Battle of Guadalete

The battle of Guadalete (in classical Arabic: معركة وادي لكة) is the name given to a battle that, according to traditionally accepted historiography, is based on Arabic chronicles of the X and XI, took place in the Iberian Peninsula between July 19 and 26, 711 (although some sources indicate 712) near the Guadalete river (Bética) and whose consequences were decisive for the future of the peninsula. In it, the Visigothic king Rodrigo was defeated and probably lost his life at the hands of the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate commanded by Táriq ibn Ziyad. The defeat was the beginning of the rapid fall of the Visigothic State, whose military power and stability were undermined by internal struggles for the succession to the throne.

Since the 19th century, many historians have questioned the traditional location of the battle and have placed it between Medina Sidonia and the La Janda lagoon, which is why it is also called the battle of the La Janda lagoon or the Barbate River. However, the prestigious medievalist Sánchez Albornoz supported the traditional thesis that identified the Wadi Lakka with the Guadalete river as it passes near the depopulated Hispano-Roman city of Lacca (perhaps the Castrum Caesaris Salutariensis), next to the Cortijo de Casablanca thermal spring, 7 km south of Arcos de la Frontera, on the Guadalete and Majaceite River Junta.

Background

According to the sources, the Tariq chieftain was under the orders of Musa ibn Nusair, the Umayyad governor of North Africa. According to later Christian tradition, the Count of Ceuta Don Julián, governor and vassal of Don Rodrigo but with loyal ties to the previous King Witiza (who had fought and lost the war of succession against Rodrigo), would have planned the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula., making it easier for Táriq to cross the Strait of Gibraltar on the night of April 27-28, 711. This however may be nothing more than an adaptation to reality of a later medieval poem that wielded the rape of Florinda la Cava, Don Julián's daughter, by Rodrigo, as the reason for his betrayal.

In the early morning of April 28, 711, the Umayyad general Táriq landed Berber foot soldiers in Tarifa, perhaps some 7,000 although ancient chronicles increase the number of troops on both sides to 100,000 soldiers on the Visigoth side Táriq's troops took Carteia and later Algeciras, where they repulsed the attack of Visigothic provincial troops under the command of Bancho or Sancho, Rodrigo's nephew, who had gone out to meet them. Soon after, Táriq received 5,000 reinforcements sent by the caliphate. They numbered 10,000 Berbers, 2,000 Arabs.

While all this was happening, the Visigothic king was fighting in the north of the Iberian Peninsula against the Basques. The news takes two or three weeks to arrive. The crisis that the Visigothic kingdom was suffering at that time, with continuous conspiracies and fratricidal wars between the nobility to seize the throne, considerably limited Rodrigo's room for maneuver when it came to recruiting an army with which to face the invasion. being forced to accept the interested help of his previous rivals the witizanos. At any rate, he was able to hastily organize an army in Córdoba and set out to meet Táriq. Estimates of the size of the Visigothic army range from 2,500 to 40,000 men.

The Battle

The Battle of Guadaletefrom Salvador Martínez Cubells. (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid).

According to the chronicles, the clash took place in Wadi Lakka, a site that according to some historians could be located in Barbate or in Medina Sidonia itself or, according to others, which coincides with classical historiography, in the Guadalete river. For two days both sides test each other in bloody skirmishes.

Once the battle began, the sons of Witiza, who commanded the flanks, separated from the Visigothic army, leaving Rodrigo in numerical and technical inferiority against the Muslims. The Berbers decimated the encircled forces loyal to the Gothic monarch in a tough fight. Rodrigo's horse was found shot on the banks of the river, but the king's body was never found.

The Visigothic force was destroyed due to the deceit of the Witizians, the ignorance of the Berber way of fighting and the probable death of Rodrigo. Táriq proceeded to take Medina Sidonia and then marched on Córdoba, ensuing another hard battle near Écija which he also won. After these victories, before the end of the year, Táriq was able to bloodlessly seize Toledo, which had been left unprotected since Rodrigo had taken with him his comitatus and the spatarios of the royal guard of he.

Consequences

The Battle of Guadalete became the beginning of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula.

The sudden advance of the Muslim army was motivated by the subsequent confusion in the Gothic ranks after the crushing defeat of the royal army and the death of the monarch, increased by the rapid fall of the capital, which prevented the election of a new king and the establishment of a line of resistance. Far could the conspirators have supposed that their request for help to recover the throne in exchange for tributes was going to cost them so dearly and what were the true intentions of conquest of the Arabs.

In the course that events took, there were important factors that led to it, such as the numerous discontents who joined the invading forces, finding the collaboration of the Hispano-Roman population, who had no right to participate in the government (except in that of the Church) and that he saw in the new invader a possible ally against the Germans. There is also talk of the help of the Jewish population, which had been persecuted by the Visigothic Catholic monarchy, and that a large part of the rest of the population did not offer resistance, exasperated by the continuous famines and epidemics and eager for political stability.

Cover The Chronicle of King Rodrigowhich gathers the traditions over the last King Visigodo and the Christian loss of the Iberian peninsula.

Musa, suspicious of Tariq's successes, decided to intervene personally in 712 at the command of an army of 18,000 men, mostly Arabs. His goal was to restore legitimate authority, which only belonged to him in his Governor of Ifriquiya-Maghreb. The expedition, which had Toledo as its goal, started in Algeciras and continued through Carmona, Seville and Mérida until, in the Toledo region, Tariq and Musa joined forces and continued the occupation of the Ebro valley, Asturias and Galicia without meeting hardly any resistance..

Muse's son, Abd al-Aziz, meanwhile occupied the southeast quadrant, Málaga, Granada and Murcia, where he signed a pact with the Goth Teodomiro on April 5, 713, who submitted in exchange for total autonomy and that their subjects' liberties, possessions and religion be respected. In less than three years from Guadalete, almost the entire peninsula was in the hands of the Umayyad Caliphate, which then went on to harass the Merovingian Frankish kingdom.

Musa and Tariq were called to render accounts to Damascus by the caliph, and Musa, without having the power to do so, appointed his son governor (walí) of al-Andalus, whose government was aimed at consolidating Muslim rule. Some historians have questioned both the veracity and the significance of this battle. Most, however, consider it the most decisive battle of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, which led to the disappearance of the peninsular Visigothic kingdom.