Regnum Visigothorum (1282-1515)

[Kurt_Steiner]

To my readers

Regnum Visigothorum

Due to my infamous lack of map-making abilities I've taken this map from Crusader Kings II to use it as justification to the PODs that depart this narration from the original Regnum Visigothorum . I hope you don't mind.

Spania after the end of the
War of the Four Kings (1282)

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1. Spania after the end of the War of the Four Kings (1282-1285)

The War of the Four Kings had, apparently, changed nothing. Thorismund the Mad, the cause of the war, was still king after narrowly avoiding a plot to assassinate him led by Tisellius, the head of the Royal Guard (1). His cousins Hermenegild and Reccimer (2) were still alive, a fact that further divided the opposition to Thorismund; both had created two semi-independent reign (the former in Leon and the latter in Zaragoza); Segga, who had barely survived the defeat suffered at Toletum (3), saw the Baetica imploding and dividing itself into several small petty kingdoms, nominallly loyal to him (his own Sevilla fiegdom and Granada, plus the small earldroms and baroncies of Cadiz and Almeria, along with the small kingdom of Murcia which had sprung to the East) and had to keep an eye into the enlarged dominions of Berengerius, dux of Mallorca, who had used the chaos and the civil war to expand into the dominions of Froia, dux of the Carthaginensis, who saw his domains reduced to barely the province of La Mancha, the southern part of Castille, as the rest of of area was annexed by Jaime, self-proclaimed dux of Valencia, who, ironically, had been unable to avoid Castellon becoming independent and allied to .

Alphonso, dux of Lusitania, had similar problems, as his own vassals took benefit of the weakened state of the dux after the defeat at Toletum. Thus, Alphonso was reduced to his lands around Porto after a powerful Joao, dux of Evora, and Miguel, earl of Plasencia, had eroded Alphonso's influence in the center and south of the fomer dukedom as Galicia, under Iñigo, who was Thorismund's cousin once removed; had broken away from Porto.

In the center, Thorismund's royal authority had been reduced to the area limited between Toletum and Cantabrian Sea, with Vizcaya being a semi-autonomous dukedom and Navarre standing proudly away on their own. To the west, Leon had risen under Sancho Alfónsez, with the expanding earldom of Plasencia, with lands in Portugal, around Lisbon, and the powerful earldom of Badajoz, to its south. Finally, Berenguer Roderic, dux of the Tarraconensis, felt himself threatened, to the east, by a new emerging power, Wifred, earl of Barcelona, and had lost all control over Occitania, that had proclaimed its independence and strogly linked itself with France; and to the west the emerging power of the dux of Zaragoza, Ramiro Ramírez.

When Thorismund died in 1285, he was succeeded by his son Riccimer II of Spania, who had to keep alive not only his family, but also his country.

(1) First POD.
(2) Second POD.
(3) Third POD

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Young Riccimer II,
played by Victor Elías
in the series "The Goths" (season 2, 2013)

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2. Centralizing Spania?

Riccimer II of Spania (1268 – 1314, r. 1285-1314) was as rigid and inflexible as his father, but he had skilful civil servants to govern the kingdom, and he relied on them rather than on his nobles. His advisors were instrumental in the transformation of Spania, that began its transition from from a feudal society to a centralized state. Riccimer was determined to be an uncontested monarch. He was to spent his reign in a dispute with the French to recover Occitania, with led to his alliance with King Edward I of England, and a war with the Lusitanians, who had rebelled again against the royal authority. The troubled times that led to the War of the Four Kings left a deep scar in Riccimet's spirit, who would be obsessed with diminishing the power of the nobility, who he saw as a threat to him. Determined to strengthen the monarchy at any cost, he relied on a professional bureaucracy of legalists and paid little attention to the Aulia Regia.

He married Joan, daughter of Sancho, dux of Navarre, in 1284. The two were affectionate and devoted to each other in spite of the dangerous political situation. The sudden death of the dux in 1288 made Riccimer and Joan joint rulers of Navarre, which put an end to the efforts of Phillip IV of France to win influence there for its strategic importance. When their son Riccimer III rose to the throne, Navarre became part of the crown lands, incresing the royal revenues considerably, removing the autonomy of an strategic and semi-independent fief and expanded royal territory to the north.

With the outbreak of hostilities between England and France in 1294 over the Normandy, Riccimer II saw the conflict as an opportunity to recover the lost Occitan lands. He waited, however, while both sides fought during 1294–1298 and 1300–1303. However, soon he had problems of his own. When his attempts to reasset his royal authority over his nobilty, Dinis, Dux of Porto (1261-1325) rebelled and the king suffered a major embarrassment when the royal host was defeated at the battle of Aljubarrota (July 27, 1302). Riccimer II, facing a nobiliart reaction, reacted with energy to the humiliation and, after securing the loyalty of the remaining great noble houses, invaded Lusitania two years later, crushing Dinis in the battle of Alfarrobeira (May 20, 1304). Not willing to make an example of the defeated Dux, Riccimer only punished Dinis by making him to pay a generous ransom to the royal treasury. However, this crisis had taught him an important lesson: his authority as a king hanged from a very thin thread.

By late 1307 he began to plan recovering the lost lands in Italy. It was the beginning of a long campaign that was to last until 1314. He reconquered Sardinia and Sicily, but at a huge cost of the treasury that cut short any further attempt once the two islands were secured. However, while in Palermo, the king died from malaria, leaving the crown to his elder son.

Riccimer II and Joan of Navarre had five children:

1. Riccilo (1287 - 1294).
2. Riccimer (1289 – 1328)
3. Chindasuinth (1290-1300)
4. Giscila (1292-1341), married Roderic Berenguer (1292-1308), son of Berenguer Roderic, earl of Barcelona
5. Ariberga (c. 1295 – 1358). Married Edward II of England and was the mother of Edward III of England.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Theodofred III the Good
played by Ginés García Millán
in the series "The Goths" (season 2, 2013)
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3. The Division of Spania

Riccimer III of Spania , called the Fortunate (1289 – 1322, r. 1314-1330) saw his first two years as a king wasted quarreling with the noble families. At least, he had major reforms designed to increase royal revenues to compensate for such a troublesome period. However, those reforms were the cause of the ire of his nobility. This was to break out in open rebellion when Roderic Berenguer rose in arms against the new royal taxes. Thus, Riccimer III decided to follow the example of his father and to achieve a military solution to the problem of Tarraconensis. He first prohibited exports of grain and other material to Tarraconensis in 1315 and then began to mobilize his army, but when the prohibition proved challenging to enforce because of his own rebellious lords and the French king, whose merchants kep trading with Roderic Berenguer.

Then, amidst this dangerous situation, a solution fell out of the blue: a marriage offer. Raymond VIII of Toulouse, offering an alliance with Riccimer that would be be settled with his marriage to Raymond's daughter Joan. Thus, Riccimer would have Roderic Berenguer cornered from the north and the west, and Raymond would have a powerful (so he thought) ally against any French effort to annex the Midi. However, just after Riccimer and Joan married in 1310, death ruined Raymond's plans. In 1311 his only son, Raymond, died; then, his elder daughter, Maria. also died in 1312. Joan became the new duchess when his father died in 1316. This was the only political sucess of his kingdom, which was soon forgot when Aragon and Valencia joined Roderic Berenguer and formed a federation of dukedoms independent from Spania. Thus, Riccimer died bitterley resented and hated by his own noblemen in 1330, in a hunting accident that came to relieve him from all his troubles and his own failure.

His son Theodofred III the Good (1308 – 1350, r. 1330-1350) began well. He crushed the combined armies of Tarraconesis, Aragon and Valencia in the battle of Almansa (May 1331). but soon he ran into troubles and could not take advantage of the victory. The old feud between Ardo, dux of Granada, and Ariaric, dux of Sevilla, broke out in 1339 with the raids launched by their followers, but in 1340, Ariaric defeated and killed Ardo in the battle of Mayorga. Thus, unifying the two dukedoms, Ariaric became a determined and loyal follower of Theodofred, as he was afraid of the revenge of the sons of Ardo and the envy of his neighbours. Both joined their forces to put Cadiz under siege and to force its earl, Athanaric, to abandon his semi-independency. However, Roderic Berenguer rose in arms with his ally of the confederation again in 1345. They sacked Navarre and Vizcaya, burning and pillaging as they moved towards the Cantabric Sea and before Thedofred could reach them. Outside Pamplona they gave him battle (1346), The royal army was defeated with huge losses. Theodofred was wounded and barely escaped the battlefield. Navarre was annexed by Roderic Berenguer, who was crowned king of Aragon in 1348 after an attempted Spanian invasion of Valencia ended in a complete disaster. Then, the Black Death arrived to Spania and put an end to the war.

Theodofred's last sucess would be the adquisiton of Plasencia, which was divided between himself and the duke of Evora, who annexed Lisbon to his lands in 1350. A few months later, the Spanian king died from the plague.

Theodofred III and his wife, Blanche of France (1313 – 1358 ), had five children:

1. Roderic II (26 April 1328 – 8 April 1364).
2. Maria (1330 – 22 September 1333).
3. Riccimer (1333)
4. Ataulfo (1336-1375), Duke of Plasencia m. Beatriz of Evora (1347 - 1381),
   1. Ataulfo de Castilla (1356-1365).
   2. Leonor (1364-1435).

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Riccimer IV,
played by Ramón Madaula
in the "Riccimer the Wise" series (1989).

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4. The Troubled Kingdom.

Roderic II of Spania , called the Good and the Unlucky (1328-1364, r. 1350-1364) faced family troubles when Afonso de Évora, brother-in-law of his own brother, Ataulfo, Duke of Plasencia, began to stir problem in Toletum. Jealous of the position in the court of Roderic's bastard brother, Enrique, Afonso began to conspire against him, leading to a feud that ended, in 1355, with the murder of Enrique. Roderic refrained, as he needed Afonso to keep Portugal under his thumb, but, eventually, Afonso would rise in rebellion in 1355, allied with Jean II of France. However, the crushing defeat of Poitiers left Afonso without his ally

However, Afonso kept bickering in the court, causing an endless state of unstabilty that lasted until 1360 when, on the brink of civil war, Afonso repented and swore in front of the king and all the nobility gathered in Toletum, never again to be disloyal to the king... until he broke his word three years later. Then, Roderic fell ill with an unknown malady and died on August 4, 1364. His son, Riccimer IV, called the Wise (1348 – 1380, r. 1364-1380) , proved to be of a different kind from his father. Highly intelligent, but very secretive, he harboured a deep hatred towards Afonso de Évora, who tried to poison him in 1366.

His reign was dominated by the war against Évora, which broke out in 1367 after the capture of the fortresses of Magallón and Briviesca and an Evorense raid against Burgos. Defated at Nájera in 1367, Riccimer prepared his revenge and launched a guerrilla campaign against Évora that eviscerated his army in several ambushes. Four Evorense soldiers out of five died during this guerrilla, that lasted until 1369, when Afonso was defeated and taken prisoner at Porto. Meanwhile, Fadrique Alfonso, Duke of Leon, had become increasingly autocratic. Nobles from León petitioned Riccimer for aid, and Fadrique Alfonso relented, only to release a bloody revenge in 1372. Then, Riccimer, after summoning the vicious Duke to his court and failing to be obeyed, launched destructive raids against the lands of Fadrique Alfonso until he surrendered in 1376. By then, he had been reduced to his main city, León, and had to surrender to the king, who only returned the lands to Fadrique Afonso's heir after his father death.

In 1380, the health of the king began to fail, and he prepared his succession, as his heir, Riccimer V, was only 6 years old.





Roderic II and his wife, Juana Manuel of Castile (1339 – 1381) had five children:

1. Riccimer (March 1st, 1348 – July 9, 1380)
2. Alfonso, Duke of La Mancha (May 17 1349 – February 9, 1384), married Marie of Blois
   1. Maria (1370 – 1379)
   2. Alfonso de La Mancha (1377 – 1417)
3. Juan, Duke of Galicia (March, 11 1350 – June 6, 1416), married Juana de Lara , no issue
4. Theodofred, Duke of Badajoz (August 1, 1352 – September 24, 1414), married Margaret of Flanders
   1. Juan (1371–1409)
   2. Margarita (1374 –1431)
5. Juana (24 June 1353 – 3 November 1373) married Pedro I of Aragon

Riccimer IV and his wife, Leonor of Aragón (1348 – 1381) had a son:

1. Riccimer (January 13, 1374 – July 9, 1422)

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Witteric V,
played by Steve Waddington
in Michael Hirst's "The Eclipse of De Luna" film (2005).

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5. The crisis of the late XV century (1)

Riccimer V , called the Beloved and the Mourner (1374 – 1422, r. 1380 - 1406) was only 6 years old when his father died. During his minority, Spania was ruled by his uncles (Alfonso, Duke of La Mancha, Juan, Duke of Galicia and Theodofred, Duke of Badajoz) as regents until the king was 13 years old. During the rule of his uncles, the financial resources of the kingdom, painstakingly built up by his father, were squandered for the personal profit of the dukes, whose interests were frequently divergent or even opposing. Due to this, Riccimer V, he worked hard to reinforce the power of the royal administration and relied on the support of the low aristocracy while displacing the most powerful houses. He also repealed privileges granted by his predecessors, increased the number of city magistrates and cleaned up the kingdom's economy. He reduced persecution of the Jews and passed various bills against the violence, which had become particularly bad by 1391.

Sensing the change in the tide of war between England and France, he supported king Charles VI of France; the Castilian fleet won several victories against the English; Riccimer V sent a naval fleet in 1400 that destroyed Tétouan in North Africa, a pirate base, and in 1402, he began the colonisation of the Canary Islands, sending French explorer Jean de Béthencourt to do so. He gathered around him highly competent advisors, who ushered in a new period of high esteem for the crown. Thus, hte king was widely referred to as Riccimer the Beloved by his subjects. In 1403, he sent ambassados to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between the Timurid Empire and Castile against the Ottoman Empire. Then, suddenly, in 1406 he suffered a mental bout that rendered him unable to reign from then on until his death

His only male son and heir, Witteric V called the Well-Served (1405- 1454, r. 1406 - 1454), was only one year old when he became king. Again, Juan, Duke of Galicia, and Theodofred, Duke of Badajoz, returned to the regency. After their deaths (1416 and 1414), the Queen Mother Constaza ruled for his son. However, when Witteric V began to rule, he was still under the influence of his mother and of Álvaro de Luna, who soon had the young king under his thumb. In June 1423 he had arrested, executed and attained Enrique, Dux of Sevilla, and then had the dukedom divided among its loyals, being de Luna the most favoured by the fall of the old Dux. This was to cause a deep resentment among the great houses, even more when de Luna, an upstart, received the dukedom of Sevilla, even if a diminished one.

Finally, in 1427, a coalition of the nobles forced the king to expell de Luna from the court, only to be recalled in the following year. Witteric and de Luna endeavoured to employ the restless nobles in the Hundred Years War, supporting Charles VII of France, Witteric's ally. This was to lead to the Spanian intervertion (1429-1430) in that war, which made the nobilty to close ranks behind the king. This was to be used by de Luna in 1435, when against mounting criticism was directed against him, and a border dispute with Aragon over the lands of the duke of Valencia in Castille led to the Castillian-Aragonese War (1435-1443), which ended with a Castillian victory and the annexation of the disputed lands. However, by then de Luna was dead, a victim of a bout of the sweating sickness (1452).

The two years that followed until Witteric's death saw the king reduced to a puppet of the nobility and the destruction of his father's project.






Riccimer V and his wife, Constanza de Noroña (1381 – 1454) had five children:

1. María (November 14, 1401- October 4, 1458), m. Alfonso II of Aragón. No issue.
2. Catalina (May 9, 1403- October 9, 1439), m. Charles VII, King of France
   1. Louis (1423-1483), had issue
   2. Radegonde (1428-1444)
   3. Catherine (1429--1446) m. Charles the Bold. No issue
   4. Yolande (1434-1478) m. Amadeux IX of Savoy. Had issue.
   5. Joan (1435-1482) m. John II of Bourbon, No issue.
   6. Magdalena (1443-1495) m. Gaston of Foix, Prince of Viana, had issue.
3. Witteric, Príncipe de Astúrias (March 5, 1405- July 22, 1454)

Witteric V and his first wife, Maria of Aragón (1403 - 1445), had two sons

1. Isabel (1423-1474).
2. Alfonso de Castilla (1425-1440). Príncipe de Asturias

Witteric V and his second wife, Isabel of York (1409 – 1484), had two sons

1. Catalina de Castilla (1451-1453),
2. Leonor de Castilla (1452-1454),
3. Athaulf (1453-1521). Príncipe de Asturias

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Emperor Maximilian and her daughter-in-law, Juana de Spania,
played by Fernando Guillén-Cuervo and Irene Escolar
in the series "The Goths" (season 3, 2014)

​

6. The crisis of the late XV century (2)

The ongoing crisis that doomed the ending of the reign of Witteric V was worsened by the lack of a male heir after the death of Alfonso, first prince of Asturias, in 1440. Thus, from then on, the heir wais Isabel, her first-born daughter from his first wife. Then, to the surprise of the court, a male son is born to the depressed king, Athaulf, who is recognized by the Aula Regis as the heir to the throne in 1454. Under the regency of his mother, Elizabeth of York, the childhood of Athaulf II called the Unlucky (1454-1521, r. 1454-1485) became a battlefield as there were widespread rumours that the prince was the result of an affair between his mother and one of her loyal supporters. This was to cause the division of the nobilty in two sides, one supporting the young king and the other siding with his sister Isabel, married with Carlos, prince of Viana and Girona, heir to Aragon. Eventually, things came to a head and the two sides faced each other in the indecisive battle of Toro (July 16, 1458); nevertheless, Elizabeth of York was forced to grant an unfavourable peace as a matter of political expediency, which further weakened the throne.

Another uprising took place again in 1461, with the same sides and the same reasons; however, the sudden death of Carlos of Viana led the civil war. Elizabeth of York was acused of having poisoned the prince and this caused a massive uproar Castille. An Aragonese army crossed the border to support Isabel against her stepmother. By then Isabel had one son, Juan, and four daugthers from her late husband and this was used in her favour, as the king was still a child. However, the war, that lasted until 1471, ended with the royalist victory and with a weakened Castille. Even worse, another war broke out in 1475 when Aragon reclaimed its lost lands. Athaulf II was defeated and had to acknowledge the Aragonese claims in 1478. By then, the royal authority was in tatters and the young king was despised not only by most of his noblemen but also by the commoners. Not even the death of Isabel in 1474 helped to redress the situation.

The quiet reforms of Juan Pacheco, marquis of Villena, brought some stability to the country, even if at the price of a widespread corruption. When Pacheco died in 1475, his work was continued by his son, Diego López Pacheco y Portocarrero. In 1476 a daughter, Juana, was born to Athaulf, who had married (1474) Ursula of York (1455-1516), daughter of Richard, 3rd Duke of York. In 1480, the young princess was married to Phillip, son of Emperor Maximilian I. Thus, when Queen Elizabeth died in 1484, Athaulf began to prepare his abdication and the transfer of power to his son, Juan I (1478–1497, r. 1496-1497), but his untimely death whithout issue made her sister Juana I (1476–1552, r.1497–1515), the new queen of Spania and the last Visigothic ruler of Spania, who would replace Pacheco with Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros in 1499. The first years of Juana's reign were to be marked by her bitter battle with her husband, Phillip the Handsome, duke of Burgundy (1478 – 1506), who attempted first to rule with her and then to undermine her reign hoping to be crowned king instead of her. His misterious death in 1502 was to cast dark shadows over the queen, who would never escape from the rumours that pointed out at her part in the supposed murder of her husband.

Juana's heir, Carlos, was born in 1500. He would marry the heiress of Aragon and thus reunite the kingdoms of Spania after her mother's abdication in 1515. In addittion to this, he would also become German emperor in 1520 and...

...well, that's another story.

THE END.







Athaulf II (January 5, 1453- December 11, 1521) m. Ursula of York (1455-1516) had four children

1. Juana I (1476–1552), Princess of Asturias (1497–1504), Queen of Spania (1504–1555), Queen of Aragon (1516–1555). She married Philip of Habsburg and was the mother of King Charles I of Spania (also known as Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor). She was co-ruler with her son for over 50 years.
2. Juan (1478–1497), Prince of Asturias (1478–1497). He married Margaret of Habsburg, daugther of Emperor Maximilian I. He died of tuberculosis and his posthumous child with Margaret was stillborn.
3. Maria (1482–1517). She married King Manuel I of Portugal. Had Issue.
4. Catalina, (1485–1536). She married first Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of and heir to King Henry VII of England and, after Prince Arthur's death, she married his brother Henry, Duke of York, who also became Prince of Wales and then King Henry VIII. She thus became Queen of England and was the mother of Queen Mary I.

Juana I (November 9, 1476 – April 14 1552 ), m. Philip of Habsburg (July 22, 1478 – 25 September 1506) had six children

1. Leonor (1496–1556) m. King Manuel I of Portugal (1469 - 1521)
2. Carlos (1500-1558)
3. Isabel(1501-1526), m. Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
4. Fernando (1503–1564), king of Bohemia and Hungary, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1552-1564)
5. María (1505–1558), m. Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia
6. Catalina (1507–1578), m. Joao III of Portugal