The history of Galicia includes the first human settlements in the area and extends to the present day. Populated since prehistory, its territory presents many examples of the megalithic culture that during the Iron Age and the Bronze Age will lead to the fortified culture. The geographical limits of Galicia evolved over the centuries. The Roman province of Gallaecia was succeeded in 410 by the regnum suevorum, regnum galliciense or Suebian kingdom. The period from 410 to November 30, 1833 is called the "kingdom of Galicia", the date on which the regent María Cristina de Borbón signed the decree that dissolved the Xunta Superior do Reino de Galiza. It is considered that Galicia had an autonomous policy until the 19th century, taking 1486 as the symbolic date, the year in which the Catholic Monarchs visited Santiago de Compostela, although the kings of Castile were also kings of Galicia since 1230.[1].
From 1833 until the Spanish Transition, Galicia was no longer a political-administrative entity. However, it has always evolved while preserving its cultural, economic, social and political particularities. On June 28, 1936, a draft statute of autonomy was approved by referendum in Galicia, but the government of the Second Republic could not put it into practice since the Civil War broke out on July 17. From the first days of the uprising, the four Galician provinces came under Franco's control. When the regime once again created military general captaincies in 1940 endowed with civil power, Galicia was the eighth.
The new democratic institutions created since 1977 led to the approval of the statute of autonomy of Galicia on April 6, 1981, which recognizes Galicia as a historical nationality within the Spanish State.
Etymology
The name derives from the place name Gallaecia. With this name the Romans identified the province of the Roman Empire that covered the third of the Iberian Peninsula located north of the Duero River and west of the Pisuerga River.
Although in this extensive territorial area human groups settled since the Neolithic, the name comes from the Celts (known as “Urnenfelder Celts” (‘urn fields’), a group of Indo-Europeans who settled on the peninsula during the Chalcolithic period (between 2300 and 1800 BC) and later from the century BC (Celts of the Hallstatt culture or Sefes")
The Celts appear for the first time in the texts of the Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus, who in the year 517 BC. C. refers to them with the name κέλτης ('hidden'). It is possible that this name comes from Greek mythology, in which the Celtic people were located as descendants of Celtus")[2] transforming into when incorporated into Latin.
Imperial road audit
Introduction
The history of Galicia includes the first human settlements in the area and extends to the present day. Populated since prehistory, its territory presents many examples of the megalithic culture that during the Iron Age and the Bronze Age will lead to the fortified culture. The geographical limits of Galicia evolved over the centuries. The Roman province of Gallaecia was succeeded in 410 by the regnum suevorum, regnum galliciense or Suebian kingdom. The period from 410 to November 30, 1833 is called the "kingdom of Galicia", the date on which the regent María Cristina de Borbón signed the decree that dissolved the Xunta Superior do Reino de Galiza. It is considered that Galicia had an autonomous policy until the 19th century, taking 1486 as the symbolic date, the year in which the Catholic Monarchs visited Santiago de Compostela, although the kings of Castile were also kings of Galicia since 1230.[1].
From 1833 until the Spanish Transition, Galicia was no longer a political-administrative entity. However, it has always evolved while preserving its cultural, economic, social and political particularities. On June 28, 1936, a draft statute of autonomy was approved by referendum in Galicia, but the government of the Second Republic could not put it into practice since the Civil War broke out on July 17. From the first days of the uprising, the four Galician provinces came under Franco's control. When the regime once again created military general captaincies in 1940 endowed with civil power, Galicia was the eighth.
The new democratic institutions created since 1977 led to the approval of the statute of autonomy of Galicia on April 6, 1981, which recognizes Galicia as a historical nationality within the Spanish State.
Etymology
The name derives from the place name Gallaecia. With this name the Romans identified the province of the Roman Empire that covered the third of the Iberian Peninsula located north of the Duero River and west of the Pisuerga River.
Although in this extensive territorial area human groups settled since the Neolithic, the name comes from the Celts (known as “Urnenfelder Celts” (‘urn fields’), a group of Indo-Europeans who settled on the peninsula during the Chalcolithic period (between 2300 and 1800 BC) and later from the century BC (Celts of the Hallstatt culture or Sefes")
kéltis
celti (celtae)
However, the term Celtae was too generic to identify the great variety of Celtic settlements in Europe, so they soon began to be classified based on their languages or the deities they venerated. In this way, in the British Isles, Goidelic Celts and Britons could be found among other clans, while those from the Iberian Peninsula would be known as καλλαικoι (kallaikoi), as Strabo relates in the century BC. c.
Although kallaikoi was only the name of the Galician Celtic clans located around the mouth of the Duero River, this term ended up identifying all those in the northwest of the peninsula.[3] The reason must be found in its location, a privileged area of river and maritime passage that favored the preeminence of the pópuli (population) called Cale (present-day Porto),[4] whose inhabitants would already be called caleci or gallaeci by Pliny the Elder. This would later lead to the etonyms Calecia or Gallaecia (Galicia) to the north and Porto Cale (Portugal) to the south.[5].
The name of the territory was consolidated in the year 239 AD. C. with the administrative reform undertaken by Diocletian when the Gallaecia province was created, separating it from Tarraconensis by covering the conventus Bracarensis, Asturiacensis and Lucensis.
The toponym will be preserved even in Arabic: in the maps and texts of the chroniclers of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba, it will appear as Jalikiah, Yiliquí or Yilliquiyya. Later it would lead to Galiza, Galicia and in French, Galyce.
Regarding etymology, the most consolidated theory (by Higino Martins"), 1990) indicates that Galicia comes from the Indo-European root kala ('refuge, shelter'), which passed into the Gaelic languages as gall (mother, land). This theory is also consistent with those that link the etymon to the Mother Goddess of the Celts, Cal-Leach"),[6] as well as to the radical Latinized Cale,[7] from whose analysis the meanings of 'stone', 'rock' or 'hard' are identified in coherence with the granitic orography on which these clans settled.
Prehistory: Gallaecia
Contenido
Siguiendo la periodización cronológica al uso, se aborda este extenso período histórico comenzando por las primeras manifestaciones culturales del Neolítico en la región (Oestriminios). En esta época se define la iconografía identitaria galaica que después eclosionará con la llegada de la cultura de las Urnas de Vlenden-Bennghardt") de mano de los celtas (Kallaicoi) durante la Edad de Bronce y el Calcolítico. Finalmente, se aborda la romanización desde los primeros enfrentamientos bélicos (romanos) hasta la conformación de la jerarquía eclesiástica priscilianista a finales del siglo (priscilianismo).
Oestrimnios
The first antecedents of the subsequent Galician territorial and cultural configuration are recorded from the Neolithic. After the appearance of the Homo genus in Africa during the Pleistocene, the transition between the Australopithecus and sapiens species will take place throughout the entire Paleolithic. In Europe, in turn and from ancestors common to Homo Sapiens, the Neanderthal species developed, which according to the hypotheses of paleoanthropologists became extinct, about 30,000 years ago, due to the numerical and organizational superiority of the Cro-Magnon man, although there were possibly cases of hybridization;[8] Therefore, Homo Sapiens alone stars in the progressive change from a nomadic social organization based on the hunting and gathering system to another based on agriculture. This change favors the creation of more stable settlements and with them the emergence of new cultural forms.
One of them is megalithism, which in Europe developed from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, characterized by the presence of megaliths,[9] constructions made with large stones. In light of archaeological dating[10] and historiographical syntheses[11] to date, it is not recommended to assume as proven the beginning of this new culture before 4300 BC. C. both in Galicia and in the north of Portugal, where Atlantic megalithism[12] originates as it spread across the entire Atlantic façade.[13] The culture of “Atlantic megalithism” experienced its peninsular heyday between 3000 BC. C. and 2300 BC. C. and manifests itself homogeneously in an area that would include the north of Portugal, Galicia, Asturias, León and Zamora so that its area of implementation would be the precedent of the future Gallaecia.
The megaliths that are most abundant are funerary tombs, constructions generally formed by a tumulus[14] around an interior dolmen[15] with or without an entrance corridor, in which the corpses and a funerary trousseau were deposited.[16] These dolmens are frequently found grouped in necropolises located on plains or plateaus and proliferate especially on the northern slopes. and western part of current Galicia.
The large number of dolmens[17] induce the existence of a dense and dispersed population that, according to archaeological analyses, made use of primitive livestock farming based on the breeding of oxen, pigs, goats and sheep and an unsophisticated agriculture of cereals and legumes, which would force them to continue depending on Mesolithic hunting and gathering techniques. The Galician megalithic society did not develop a significant social hierarchy, as demonstrated by the ascetic uniforms of the tombs or the collective burials, in which tools for productive purposes were more abundant than ornamental objects. Instead, it was an “egalitarian society, composed of small communities, not very bellicose and settled dispersedly” in the territory. Its most notable characteristics would be its surprising architectural skill (prehistoric architecture of Galicia) - which reveals the group's great capacity for organization - and above all its capacity for abstraction and transcendence manifested in a deep religious sense, verifiable in the large number of tombs. The engravings found in them describe a “mythology centered on fertility and death”, emerging the figure of the officiant or mediator between the gods and human beings.[18].
Megalithic technologies begin to disappear with the arrival of metallurgical techniques. However, the cultural identity forged in the megalithic period will not disappear, but will continue to be transmitted in the transition from the third to the first millennium BC. C., as demonstrated by the existence of petroglyphs, lithographs made in granite stone in the open air.
The technical and thematic homogeneity of this cultural expression allows us to define the existence of a Galician group of rock art characterized by an abstract theme[19] that occupies most of the surface, surrounded by elements of a naturalistic theme, generally zoomorphic and anthropomorphic along with elements such as weapons, shields and cylinder-idols.[20] Although the naturalistic elements are what characterize and differentiate the Galician prehistoric lithography compared to its European equivalents, they are the motifs abstracts—especially labyrinths, geometric patterns and triskelions—which will be consolidated in Castro culture.
Galaicos
Chronologically, the final stage of the megalithic culture corresponds to the arrival of the Bell Beaker culture in the Chalcolithic - between 2300 and 1800 BC. C. in the northwest of the peninsula—with the first pre-Celtic Indo-European populations.
Professor (historian, archaeologist and writer) Florentino López Cuevillas, in his work Celtic Civilization in Galicia, after presenting an exhaustive study on the political and geographical aspect, assures that most of these tribes were not Celts. The list of pre-Celtic tribes that can be given is quite extensive:
All of them settled since the Bronze Age, that is, before 600 BC. C. The first geographical description of the Iberian Peninsula refers to this culture[21] with the name Estrimnis or also Oestrimnios.[22] It is therefore the aboriginal community of proto-Celtic origin existing at the arrival of the Celts sefes or serpes.[23] These were established in the north of Portugal and the area of current Galicia, introducing the culture of the Urns of Vlenden-Bennghardt")[24] that would later evolve into the castro or castreña culture[25].
The Sefes Celts (also called saefes), or Hallstatt Celts, found the northwest of the peninsula quite populated.[26] The Sefes overlapped and adapted quite well, it is believed that due to their similar Indo-European character. It was the Celts who settled in and their influence was in most cases late and sporadic, as can be known from the confirmation of the study of architecture and metallurgy. This population oldest native culture preserved its outstanding linguistic and cultural personality and also knew how to exchange cultural aspects with the Celtic civilization. There was a true exchange of customs and knowledge.
At this time there is a rapid population increase due to movements from the plateau due to the Atlantic climate, with a higher degree of humidity. This increase in inhabitants generates conflicts that consequently bring an increase in mining, derived from the production of weapons and objects of daily use. Due to the abundance of noble metals, the pieces of ornament and jewelry from this period have had no parallel in history, being highly valued, as demonstrated by the fact that they have been found not only in distant parts of the peninsula but also in southern and central Europe.
This culture, together with the elements that survive from the Atlantic megalithic culture and the contributions that come from the most western Mediterranean cultures, end up resulting in what has been called the Castro Culture. This name refers to the characteristic Celtic populations called dùn, dùin or don in the Gaelic language and which the Romans called Castros in their chronicles.
Regarding the social organization of the Galician Celts, the first documentary references found on Castro society are those provided by chroniclers of Roman military campaigns such as Strabo, Herodotus or Pliny the Elder, among others. They describe the inhabitants of these territories as a group of barbarians who spend the day fighting and the night eating, drinking and dancing under the moon.
ancient age
Romanization
The social and territorial cohesion of the Castro culture explains the extraordinary resistance of the Galicians to Roman domination[27] that lasted for more than a century when it already spread throughout the rest of Hispania. This is confirmed by various chronicles such as those of Orosius, who tells how in the year 137 BC. C., the praetor Tenth June Brutus began a campaign of punishment due to the continuous war raids of the Galician Celts in support of the Lusitanians. For this campaign, in which he had to face 60,000 gallaicoi on the Duero River, he returned to Rome as a hero, for which he was called Gallaicus. In that same year the Roman legions would reach the Limia river, which, identifying the Lethes river of Roman mythology, could only be crossed when the Praetor crossed it, calling his soldiers by name to show that he had not lost his memory. The advance towards the north would stop the following year when it reached the Miño River, where the gallaicoi caused the Roman retreat towards the south.
The situation would continue for the next hundred years, without the sporadic Roman expeditions managing to penetrate further into Galician territory, the only significant one being those of P. Crassus in 96 BC. C. to 94 BC. c.
However in 73 BC. C., Quintus Sertorius is defeated so that the region north of the Tagus River regains its independence.
The situation would continue like this until ten years later when Julius Caesar was appointed Propraetor of Hispania Ulterior. In the year 61 BC. C. resumed the advance towards the north, penetrating the Lusitanian region located between the Tagus and Duero rivers and personally led a maritime raid, landing in Brigantium, in the part of the coast that is today occupied by the city of La Coruña, in what is believed to be the center of the tin route. However, the interior of the Galician territory continues a resistance that intensifies in its last stage during the campaign of Caesar Augustus between the years 39 BC. C. to 24 BC C., of which the battle of Mount Medulio would be its most significant exponent. This would prevent the declaration of the Pax Romana until the year 23 BC. C., although the resistance would continue in the border areas with the Asturian and Cantabrian peoples until 19 BC. c.
Once the war was over, the Romanization process began that would last for the next four centuries, officially beginning between the years 64 and 70, when Vespasian converted the 451,000 gallaicoi into Roman people (according to Pliny the Elder). In this way, the forts would be transformed into villae and the population would incorporate new technologies such as architecture, agriculture based on the plow, Roman law or mining. In this last aspect, it is worth highlighting the metal extraction system called ruina montium, which consisted of excavating tunnels in the mountains through which a continuous flow of water was circulated that eroded the area, transporting minerals (specifically, gold).
The social and territorial cohesion defined by the Celts in the Galician territory would be maintained throughout Romanization. An important contribution, which would help define the subsequent territorial division, would be the road infrastructure made up of bridges and roads used for the movement of troops and the transportation of goods. Along these roads there were mansions and rest stations for the troops, which were the origin of numerous towns that have survived to this day. Although there were other secondary routes, the main ones were four – numbered “XVII to XX” in Caracalla's itinerary – and they linked the cities founded by Augustus with the rest of the Roman domains. These three cities, Lucus Augusti (Lugo), Bracara Augusta (Braga) and Asturica Augusta (Astorga) would become the head of the three conventus (Lucensis, Bracarensis and Asturiacensis, respectively), which with Diocletian's reform of the year 298 would be unified under a single province segregated from Tarraconensis: Gallaecia.
The Roman province of Gallaecia was much larger than current Galicia, as it also included the north of Portugal, between the Duero and the Miño, where its capital, Braga, was located, as well as Asturias, Cantabria and part of what would later become the kingdoms of León and Castile. Thus, it was during this time that Gallaecia reached its maximum borders, reaching the east to the sources of the Ebro River.
The Romanization of Galician culture also occurred in language and religion, although in reverse. Although in the language the original Galician substrate would end up dissolving into Latin, remaining in the roots of toponyms and anthroponyms, in the case of religion the phenomenon was the opposite.
Priscillianists
Over the centuries, the Catholic Church elevated Christianity from the rank of persecuted religion to the official religion of the Lower Empire.[28] This new situation unleashes important power struggles within it, as well as a notable degree of accommodation on the part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy that is not well regarded by some sectors more in tune with a Christianity linked to the most disadvantaged classes.[29]
In the struggle for power, the declining empire intersects with a church reaffirmed after the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and increasingly present in all territories and social strata. In fact, situations occur in which political power is assumed “in office” by the dense official network of priests at the service of Rome.[30] In this turbulent social context (bagaudas, circumcelliones...) and changing political-religious life, a religious movement emerges in the northwest of the peninsula that is linked to the aforementioned ascetic current: Opposing an increasingly wealthy Church and a hierarchy as opulent as it is increasingly elitist, in the year 379 AD. C. a character of great charisma and popular appeal named Prisciliano begins to preach in Gallaecia. From a noble family, he is described by his main biographers[31] as scholarly and very advanced in discussion. He began his training in Burdigala (current Bordeaux), under the direction of the rhetorician Delphidius (Elpidio). There he founded the first rigorist community from which he would be inspired in later years.[32].
Around the year 379, he returned to Gallaecia and began a preaching period during which he advocated and practiced an ascetic Christianity (which included everything from vegetarianism to celibacy), incorporating popular elements such as dancing or the celebration of open-air Eucharists into the liturgy. It proposes the incorporation of groups traditionally excluded from reading sessions of biblical texts, such as women or slaves, and admits the possibility of personal reading and interpretation of apocryphal texts.
The spread of Priscillian's ideas occurred quickly and in all social strata, spreading in a short time to Baetica, Tarragona and even beyond the Pyrenees, to Aquitaine. Some bishops favorable to Prisciliano (Instancio and Salviano) went so far as to name him bishop of Abula (present-day Ávila), despite his status as a layman, which has just unleashed the suspicions of several bishops such as Higinio de Corduba (present-day Córdoba "Córdoba (Spain)"), Ithacio de Ossonoba (present-day Faro, in Portugal) or Hydacio de Emerita Augusta (metropolitan headquarters, current Mérida "Mérida (Spain)")).
The intervention of these three bishops, especially Ithacio (who gives name to the anti-Priscillian movement known as “Ithacian”), first provokes the convocation of the Council of Caesaraugusta (present-day Zaragoza) in the year 380[33] and later (in the year 382) the promulgation of an edict by Emperor Gratian banishing the Priscillianists from their seats.
Middle Ages
Swabians
With the fall of the Roman Empire and the invasion of the Germanic peoples, the territory of Gallaecia is part of the foedus carried out by the different invading peoples. The Swabians, 30,000 individuals, of which only 8,000 were men capable of fighting, are concentrated between the Douro and the Miño, in the area of influence of Bracara Augusta (Braga "Braga (Portugal)"). Arriving in the year 409, a foedus was agreed with Rome in 410 by which the Suebi established themselves in the Roman province of Gallaecia and their leader Hermericus (409-438) was granted the title of king (rex), accepting the authority of the emperor of Rome as superior. Thus, in Gallaecia the first step towards the structuring of political power in medieval European space in kingdoms under the moral authority, increasingly merely theoretical, of an emperor is consolidated. Hermericus ceded the throne to his son Requila (438-448), who carried out military campaigns throughout the peninsula only possible due to the union between Suebi and Galicians and total independence from Rome. Requiarius will succeed him (448-456). The latter adopted Catholicism in 449, which would favor integration with the Galician-Roman population and make the Swabian kingdom an example that the Franks and Visigoths would later follow. In 456, the battle of the Órbigo River took place, which pitted the Visigoths and Suebi, with the defeat of the latter and which would result in the murder of Requiario and the return to Arianism.
After the defeat against the Visigoths, the Suebian kingdom will be divided and Frantán and Aguiulfo will govern simultaneously. Both will do so from 456 to 457, the year in which Maldras (457-459) will reunify the kingdom only to end up being assassinated after a failed Roman-Visigothic conspiracy. Although the conspiracy did not achieve its true purposes, the Suebian kingdom was again divided between two kings: Frumarius (459-463) and Remismund (son of Maldras) (459-469), who would reunify his father's kingdom again in 463 and who would be forced to adopt Arianism in 465 due to Visigothic influence. After the death of Remismundo, a dark era entered that would last until 550, in which practically all written texts disappeared. The only thing that is known about this time is that Theodemond most likely ruled over Sweden.
At this time, the last significant ethnic contribution occurred with the arrival to the northern coast of Breton Celts who settled in the north of present-day Galicia and Asturias under the authority of their own bishop. These contingents fleeing the Anglo-Saxon invasions will establish a diocese in Bretoña "Bretoña (Lugo)"), the predecessor of the current Mondoñedo, and will participate in the Suevo-Galic councils (bishop Maeloc).
The dark era will end with the reign of Karriaric (550-559) who will convert again to Catholicism in 550. He will be succeeded by Theodomiro "Theodomiro (Sweden king)") (559-570) during the reign of which the 1st Council of Braga will take place (561). These councils represent an advance in the organization of the territory (parroquiale suevum) and Christianization of the pagan population (de correctione rusticorum) under the auspices of Saint Martin of Braga. After the death of Theodomir, Miro "Miro (Swabian king)") (570-583) will be his successor. During his reign the 2nd Council of Braga will be held (572). Approximately in 577 the Visigothic civil war began in which Miro would intervene, and in 583 he would organize a conquest expedition to Seville that, however, would fail. During the return from this failed operation the king meets death. Many internal struggles begin to occur in the Swabian kingdom. Eboric (also called Euric, 583-584) is dethroned by Andeca (584-585), who fails in his attempt to prevent the Visigoth invasion led by Leovigild, which will finally take effect in 585, turning the rich and fertile Suevian kingdom into another part of the Gothic kingdom, with Leovigild titling himself as king of Gallaecia, Hispania and Narbonensis.
Under the Visigoths, Gallaecia will be a well-defined space governed by its own duke related to the monarchy and who will do so as a prince associated with it (cases of Wamba "Wamba (king)") and Vitiza, who would even end up being kings in Toledo). It will be precisely the Vitizians facing D. Rodrigo who, stationed in the northwest, will call on the Arabs as allies in their struggle for power (711).
Early medieval Galicia. The county of Galicia in the orbit of Regnum Asturorum
In the course of the Muslim conquest of Spain, the Muslims conquered Tuy "Tuy (Pontevedra)"), and established a dominion there based on the lower valley of the Miño River. The Berber rebellion of the years 740 and 741 resulted in the abandonment by the Berber garrisons of all their positions north of the Sierra de Gredos. In this way, southern Galicia was freed from Muslim rule.
On the contrary, northern Galicia fell under the political rule of Alfonso I, who installed Bishop Odoario "Odoario (bishop)") in the city of Lugo. Since 760, the territory of Galicia was under the authority of the monarchs who had their political and power space in what is now Asturias, in a weak position that had to be consolidated by his successor, Fruela I, who crushed an insurrection by the Galicians. Decades later, another Galician insurrection was defeated by King Silo at the Battle of Montecubeiro,[43][44] near Castroverde.
The administrative incorporation of Galicia to the power of the kings residing in Asturias was carried out (like Castile) through the county, at whose head a committee was established. The first count is the knight Count Don Pedro, mentioned by the Albeldense in its brief chronicle of the reign of Ordoño I of Asturias, facing a Norman attack,[45] an episode that takes place in the year 859. Don Pedro is succeeded by Fruela Bermúdez, or Froilán, according to the chronicle, Gallicie comite. This count led a revolt against King Alfonso III,[46] but was killed in the spring of 876.
In any case, it is at this time, and under the reign of Alfonso II, that the discovery of the tomb of the Apostle Santiago and the emergence of the Camino that bears his name occurs.
The expansion towards the South was initiated by Ordoño I, who repopulated Tuy. In later decades Vímara Pérez, vassal of Alfonso III, reached Porto (taken in 868) laying the foundations of the Portucalense County that would later give rise to Portugal.
In the year 910, upon the death of the King of Asturias Alfonso III the Great, his possessions were distributed among his three sons corresponding to Ordoño, married to the Galician noblewoman Elvira Menéndez "Elvira Menéndez (d. 921)"), the territory of Galicia of which he was already governor, an event that marks the origin of the Kingdom of Galicia, within the Kingdom of León. Shortly afterwards, when his brother García I of León died without descendants in 914, Ordoño occupied the throne of the Kingdom of León, with the name of Ordoño II, thus bringing about the union of both kingdoms. Within the framework of the struggles between Alfonso IV and his brother Sancho Ordóñez, the kingdom of Galicia effectively recovered its independence. Sancho took refuge in Galicia fleeing from his brother in 926, crowning himself as private king of Galicia, until his death in the year 929. After his death, the kingdom would be reintegrated again into that of León, in the person of Alfonso IV, although his wife, the retired Galician queen Goto, continued to be considered as such, even in the fruitful reign of Ramiro II.
The kingdom of Galicia in the Crown of Castile
The succession of Ferdinand III the Saint (1230-1254) to the throne of the kingdoms of Galicia and León, marked, according to López Carreira, the beginning of a period of decline and a negative evolution of the general interests of the kingdom, with the Galician county nobility and the town councils of the Galician towns being the most affected by being separated from the high level of the decisions of a court based in Castile, and from which Galicia went from cultural core to periphery of a crown ruled by Castilians.[47].
In Galicia and León the Liber Iudiciorum was maintained as a legal code, contrary to what happened in the Castilian territories. Even when matters were judged by the court, they were dealt with in accordance with the code in force in each crown.[48] However, a policy of centralizing tendency began that was maintained during the reign of Alfonso castilians
Alliance of the Galician nobles with the king of Portugal
The victory of Enrique de Trastámara against Pedro I in 1369, will entail a serious conflict within the kingdom of Galicia, since the majority of the Galician nobles do not recognize him as such and with the approval of the municipalities of the kingdom they demand Ferdinand I of Portugal as king in that same year to govern Galicia, his Galician supporters assuring him that they will have a voice for him (...) and that he will give him the villas e o reçeberíam por senhor, fazémdolhe dellas menagem*.[49] The practical culmination of the repeated tendency of rapprochement between the kingdoms of Galicia and Portugal, advocated by influential Galician social groups and active for some time, took place for a short period of time. Accompanied from Portugal by important noble supporters of the legitimist cause, significant representatives of the Galician nobility, among them Fernando Ruiz de Castro (count of Trastámara), the knight and lord of Salvaterra, Álvaro Pérez de Castro and Nuño Freire de Andrade (master of the Portuguese order of Christ). His entry into the kingdom of Galicia was triumphant, being acclaimed in Galician cities.[50].
Having achieved his objective of supporting his enthusiastic Galician nobles, the policy of Ferdinand I of Portugal included the restoration of the strongholds of Tuy "Tuy (Pontevedra)") and Bayona "Bayona (Pontevedra)") among others, the liberation of commercial traffic between Galicia and Portugal as well as the supply of cereal and wine by sea to the Galician populations depleted by the war directly from Lisbon.[51] He also made economic provisions for which He ordered to make coins of his senhais d'oro e prata, asii (...) in Crunha (La Coruña) and in Tuy, testifying to the Cortes of Lisbon in the year 1371 the validity of the coins equally in the kingdom of Galicia and in that of Portugal.[52].
Despite the initial success, the Portuguese monarch's presence in the kingdom was short. Enrique de Trastámara, assisted by the mercenaries of the White Companies, organized a counteroffensive in Portuguese lands that would force Ferdinand I to return to Portugal, thus taking over the government of Galicia briefly, until the arrival of the Duke of Lancaster in La Coruña and his coronation in Santiago de Compostela.
Demand for help from the Duke of Lancaster
Barely a year after the king of Portugal had to abandon the government of the kingdom of Galicia, and with La Coruña still remaining faithful to Portugal, the A Coruña nobleman Juan Fernández de Andeiro completed his negotiations with the crown of England. Thus, on July 10, 1372, a treaty was signed by which Constanza "Constanza de Castilla (1354-1394)"), daughter of King Pedro I, murdered by Enrique de Trastámara, claimed her legitimate right as successor to the latter.[53].
After the treaty, and by virtue of the title of Constance, the Duke of Lancaster adopted his wife's royal titles (of Galicia, León, Castile, etc.) and prepared to make them effective. Although the first attempt was frustrated when his expedition had to divert, in Poitou, towards the city of Thouars, urged by the Hundred Years' War in France. In the year 1386, backed by the papal bull of Urban IV that granted him the right to the Crown of Castile, he landed in La Coruña, but without facing the assault of the walled city that conditioned the open doors if he was previously received in Santiago. This happened, and then he managed, with hardly any military resistance, and with the support of Galician and Portuguese nobles, to effectively dominate the kingdom. Accompanied by his wife and daughters, he established his Court in Santiago de Compostela. It directed its operations towards Pontevedra, Vigo, Bayona "Bayona (Pontevedra)"), Betanzos, Ribadavia, Orense and Ferrol. In Orense his troops assaulted the city and forced the Trastamarist troops to withdraw, while Ferrol was taken by the King of Portugal João I, an ally of the Duke of Lancaster. In the case of Ribadavia, the city resisted this, and Thomas Persey himself led a days-long siege on the town, which ended up being taken.
The kingdom of Galicia remained in the power of the duke, specifically after he and the Portuguese king had taken control of Ferrol, as the chronicle written by Jean Froissart makes it clear: avoient mis en leur obeissance tout lee roiaulme de Gallice.[54] The evolution of military events was determined by a plague epidemic that decimated the English troops on Galician soil. This forced the Duke of Lancaster to negotiate a departure with Henry from the Englishman and his wife Constance in exchange for a large compensation and the wedding between the Castilian heir, Henry III, and the Duke's daughter, Catherine of Lancaster. The final withdrawal of the English closed the attempts made by the town councils and the Galician high nobility to obtain a space not shared with Castile and orient Galicia towards Portugal and the Atlantic, although it would not be the last time that this happened.
Definitive integration into the Crown of Castile
The definitive unification of the three Kingdoms occurred, in 1230, with King Ferdinand III, nicknamed "the Saint" in later chronicles. Son of Alfonso IX of León and Galicia who married Doña Berenguela of Castilla for the second time. Fernando III did not respect his father's will, which left the kingdoms of Galicia and León to Doña Sancha and Doña Dulce, daughters he had with Doña Teresa of Portugal in his first marriage, with which the tendency of the Kingdom was going to be dear to the interests of Castile, with Toledo taking importance to the detriment of Santiago de Compostela as an archiepiscopal see and León as a royal city. He was succeeded by Alfonso At the head of Galicia there is now a Major Adelantado of the Kingdom, representative of the Crown and appointed from among the native nobility. Among the greatest advances of the Kingdom of Galicia, Payo Gómez Chariño, pacifier of the Kingdom, famous admiral and distinguished poet in the Galician language, stood out.
After the death of Sancho IV, the integration of Galicia into a crown led from Castile was only altered by the attempt of the Infante D. Juan to restore the independent Galician-Leonese crown in 1296, and by the wars between the Trastamara and the Petrists. The high Galician nobility of the Castros, of Petrist inclination, went so far as to proclaim Ferdinand I of Portugal king in Galicia in 1369 and later the Duke of Lancaster, John of Ghent, in 1386. This dynastic conflict festered for decades in Galicia and would conclude with the defeat of the Castros at the hands of the new royal dynasty and with it, the end of the preponderant role of the Galician nobility in the crown, since 1369 in the power of the Trastamara. A new, more fragmented Galician aristocracy would emerge with the Andrade, the Castro, the Moscoso, the Sotomayor, the Osorio or the Sarmiento, whose head, the Count of Ribadavia, would hold the status of major advance of the Kingdom of Galicia.
The most significant social movement in the history of Galicia was the Irmandino uprising. A popular revolution that destroyed most of the fortresses of the Galician nobility of the century. This was a semi-independent, divided and predatory establishment that was put in check by the popular forces that governed the Kingdom of Galicia through meetings for more than two years. The Castilian crown finally decided to support the lords, although demanding that the castles not be rebuilt and subjecting them to the authority of a foreign viceroy-governor who presided over the newly created Royal Court of the Kingdom of Galicia. The confrontations between the Galician aristocracy and the Catholic Monarchs ushered Galicia into the Modern Age. Rebellious nobles such as Pardo de Cela (beheaded in Mondoñedo), Pedro Madruga de Sotomayor (exiled to Portugal and murdered) or the Count of Lemos (confined to eastern Galicia) would write the last pages of a feudal Galicia that would die with them forever, to enter what would be called the "Modern State" represented by the unified Crowns of Castile and Aragon.
Jerónimo de Zurita: «Taming of the Kingdom of Galicia»
The expression "Taming of the Kingdom of Galicia" is coined by Jerónimo Zurita y Castro, a historian famous for his work Anales de la Corona de Aragón of the 19th century, on which he worked for thirty years. In it he reviews the events of Aragon in chronological order from the Muslim period to the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic and refers to the kingdom of Galicia in the following terms:
The interpretation of some later authors, despite the ambiguous nature of the text, was in the sense of presenting a set of acts, as the result of a policy of "taming and castration":
• - The decline of Galician-Portuguese literature around the year 1350.
• - The administrative centralization and control of the Kingdom of Galicia that ended, this time, with the trip to Santiago de Compostela of the Catholic Monarchs in 1486.
• - The assumption of Spanish as the language of the upper classes and the administration.
According to other versions, it is argued that the expression "training and castration" is incorrect since the text never uses the word "castration." The term "taming" would be equivalent to "pacification" and the arrival of Castilian nobles would be motivated by Isabel la Católica's distrust of a native nobility that had supported her rival in the Castilian Civil War.[56].
Other measures that were also taken by the Catholic Monarchs and that aim to reform the administration of the Kingdom of Galicia under their authority are:
• - Appointment of a foreign plenipotentiary Governor-Captain General (authentic viceroy).
• - Creation of a jurisdictional body for the administration of Justice in the name of the Monarchy: the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Galicia, chaired by the governor-captain general.
• - Order not to rebuild the castles collapsed by the Irmandiños.
• - Integration of the Galician monasteries into the congregations of Castilla and Valladolid.
• - Marshal Pedro Pardo de Cela is beheaded in Mondoñedo, which implies the annexation of his territories (El Bierzo) into those of the Crown of Castile; Pedro Madruga, Count of Camiña y Sotomayor, is cornered in Portugal and subsequently murdered.
After the unification of the peninsular kingdoms that gave rise to the Kingdom of Spain, the representative body of the Kingdom of Galicia was the Junta do Reyno, created in 1528. Until its dissolution, this body constituted political expression, although its existence, as could be expected, was of little significance throughout the Ancien Regime.
Modern Age
The kingdom of Galicia in the Old Regime
After the unification of the peninsular kingdoms in the Hispanic Monarchy, the governing body of the kingdom of Galicia was the Junta do Reyno, created in 1528. Until its dissolution, this body constituted the political expression of the kingdom, although its existence was of little significance throughout the Old Regime. During this period, the demand for the vote in the Cortes of Castile was a constant, since the Kingdom of Galicia was represented there by the city of Zamora, a fact that was considered humiliating and dishonorable for the old kingdom. In 1520, a commission of the nobility asked Charles I, once again, for this right, arguing that "Galicia was subject to Zamora, with disdain and discredit of its greatness." The Galician nobility of the time believed that Zamora held such representation ("never recognized by Galicia"), in exchange for money, and on one occasion the old kingdom was offered to recover its vote, in exchange for a financial sum that it was not possible to raise. This demand was led by figures such as Pedro Fernández de Castro y Andrade, VII Count of Lemos, Alonso III Fonseca and the Count of Gondomar, Diego Sarmiento de Acuña. A Royal Letter from Philip IV ended up granting it in 1623, subject to the Kingdom of Galicia giving one hundred thousand ducats, which "would be applied to the construction of six ships precisely necessary on that coast."
The last occasion on which the kingdom of Galicia showed a political demonstration was during the Napoleonic invasion. The threat that Napoleon's revolutionary drive represented to the maintenance of the hegemony of the Galician clergy and nobility provoked his rapid reaction, acting as stimuli for resistance and mobilization. With the peninsula under Napoleonic rule, the resistance was organized in Galicia, fighting the French troops through guerrillas, until they were expelled. The Junta, as the repository of sovereignty, behaved outwardly as an independent kingdom. He sent Brigadier Genaro Figueroa to Portugal, with powers and accreditations, to contact the Portuguese patriots already at war with the French. After this episode, the Superior Board briefly established itself as a political expression, integrating itself in a short time and delegating its powers to the Cortes of Cádiz, to return to its previous state of inaction.
The kingdom of Galicia would formally cease to exist on November 30, 1833, the date on which the regent María Cristina signed the decree of dissolution by which liberal centralism in the government abolished the Kingdom Board. With this procedure, not only the Kingdom of Galicia disappeared, but Galicia itself as an institutional reality, since the kingdoms and their boards were replaced by a model of provinces, copied from the French model of departments.
Socioeconomic features of Galicia during the Old Regime
Political stability and the beheading of the nobility give rise to three socioeconomic features typical of this period:
• - The prosperity of the fidalgos who live in the pazos of the collection of the foros from the peasants.
• - The rise of monasteries (now dependent on the Castilian congregations) that are strongly integrated into a rural economy.
• - An unprecedented demographic expansion due to the introduction of corn and, later, potatoes.
Alonso III Fonseca in Santiago promotes a University (founded in 1495) that will connect Galicia with the highest knowledge of the moment. Likewise, the Church and monasticism promote an artistic resurgence with the plateresque of Martín Blas and Guillén Colás, Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón and Mateo López in architecture (Works in the cathedral of Santiago, the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos or San Martín Pinario, in the same city). All of this announces the baroque splendor with leading figures on a world scale such as Domingo de Andrade, Fernando de Casas Novoa or Simón Rodríguez (in Santiago de Compostela), Melchor Velasco") (in Celanova) or Pedro de Monteagudo") (in Sobrado de los Monjes "Sobrado (La Coruña)")). Francisco de Moure, Gregorio Fernández, Mateo de Prado and Castro Canseco stand out in baroque sculpture.
But economic progress is occluded. Factors that contributed to this were:
• - The closure of Galician ports to trade with America decreed by the monarchy.
• - The attacks of the English fleet on Vigo and Coruña (feat by María Pita), making the previously prosperous maritime exchange with Europe impossible.
• - The wars of the Spanish monarchy with Portugal, after its second and definitive independence.
• - A tariff policy designed for other latitudes and not for products that had been successful in national and international markets: Galician livestock, wine, fishing and flax.
19th century
The increase in population will not be able to be digested in an economic system that has not fully industrialized and that was isolated from the thriving peninsular railway networks. All of this will give way, in the middle of the century, to a massive emigration to America that will continue throughout the century.
The last time the Kingdom of Galicia showed a political demonstration was during the Napoleonic invasion. The threat that Napoleon's revolutionary drive represented to the maintenance of the hegemony of the Galician clergy and nobility provoked his rapid reaction, acting as stimuli for resistance and mobilization. With the peninsula under Napoleonic rule, the resistance was organized in Galicia, fighting the French troops using the guerrilla system for the first time in history, until they were expelled. After this episode, the Superior Board emerged as a political expression, but briefly, integrating itself in a short time and delegating its powers to the Cortes of Cádiz, to return to its previous state of inaction.
The Kingdom of Galicia would formally cease to exist on November 30, 1833, the date on which the regent María Cristina signed the decree of dissolution by which liberal centralism in the government suppressed its organ of political expression. With this procedure, not only the Kingdom of Galicia disappeared but Galicia itself as an institutional reality, since the Kingdoms and their Juntas were replaced by a model of provinces, mimetic of the French departments.
Later in the century, various sociopolitical movements emerged in Galicia:
• - Carlism that claims the defense of the disappeared Kingdom of Galicia from a traditionalist and clerical perspective: it failed to be hegemonic due to the liberal strength of cities like La Coruña.
• - Provincialism: defense of the liberal Galician identity, repressed after the liberal uprising against Narváez in 1846 and the executions of Carral.
• - Federalism: democratic movement that drafted a constitution for a Galician federated state, without success due to the chaos of the First Spanish Republic and the crisis of subsequent republicanism.
• - Regionalism: work of the economist Alfredo Brañas that focuses on a defense of self-government with a clear conservative profile. It has an advanced liberal aspect in thinkers like Manuel Murguía.
• - Agrarianism: movement of peasant masses confronted with the forum and dysfunctional tax systems in the Galician rural reality.
From a literary point of view, the Rexurdimento starring Rosalía de Castro, Curros Enríquez and Eduardo Pondal represents the rebirth of culture in the Galician language. One of the most important Galician enlightened personalities of the century was Domingo Fontán.
20th century
Después de los movimientos galleguistas y liberales del siglo , surgió la etapa de la Solidaridad Gallega, desde el año 1907 hasta la Primera Guerra Mundial, con el objetivo de conseguir un frente electoral unido para eliminar el caciquismo y conseguir una representación gallega (lo que se saldó con un fracaso).
Una primera etapa, hasta Primo de Rivera, es la marcada por las Irmandades da Fala, con una preocupación fundamental por la defensa de la lengua gallega. Al extenderse, va cuajando de nuevo la idea política del galleguismo. Así, Vicente Risco y Otero Pedrayo trabajaron en el aspecto cultural y tuvieron contraparte en el aspecto político Porteira y Lois Peña Novo. El relevo lo constituyeron la llamada Xeración Nós, con Castelao, Otero Pedrayo o Alexandre Bóveda, en torno a la revista del mismo nombre, acompañada de 1920 a la Segunda República por una preocupación por la creación de un galleguismo controlado e instrumental desde el poder político central. Ensayarán un movimiento político nacionalista minoritario, el Partido Galeguista "Partido Galeguista (histórico)"), que conseguirá, gracias al apoyo de las fuerzas gallegas republicanas y de izquierdas (se integró en las listas del Frente Popular "Frente Popular (España)") en las elecciones de febrero de 1936) la redacción de un Estatuto de Autonomía durante la Segunda República.
En la Segunda República había dos tendencias fundamentales: la correspondiente a la Organización Republicana Gallega Autónoma (ORGA) y la contraparte en el Partido Galeguista "Partido Galeguista (1931)") (PG). El PG surge de la unión de varias tendencias representadas en figuras como Vicente Risco, Ramón Otero Pedrayo, Ramón Cabanillas, Ramón Suárez Picallo y Castelao. En 1936 el PG, para lograr el estatuto para Galicia, se alió con el Frente Popular "Frente Popular (España)"), y como resultado de esa alianza sufrió una escisión. Sin embargo, se logró el Estatuto y Castelao se presentó a las Cortes poco antes de la Guerra Civil Española.
Civil War and Francoism
Galicia was one of the regions, along with Old Castile, León, Navarra, two thirds of Zaragoza and Cáceres, where the coup d'état that triggered the civil war triumphed. The Franco repression that followed destroyed the parties, the unions and the republican democratic order.
Galicia, which was never a war front, with an important influence of the clergy on the depressed rural areas and little resistance to the coup d'état, suffered the repression of the rebels, with the number of murdered and executed after summary trials for crimes of "treason" and "aiding repression" rising to 4,560, of which 836 occurred on the basis of a trial, the rest being extrajudicial.[57] People of all social conditions or ideology were victims of repression: the four civil governors at the time of the uprising, the wife of the governor of La Coruña, Juana Capdevielle, a prominent feminist intellectual who was pregnant at the time of her execution,[58] Galician mayors such as Ángel Casal in Santiago de Compostela, socialists such as Jaime Quintanilla in Ferrol, or Emilio Martínez Garrido in Vigo, deputies of the Popular Front "Popular Front (Spain)") (Antonio Bilbatúa, José Miñones, Díaz Villaamil, Ignacio Seoane, or former deputies like Heraclio Botana), soldiers who remained loyal to the Republic, such as generals Rogelio Caridad Pita, Enrique Salcedo Molinuevo, and Rear Admiral Antonio Azarola, or the founders of the Partido Galeguista "Partido Galeguista (1931)"), the Catholic and conservative, Alexandre Bóveda Iglesias[59] and Víctor Casas.[60] In parallel, for many people linked to the Republic the stage of exile began.
Some resistant leftist movements created small guerrilla groups with leaders such as El Piloto (José Castro Veiga) or Foucellas (Benigno Andrade), who ended up being arrested and executed.[61][62].
Franco's dictatorial regime banned parties, ended freedom of the press and persecuted and "purified" republican initiatives to modernize institutions and infrastructure and to dignify the Galician language and culture, reducing the latter to simple folkloric manifestations. The autarchy of the regime after the Civil War, together with the poor harvests of those years, caused great famines in the 1950s. The lack of its own industry meant that the only way out for the Galician population was, as in previous crises, emigration, either to industrial areas of the country, such as the Basque Country and Catalonia, or to South America, highlighting Brazil and Argentina as receiving countries and, starting in the 1960s, to Western Europe, especially the former Federal Republic. Germany, Switzerland and Holland.[63].
In the 1960s, ministers such as Manuel Fraga Iribarne introduced certain opening reforms while the technocrats of Opus Dei modernized the administration and opened the Spanish economy to capitalism. Galicia provided raw materials and hydroelectric energy, playing an important role in the industrialization policies of the State that led to the so-called "Spanish economic miracle." Invigorating initiatives appeared, such as the installation of Citroën in Vigo, the modernization of the canning industry and the high-altitude fishing fleet, and an effort by the peasantry to modernize their small farms, focusing especially on the production of beef milk. In the province of Orense, the businessman and politician Eulogio Gómez Franqueira energized the agricultural sector with a cooperative experience that catapulted agri-food production and marketing (Coren).
The seventies entered a phase of university, agrarian and worker agitation. In 1972, there were general strikes in Vigo and Ferrol, industrial centers with abundant union activity. In Ferrol, in a demonstration, the police killed two workers from the Bazán shipyard.[64] About these events the bishop of Mondoñedo-Ferrol, Miguel Ángel Araújo Iglesias, wrote a pastoral that was not well received by the Franco regime.[65].
in democracy
The death of General Franco in 1975 gave way to a process of transition to democracy, in which Galicia recovered its status as an autonomous region within Spain with the Statute of Autonomy of 1981. The new political status supposes a compromise between the previous centralist State and a greater degree of independence demanded by nationalist forces such as the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). The new autonomous government, the Junta de Galicia, has since been led by both the Popular Party of Galicia (with Manuel Fraga as the most notable figure, president between 1990 and 2005), and by the PSdeG-PSOE in coalition with the nationalists of the BNG.
21st century
In 2009 the Popular Party returned to government, in the figure of Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
Currently, Galicia, recognized for its status of autonomy as a historical nationality, is torn between survivals of its long decline such as despotism, the aging of the population, restricted livestock farming, intensive exploitation of its energy resources by foreign business groups (large reservoirs, wind farms) and the renewed flow of the textile industry, the drag effect of the automotive industry and tourism, in addition to the rebirth of cities like Pontevedra, which are beginning to have a positive vegetative balance in recent years.
• - Chronological table of kingdoms of Spain.
Literature
• - Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum, editeur Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina.
• - Liber Sancti Jacobi «Codex Calixtinus», Santiago de Compostela, Xunta de Galicia, 07/2004.
• - Surroundings of the Kingdom of Galicia (711–910), Xosé Antonio López Teixeira, Editorial Toxosoutos, S.L. 02/2003.
• - Galicia, a whole kingdom, Colin Smith. University of Santiago de Compostela, 1996.
• - Martiño de Dumio: the creation of a kingdom, Anselmo López Carreira, Edicions do Cumio, S.A. 08/1996.
• - Medieval documents of the kingdom of Galicia: Ferdinand II (1155–1188), ISBN 84-453-2818-2.
• - Alfonso III the Great: last king of Oviedo and first of Galicia, Armando Cotarelo Valledor, Tres Cantos, Ediciones Istmo, S.A. 04/1992.
• - Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Translation by L Thorpe (Penguin, 1974).
• - O kingdom of Galiza, Anselmo López Carreira, A Nosa Terra Editions. Promotions Culturais Galegas S.A., 1998, ISBN 84-89976-43-0.
• - O chronicle of Hydatius: Bispo of Chaves, César Candelas Colodrón, Editorial Toxosoutos S.L., 02/2004.
• - O medieval kingdom of Galicia, Anselmo López Carreira, Editions A Nosa Terra, Promotions Culturais Galegas, S.A., 2005, ISBN 84-96403-54-8.
References
[1] ↑ López Carreira, Anselmo (1998). O reino de Galiza. A nosa terra. p. 62. ISBN 9788489976436.
[2] ↑ Celtina, hija de Bretannus, se enamoró de Heracles y huyeron rechazando volver a él a no ser que la contuviera. De Celtus deriva el nombre de la etnia celta.
[3] ↑ Entre sesenta y sesenta y cinco clanes, entre ellos los grovios (en territorios que hoy corresponden a la región portuguesa del Bajo Miño), ártabros (Ferrol), astures (Asturias), poemanos (Lugo), brácaros (Braga), caporos (Iria Flavia), cuarquernos (Serra do Gerês) o los céltae, nombre que se reservaba para los celtas de Brigantium.
[4] ↑ De esta aldea Cale decía Salustio en el siglo I a. C. ser “cívitas in Gallaecia”, datando el topónimo así en al menos un siglo antes de la reforma diocleciana.
[5] ↑ Según apunta Coelho da Silva (2000), ya en el Cronicón de Idacio afirma textualmente que Portu Cale está situado ad extremas sedes Gallaeciae estando separada de la Lusitania por el río Duero, Fluvius Dourus dividens (...) Gallaecia et Lusitania.
[6] ↑ Para el historiador portugués Fuco O'Sores, los celtas del Duero serían los cal-leic-us, es decir, los ‘hijos de la diosa Cal-Léac’, cuya referencia se ha encontrado en una inscripción en la forma de calaic ia en el lugar de Sobreira, cerca de Porto.
[7] ↑ Palomar Lapesa (1957), Alberto Firmat (1966).
[8] ↑ El análisis genético del esqueleto fósil del niño del yacimiento del Abrigo do Lagar Velho en Portugal reveló que se trataba de una mezcla de Neandertal y Cromagnon.
[9] ↑ Básicamente de tres tipos: los círculos líticos o crómlechs, los menhires o pedras fitas y los dólmenes o mámoas.
[10] ↑ Entre otras Cronología y periodización del fenómeno megalítico en Galicia y norte de Portugal a la luz de las dataciones por carbono 14 (Alonso Matthias y Bello Diéguez).
[11] ↑ Entre otras The Megalithic tombs of Western Iberia: Reflections on their origins, chronology and geographical distribution. Copenhague, 1999.
[12] ↑ También a partir del 3000 a. C., comienza una segunda fase, denominada “megalitismo oriental (o mediterráneo)”, por la presencia de tholoi, al extenderse desde el norte de Portugal al sudeste peninsular apareciendo ciudades fortificadas a partir del 2600 a. C. (Vila Nova y Los Millares).
[13] ↑ llegando a la Bretaña francesa en torno al 3800 a. C., alcanzando Irlanda y el sur de la península escandinava a partir del 3500 a. C. hasta que se consolida en torno al 3000 a. C.
[14] ↑ Capa de tierra y piedras, de 10 a 30 metros de diámetro semejante a un montículo.
[15] ↑ Construcciones ortostáticas.
[16] ↑ La mayor parte de estos sepulcros fueron expoliados en el siglo XIX por el hidalgo Vázquez de Orxás, que obtuvo permiso del gobierno para buscar tesoros en las tumbas de los gentiles galigrecos.
[17] ↑ Registrados más de 10.000, se calcula que pudo haber más de 20.000.
[18] ↑ Entre otros: Die Megalithkultur in Galicien (Walter de Gruyter, Berlín – Nueva York, 1990), Historia de Galicia (R. Villares, 2004), y Elements symbolico-funéraires dans le Mégalithisme galicien. (Révue Archéologique de l’Ouest, Rennes, 1992).
[19] ↑ Formas geométricas como círculos simples o concéntricos, espirales, laberintos, esvásticas de brazos curvos y rectos, trisqueles. Algunos de estos motivos geométricos aparecen en la iconografía de culturas situadas en puntos tan alejados como Asia y América.
[20] ↑ Corpus Petroglyphorum Gallaeciae (1935, Ramón Sobrino Buhigas).
[21] ↑ En su Ora Marítima (siglo IV a. C.) Rufus Festus Avienus realiza la primera descripción geográfica de la península ibérica. En ella se refiere a los habitantes del extremo atlántico llamándolos Estrimnios Tras aquellas tierras antes tratadas ábrese una gran ensenada que hasta Ofiusa abarca una grande planicie marina. Desde su costa retrocediendo hacia el llano del mar Interno —por donde el mar llamado Sardo penetraba en esas tierras— distan siete días de marcha a pie. Ofiusa se extiende hacia adelante (...) llamada Estrimnis al principio y los habitantes de estos lugares y campos eran los Estrimnios (...).
[22] ↑ Oestrimnios, Saefes y Ofiolatría en Galicia. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. Servicio de Publicaciones e Intercambio Científico, 1992.
[23] ↑ Denominados así por su culto ofiolátrico (aún hoy en gallego, serpiente se dice serpe) de los que existe constancia también en la Ora Marítima: (...) y los habitantes de estos lugares y campos eran los Estrimnios, quienes huyeron tras la plaga de serpientes que la desposeyó (a Estrimnia) hasta de su propio nombre.
[24] ↑ Una variante de las Urnenfelder.
[25] ↑ En la Historia de Galicia de Benito Vicetto (1865) se encuentra una curiosa cita, literalmente: ...he llegado a sospechar otro género de orden, que es como un orden circular alrededor de una comarca. A las faldas de la tierra de Soutelo de Montes, veo que forman círculo los castros de Escuadro, Moalde, Castro, Vite, Oca, Ancorados, el dicho Olivez, y últimamente el castro de Godoy que también forma línea, con los castros que cubren el camino de Soutelo de Montes a la Estrada y a Sanlés (Salnés); de manera que todos dichos castros forman círculo, y el de Godoy que está en Ribela, sobre el río y lugar de Godoy, cierra o termina el dicho círculo, y forma una sección continuada por el dicho camino de la Estrada (...) Debemos advertir aquí que el país á que se refiere dicho P. Sobreira es uno de aquéllos en que las memorias célticas están más vivas y son muy abundantes.
[26] ↑ Estrabón asegura que había unas 50 tribus de pueblos diferentes, mientras que Plinio el Viejo dice que eran más de 65.
[27] ↑ “Fibrarum et pennae divinarumque sagacem flammarum misit dives Callaecia pubem, barbara nunc patriis ululantem carmina linguis, nunc pedis alterno percussa verbere terra, ad numerum resonas gaudentem plauder caetras” (Silius Italius, Púnica, libro 3, 344-347).
[28] ↑ El 27 de febrero de 380, el emperador Teodosio pronuncia un edicto que declara al cristianismo religión oficial del Imperio.
[29] ↑ San Jerónimo, san Martín de Tours o san Ambrosio de Milán son algunos de los padres de la Iglesia defensores de este modelo más primitivo de cristianismo. De hecho los tres últimos, y en especial San Martín, jugarán un papel principal en el curso de los acontecimientos alrededor de Prisciliano.
[30] ↑ “La Dióecesis Hispaniarum permanece, de facto, sin vicario imperial desde el 397 (en ese año deja el puesto Petronius) hasta el año 400, en que ocupa su lugar Macrobius” (Javier Arce, Bárbaros y romanos en Hispania, Marcial Pons, Ediciones de Historia. ISBN 84-96467-02-3).
[31] ↑ “Ab his Priscillianus est institutus, familia nóbilis, praedives opibus, acer, inquies, facundus, multa lectione eruditus, disserendi ac disputandi promptíssimus”, Sulpicio Severo Chrónica, 46, 3.
[32] ↑ “primus eam intra Hispanias Marcus intulit, Aegypto profectus, Memphi ortus. huius auditores fuere ágape quaedam, neu ignobilis mulier, et rhetor Helpidius, ab his Priscillianus est institutos”, Sulpicio Severo, Crónica 46, 2-3.
[33] ↑ Conc. Caesar. I (378/380), Rodríguez, p. 292.
[34] ↑ “ita corrupto Macedonio, tum magistro officiorum, rescriptum eliciunt, quo calcatis, quae prius decreta erant, restitui ecclesiis iubebantur”, Sulpici Severi Chrónica, 48, 5.
[35] ↑ Andrés Olivares Guillem, Prisciliano a través del tiempo (historia de los estudios sobre el priscilianismo), Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza, pag. 22-23.
[36] ↑ Máximus Aug., Ep. ad Siricium papam, 4, Coll. Auell., 40, CSEL 35, 1, p. 91.
[37] ↑ “Ceterum Priscilliano occiso, non solum non repressa est haeresis, quae illo auctore proruperat, sed confirmata latius propagata est. namque sectatores eius, qui eum prius ut sanctum honoraverant, postea ut martyrem colere coeperunt”. Sulpici Severi, Chrónica, 51, 7.
[38] ↑ K. M. Girardet, Trier 385: Der Prozess gegen die Priszillianer, Chiron, 4, 1974, 574. San Ambrosio compara el juicio con el traslado de la acusación de Jesús a Pilatos por los sacerdotes. Instancio fue desterrado. A Tiberiano y a otros priscilianistas se les confiscaron los bienes. El panegirista Pato Depranio señala que a las mujeres se las condenó por piedad excesiva; a los obispos delatores les llama bandidos, verdugos, calumniadores y puntualiza que se arruinó a los acusados despojándoles de su patrimonio, repitiéndolo por dos veces.
[39] ↑ “peremptorum corpora ad Hispanias relata magnisque obsequiis celebrata eorum funera; quin et iurare per Priscillianum summa religio putabatur”. Sulpici Severi Crónica, 51, 8.
[40] ↑ Por primera vez Louis Duchesne, Annales du Midí: Saint Jacques en Galice, 1900 y otros después como Henry Chadwick, Miguel de Unamuno, o Sánchez-Albornoz.).
The Celts appear for the first time in the texts of the Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus, who in the year 517 BC. C. refers to them with the name κέλτης kéltis ('hidden'). It is possible that this name comes from Greek mythology, in which the Celtic people were located as descendants of Celtus")[2] transforming into celti (celtae) when incorporated into Latin.
However, the term Celtae was too generic to identify the great variety of Celtic settlements in Europe, so they soon began to be classified based on their languages or the deities they venerated. In this way, in the British Isles, Goidelic Celts and Britons could be found among other clans, while those from the Iberian Peninsula would be known as καλλαικoι (kallaikoi), as Strabo relates in the century BC. c.
Although kallaikoi was only the name of the Galician Celtic clans located around the mouth of the Duero River, this term ended up identifying all those in the northwest of the peninsula.[3] The reason must be found in its location, a privileged area of river and maritime passage that favored the preeminence of the pópuli (population) called Cale (present-day Porto),[4] whose inhabitants would already be called caleci or gallaeci by Pliny the Elder. This would later lead to the etonyms Calecia or Gallaecia (Galicia) to the north and Porto Cale (Portugal) to the south.[5].
The name of the territory was consolidated in the year 239 AD. C. with the administrative reform undertaken by Diocletian when the Gallaecia province was created, separating it from Tarraconensis by covering the conventus Bracarensis, Asturiacensis and Lucensis.
The toponym will be preserved even in Arabic: in the maps and texts of the chroniclers of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba, it will appear as Jalikiah, Yiliquí or Yilliquiyya. Later it would lead to Galiza, Galicia and in French, Galyce.
Regarding etymology, the most consolidated theory (by Higino Martins"), 1990) indicates that Galicia comes from the Indo-European root kala ('refuge, shelter'), which passed into the Gaelic languages as gall (mother, land). This theory is also consistent with those that link the etymon to the Mother Goddess of the Celts, Cal-Leach"),[6] as well as to the radical Latinized Cale,[7] from whose analysis the meanings of 'stone', 'rock' or 'hard' are identified in coherence with the granitic orography on which these clans settled.
Prehistory: Gallaecia
Contenido
Siguiendo la periodización cronológica al uso, se aborda este extenso período histórico comenzando por las primeras manifestaciones culturales del Neolítico en la región (Oestriminios). En esta época se define la iconografía identitaria galaica que después eclosionará con la llegada de la cultura de las Urnas de Vlenden-Bennghardt") de mano de los celtas (Kallaicoi) durante la Edad de Bronce y el Calcolítico. Finalmente, se aborda la romanización desde los primeros enfrentamientos bélicos (romanos) hasta la conformación de la jerarquía eclesiástica priscilianista a finales del siglo (priscilianismo).
Oestrimnios
The first antecedents of the subsequent Galician territorial and cultural configuration are recorded from the Neolithic. After the appearance of the Homo genus in Africa during the Pleistocene, the transition between the Australopithecus and sapiens species will take place throughout the entire Paleolithic. In Europe, in turn and from ancestors common to Homo Sapiens, the Neanderthal species developed, which according to the hypotheses of paleoanthropologists became extinct, about 30,000 years ago, due to the numerical and organizational superiority of the Cro-Magnon man, although there were possibly cases of hybridization;[8] Therefore, Homo Sapiens alone stars in the progressive change from a nomadic social organization based on the hunting and gathering system to another based on agriculture. This change favors the creation of more stable settlements and with them the emergence of new cultural forms.
One of them is megalithism, which in Europe developed from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, characterized by the presence of megaliths,[9] constructions made with large stones. In light of archaeological dating[10] and historiographical syntheses[11] to date, it is not recommended to assume as proven the beginning of this new culture before 4300 BC. C. both in Galicia and in the north of Portugal, where Atlantic megalithism[12] originates as it spread across the entire Atlantic façade.[13] The culture of “Atlantic megalithism” experienced its peninsular heyday between 3000 BC. C. and 2300 BC. C. and manifests itself homogeneously in an area that would include the north of Portugal, Galicia, Asturias, León and Zamora so that its area of implementation would be the precedent of the future Gallaecia.
The megaliths that are most abundant are funerary tombs, constructions generally formed by a tumulus[14] around an interior dolmen[15] with or without an entrance corridor, in which the corpses and a funerary trousseau were deposited.[16] These dolmens are frequently found grouped in necropolises located on plains or plateaus and proliferate especially on the northern slopes. and western part of current Galicia.
The large number of dolmens[17] induce the existence of a dense and dispersed population that, according to archaeological analyses, made use of primitive livestock farming based on the breeding of oxen, pigs, goats and sheep and an unsophisticated agriculture of cereals and legumes, which would force them to continue depending on Mesolithic hunting and gathering techniques. The Galician megalithic society did not develop a significant social hierarchy, as demonstrated by the ascetic uniforms of the tombs or the collective burials, in which tools for productive purposes were more abundant than ornamental objects. Instead, it was an “egalitarian society, composed of small communities, not very bellicose and settled dispersedly” in the territory. Its most notable characteristics would be its surprising architectural skill (prehistoric architecture of Galicia) - which reveals the group's great capacity for organization - and above all its capacity for abstraction and transcendence manifested in a deep religious sense, verifiable in the large number of tombs. The engravings found in them describe a “mythology centered on fertility and death”, emerging the figure of the officiant or mediator between the gods and human beings.[18].
Megalithic technologies begin to disappear with the arrival of metallurgical techniques. However, the cultural identity forged in the megalithic period will not disappear, but will continue to be transmitted in the transition from the third to the first millennium BC. C., as demonstrated by the existence of petroglyphs, lithographs made in granite stone in the open air.
The technical and thematic homogeneity of this cultural expression allows us to define the existence of a Galician group of rock art characterized by an abstract theme[19] that occupies most of the surface, surrounded by elements of a naturalistic theme, generally zoomorphic and anthropomorphic along with elements such as weapons, shields and cylinder-idols.[20] Although the naturalistic elements are what characterize and differentiate the Galician prehistoric lithography compared to its European equivalents, they are the motifs abstracts—especially labyrinths, geometric patterns and triskelions—which will be consolidated in Castro culture.
Galaicos
Chronologically, the final stage of the megalithic culture corresponds to the arrival of the Bell Beaker culture in the Chalcolithic - between 2300 and 1800 BC. C. in the northwest of the peninsula—with the first pre-Celtic Indo-European populations.
Professor (historian, archaeologist and writer) Florentino López Cuevillas, in his work Celtic Civilization in Galicia, after presenting an exhaustive study on the political and geographical aspect, assures that most of these tribes were not Celts. The list of pre-Celtic tribes that can be given is quite extensive:
All of them settled since the Bronze Age, that is, before 600 BC. C. The first geographical description of the Iberian Peninsula refers to this culture[21] with the name Estrimnis or also Oestrimnios.[22] It is therefore the aboriginal community of proto-Celtic origin existing at the arrival of the Celts sefes or serpes.[23] These were established in the north of Portugal and the area of current Galicia, introducing the culture of the Urns of Vlenden-Bennghardt")[24] that would later evolve into the castro or castreña culture[25].
The Sefes Celts (also called saefes), or Hallstatt Celts, found the northwest of the peninsula quite populated.[26] The Sefes overlapped and adapted quite well, it is believed that due to their similar Indo-European character. It was the Celts who settled in and their influence was in most cases late and sporadic, as can be known from the confirmation of the study of architecture and metallurgy. This population oldest native culture preserved its outstanding linguistic and cultural personality and also knew how to exchange cultural aspects with the Celtic civilization. There was a true exchange of customs and knowledge.
At this time there is a rapid population increase due to movements from the plateau due to the Atlantic climate, with a higher degree of humidity. This increase in inhabitants generates conflicts that consequently bring an increase in mining, derived from the production of weapons and objects of daily use. Due to the abundance of noble metals, the pieces of ornament and jewelry from this period have had no parallel in history, being highly valued, as demonstrated by the fact that they have been found not only in distant parts of the peninsula but also in southern and central Europe.
This culture, together with the elements that survive from the Atlantic megalithic culture and the contributions that come from the most western Mediterranean cultures, end up resulting in what has been called the Castro Culture. This name refers to the characteristic Celtic populations called dùn, dùin or don in the Gaelic language and which the Romans called Castros in their chronicles.
Regarding the social organization of the Galician Celts, the first documentary references found on Castro society are those provided by chroniclers of Roman military campaigns such as Strabo, Herodotus or Pliny the Elder, among others. They describe the inhabitants of these territories as a group of barbarians who spend the day fighting and the night eating, drinking and dancing under the moon.
ancient age
Romanization
The social and territorial cohesion of the Castro culture explains the extraordinary resistance of the Galicians to Roman domination[27] that lasted for more than a century when it already spread throughout the rest of Hispania. This is confirmed by various chronicles such as those of Orosius, who tells how in the year 137 BC. C., the praetor Tenth June Brutus began a campaign of punishment due to the continuous war raids of the Galician Celts in support of the Lusitanians. For this campaign, in which he had to face 60,000 gallaicoi on the Duero River, he returned to Rome as a hero, for which he was called Gallaicus. In that same year the Roman legions would reach the Limia river, which, identifying the Lethes river of Roman mythology, could only be crossed when the Praetor crossed it, calling his soldiers by name to show that he had not lost his memory. The advance towards the north would stop the following year when it reached the Miño River, where the gallaicoi caused the Roman retreat towards the south.
The situation would continue for the next hundred years, without the sporadic Roman expeditions managing to penetrate further into Galician territory, the only significant one being those of P. Crassus in 96 BC. C. to 94 BC. c.
However in 73 BC. C., Quintus Sertorius is defeated so that the region north of the Tagus River regains its independence.
The situation would continue like this until ten years later when Julius Caesar was appointed Propraetor of Hispania Ulterior. In the year 61 BC. C. resumed the advance towards the north, penetrating the Lusitanian region located between the Tagus and Duero rivers and personally led a maritime raid, landing in Brigantium, in the part of the coast that is today occupied by the city of La Coruña, in what is believed to be the center of the tin route. However, the interior of the Galician territory continues a resistance that intensifies in its last stage during the campaign of Caesar Augustus between the years 39 BC. C. to 24 BC C., of which the battle of Mount Medulio would be its most significant exponent. This would prevent the declaration of the Pax Romana until the year 23 BC. C., although the resistance would continue in the border areas with the Asturian and Cantabrian peoples until 19 BC. c.
Once the war was over, the Romanization process began that would last for the next four centuries, officially beginning between the years 64 and 70, when Vespasian converted the 451,000 gallaicoi into Roman people (according to Pliny the Elder). In this way, the forts would be transformed into villae and the population would incorporate new technologies such as architecture, agriculture based on the plow, Roman law or mining. In this last aspect, it is worth highlighting the metal extraction system called ruina montium, which consisted of excavating tunnels in the mountains through which a continuous flow of water was circulated that eroded the area, transporting minerals (specifically, gold).
The social and territorial cohesion defined by the Celts in the Galician territory would be maintained throughout Romanization. An important contribution, which would help define the subsequent territorial division, would be the road infrastructure made up of bridges and roads used for the movement of troops and the transportation of goods. Along these roads there were mansions and rest stations for the troops, which were the origin of numerous towns that have survived to this day. Although there were other secondary routes, the main ones were four – numbered “XVII to XX” in Caracalla's itinerary – and they linked the cities founded by Augustus with the rest of the Roman domains. These three cities, Lucus Augusti (Lugo), Bracara Augusta (Braga) and Asturica Augusta (Astorga) would become the head of the three conventus (Lucensis, Bracarensis and Asturiacensis, respectively), which with Diocletian's reform of the year 298 would be unified under a single province segregated from Tarraconensis: Gallaecia.
The Roman province of Gallaecia was much larger than current Galicia, as it also included the north of Portugal, between the Duero and the Miño, where its capital, Braga, was located, as well as Asturias, Cantabria and part of what would later become the kingdoms of León and Castile. Thus, it was during this time that Gallaecia reached its maximum borders, reaching the east to the sources of the Ebro River.
The Romanization of Galician culture also occurred in language and religion, although in reverse. Although in the language the original Galician substrate would end up dissolving into Latin, remaining in the roots of toponyms and anthroponyms, in the case of religion the phenomenon was the opposite.
Priscillianists
Over the centuries, the Catholic Church elevated Christianity from the rank of persecuted religion to the official religion of the Lower Empire.[28] This new situation unleashes important power struggles within it, as well as a notable degree of accommodation on the part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy that is not well regarded by some sectors more in tune with a Christianity linked to the most disadvantaged classes.[29]
In the struggle for power, the declining empire intersects with a church reaffirmed after the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and increasingly present in all territories and social strata. In fact, situations occur in which political power is assumed “in office” by the dense official network of priests at the service of Rome.[30] In this turbulent social context (bagaudas, circumcelliones...) and changing political-religious life, a religious movement emerges in the northwest of the peninsula that is linked to the aforementioned ascetic current: Opposing an increasingly wealthy Church and a hierarchy as opulent as it is increasingly elitist, in the year 379 AD. C. a character of great charisma and popular appeal named Prisciliano begins to preach in Gallaecia. From a noble family, he is described by his main biographers[31] as scholarly and very advanced in discussion. He began his training in Burdigala (current Bordeaux), under the direction of the rhetorician Delphidius (Elpidio). There he founded the first rigorist community from which he would be inspired in later years.[32].
Around the year 379, he returned to Gallaecia and began a preaching period during which he advocated and practiced an ascetic Christianity (which included everything from vegetarianism to celibacy), incorporating popular elements such as dancing or the celebration of open-air Eucharists into the liturgy. It proposes the incorporation of groups traditionally excluded from reading sessions of biblical texts, such as women or slaves, and admits the possibility of personal reading and interpretation of apocryphal texts.
The spread of Priscillian's ideas occurred quickly and in all social strata, spreading in a short time to Baetica, Tarragona and even beyond the Pyrenees, to Aquitaine. Some bishops favorable to Prisciliano (Instancio and Salviano) went so far as to name him bishop of Abula (present-day Ávila), despite his status as a layman, which has just unleashed the suspicions of several bishops such as Higinio de Corduba (present-day Córdoba "Córdoba (Spain)"), Ithacio de Ossonoba (present-day Faro, in Portugal) or Hydacio de Emerita Augusta (metropolitan headquarters, current Mérida "Mérida (Spain)")).
The intervention of these three bishops, especially Ithacio (who gives name to the anti-Priscillian movement known as “Ithacian”), first provokes the convocation of the Council of Caesaraugusta (present-day Zaragoza) in the year 380[33] and later (in the year 382) the promulgation of an edict by Emperor Gratian banishing the Priscillianists from their seats.
Middle Ages
Swabians
With the fall of the Roman Empire and the invasion of the Germanic peoples, the territory of Gallaecia is part of the foedus carried out by the different invading peoples. The Swabians, 30,000 individuals, of which only 8,000 were men capable of fighting, are concentrated between the Douro and the Miño, in the area of influence of Bracara Augusta (Braga "Braga (Portugal)"). Arriving in the year 409, a foedus was agreed with Rome in 410 by which the Suebi established themselves in the Roman province of Gallaecia and their leader Hermericus (409-438) was granted the title of king (rex), accepting the authority of the emperor of Rome as superior. Thus, in Gallaecia the first step towards the structuring of political power in medieval European space in kingdoms under the moral authority, increasingly merely theoretical, of an emperor is consolidated. Hermericus ceded the throne to his son Requila (438-448), who carried out military campaigns throughout the peninsula only possible due to the union between Suebi and Galicians and total independence from Rome. Requiarius will succeed him (448-456). The latter adopted Catholicism in 449, which would favor integration with the Galician-Roman population and make the Swabian kingdom an example that the Franks and Visigoths would later follow. In 456, the battle of the Órbigo River took place, which pitted the Visigoths and Suebi, with the defeat of the latter and which would result in the murder of Requiario and the return to Arianism.
After the defeat against the Visigoths, the Suebian kingdom will be divided and Frantán and Aguiulfo will govern simultaneously. Both will do so from 456 to 457, the year in which Maldras (457-459) will reunify the kingdom only to end up being assassinated after a failed Roman-Visigothic conspiracy. Although the conspiracy did not achieve its true purposes, the Suebian kingdom was again divided between two kings: Frumarius (459-463) and Remismund (son of Maldras) (459-469), who would reunify his father's kingdom again in 463 and who would be forced to adopt Arianism in 465 due to Visigothic influence. After the death of Remismundo, a dark era entered that would last until 550, in which practically all written texts disappeared. The only thing that is known about this time is that Theodemond most likely ruled over Sweden.
At this time, the last significant ethnic contribution occurred with the arrival to the northern coast of Breton Celts who settled in the north of present-day Galicia and Asturias under the authority of their own bishop. These contingents fleeing the Anglo-Saxon invasions will establish a diocese in Bretoña "Bretoña (Lugo)"), the predecessor of the current Mondoñedo, and will participate in the Suevo-Galic councils (bishop Maeloc).
The dark era will end with the reign of Karriaric (550-559) who will convert again to Catholicism in 550. He will be succeeded by Theodomiro "Theodomiro (Sweden king)") (559-570) during the reign of which the 1st Council of Braga will take place (561). These councils represent an advance in the organization of the territory (parroquiale suevum) and Christianization of the pagan population (de correctione rusticorum) under the auspices of Saint Martin of Braga. After the death of Theodomir, Miro "Miro (Swabian king)") (570-583) will be his successor. During his reign the 2nd Council of Braga will be held (572). Approximately in 577 the Visigothic civil war began in which Miro would intervene, and in 583 he would organize a conquest expedition to Seville that, however, would fail. During the return from this failed operation the king meets death. Many internal struggles begin to occur in the Swabian kingdom. Eboric (also called Euric, 583-584) is dethroned by Andeca (584-585), who fails in his attempt to prevent the Visigoth invasion led by Leovigild, which will finally take effect in 585, turning the rich and fertile Suevian kingdom into another part of the Gothic kingdom, with Leovigild titling himself as king of Gallaecia, Hispania and Narbonensis.
Under the Visigoths, Gallaecia will be a well-defined space governed by its own duke related to the monarchy and who will do so as a prince associated with it (cases of Wamba "Wamba (king)") and Vitiza, who would even end up being kings in Toledo). It will be precisely the Vitizians facing D. Rodrigo who, stationed in the northwest, will call on the Arabs as allies in their struggle for power (711).
Early medieval Galicia. The county of Galicia in the orbit of Regnum Asturorum
In the course of the Muslim conquest of Spain, the Muslims conquered Tuy "Tuy (Pontevedra)"), and established a dominion there based on the lower valley of the Miño River. The Berber rebellion of the years 740 and 741 resulted in the abandonment by the Berber garrisons of all their positions north of the Sierra de Gredos. In this way, southern Galicia was freed from Muslim rule.
On the contrary, northern Galicia fell under the political rule of Alfonso I, who installed Bishop Odoario "Odoario (bishop)") in the city of Lugo. Since 760, the territory of Galicia was under the authority of the monarchs who had their political and power space in what is now Asturias, in a weak position that had to be consolidated by his successor, Fruela I, who crushed an insurrection by the Galicians. Decades later, another Galician insurrection was defeated by King Silo at the Battle of Montecubeiro,[43][44] near Castroverde.
The administrative incorporation of Galicia to the power of the kings residing in Asturias was carried out (like Castile) through the county, at whose head a committee was established. The first count is the knight Count Don Pedro, mentioned by the Albeldense in its brief chronicle of the reign of Ordoño I of Asturias, facing a Norman attack,[45] an episode that takes place in the year 859. Don Pedro is succeeded by Fruela Bermúdez, or Froilán, according to the chronicle, Gallicie comite. This count led a revolt against King Alfonso III,[46] but was killed in the spring of 876.
In any case, it is at this time, and under the reign of Alfonso II, that the discovery of the tomb of the Apostle Santiago and the emergence of the Camino that bears his name occurs.
The expansion towards the South was initiated by Ordoño I, who repopulated Tuy. In later decades Vímara Pérez, vassal of Alfonso III, reached Porto (taken in 868) laying the foundations of the Portucalense County that would later give rise to Portugal.
In the year 910, upon the death of the King of Asturias Alfonso III the Great, his possessions were distributed among his three sons corresponding to Ordoño, married to the Galician noblewoman Elvira Menéndez "Elvira Menéndez (d. 921)"), the territory of Galicia of which he was already governor, an event that marks the origin of the Kingdom of Galicia, within the Kingdom of León. Shortly afterwards, when his brother García I of León died without descendants in 914, Ordoño occupied the throne of the Kingdom of León, with the name of Ordoño II, thus bringing about the union of both kingdoms. Within the framework of the struggles between Alfonso IV and his brother Sancho Ordóñez, the kingdom of Galicia effectively recovered its independence. Sancho took refuge in Galicia fleeing from his brother in 926, crowning himself as private king of Galicia, until his death in the year 929. After his death, the kingdom would be reintegrated again into that of León, in the person of Alfonso IV, although his wife, the retired Galician queen Goto, continued to be considered as such, even in the fruitful reign of Ramiro II.
The kingdom of Galicia in the Crown of Castile
The succession of Ferdinand III the Saint (1230-1254) to the throne of the kingdoms of Galicia and León, marked, according to López Carreira, the beginning of a period of decline and a negative evolution of the general interests of the kingdom, with the Galician county nobility and the town councils of the Galician towns being the most affected by being separated from the high level of the decisions of a court based in Castile, and from which Galicia went from cultural core to periphery of a crown ruled by Castilians.[47].
In Galicia and León the Liber Iudiciorum was maintained as a legal code, contrary to what happened in the Castilian territories. Even when matters were judged by the court, they were dealt with in accordance with the code in force in each crown.[48] However, a policy of centralizing tendency began that was maintained during the reign of Alfonso castilians
Alliance of the Galician nobles with the king of Portugal
The victory of Enrique de Trastámara against Pedro I in 1369, will entail a serious conflict within the kingdom of Galicia, since the majority of the Galician nobles do not recognize him as such and with the approval of the municipalities of the kingdom they demand Ferdinand I of Portugal as king in that same year to govern Galicia, his Galician supporters assuring him that they will have a voice for him (...) and that he will give him the villas e o reçeberíam por senhor, fazémdolhe dellas menagem*.[49] The practical culmination of the repeated tendency of rapprochement between the kingdoms of Galicia and Portugal, advocated by influential Galician social groups and active for some time, took place for a short period of time. Accompanied from Portugal by important noble supporters of the legitimist cause, significant representatives of the Galician nobility, among them Fernando Ruiz de Castro (count of Trastámara), the knight and lord of Salvaterra, Álvaro Pérez de Castro and Nuño Freire de Andrade (master of the Portuguese order of Christ). His entry into the kingdom of Galicia was triumphant, being acclaimed in Galician cities.[50].
Having achieved his objective of supporting his enthusiastic Galician nobles, the policy of Ferdinand I of Portugal included the restoration of the strongholds of Tuy "Tuy (Pontevedra)") and Bayona "Bayona (Pontevedra)") among others, the liberation of commercial traffic between Galicia and Portugal as well as the supply of cereal and wine by sea to the Galician populations depleted by the war directly from Lisbon.[51] He also made economic provisions for which He ordered to make coins of his senhais d'oro e prata, asii (...) in Crunha (La Coruña) and in Tuy, testifying to the Cortes of Lisbon in the year 1371 the validity of the coins equally in the kingdom of Galicia and in that of Portugal.[52].
Despite the initial success, the Portuguese monarch's presence in the kingdom was short. Enrique de Trastámara, assisted by the mercenaries of the White Companies, organized a counteroffensive in Portuguese lands that would force Ferdinand I to return to Portugal, thus taking over the government of Galicia briefly, until the arrival of the Duke of Lancaster in La Coruña and his coronation in Santiago de Compostela.
Demand for help from the Duke of Lancaster
Barely a year after the king of Portugal had to abandon the government of the kingdom of Galicia, and with La Coruña still remaining faithful to Portugal, the A Coruña nobleman Juan Fernández de Andeiro completed his negotiations with the crown of England. Thus, on July 10, 1372, a treaty was signed by which Constanza "Constanza de Castilla (1354-1394)"), daughter of King Pedro I, murdered by Enrique de Trastámara, claimed her legitimate right as successor to the latter.[53].
After the treaty, and by virtue of the title of Constance, the Duke of Lancaster adopted his wife's royal titles (of Galicia, León, Castile, etc.) and prepared to make them effective. Although the first attempt was frustrated when his expedition had to divert, in Poitou, towards the city of Thouars, urged by the Hundred Years' War in France. In the year 1386, backed by the papal bull of Urban IV that granted him the right to the Crown of Castile, he landed in La Coruña, but without facing the assault of the walled city that conditioned the open doors if he was previously received in Santiago. This happened, and then he managed, with hardly any military resistance, and with the support of Galician and Portuguese nobles, to effectively dominate the kingdom. Accompanied by his wife and daughters, he established his Court in Santiago de Compostela. It directed its operations towards Pontevedra, Vigo, Bayona "Bayona (Pontevedra)"), Betanzos, Ribadavia, Orense and Ferrol. In Orense his troops assaulted the city and forced the Trastamarist troops to withdraw, while Ferrol was taken by the King of Portugal João I, an ally of the Duke of Lancaster. In the case of Ribadavia, the city resisted this, and Thomas Persey himself led a days-long siege on the town, which ended up being taken.
The kingdom of Galicia remained in the power of the duke, specifically after he and the Portuguese king had taken control of Ferrol, as the chronicle written by Jean Froissart makes it clear: avoient mis en leur obeissance tout lee roiaulme de Gallice.[54] The evolution of military events was determined by a plague epidemic that decimated the English troops on Galician soil. This forced the Duke of Lancaster to negotiate a departure with Henry from the Englishman and his wife Constance in exchange for a large compensation and the wedding between the Castilian heir, Henry III, and the Duke's daughter, Catherine of Lancaster. The final withdrawal of the English closed the attempts made by the town councils and the Galician high nobility to obtain a space not shared with Castile and orient Galicia towards Portugal and the Atlantic, although it would not be the last time that this happened.
Definitive integration into the Crown of Castile
The definitive unification of the three Kingdoms occurred, in 1230, with King Ferdinand III, nicknamed "the Saint" in later chronicles. Son of Alfonso IX of León and Galicia who married Doña Berenguela of Castilla for the second time. Fernando III did not respect his father's will, which left the kingdoms of Galicia and León to Doña Sancha and Doña Dulce, daughters he had with Doña Teresa of Portugal in his first marriage, with which the tendency of the Kingdom was going to be dear to the interests of Castile, with Toledo taking importance to the detriment of Santiago de Compostela as an archiepiscopal see and León as a royal city. He was succeeded by Alfonso At the head of Galicia there is now a Major Adelantado of the Kingdom, representative of the Crown and appointed from among the native nobility. Among the greatest advances of the Kingdom of Galicia, Payo Gómez Chariño, pacifier of the Kingdom, famous admiral and distinguished poet in the Galician language, stood out.
After the death of Sancho IV, the integration of Galicia into a crown led from Castile was only altered by the attempt of the Infante D. Juan to restore the independent Galician-Leonese crown in 1296, and by the wars between the Trastamara and the Petrists. The high Galician nobility of the Castros, of Petrist inclination, went so far as to proclaim Ferdinand I of Portugal king in Galicia in 1369 and later the Duke of Lancaster, John of Ghent, in 1386. This dynastic conflict festered for decades in Galicia and would conclude with the defeat of the Castros at the hands of the new royal dynasty and with it, the end of the preponderant role of the Galician nobility in the crown, since 1369 in the power of the Trastamara. A new, more fragmented Galician aristocracy would emerge with the Andrade, the Castro, the Moscoso, the Sotomayor, the Osorio or the Sarmiento, whose head, the Count of Ribadavia, would hold the status of major advance of the Kingdom of Galicia.
The most significant social movement in the history of Galicia was the Irmandino uprising. A popular revolution that destroyed most of the fortresses of the Galician nobility of the century. This was a semi-independent, divided and predatory establishment that was put in check by the popular forces that governed the Kingdom of Galicia through meetings for more than two years. The Castilian crown finally decided to support the lords, although demanding that the castles not be rebuilt and subjecting them to the authority of a foreign viceroy-governor who presided over the newly created Royal Court of the Kingdom of Galicia. The confrontations between the Galician aristocracy and the Catholic Monarchs ushered Galicia into the Modern Age. Rebellious nobles such as Pardo de Cela (beheaded in Mondoñedo), Pedro Madruga de Sotomayor (exiled to Portugal and murdered) or the Count of Lemos (confined to eastern Galicia) would write the last pages of a feudal Galicia that would die with them forever, to enter what would be called the "Modern State" represented by the unified Crowns of Castile and Aragon.
Jerónimo de Zurita: «Taming of the Kingdom of Galicia»
The expression "Taming of the Kingdom of Galicia" is coined by Jerónimo Zurita y Castro, a historian famous for his work Anales de la Corona de Aragón of the 19th century, on which he worked for thirty years. In it he reviews the events of Aragon in chronological order from the Muslim period to the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic and refers to the kingdom of Galicia in the following terms:
The interpretation of some later authors, despite the ambiguous nature of the text, was in the sense of presenting a set of acts, as the result of a policy of "taming and castration":
• - The decline of Galician-Portuguese literature around the year 1350.
• - The administrative centralization and control of the Kingdom of Galicia that ended, this time, with the trip to Santiago de Compostela of the Catholic Monarchs in 1486.
• - The assumption of Spanish as the language of the upper classes and the administration.
According to other versions, it is argued that the expression "training and castration" is incorrect since the text never uses the word "castration." The term "taming" would be equivalent to "pacification" and the arrival of Castilian nobles would be motivated by Isabel la Católica's distrust of a native nobility that had supported her rival in the Castilian Civil War.[56].
Other measures that were also taken by the Catholic Monarchs and that aim to reform the administration of the Kingdom of Galicia under their authority are:
• - Appointment of a foreign plenipotentiary Governor-Captain General (authentic viceroy).
• - Creation of a jurisdictional body for the administration of Justice in the name of the Monarchy: the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Galicia, chaired by the governor-captain general.
• - Order not to rebuild the castles collapsed by the Irmandiños.
• - Integration of the Galician monasteries into the congregations of Castilla and Valladolid.
• - Marshal Pedro Pardo de Cela is beheaded in Mondoñedo, which implies the annexation of his territories (El Bierzo) into those of the Crown of Castile; Pedro Madruga, Count of Camiña y Sotomayor, is cornered in Portugal and subsequently murdered.
After the unification of the peninsular kingdoms that gave rise to the Kingdom of Spain, the representative body of the Kingdom of Galicia was the Junta do Reyno, created in 1528. Until its dissolution, this body constituted political expression, although its existence, as could be expected, was of little significance throughout the Ancien Regime.
Modern Age
The kingdom of Galicia in the Old Regime
After the unification of the peninsular kingdoms in the Hispanic Monarchy, the governing body of the kingdom of Galicia was the Junta do Reyno, created in 1528. Until its dissolution, this body constituted the political expression of the kingdom, although its existence was of little significance throughout the Old Regime. During this period, the demand for the vote in the Cortes of Castile was a constant, since the Kingdom of Galicia was represented there by the city of Zamora, a fact that was considered humiliating and dishonorable for the old kingdom. In 1520, a commission of the nobility asked Charles I, once again, for this right, arguing that "Galicia was subject to Zamora, with disdain and discredit of its greatness." The Galician nobility of the time believed that Zamora held such representation ("never recognized by Galicia"), in exchange for money, and on one occasion the old kingdom was offered to recover its vote, in exchange for a financial sum that it was not possible to raise. This demand was led by figures such as Pedro Fernández de Castro y Andrade, VII Count of Lemos, Alonso III Fonseca and the Count of Gondomar, Diego Sarmiento de Acuña. A Royal Letter from Philip IV ended up granting it in 1623, subject to the Kingdom of Galicia giving one hundred thousand ducats, which "would be applied to the construction of six ships precisely necessary on that coast."
The last occasion on which the kingdom of Galicia showed a political demonstration was during the Napoleonic invasion. The threat that Napoleon's revolutionary drive represented to the maintenance of the hegemony of the Galician clergy and nobility provoked his rapid reaction, acting as stimuli for resistance and mobilization. With the peninsula under Napoleonic rule, the resistance was organized in Galicia, fighting the French troops through guerrillas, until they were expelled. The Junta, as the repository of sovereignty, behaved outwardly as an independent kingdom. He sent Brigadier Genaro Figueroa to Portugal, with powers and accreditations, to contact the Portuguese patriots already at war with the French. After this episode, the Superior Board briefly established itself as a political expression, integrating itself in a short time and delegating its powers to the Cortes of Cádiz, to return to its previous state of inaction.
The kingdom of Galicia would formally cease to exist on November 30, 1833, the date on which the regent María Cristina signed the decree of dissolution by which liberal centralism in the government abolished the Kingdom Board. With this procedure, not only the Kingdom of Galicia disappeared, but Galicia itself as an institutional reality, since the kingdoms and their boards were replaced by a model of provinces, copied from the French model of departments.
Socioeconomic features of Galicia during the Old Regime
Political stability and the beheading of the nobility give rise to three socioeconomic features typical of this period:
• - The prosperity of the fidalgos who live in the pazos of the collection of the foros from the peasants.
• - The rise of monasteries (now dependent on the Castilian congregations) that are strongly integrated into a rural economy.
• - An unprecedented demographic expansion due to the introduction of corn and, later, potatoes.
Alonso III Fonseca in Santiago promotes a University (founded in 1495) that will connect Galicia with the highest knowledge of the moment. Likewise, the Church and monasticism promote an artistic resurgence with the plateresque of Martín Blas and Guillén Colás, Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón and Mateo López in architecture (Works in the cathedral of Santiago, the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos or San Martín Pinario, in the same city). All of this announces the baroque splendor with leading figures on a world scale such as Domingo de Andrade, Fernando de Casas Novoa or Simón Rodríguez (in Santiago de Compostela), Melchor Velasco") (in Celanova) or Pedro de Monteagudo") (in Sobrado de los Monjes "Sobrado (La Coruña)")). Francisco de Moure, Gregorio Fernández, Mateo de Prado and Castro Canseco stand out in baroque sculpture.
But economic progress is occluded. Factors that contributed to this were:
• - The closure of Galician ports to trade with America decreed by the monarchy.
• - The attacks of the English fleet on Vigo and Coruña (feat by María Pita), making the previously prosperous maritime exchange with Europe impossible.
• - The wars of the Spanish monarchy with Portugal, after its second and definitive independence.
• - A tariff policy designed for other latitudes and not for products that had been successful in national and international markets: Galician livestock, wine, fishing and flax.
19th century
The increase in population will not be able to be digested in an economic system that has not fully industrialized and that was isolated from the thriving peninsular railway networks. All of this will give way, in the middle of the century, to a massive emigration to America that will continue throughout the century.
The last time the Kingdom of Galicia showed a political demonstration was during the Napoleonic invasion. The threat that Napoleon's revolutionary drive represented to the maintenance of the hegemony of the Galician clergy and nobility provoked his rapid reaction, acting as stimuli for resistance and mobilization. With the peninsula under Napoleonic rule, the resistance was organized in Galicia, fighting the French troops using the guerrilla system for the first time in history, until they were expelled. After this episode, the Superior Board emerged as a political expression, but briefly, integrating itself in a short time and delegating its powers to the Cortes of Cádiz, to return to its previous state of inaction.
The Kingdom of Galicia would formally cease to exist on November 30, 1833, the date on which the regent María Cristina signed the decree of dissolution by which liberal centralism in the government suppressed its organ of political expression. With this procedure, not only the Kingdom of Galicia disappeared but Galicia itself as an institutional reality, since the Kingdoms and their Juntas were replaced by a model of provinces, mimetic of the French departments.
Later in the century, various sociopolitical movements emerged in Galicia:
• - Carlism that claims the defense of the disappeared Kingdom of Galicia from a traditionalist and clerical perspective: it failed to be hegemonic due to the liberal strength of cities like La Coruña.
• - Provincialism: defense of the liberal Galician identity, repressed after the liberal uprising against Narváez in 1846 and the executions of Carral.
• - Federalism: democratic movement that drafted a constitution for a Galician federated state, without success due to the chaos of the First Spanish Republic and the crisis of subsequent republicanism.
• - Regionalism: work of the economist Alfredo Brañas that focuses on a defense of self-government with a clear conservative profile. It has an advanced liberal aspect in thinkers like Manuel Murguía.
• - Agrarianism: movement of peasant masses confronted with the forum and dysfunctional tax systems in the Galician rural reality.
From a literary point of view, the Rexurdimento starring Rosalía de Castro, Curros Enríquez and Eduardo Pondal represents the rebirth of culture in the Galician language. One of the most important Galician enlightened personalities of the century was Domingo Fontán.
20th century
Después de los movimientos galleguistas y liberales del siglo , surgió la etapa de la Solidaridad Gallega, desde el año 1907 hasta la Primera Guerra Mundial, con el objetivo de conseguir un frente electoral unido para eliminar el caciquismo y conseguir una representación gallega (lo que se saldó con un fracaso).
Una primera etapa, hasta Primo de Rivera, es la marcada por las Irmandades da Fala, con una preocupación fundamental por la defensa de la lengua gallega. Al extenderse, va cuajando de nuevo la idea política del galleguismo. Así, Vicente Risco y Otero Pedrayo trabajaron en el aspecto cultural y tuvieron contraparte en el aspecto político Porteira y Lois Peña Novo. El relevo lo constituyeron la llamada Xeración Nós, con Castelao, Otero Pedrayo o Alexandre Bóveda, en torno a la revista del mismo nombre, acompañada de 1920 a la Segunda República por una preocupación por la creación de un galleguismo controlado e instrumental desde el poder político central. Ensayarán un movimiento político nacionalista minoritario, el Partido Galeguista "Partido Galeguista (histórico)"), que conseguirá, gracias al apoyo de las fuerzas gallegas republicanas y de izquierdas (se integró en las listas del Frente Popular "Frente Popular (España)") en las elecciones de febrero de 1936) la redacción de un Estatuto de Autonomía durante la Segunda República.
En la Segunda República había dos tendencias fundamentales: la correspondiente a la Organización Republicana Gallega Autónoma (ORGA) y la contraparte en el Partido Galeguista "Partido Galeguista (1931)") (PG). El PG surge de la unión de varias tendencias representadas en figuras como Vicente Risco, Ramón Otero Pedrayo, Ramón Cabanillas, Ramón Suárez Picallo y Castelao. En 1936 el PG, para lograr el estatuto para Galicia, se alió con el Frente Popular "Frente Popular (España)"), y como resultado de esa alianza sufrió una escisión. Sin embargo, se logró el Estatuto y Castelao se presentó a las Cortes poco antes de la Guerra Civil Española.
Civil War and Francoism
Galicia was one of the regions, along with Old Castile, León, Navarra, two thirds of Zaragoza and Cáceres, where the coup d'état that triggered the civil war triumphed. The Franco repression that followed destroyed the parties, the unions and the republican democratic order.
Galicia, which was never a war front, with an important influence of the clergy on the depressed rural areas and little resistance to the coup d'état, suffered the repression of the rebels, with the number of murdered and executed after summary trials for crimes of "treason" and "aiding repression" rising to 4,560, of which 836 occurred on the basis of a trial, the rest being extrajudicial.[57] People of all social conditions or ideology were victims of repression: the four civil governors at the time of the uprising, the wife of the governor of La Coruña, Juana Capdevielle, a prominent feminist intellectual who was pregnant at the time of her execution,[58] Galician mayors such as Ángel Casal in Santiago de Compostela, socialists such as Jaime Quintanilla in Ferrol, or Emilio Martínez Garrido in Vigo, deputies of the Popular Front "Popular Front (Spain)") (Antonio Bilbatúa, José Miñones, Díaz Villaamil, Ignacio Seoane, or former deputies like Heraclio Botana), soldiers who remained loyal to the Republic, such as generals Rogelio Caridad Pita, Enrique Salcedo Molinuevo, and Rear Admiral Antonio Azarola, or the founders of the Partido Galeguista "Partido Galeguista (1931)"), the Catholic and conservative, Alexandre Bóveda Iglesias[59] and Víctor Casas.[60] In parallel, for many people linked to the Republic the stage of exile began.
Some resistant leftist movements created small guerrilla groups with leaders such as El Piloto (José Castro Veiga) or Foucellas (Benigno Andrade), who ended up being arrested and executed.[61][62].
Franco's dictatorial regime banned parties, ended freedom of the press and persecuted and "purified" republican initiatives to modernize institutions and infrastructure and to dignify the Galician language and culture, reducing the latter to simple folkloric manifestations. The autarchy of the regime after the Civil War, together with the poor harvests of those years, caused great famines in the 1950s. The lack of its own industry meant that the only way out for the Galician population was, as in previous crises, emigration, either to industrial areas of the country, such as the Basque Country and Catalonia, or to South America, highlighting Brazil and Argentina as receiving countries and, starting in the 1960s, to Western Europe, especially the former Federal Republic. Germany, Switzerland and Holland.[63].
In the 1960s, ministers such as Manuel Fraga Iribarne introduced certain opening reforms while the technocrats of Opus Dei modernized the administration and opened the Spanish economy to capitalism. Galicia provided raw materials and hydroelectric energy, playing an important role in the industrialization policies of the State that led to the so-called "Spanish economic miracle." Invigorating initiatives appeared, such as the installation of Citroën in Vigo, the modernization of the canning industry and the high-altitude fishing fleet, and an effort by the peasantry to modernize their small farms, focusing especially on the production of beef milk. In the province of Orense, the businessman and politician Eulogio Gómez Franqueira energized the agricultural sector with a cooperative experience that catapulted agri-food production and marketing (Coren).
The seventies entered a phase of university, agrarian and worker agitation. In 1972, there were general strikes in Vigo and Ferrol, industrial centers with abundant union activity. In Ferrol, in a demonstration, the police killed two workers from the Bazán shipyard.[64] About these events the bishop of Mondoñedo-Ferrol, Miguel Ángel Araújo Iglesias, wrote a pastoral that was not well received by the Franco regime.[65].
in democracy
The death of General Franco in 1975 gave way to a process of transition to democracy, in which Galicia recovered its status as an autonomous region within Spain with the Statute of Autonomy of 1981. The new political status supposes a compromise between the previous centralist State and a greater degree of independence demanded by nationalist forces such as the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). The new autonomous government, the Junta de Galicia, has since been led by both the Popular Party of Galicia (with Manuel Fraga as the most notable figure, president between 1990 and 2005), and by the PSdeG-PSOE in coalition with the nationalists of the BNG.
21st century
In 2009 the Popular Party returned to government, in the figure of Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
Currently, Galicia, recognized for its status of autonomy as a historical nationality, is torn between survivals of its long decline such as despotism, the aging of the population, restricted livestock farming, intensive exploitation of its energy resources by foreign business groups (large reservoirs, wind farms) and the renewed flow of the textile industry, the drag effect of the automotive industry and tourism, in addition to the rebirth of cities like Pontevedra, which are beginning to have a positive vegetative balance in recent years.
• - Chronological table of kingdoms of Spain.
Literature
• - Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum, editeur Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina.
• - Liber Sancti Jacobi «Codex Calixtinus», Santiago de Compostela, Xunta de Galicia, 07/2004.
• - Surroundings of the Kingdom of Galicia (711–910), Xosé Antonio López Teixeira, Editorial Toxosoutos, S.L. 02/2003.
• - Galicia, a whole kingdom, Colin Smith. University of Santiago de Compostela, 1996.
• - Martiño de Dumio: the creation of a kingdom, Anselmo López Carreira, Edicions do Cumio, S.A. 08/1996.
• - Medieval documents of the kingdom of Galicia: Ferdinand II (1155–1188), ISBN 84-453-2818-2.
• - Alfonso III the Great: last king of Oviedo and first of Galicia, Armando Cotarelo Valledor, Tres Cantos, Ediciones Istmo, S.A. 04/1992.
• - Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Translation by L Thorpe (Penguin, 1974).
• - O kingdom of Galiza, Anselmo López Carreira, A Nosa Terra Editions. Promotions Culturais Galegas S.A., 1998, ISBN 84-89976-43-0.
• - O chronicle of Hydatius: Bispo of Chaves, César Candelas Colodrón, Editorial Toxosoutos S.L., 02/2004.
• - O medieval kingdom of Galicia, Anselmo López Carreira, Editions A Nosa Terra, Promotions Culturais Galegas, S.A., 2005, ISBN 84-96403-54-8.
References
[1] ↑ López Carreira, Anselmo (1998). O reino de Galiza. A nosa terra. p. 62. ISBN 9788489976436.
[2] ↑ Celtina, hija de Bretannus, se enamoró de Heracles y huyeron rechazando volver a él a no ser que la contuviera. De Celtus deriva el nombre de la etnia celta.
[3] ↑ Entre sesenta y sesenta y cinco clanes, entre ellos los grovios (en territorios que hoy corresponden a la región portuguesa del Bajo Miño), ártabros (Ferrol), astures (Asturias), poemanos (Lugo), brácaros (Braga), caporos (Iria Flavia), cuarquernos (Serra do Gerês) o los céltae, nombre que se reservaba para los celtas de Brigantium.
[4] ↑ De esta aldea Cale decía Salustio en el siglo I a. C. ser “cívitas in Gallaecia”, datando el topónimo así en al menos un siglo antes de la reforma diocleciana.
[5] ↑ Según apunta Coelho da Silva (2000), ya en el Cronicón de Idacio afirma textualmente que Portu Cale está situado ad extremas sedes Gallaeciae estando separada de la Lusitania por el río Duero, Fluvius Dourus dividens (...) Gallaecia et Lusitania.
[6] ↑ Para el historiador portugués Fuco O'Sores, los celtas del Duero serían los cal-leic-us, es decir, los ‘hijos de la diosa Cal-Léac’, cuya referencia se ha encontrado en una inscripción en la forma de calaic ia en el lugar de Sobreira, cerca de Porto.
[7] ↑ Palomar Lapesa (1957), Alberto Firmat (1966).
[8] ↑ El análisis genético del esqueleto fósil del niño del yacimiento del Abrigo do Lagar Velho en Portugal reveló que se trataba de una mezcla de Neandertal y Cromagnon.
[9] ↑ Básicamente de tres tipos: los círculos líticos o crómlechs, los menhires o pedras fitas y los dólmenes o mámoas.
[10] ↑ Entre otras Cronología y periodización del fenómeno megalítico en Galicia y norte de Portugal a la luz de las dataciones por carbono 14 (Alonso Matthias y Bello Diéguez).
[11] ↑ Entre otras The Megalithic tombs of Western Iberia: Reflections on their origins, chronology and geographical distribution. Copenhague, 1999.
[12] ↑ También a partir del 3000 a. C., comienza una segunda fase, denominada “megalitismo oriental (o mediterráneo)”, por la presencia de tholoi, al extenderse desde el norte de Portugal al sudeste peninsular apareciendo ciudades fortificadas a partir del 2600 a. C. (Vila Nova y Los Millares).
[13] ↑ llegando a la Bretaña francesa en torno al 3800 a. C., alcanzando Irlanda y el sur de la península escandinava a partir del 3500 a. C. hasta que se consolida en torno al 3000 a. C.
[14] ↑ Capa de tierra y piedras, de 10 a 30 metros de diámetro semejante a un montículo.
[15] ↑ Construcciones ortostáticas.
[16] ↑ La mayor parte de estos sepulcros fueron expoliados en el siglo XIX por el hidalgo Vázquez de Orxás, que obtuvo permiso del gobierno para buscar tesoros en las tumbas de los gentiles galigrecos.
[17] ↑ Registrados más de 10.000, se calcula que pudo haber más de 20.000.
[18] ↑ Entre otros: Die Megalithkultur in Galicien (Walter de Gruyter, Berlín – Nueva York, 1990), Historia de Galicia (R. Villares, 2004), y Elements symbolico-funéraires dans le Mégalithisme galicien. (Révue Archéologique de l’Ouest, Rennes, 1992).
[19] ↑ Formas geométricas como círculos simples o concéntricos, espirales, laberintos, esvásticas de brazos curvos y rectos, trisqueles. Algunos de estos motivos geométricos aparecen en la iconografía de culturas situadas en puntos tan alejados como Asia y América.
[20] ↑ Corpus Petroglyphorum Gallaeciae (1935, Ramón Sobrino Buhigas).
[21] ↑ En su Ora Marítima (siglo IV a. C.) Rufus Festus Avienus realiza la primera descripción geográfica de la península ibérica. En ella se refiere a los habitantes del extremo atlántico llamándolos Estrimnios Tras aquellas tierras antes tratadas ábrese una gran ensenada que hasta Ofiusa abarca una grande planicie marina. Desde su costa retrocediendo hacia el llano del mar Interno —por donde el mar llamado Sardo penetraba en esas tierras— distan siete días de marcha a pie. Ofiusa se extiende hacia adelante (...) llamada Estrimnis al principio y los habitantes de estos lugares y campos eran los Estrimnios (...).
[22] ↑ Oestrimnios, Saefes y Ofiolatría en Galicia. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. Servicio de Publicaciones e Intercambio Científico, 1992.
[23] ↑ Denominados así por su culto ofiolátrico (aún hoy en gallego, serpiente se dice serpe) de los que existe constancia también en la Ora Marítima: (...) y los habitantes de estos lugares y campos eran los Estrimnios, quienes huyeron tras la plaga de serpientes que la desposeyó (a Estrimnia) hasta de su propio nombre.
[24] ↑ Una variante de las Urnenfelder.
[25] ↑ En la Historia de Galicia de Benito Vicetto (1865) se encuentra una curiosa cita, literalmente: ...he llegado a sospechar otro género de orden, que es como un orden circular alrededor de una comarca. A las faldas de la tierra de Soutelo de Montes, veo que forman círculo los castros de Escuadro, Moalde, Castro, Vite, Oca, Ancorados, el dicho Olivez, y últimamente el castro de Godoy que también forma línea, con los castros que cubren el camino de Soutelo de Montes a la Estrada y a Sanlés (Salnés); de manera que todos dichos castros forman círculo, y el de Godoy que está en Ribela, sobre el río y lugar de Godoy, cierra o termina el dicho círculo, y forma una sección continuada por el dicho camino de la Estrada (...) Debemos advertir aquí que el país á que se refiere dicho P. Sobreira es uno de aquéllos en que las memorias célticas están más vivas y son muy abundantes.
[26] ↑ Estrabón asegura que había unas 50 tribus de pueblos diferentes, mientras que Plinio el Viejo dice que eran más de 65.
[27] ↑ “Fibrarum et pennae divinarumque sagacem flammarum misit dives Callaecia pubem, barbara nunc patriis ululantem carmina linguis, nunc pedis alterno percussa verbere terra, ad numerum resonas gaudentem plauder caetras” (Silius Italius, Púnica, libro 3, 344-347).
[28] ↑ El 27 de febrero de 380, el emperador Teodosio pronuncia un edicto que declara al cristianismo religión oficial del Imperio.
[29] ↑ San Jerónimo, san Martín de Tours o san Ambrosio de Milán son algunos de los padres de la Iglesia defensores de este modelo más primitivo de cristianismo. De hecho los tres últimos, y en especial San Martín, jugarán un papel principal en el curso de los acontecimientos alrededor de Prisciliano.
[30] ↑ “La Dióecesis Hispaniarum permanece, de facto, sin vicario imperial desde el 397 (en ese año deja el puesto Petronius) hasta el año 400, en que ocupa su lugar Macrobius” (Javier Arce, Bárbaros y romanos en Hispania, Marcial Pons, Ediciones de Historia. ISBN 84-96467-02-3).
[31] ↑ “Ab his Priscillianus est institutus, familia nóbilis, praedives opibus, acer, inquies, facundus, multa lectione eruditus, disserendi ac disputandi promptíssimus”, Sulpicio Severo Chrónica, 46, 3.
[32] ↑ “primus eam intra Hispanias Marcus intulit, Aegypto profectus, Memphi ortus. huius auditores fuere ágape quaedam, neu ignobilis mulier, et rhetor Helpidius, ab his Priscillianus est institutos”, Sulpicio Severo, Crónica 46, 2-3.
[33] ↑ Conc. Caesar. I (378/380), Rodríguez, p. 292.
[34] ↑ “ita corrupto Macedonio, tum magistro officiorum, rescriptum eliciunt, quo calcatis, quae prius decreta erant, restitui ecclesiis iubebantur”, Sulpici Severi Chrónica, 48, 5.
[35] ↑ Andrés Olivares Guillem, Prisciliano a través del tiempo (historia de los estudios sobre el priscilianismo), Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza, pag. 22-23.
[36] ↑ Máximus Aug., Ep. ad Siricium papam, 4, Coll. Auell., 40, CSEL 35, 1, p. 91.
[37] ↑ “Ceterum Priscilliano occiso, non solum non repressa est haeresis, quae illo auctore proruperat, sed confirmata latius propagata est. namque sectatores eius, qui eum prius ut sanctum honoraverant, postea ut martyrem colere coeperunt”. Sulpici Severi, Chrónica, 51, 7.
[38] ↑ K. M. Girardet, Trier 385: Der Prozess gegen die Priszillianer, Chiron, 4, 1974, 574. San Ambrosio compara el juicio con el traslado de la acusación de Jesús a Pilatos por los sacerdotes. Instancio fue desterrado. A Tiberiano y a otros priscilianistas se les confiscaron los bienes. El panegirista Pato Depranio señala que a las mujeres se las condenó por piedad excesiva; a los obispos delatores les llama bandidos, verdugos, calumniadores y puntualiza que se arruinó a los acusados despojándoles de su patrimonio, repitiéndolo por dos veces.
[39] ↑ “peremptorum corpora ad Hispanias relata magnisque obsequiis celebrata eorum funera; quin et iurare per Priscillianum summa religio putabatur”. Sulpici Severi Crónica, 51, 8.
[40] ↑ Por primera vez Louis Duchesne, Annales du Midí: Saint Jacques en Galice, 1900 y otros después como Henry Chadwick, Miguel de Unamuno, o Sánchez-Albornoz.).
From the Roman chronicles, together with the Leabhar Ghabhála Érenn as well as from the interpretation of the very abundant archaeological remains throughout current Galicia and northern Portugal, it is possible to infer that it was a matriarchal society, with a military and religious aristocracy probably of a feudal type. The highest authority figures were the leader, of a military type and with authority in his fort or clan, and the druid, the main medical and religious reference that could be common to several forts. The Celtic cosmogony remained homogeneous due to the ability of the druids to meet in councils with the druids of other areas, which ensured the transmission of the most significant knowledge and events.
The territorial distribution of the fort divides its area of influence into spaces around the fort equivalent to the current regions, in a similar way to what can be seen in the Celtic populations of the British Isles and central Europe. The occupation of the territory based on fortifications is consistent with population pressure and the presence of minerals, among them gold, which would explain the Roman interest in extending its rule to the only territory of the Iberian Peninsula that offered sufficient resistance to stop it.
The clearest example of this pressure is that exerted by the Roman people, attracted by the metallurgical wealth of the region.
In that year he decided to leave for Rome to counteract Ithacio's offensive. There, after being denied an audience by Pope Damasus I, he addressed the magister officiorum of the emperor, at the court of Mediolanum (Milan) and obtained the repeal of the imperial rescript (according to his detractors, through bribery).[34].
Upon their return, the Priscillianists recovered their churches and Ithacio was exiled, tipping the situation in the peninsula in favor of the reform movement during the following year. In 383 Magno Clement Maximus assassinated Emperor Gratian and named himself the new imperator of the West, locating the new imperial court in Civitas Treverorum (Trier), where Ithacio was exiled under the protection of the local bishop, Britto. On the one hand, the Catholic Church finds itself in a situation in Hispanias that is difficult to manage (a reformist movement, which some fathers of the Church such as Augustine of Hippo are beginning to consider heretical, but supported by numerous popular support and even by several bishops supposedly loyal to Rome). On the other hand, Theodosius, emperor of the eastern territories, is suspicious of the usurper Maximus, so he seeks support in the most orthodox sector of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in order to strengthen his appointment.
The geopolitical situation is ideal for what ends up happening: after a synod in Bordeaux, again with the aim of condemning Priscillianism, a civil trial is established against the main leaders of the religious movement, under the accusation of witchcraft. The causes of this imputation[35] can be attributed to the consequences derived from the application of Roman law: a conviction for heresy would force Maximus to confiscate the ecclesiastical properties of the prisoners, in practice many temples and properties of the Catholic Church in the Hispanias. The charge of maleficium, on the other hand, involves the seizure of the private properties of the accused (many of them from wealthy families) without affecting ecclesiastical properties, which was much more lucrative and diplomatically appropriate for Maximus in his situation.
Thus, in the year 385 the sentence was carried out, after the leaders confessed to torture,[36] Priscillian himself and several of his disciples were beheaded: Felicissimus, Armenian, Eucrocia (Elpidio's widow), Latroniano, Aurelius and Asarinus. They thus become the first to be executed by the Church through a civil institution.
That is the end of Priscillian, but not of Priscillianism. According to Sulpicius Severus, "Moreover, once Priscillian was executed, the heresy that had spread under his influence was not only not repressed, but, reaffirming itself, it spread even more. For his followers, who had previously honored him as a saint, later began to venerate him as a martyr."[37]
The condemnation and execution of the Priscillianists caused a notable impact at the time, [38] causing the protests of the bishop of Rome himself, Siricio, or Martín Turonense, who addressed the court achieving the revocation of the prescription. This would make it possible for a group of Galicians to arrive in Trier in 393 to solemnly exhume his remains.[39].
Based on the trip made by his disciples with the body of those beheaded in Trier back to Gallaecia, various authors[40] have raised the possibility that the Galician heretic, and not the biblical apostle, is buried in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. A reinterpretation of the epigraphy of the sarcophagus postulates that it is Santiago the Greater who is buried in it.[41].
Two successive councils in Toletum (Toledo), in the year 396 and in the year 400[42] get the followers of Priscillian to abjure their ideas and declare that they have abandoned the errors of the sect, but the confirmation of the survival of Priscillian customs (consecration of the Eucharist with milk and grapes, fasting, the presence of clerics with long hair...) forces intervene to Pope Innocent I who sanctioned the Régula fidei contra omnes hereses, especially against Priscillianists in the year 404, and to the celebration in successive years of new synods, such as those of Braga in the years 561 and 567, or the IV Council of Toledo (683) in which the “delirious sin” of not cutting the hair of the Galician clergy, revealing the long survival of, at least, certain liturgical manifestations inspired by the religious movement developed by Prisciliano.
The position of the Galician magnates oscillated between domination of the kingdom and uprising (traditores), even favoring the devastating raids of the Muslim leader Almanzor. One of the many rebellions of the Galician nobility culminates with the coronation in Galicia of Vermudo II (981) who defeats Ramiro III of León and ends up dominating this kingdom as well.
Later, after the death of Ferdinand I the Great, and in accordance with his will, his kingdoms were distributed among his children. The Kingdom of Galicia corresponds to García I. García was crowned by the Compostela bishop Cresconio and restored the Dioceses of Tuy, Braga and Coimbra. His brother Alfonso VI takes the kingdom from him and kills his other brother Sancho, king of Castile, reuniting the kingdoms on a single throne. From this moment Galicia will be politically dependent on the king residing in León and who controls all of old Gallaecia.
At that time the kingdom reached its maximum extension, reaching Viseo. In 1096, Alfonso VI agreed to divide it into two between his family: The County of Galicia, north of the Miño River, which passed into the hands of Raymond of Burgundy, married to Urraca de León (totius Gallecia imperatrix), and southern Galicia, which passed into the hands of Teresa of León and Henry of Burgundy, cousin of the former. Their son, Afonso Henriques, proclaimed himself the first king of Portugal in 1139. Portugal, like Castile, were counties dependent on the crown, being the first to separate, since the Pope recognized him the title of King for being the son of Teresa.
Since the year 844, Norman or Viking attacks were frequent, which, at times, threatened to turn into conquest. The last major invasion, across the Miño River, ended with the defeat of Olaf Haraldsson in 1014 at the hands of the Galician nobility.
The difficulties on the coast did not prevent an organization where Galician nobles of the century and such as Vimara Pérez or Hermenegildo Gutiérrez perfectly reorganized the Portuguese county. Contrary to what is believed, the Norman attacks were much more dangerous than those of Islam, since with the representatives of the latter, peace was based on commercial agreements between lords of Gallaecia and others of the Emirate.
The continuous maritime attacks however, caused the decline of the coastal cities and trade (especially with Byzantium and Europe); and the migration of people to rural areas or inland cities that remained intact such as Lugo, Braga or Astorga.
In the century, the arbiter of Galician politics will be San Rosendo. Founder of the Celanova monastery "Monasterio de San Salvador (Celanova)"), he installed and removed kings, promoted monasticism, fought the Normans and made a civilizing effort in a time of crisis and turmoil.
In the centuries and , the Kingdom of Galicia, led by the bishops of Santiago de Compostela and the counts of Traba, experienced a brilliant time in religion (European pilgrimages, rise of monasteries such as Osera, Sobrado de los Monjes, San Esteban de Ribas de Sil") or San Clodio) in politics (granting of jurisdictions to the cities by the kings of León and Galicia Ferdinand II and Alfonso IX) and in art (Romanesque). Fundamental milestones of the moment are the beginning of the Compostela cathedral by Bishop Diego Peláez in 1075, the coronation by Bishop Diego Gelmírez of Urraca's son Alfonso VII in Santiago de Compostela as king of Galicia in 1111 and the granting of the Jacobean Jubilee Holy Year by Rome in the year 1181.
From the Roman chronicles, together with the Leabhar Ghabhála Érenn as well as from the interpretation of the very abundant archaeological remains throughout current Galicia and northern Portugal, it is possible to infer that it was a matriarchal society, with a military and religious aristocracy probably of a feudal type. The highest authority figures were the leader, of a military type and with authority in his fort or clan, and the druid, the main medical and religious reference that could be common to several forts. The Celtic cosmogony remained homogeneous due to the ability of the druids to meet in councils with the druids of other areas, which ensured the transmission of the most significant knowledge and events.
The territorial distribution of the fort divides its area of influence into spaces around the fort equivalent to the current regions, in a similar way to what can be seen in the Celtic populations of the British Isles and central Europe. The occupation of the territory based on fortifications is consistent with population pressure and the presence of minerals, among them gold, which would explain the Roman interest in extending its rule to the only territory of the Iberian Peninsula that offered sufficient resistance to stop it.
The clearest example of this pressure is that exerted by the Roman people, attracted by the metallurgical wealth of the region.
In that year he decided to leave for Rome to counteract Ithacio's offensive. There, after being denied an audience by Pope Damasus I, he addressed the magister officiorum of the emperor, at the court of Mediolanum (Milan) and obtained the repeal of the imperial rescript (according to his detractors, through bribery).[34].
Upon their return, the Priscillianists recovered their churches and Ithacio was exiled, tipping the situation in the peninsula in favor of the reform movement during the following year. In 383 Magno Clement Maximus assassinated Emperor Gratian and named himself the new imperator of the West, locating the new imperial court in Civitas Treverorum (Trier), where Ithacio was exiled under the protection of the local bishop, Britto. On the one hand, the Catholic Church finds itself in a situation in Hispanias that is difficult to manage (a reformist movement, which some fathers of the Church such as Augustine of Hippo are beginning to consider heretical, but supported by numerous popular support and even by several bishops supposedly loyal to Rome). On the other hand, Theodosius, emperor of the eastern territories, is suspicious of the usurper Maximus, so he seeks support in the most orthodox sector of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in order to strengthen his appointment.
The geopolitical situation is ideal for what ends up happening: after a synod in Bordeaux, again with the aim of condemning Priscillianism, a civil trial is established against the main leaders of the religious movement, under the accusation of witchcraft. The causes of this imputation[35] can be attributed to the consequences derived from the application of Roman law: a conviction for heresy would force Maximus to confiscate the ecclesiastical properties of the prisoners, in practice many temples and properties of the Catholic Church in the Hispanias. The charge of maleficium, on the other hand, involves the seizure of the private properties of the accused (many of them from wealthy families) without affecting ecclesiastical properties, which was much more lucrative and diplomatically appropriate for Maximus in his situation.
Thus, in the year 385 the sentence was carried out, after the leaders confessed to torture,[36] Priscillian himself and several of his disciples were beheaded: Felicissimus, Armenian, Eucrocia (Elpidio's widow), Latroniano, Aurelius and Asarinus. They thus become the first to be executed by the Church through a civil institution.
That is the end of Priscillian, but not of Priscillianism. According to Sulpicius Severus, "Moreover, once Priscillian was executed, the heresy that had spread under his influence was not only not repressed, but, reaffirming itself, it spread even more. For his followers, who had previously honored him as a saint, later began to venerate him as a martyr."[37]
The condemnation and execution of the Priscillianists caused a notable impact at the time, [38] causing the protests of the bishop of Rome himself, Siricio, or Martín Turonense, who addressed the court achieving the revocation of the prescription. This would make it possible for a group of Galicians to arrive in Trier in 393 to solemnly exhume his remains.[39].
Based on the trip made by his disciples with the body of those beheaded in Trier back to Gallaecia, various authors[40] have raised the possibility that the Galician heretic, and not the biblical apostle, is buried in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. A reinterpretation of the epigraphy of the sarcophagus postulates that it is Santiago the Greater who is buried in it.[41].
Two successive councils in Toletum (Toledo), in the year 396 and in the year 400[42] get the followers of Priscillian to abjure their ideas and declare that they have abandoned the errors of the sect, but the confirmation of the survival of Priscillian customs (consecration of the Eucharist with milk and grapes, fasting, the presence of clerics with long hair...) forces intervene to Pope Innocent I who sanctioned the Régula fidei contra omnes hereses, especially against Priscillianists in the year 404, and to the celebration in successive years of new synods, such as those of Braga in the years 561 and 567, or the IV Council of Toledo (683) in which the “delirious sin” of not cutting the hair of the Galician clergy, revealing the long survival of, at least, certain liturgical manifestations inspired by the religious movement developed by Prisciliano.
The position of the Galician magnates oscillated between domination of the kingdom and uprising (traditores), even favoring the devastating raids of the Muslim leader Almanzor. One of the many rebellions of the Galician nobility culminates with the coronation in Galicia of Vermudo II (981) who defeats Ramiro III of León and ends up dominating this kingdom as well.
Later, after the death of Ferdinand I the Great, and in accordance with his will, his kingdoms were distributed among his children. The Kingdom of Galicia corresponds to García I. García was crowned by the Compostela bishop Cresconio and restored the Dioceses of Tuy, Braga and Coimbra. His brother Alfonso VI takes the kingdom from him and kills his other brother Sancho, king of Castile, reuniting the kingdoms on a single throne. From this moment Galicia will be politically dependent on the king residing in León and who controls all of old Gallaecia.
At that time the kingdom reached its maximum extension, reaching Viseo. In 1096, Alfonso VI agreed to divide it into two between his family: The County of Galicia, north of the Miño River, which passed into the hands of Raymond of Burgundy, married to Urraca de León (totius Gallecia imperatrix), and southern Galicia, which passed into the hands of Teresa of León and Henry of Burgundy, cousin of the former. Their son, Afonso Henriques, proclaimed himself the first king of Portugal in 1139. Portugal, like Castile, were counties dependent on the crown, being the first to separate, since the Pope recognized him the title of King for being the son of Teresa.
Since the year 844, Norman or Viking attacks were frequent, which, at times, threatened to turn into conquest. The last major invasion, across the Miño River, ended with the defeat of Olaf Haraldsson in 1014 at the hands of the Galician nobility.
The difficulties on the coast did not prevent an organization where Galician nobles of the century and such as Vimara Pérez or Hermenegildo Gutiérrez perfectly reorganized the Portuguese county. Contrary to what is believed, the Norman attacks were much more dangerous than those of Islam, since with the representatives of the latter, peace was based on commercial agreements between lords of Gallaecia and others of the Emirate.
The continuous maritime attacks however, caused the decline of the coastal cities and trade (especially with Byzantium and Europe); and the migration of people to rural areas or inland cities that remained intact such as Lugo, Braga or Astorga.
In the century, the arbiter of Galician politics will be San Rosendo. Founder of the Celanova monastery "Monasterio de San Salvador (Celanova)"), he installed and removed kings, promoted monasticism, fought the Normans and made a civilizing effort in a time of crisis and turmoil.
In the centuries and , the Kingdom of Galicia, led by the bishops of Santiago de Compostela and the counts of Traba, experienced a brilliant time in religion (European pilgrimages, rise of monasteries such as Osera, Sobrado de los Monjes, San Esteban de Ribas de Sil") or San Clodio) in politics (granting of jurisdictions to the cities by the kings of León and Galicia Ferdinand II and Alfonso IX) and in art (Romanesque). Fundamental milestones of the moment are the beginning of the Compostela cathedral by Bishop Diego Peláez in 1075, the coronation by Bishop Diego Gelmírez of Urraca's son Alfonso VII in Santiago de Compostela as king of Galicia in 1111 and the granting of the Jacobean Jubilee Holy Year by Rome in the year 1181.