Kingdom of Galicia

The Kingdom of Galicia (anciently Gallaecia) was a medieval kingdom in Iberia for two distinct periods. In the first period, it was a barbarian state. In this sense, it is the name for the land ruled by the Suebi, a Germanic people. Their kingdom corresponded to the Roman province of Gallaecia, plus a large part of the Lusitania. This kingdom was annexed by the Visigoths. When the later Asturian kingdom was divided in 910, the territory of Galicia gained independence. It had this independence off and on for over two centuries until the southern region, the County of Portugal (southern Gallaecia), became independent in 1128 and known as the Kingdom of Portugal. Galicia (northern Gallaecia) was finally united to León in the partition of the realm in 1157. It was thus united ever thereafter.

The Suebic Kingdom

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, 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 (the number of the Vandals and Alans that passed into Africa were 50,000-80,000), 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. *laiwarika: laverca, lark).

The Suebi kingdom of Gallaecia (known as Kingdom of Gallicia to Gregory of Tours) should not be mistaken for the later medieval kingdom of Galicia, which existed (off and on) as an independent state from 910 to 1230, thought it was not abolished until 1833, when the kingdom was divided in four provinces with no actual relations among them, and the Juntas del Reino were dissolved. The historiography of the Suebi, and of Galicia in general, 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 [2].

Suebic Kings of Galicia

Hermeric, c. 409–438
Rechila, 438–448
Rechiar, 448–456
Aioulf, 456–457, foreigner, possibly appointee of the Visigoths
Maldras, 456–460, in opposition to Framta after 457
Framta, 457, in opposition to Maldras
Richimund, 457–464, successor of Framta, not titled rex
Frumar, 460–464, successor of Maldras, not titled rex
Remismund, 464–469, succeeded Frumar, reunited the Suevi
Period of obscurity
- Hermeneric fl. c. 485
- Veremund fl. 485
- Theodemund fl. 6th century
Chararic, after c.550–558/559, existence not certain
Ariamir, 558/559–561/566
Theodemar, 561/566–570
Miro, 570–583
Eboric, 583–584, deposed and put in a monastery by Andeca
Andeca, 584–585, deposed and put in a monastery by Leovigild
Malaric, 585, opposed Leovigild and defeated

The Visigoths conquered the Suevi in 585.

Galicia in the Middle Ages

After the Visigothic collapse in 711, the remaining Gothic independents fled to the Asturias mountains and eventually set up a state of their own, electing as their leader Pelayo. The first leader who can assuredly be called king was Alfonso I, who was also the first to expand the kingdom of Asturias into Galicia. This kingdom continued to expand until the large "Desert of the Douro," a vast no-man's land created by Alfonso in the region between his kingdom and the Douro to keep out invaders, was repopulated (see Repoblación). On the death of Alfonso III (910), the kingdom was divided between the original Asturias (including Cantabria), Galicia, and the newest province of León (formed out of the Desert). This division disappeared and reappeared sporadically until Galicia was united completely to Castile in 1126.

Asturian Kings of Galicia

Ordoño II (910-924), also king of León from 914
Fruela II (924-925, also king of León from 924 and of Asturias from 910
Alfonso Froilaz the Hunchback (925-926)
Sancho I Ordóñez (926–929)
Alfonso IV (929–931), also king of León from 925

The kingdom was hereafter united to León, with the exception of a Viking raid by Gundered during 966 and:

Bermudo II (982-999), also king of León from 984

Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal

The Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal (as it is now known) was formed in 1065 after the County of Portugal declared independence following the death of Ferdinand I of Castile. In 1063, Ferdinand I had divided his kingdom among his sons. Galicia was allotted to García. The Count of Portugal, Nuno II Mendes, took advantage of the internal tension caused by the civil war between Ferdinand's sons to finally break off and declare himself an independent ruler. However, in 1071, King García defeated and killed him at the Battle of Pedroso and annexed his territory, adding the title of King of Portugal to his previous ones.

Arms of King of Galicia according to the English armorial Segar´s Roll, 13th century.

In 1072, García himself was defeated by his brother Sancho II of Castile and fled. In that same year, after Sancho's murder Alfonso VI became king of León and Castile; he imprisoned García for life, proclaiming himself King of Galicia and Portugal as well, thus reuniting his father's realm. From that time Galicia remained part of the kingdom of Castile and León, although under differing degrees of self-government. Although it did not last for very long, the Kingdom set the stage for future Portuguese nationalism under Henry, Count of Portugal.

García II (1065-1072)

The kingdom was annexed by Alfonso VI of Castile. Alfonso's daughter gave Galicia to her eldest son in 1111.

Leonese Kings of Galicia

At the Battle of São Mamede (1128), Afonso I of Portugal overcame the troops under Count Fernando Peres de Trava of Galicia, making his mother his prisoner and exiling her forever to a monastery in León. Thus, the possibility of incorporating Portugal into a kingdom of Galicia was eliminated and Afonso become sole ruler (Dux of Portugal).

Urraca (1109-1111), also queen of Castile and León until 1126
Alfonso VII the Emperor (1111-1157), also king of Castile and León from 1126
Fernando II (1157-1188), also king of Leon
Alfonso IX (1188-1230), also king of Leon

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