Septimania

The Septimania (in French: Septimanie) constituted the western region of the Roman province of Gaul Narbonense that in 462 was ceded to the Visigoth king Theodoric II, becoming part of the Visigoth kingdom. It roughly corresponded to the modern French region of Languedoc-Roussillon.

The Septimania extended towards the northwest to a line halfway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Garonne River; in the east, the Rhône separated it from Provence; To the south its limit was formed by the Pyrenees.

Its territory is currently part of the south of France.

Origin of the name

According to the British historian Edward Arthur Thompson, the term Septimania "derives from the ancient Roman name of Béziers, Colonia Iulia Septimanorum Bacterrae, in which Septimanorum makes reference to the veteran soldiers of the Seventh Legion that Octavian had installed there three centuries earlier. The name does not mean that there were seven cities in the province; in fact, the province included the eight Catholic bishoprics of Narbonne, Nîmes, Agde, Béziers, Elne, Lodeva, Magalona and the poorly protected Carcassonne (which used to be the first target of the Frankish invaders), as well as the Têt valley.

Visigoths and Franks

After the defeat of the Visigoths before the Frankish king Clovis I at the Battle of Vouillé (507) and the collapse of the Visigoth Kingdom of Tolosa, they took King Amalric, still a child, to Hispania to guarantee his safety.. Aquitaine passed into the hands of the Franks, and Septimania, with other Visigothic territories in Gaul, was ruled by the boy's maternal grandfather, the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great, who created the province of Septimania in 509, retaining its traditional capital in Narbonne and appointing an Ostrogoth noble named Teudis as its regent. In 522, the young Amalric was proclaimed king and four years later, on the death of Theodoric, he assumed all royal powers in the territories of Hispania, including the province of Septimania, ceding Provence to his cousin Athalaric. He married Clotilda, daughter of Clovis I, but upon professing the Arian confession he found, like other royal husbands of Merovingian princesses, that the marriage brought him the punishment of a Frankish invasion, in which he lost his life in 531, in so much so that the Visigothic Arian Septimania, the last part of Gaul that remained in Visigoth hands, was officially converted to Catholicism.

In the turbulent years that preceded the fall of the Visigoth kingdom, the region did not escape noble struggles. During Wamba's reign, the Duke of Septimania, Paulus, rose up against the king in 673. He came to dominate the entire area and proclaim himself king, although he was finally defeated by Wamba.

After the Muslim invasion of Hispania, the last Visigoth king north of the Pyrenees, Ardón, resisted in Septimania for a few years. However, the Muslims, under Al-Samh ibn Malik, vali (governor) of al-Andalus, took the old province in 719. Al-Samh installed his capital from 720 in Narbonne, which they called Arbuna, offering the inhabitants, largely still Arians, generous conditions and quickly pacifying the other cities in the area. With Narbonne in its hands, and what is equally important, with its port, the Arab navy then dominated the western Mediterranean, which allowed it to quickly subdue the cities that resisted, still controlled by their Visigoth counts: Alet, Béziers, Agde, Lodève, Magalona and Nîmes. Around 721 he received reinforcements and laid siege to Toulouse, a possession that would open the doors of Aquitaine to him on the same terms as Septimania. But his plans were spoiled at the Battle of Toulouse (721), in which he suffered immense losses before Duke Odo the Great of Aquitaine, and he was wounded so seriously that he died shortly afterwards at Narbonne. However, the Arab forces firmly established in Narbonne and easily supplied by sea continued their expansion towards the east during the 720s, even penetrating as far as Autun (725), in Burgundy. However, in 731, the Berber vali of Narbonne and the region of Cerdagne, Uthman ibn Naissa, called "Munuza" by the Franks, who had recently been related by marriage to Duke Odo the Great of Aquitaine, he rebelled against the vali of al-Andalus in Córdoba, but was defeated and killed. In this way, the relatively small Arab force, commanded by the vali of Córdoba himself, Al-Gafiqi, advancing through the western part of Aquitaine, encountered Charles Martel's troops between Tours and Poitiers, and was defeated in October. 732 in the Battle of Poitiers, which cut off the Muslim advance through Western Europe and in which the Vali Al-Gafiqi also died.

After the territory around Toulouse was conquered by the Franks in 732, Pepin III turned his attention to Narbonne, but the city held firm in 737, defended by its Visigothic and Jewish population under its governor Yusuf., heir of Abd er-Rahman. Around 747, the government of the region of Septimania (and the upper mark, from the Pyrenees to the Ebro River) was granted to Aumar ben Aumar. The Gothic counts of Nîmes, Magalona, Agde and Béziers rejected the sovereignty of the vali of Córdoba in 752 and declared their loyalty to the Frankish king, perhaps led by Ansemund, count of Nîmes, who seemed to have some authority over the remaining counts. The Gothic and Frankish counts then began to besiege Narbonne, where Miló was probably the count (as successor to Count Gilbert). But Narbonne resisted. In 754, an anti-Frank reaction, led by Ermeniardo, killed Ansemond, but the uprising was ultimately unsuccessful and Radulf was appointed the new count of Narbonne by the Frankish court. Around 755 Abd al-Rahman ben Uqba replaced Aumar ben Aumar. Narbonne finally capitulated in 759 and the county was granted to Miló, the Gothic count during Muslim rule. The region of Roussillon was taken by the Franks in 760. In 767, after the fight against Wifred of Aquitaine, Albi, Rouergue, Gévaudan and Toulouse were conquered by the Franks. In 777 the valis of Barcelona, Sulayman ben al-Arabí, and Huesca, Abu Taur, offered their submission to Charlemagne, and also that of Husayn, vali of Zaragoza. When Charlemagne invaded the Upper Mark in 778, Husayn refused to submit and the Frankish troops had to retreat. In the Pyrenees, the Basques inflicted a defeat on him at Roncesvalles (August 15, 778).

The Frankish king found Septimania and the borderlands so devastated and depopulated by war, with the few inhabitants hiding in the mountains, that he made concessions of the lands that would become some of the earliest identifiable fiefdoms to the Visigoths and others. refugees. Charlemagne also founded several monasteries in Septimania, around which people gathered for his protection. Further south of Septimania, Charlemagne established the Spanish March in the borderlands of his empire.

The territory passed to Louis, king in Aquitaine, but was ruled by Frankish margraves and later by the dukes of Septimania (from 817).

The Frankish noble Bernard of Gothia (also known as Bernard of Septimania) was the ruler of these lands from 826 to 832. His career (he was beheaded in 844) was characteristic of the turbulent century IX in Septimania. His election as count of Barcelona in 826 caused a general uprising by the lords of the Catalan counties, who considered this designation as an intrusion of Frankish power. To suppress the rebellion of Berenguer of Toulouse and the Catalan counts, Louis the Pious rewarded Bernard with a series of counties, which roughly delimit the Septimania of the century IX: Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Magalona, Nimes and Uzès. However, Bernard revolted against Charles the Bald in 843. He was unsuccessful, he was arrested in Toulouse and beheaded.

Septimania known as Gothia

Septimania was known as Gothia after the reign of Charlemagne. It retained these two names while it was ruled by the counts of Toulouse during the early Middle Ages, but the southern part became better known as Roussillon, while its western part was called Foix, and the name Gothia, along with the more ancient Septimania, fell out of use during the X century, except as a traditional designation as the region fractured into feudal entities smaller, which sometimes retained the Carolingian titles, but losing their character as such, since the culture of Septimania became the culture of Languedoc. The last leader to use this term was the Count of Barcelona Borrell II, who took the title of "Duke of Gothia" ( Dux Gothicae ) to identify the space of his sovereignty.

The name Gothia was used because the area had a higher concentration of Goths, more precisely Visigoths, than the surrounding regions, since this area had been part of the Visigoth kingdom since the 17th century V and that many Visigoth nobles had taken refuge in the area after the Muslim conquest of Hispania. The rulers of this area, when it was composed of several counties, received the title of Marquises of Gothia and also Dukes of Septimania. The name of the Goths also survives in neighboring Catalonia, whose name, according to one of the proposed etymologies, would come from Gotalania, land of Goths and Alans.