AD 400-800 Early medieval

South-west Europe was one of the most ‘Romanised’ parts of the Roman Empire, with flourishing towns, rich landed estates, and an established system of Roman government and law. The collapse of the western Empire and invasions by tribes of Vandals, Alans and Suevi in the early 5th century AD led to the creation of several small kingdoms.

The Visigoths, who had settled in south-west France, fought for the Romans against the Vandals and Suevi. In 507, having been expelled from France by the Franks, they established their own kingdom in Spain between the rivers Ebro and Tagus. A minority of Visigoths ruled the Hispanic population from their capital at Toledo, gradually annexing other smaller kingdoms, and preserving much of the Roman inheritance for more than 200 years.

In the 550s, the eastern Byzantine Empire, taking advantage of civil unrest in the peninsula, set up an imperial enclave along Spain’s south-eastern coast. In the 620s, the Visigoths expelled the Byzantines and at last ruled all of Spain. During the next century, however, rebellions, famine and plague weakened royal authority. In 711, the Arabs, who had already conquered North Africa, swept through Spain, killing the Visigothic king and occupying most of the peninsula except for an area that became the small Christian kingdom of Asturias in the far north.