thumb|right|Renaissance map of the kingdom of Galicia (16th century). Drawn by Ioannes Baptista Vrints.Kingdom of Galicia is the name of two distinct entities within the
Iberian Peninsula. In the first period, it was a
barbarian monarchy ruled by the
Suebi, a
Germanic-speaking people who entered the
Western Roman Empire in 406. Their kingdom corresponded to the Roman province of
Gallaecia in the northwest corner of
Iberia. This kingdom was finally annexed by the
Visigoths in 585.
The Suebic kingdom of Gallaecia (known as
Kingdom of Gallicia to
Gregory of Tours) should not be mistaken for the later medieval kingdom of Galicia, established after the
Kingdom of Asturias, ideologically a Visigothic
successor state, was divided in 910. It had this independence off and on for a little over two centuries: in 1126 the Galician king,
Alfonso VII, inherited the
Crown of Castile and in 1128 the southern region of Galicia, the
County of Portugal, became the independent
Kingdom of Portugal; from here the Portuguese
reconquista was launched southward, and with it the medieval
Galician-Portuguese. When the
Crown of Castile was divided in 1157, Galicia remained a part of the
Kingdom of León. In any case, the Kingdom of Galicia continued to exist as a formal institution until 1833.
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 .
As with most Germanic invasions, the number of the original Suebi invaders is estimated at fewer than 100,000 (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
Limia 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 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, after himself being 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.
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 nought 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
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 .
Visigothic subkingdom
There is a possibility that the
regnum Suevorum (Kingdom of the Suevi) was recreated by the Visigothic king
Egica as a subkingdom for his son
Wittiza. The
Chronicle of Alfonso III, of dubious accuracy but often vital, is the only
primary source to record the event. Though usually dismissed as nonsense, it has received some support from scholars of the late Visigothic period.
In 701 an outbreak of
plague spread westward from
Greece to Spain, hitting
Toledo, the Visigothic capital, in 701, so severe that the royal family, including Egica and Wittiza, fled. It has been suggested that this provided the occasion for sending Wittiza to
Tui—which is recorded as his capital—to rule the "Suevic" (sub)kingdom. The possibility has also been raised that the thirteenth-century chronicler
Lucas of Tuy when he records that Wittiza relieved the oppression of the Jews—a fact unknown from his reign at Toledo after his father—may in fact refer to his reign at Tuy, Lucas' hometown, where an oral tradition may have been preserved of the events of his Galician "reign".
Asturian successor state
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).
In 966 the
Viking Gundered raided Galicia.
Asturian Kings of Galicia
The kingdom was hereafter united to León, with the exception of:
Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal
The Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal was formed in 1065 after the
County of
Portugal declared
independence following the death of
Ferdinand I of León. In 1063, Ferdinand I had divided his kingdom among his sons. Galicia was allotted to García, who became
García II of Galicia.
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.
Kingdom of the Crown of León
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 1073, Galicia remained in
personal union with the kingdom of León, except for
Alfonso VII, who received in 1111 the title of King of Galicia from his mother Urraca, queen of the united kingdom of León-Castile-Galicia, who desired to assure her son's prospects and groom him for his eventual succession. After his death in 1157, the Kingdom of Galicia became a formal institution within the Crown of León.
Leonese and Castilian kings of Galicia
The Galician Kingdom in the Modern Era
thumb|right|Arms of King of Galicia according to the English armorial Segar´s Roll, 13th century.The Kingdom of Galicia was represented to the central Spanish monarchy by the
Xunta, first established in 1528. The Xunta was composed by representatives from the cities of
Santiago de Compostela,
Lugo,
Betanzos,
A Coruña,
Mondoñedo,
Ourense and
Tui. The Xunta did not hold real power. It was only during the
Peninsular War that it achieved some autonomy as the Spanish control weakened. During that war of independence against France the Xunta proclaimed its sovereignty (1808-1813).
Ferdinand VII of Spain would eventually take over Galicia again in 1813.
The Kingdom of Galicia continued to formally exist until 1833. This was the time of the provincial division under the regency of
María Cristina. Galicia regained its territorial unity following an armed uprising in 1846, but never regained its condition of Kingdom.
