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The Visigoths were originally a Roman-backed barbarian army group that was based in the Balkans. They were led by a guy called Alaric, who was a Roman ally. The exact origin of the Visigoths is a bit of a mystery, but it looks like they were made up of a lot of the descendants of the people who moved to the Roman Empire in 376. They played a big role in the battle of Adrianople against the Romans in 378. -
Roderic was a controversial choice as king, and he only ruled a small part of what is now Spain, with his rival, Achilles, in charge of the rest of the country. He had to deal with a Basque rebellion and an invasion by the Muslims. He was killed in battle at Guadalete, and his widow, Egilona, is said to have been married to the first Muslim ruler of the region. -
Tariq bin Ziyad stormed across the Strait of Gibraltar in 711 with a small army of Amazighs, taking out the Visigoths King Roderick and opening the way for the Muslims to quickly take over most of Iberia, where they stayed until they were driven out in 1492. -
Following the conquest, the Visigoths' kingdom was destroyed, and the new Umayyad wilayah from Al-Andalus was established. -
The battle of Guadalete is the first major battle in the conquering Umayyad army of Hispania. It took place in 711 somewhere in what's now southern Spain. It was between the Visigoths, led by their king Roderic, and an army made up mostly of Berbers and Arabs led by Qutb al-Din al-Ziyad. -
The battle of Toulouse is a battle between an army of Christians from Aquitaine, led by Odo, Duke of Aquitaine, and a group of Umayyad Muslims, who were besieging Toulouse. The Umayyad army was led by Al-Samh bin Malik al-Khwlani, who was Al-Andalus governor. -
Since the start of the invasion of Spain by Muslims, refugees and warriors from the southern part of the peninsula have been heading north to escape Islamic rule. Some of them have gone to the mountains in Asturias, which is in the northwest of Iberia. This is where Pelagius got his army together from the people who had been kicked out of the South. -
Tours, also known as Poitiers, was a battle fought on October 10, 732. It was won by the Franks and Aquitanians under Charles Martel against the invading Umayyads under Abdulrahman Al-Gaifi, governor of the Ummayad Caliphate. The exact date and location of the battle are not known from surviving sources. -
The Berber Rebellion of 740-743 AD was the first successful breakaway from the Arab Caliphate. It started in Tangiers and was led by the Kharijites (Kharajite puritans). It quickly spread to the rest of Maghreb, and even across the Mediterranean to what is now called 'Al-Andalus'. The Ummayads did their best to contain the rebellion, but were unable to stop it. -
The battle of Clavijo has been a myth for centuries, and it's become a big part of Spanish culture about how the Christians drove out the Muslims. -
The siege of Toledo marked a major turning point in the conflict between Christians and Muslims on the continent of Iberia. It was the capital city of the kingdom of Al-Andalus, which was ruled by the Taifa. When the city fell to the forces of Alfonso V of Castile, it started what would become known as the Reconquista - the Christian invasion of Muslim Spain. -
Theologian Nicholas Eymerich served as the Inquisition's Inquisitor General in the late sixteenth century of the Kingdom of Aragon, a Roman Catholic nation in Medieval Spain. -
The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, also known as the Expulsion of the practicing Jews, was the expulsion of the practicing Jews from Spain after the Alhambra decree of 1492. The Alhambra decree was issued in order to remove the influence of the large converso population in Spain and to prevent its members from returning to Judaism. -
The Spanish first came to power in the 15th century. It was during the Reconquista that they finally took back Spain from the Muslims. They were the last to take over Gibraltar and the surrounding area around Granada. The King of Spain became known as the King of Gibraltar. -
Pope Sixtus IV gave the Catholic Monarchs permission to appoint inquisitors in 1478 to promote religious unity and drive out the Jewish population from Spain. The idea was to give Ferdinand and Isabella more power over the centralized government. -
Auto-da-fés were first celebrated in Seville in 1481, and the last one in Mexico was held in 1850. These events, which became more and more elaborate and grandiose, were usually held in the city square, often in front of royalty. -
On November 25th, 1491, King and Queen Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Castile and Leonese signed and ratified the Granada Treaty. This was the end of the War of the Pyrenees, which had begun in the year 1482 and ended with the siege and Battle of Granada in the spring of 1491. -
The Decree of Expulsion of Practicing Jews of the Crown of Castile and the territories and possessions of the Kingdom of Aragon, commonly referred to as the Alhambra Decretion, is an edict of 31 March 1492 issued by the combined Catholic Monarchies of Spain (the Orders of Isabella I and Ferdinand II) to expel practicing Jews from the Kingdoms of Aragon and the Kingdom of Castile until 31 July 1492. -
The 95 Theses are ideas for an academic debate written by Martin Luther in 1517 when he was teaching moral theology at Wittenberg University in Germany. It's often thought of as the beginning of the Reformation, even though some proto-protestant groups were already before Luther. Luther's main point is that he was against Catholics' abuse and corruption by their priests selling indulgences. -
The Spanish Index was created in 1545. It was a list of all the books in Europe that were considered heretical and banned in Spain. It was based on the Inquisition's own list of forbidden books from the Roman Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition was also a response to the growing number of Spanish Protestants during the 1550s. https://www.history.com/topics/religion/inquisition#roman-inquisition