User:Srnec/Suevic Kingdom of Galicia

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The Suebic kingdom of Galicia lasted from 410 to 584 and seems to have enjoyed relatively stable government for most of that time. In the beginning, Gallaecia was divided between two kingdoms, the kingdom of the Vandals Hasdingi and the kingdom of the Suebi. Latter on, the kingdom of the Hasdingi was conquered by the Suebi when a war broke out between the Vandal Gunderic and the Suebi Hermeric. The Suebi were helped by the Romans and the Vandal army fled to the kingdom of the Silingi Vandals in Baetica. Historians like José Antonio López Silva, the translator of Idatius' chronicles, the primary written source for the period, find that the essential temper of Galician culture was established in the blending of Ibero-Roman culture with that of the Suebi [1].

As with most Germanic invasions, the number of the original Suebi invaders is estimated at fewer than 30,000, settling mainly in the zones around modern Northern Portugal and Galicia, mainly in Braga (Bracara Augusta), Porto, Lugo (Lucus Augusta), and Astorga (Asturica Augusta). The valley of the Lima river is thought to have received the largest concentration of germanic settlers. Bracara Augusta, the modern city of Braga, became the capital of the Suebi, as it was previously the capital of the Gallaecian province. Suebic Gallaecia was larger than the modern region: it extended south to the Douro and to Ávila in the east. At its heyday, it extended as far as Mérida or Seville.

In 438, Hermeric ratified the peace with the Galaicos, the native Hispano-Roman people, and, tired of fighting, abdicated in favor of his son Rechila. In 448, Rechila died, leaving a state in expansion to his son Rechiar, who imposed his Roman Catholic faith on the pagan Suebi and Priscillianist Galaico population, having converted in 447. In 456, Rechiar died and Suebi glory began to fade. Multiple candidates for the throne appeared, grouped in two factions. A division marked by the river Minius (modern Minho) is noticed, probably a consequence of the two tribes, Quadi and Marcomanni, who constituted the Suebi nation in the Iberian Peninsula. Together with the Suebi came another germanic tribe, the Buri, that settled in the lands known as Terras de Bouro (Lands of the Buri) in what is now Portugal.

There were occasional clashes with the Visigoths, who arrived in the Iberian peninsula in 416, having been sent from Aquitaine by the Western Roman Emperor to battle the Vandals and Alans. They came to dominate most of it, but the Suebi maintained their independence until 584, when the Visigothic King Leovigild, on the pretext of conflict over the succession, invaded the Suebic kingdom and finally defeated it. Andeca, the last king of the Suebi, held out for a year before surrendering in 585. With his surrender, this branch of the Suebi was absorbed into the Visigothic kingdom. The kingdom of Galicia, nevertheless, existed (off and on) officially on paper until 1833. Only after the Visigoths conquered the kingdom of the Suebi in 585, St Braulio of Zaragoza (590 - 651) depicted the region as "the extremity of the west in an illiterate country where naught is heard but the sound of gales". As with the Visigothic language, there are just some traces of the Suebi tongue as the barbarians quickly adopted the local vulgar Latin ( suev. lawerka: laverca).

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[edit] Kingdom in Gallaecia

Suebic kingdom in Gallaecia and Lusitania. There were periods of control of territories south of the Tagus river as far as the Algarve.
Suebic kingdom in Gallaecia and Lusitania. There were periods of control of territories south of the Tagus river as far as the Algarve.

Passing through the Basque country, they settled in the Roman province of Gallaecia, in north-western Hispania (modern Galicia and northern Portugal), swore fealty to the Emperor Honorius and were accepted as foederati and permitted to settle, under their own autonomous governance. Contemporaneously with the self-governing province of Britannia, the kingdom of the Suebi in Gallaecia became the first of the sub-Roman kingdoms to be formed in the disintegrating territory of the Western Roman Empire. Suebic Gallaecia was the first kingdom separated from the Roman Empire to mint coins.

The Suebic kingdom in Gallaecia and northern Lusitania was established at 410 and lasted until 584 after a century of slow decline. Smaller than the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy or the Visigothic kingdom in Hispania, it never reached major political relevance. After the kingdom of the Suebi was conquered by the Visigoths in 585, Braulio of Zaragoza (590 - 651) depicted the region as "the edge of the west in an illiterate country where naught is heard but the sound of gales".

The historiography of the Suebic Galicia was long marginalised in Spanish culture; it was left to a German scholar to write the first connected history of the Suebi in Galicia, as writer-historian Xoán Bernárdez Vilar has pointed out.[1]

[edit] Settlement and integration

The German invaders settled mainly in the areas of Braga (Bracara Augusta), Porto (Portus Cale), Lugo (Lucus Augusta) and Astorga (Asturica Augusta). Bracara Augusta, the modern city of Braga and former capital of Roman Gallaecia, became the capital of the Suebi. Another Germanic group that accompanied the Suebi and settled in Gallaecia were the Buri. They settled in the region between the rivers Cávado and Homem, in the area know as Terras de Bouro (Lands of the Buri).[2]

As the Suebi quickly adopted the local Hispano-Roman language, few traces were left of their Germanic tongue. Some influence on the Galician language and Portuguese language remained, like lawerka for Portuguese and Galician laverca (synonym of cotovia - lark).

[edit] Pagan kingdom

Europe in 500 AD, showing the Suevi Iberian kingdom and its neighbors (also shows Suevi remaining in Germany).
Europe in 500 AD, showing the Suevi Iberian kingdom and its neighbors (also shows Suevi remaining in Germany).

In 438 Hermeric ratified the peace with the Hispano-Roman local population and, weary of fighting, abdicated in favour of his son Rechila.

The irruption of Visigoths in the Iberian Peninsula from 416 sent from Aquitania by the Emperor of the West to fight the Vandals and the Alans resulted into an ephemeral expansion of the Suebi Kingdom: at its heyday Suebic Gallaecia extended as far as Mérida or Seville.

In 448, Rechila died, leaving the crown to his son Rechiarius who had converted to Roman Catholicism circa 447. In 456, Rechiar died after being defeated by the Visigothic king Theodoric II, and the Suebic glory began to fade. The Suebic kingdom became cornered in the hostile northwest, and political division arose across the river Minius (Minho or Miño) with two different kings ruling in both sides of the river.

The Suebi remained most pagan and their subjects Priscillianist until an Arian missionary named Ajax, sent by the Visigothic king Theodoric II at the request of the Suebic unifier Remismund, in 466 converted them and established a lasting Arian church which dominated the people until the conversion to Catholicism in the 560s.

[edit] Conversion to Catholicism

The conversion of the Suebi to Catholicism is presented very differently in the primary records. The only contemporary record, the minutes of the First Council of Braga—which met on 1 May 561—state explicitly that the synod was held at the orders of a king named Ariamir. While his Catholicism is not in doubt, that he was the first Catholic monarch of the Suebes since Rechiar has been contested on the grounds that he is not explicitly stated to have been.[3] He was, however, the first to hold a Catholic synod. The Historia Suevorum of Isidore of Seville states that a king named Theodemar brought about the conversion of his people from Arianism with the help of the missionary Martin of Dumio.[4] According to the Frankish historian Gregory of Tours on the other hand, an otherwise unknown sovereign named Chararic, having heard of Martin of Tours, promised to accept the beliefs of the saint if only his son would be cured of leprosy. Through the relics and intercession of Saint Martin the son was healed; Chararic and the entire royal household converted to the Nicene faith.[5] Finally, the Suebic conversion is ascribed, not to a Suebe, but to a Visigoth by John of Biclarum, who puts their conversion alongside that of the Goths, occurring under Reccared I in 587–589.

Most scholars have attempted to meld these stories. It has been alleged that Chararic and Theodemir must have been successors of Ariamir, since Ariamir was the first Suebic monarch to lift the ban on Catholic synods; Isidore therefore gets the chronology wrong.[6][7] Reinhart suggested that Chararic was converted first through the relics of Saint Martin and that Theodemir was converted later through the preaching of Martin of Dumio.[3] Dahn equated Chararic with Theodemir, even saying that the latter was the name he took upon baptism.[3] It has also been suggested that Theodemir and Ariamir were the same person and the son of Chararic.[3] In the opinion of some historians, Chararic is nothing more than an error on the part of Gregory of Tours and never existed.[8] If, as Gregory relates, Martin of Dumio died about the year 580 and had been bishop for about thirty years, then the conversion of Chararic must have occurred around 550 at the latest.[5] Finally, Ferreiro believes the conversion of the Suevi was progressive and stepwise and that Chararic's public conversion was only followed by the lifting of a ban on Catholic synods in the reign of his successor, which would have been Ariamir; Thoedemir was responsible for beginning a persecution of the Arians in his kingdom to root out their heresy.[9]

Suebic kingdom in the mid-sixth century, on the verge of conquest.
Suebic kingdom in the mid-sixth century, on the verge of conquest.

[edit] Twilight of the kingdom

In 569 Theodemir called the First Council of Lugo,[10] which dealt with Arianism, whereas the council of Braga in 561 had dealt with Priscillianism.

In 570 the Arian king of the Visigoths, Leovigild, made his first attack on the Suebi. Between 572 and 574, Leovigild invaded the valley of the Douro, pushing the Suebi northwards. In 575 the Suebic king, Miro, made a peace treaty with Leovigild, but in 583 he supported the rebellion of the Catholic Gothic prince Hermenegild and was overthrown. The kingdom could not survive Leovigild's response. First Andeca in 585 and then Malaric were defeated and the Suevic kingdom was no more.

[edit] List of Gallaecian Suebic monarchs