 8th century
• The Franks defeated the Visigoths in the battle of
Vouillé in 507. They had to leave France and as a result
they fixed the capital in Toledo.
• King Leovigildo extended his lands defeating the
Suevi and the Byzantines. He was the king of the
Visigothic Kingdom from 568 to 586 and he made new
laws.
• Leovigildo’s son was King Recaredo. He became
Catholic as well as his kingdom in 587
• During the second half of the 7th, there was a
constant fight between the kings and nobles and the
kingdom was weaker.
• In 711, the Muslims took advantage of the war
between the Visigoths and invaded most of the
Peninsula. The Visigothic Kingdom was over.
