Introduction

After the sack of Rome by king Alaric in 410 the Visigoths settled in southern of France due to a coalition with emperor Honorius as ally. But the consequence was Roman government lost the control of part of the province, then in the hands of a barbarian coalition. From this moment the barbarians had invaded the Roman Empire, and thus the Iberian Peninsula. Euric was the king of this phase who reigned from 466 to 484 and incorporated most of Iberia to his kingdom, settle at Toulouse.

In 476 took place the removal of the last emperor of the West; this fact would later be known as the fall of the Roman Empire. The Visigothic kingdom was based in Spain after 507, when the Visigoths were defeated and the Catholic Franks under Clovis killed their king, Alaric II. The first and principal home of the Visigoths in Spain was in Old Castile, in an area entred upon Segovia and radiating towards Toledo, Valladolid and Burgos.

The post-classical Roman law remained in force both in Gaul and in Spain, until the fall of the Roman Empire (476) and even later, since this law was not replaced instantly by another. The creation of new rules by the Visigoth kings not only links with their own legal tradition, but also with the Roman law. Furthermore, Leovigild reinvigorated the Visigothic monarchy, establishing a permanent capital at Toledo. Recaredo was another important ruler, who solved the problem of the kingdom’s religious division in 587 between Arian Christians and Catholic ones.

The legal decrees and codes issued by the Visigothic rulers and Visigothic monarchy was marked by strong cooperation between church and state, and show the process of assimilation culminated in the Laws of the Visigoths, issued in 654 by King Recceswinth.

Outline

The settlement of the Visigoths in the Peninsula: Background and evolution (PowerPoint presentation)

1. Barbarians at the Iberian Peninsula

1.1. Description and evolution of Germanic tribes through Hispania

1.2. Economics and society during 6th and 7th centuries

1.3. The distribution of land. Demography and ethnic fusion

2. Visigothic sources of law

2.1. The legislative activity of the monarchs

2.1.1. The Codex Theodosianus (implementation in Codex Euricianus)

2.1.2. Alaric Code

2.1.3. Codex Revisus Leovigild

2.1.4. Iudiciorum Liber

2.1.5. Visigothic Formulas

2.2. Canon Law: The Hispanic

3. The Visigothic State

3.1. Germanic Institutions

3.1.1. The Monarchy

3.1.2. The Aula Regia: Features and Functions

4. The action of the Church through the Councils