During the decline of the Roman Empire, the power vacuum arose and the razzias of the Germanic peoples started. In AD 409, the Alans, Vandals and Suevi entered the Iberian peninsula through the Pyrenees. In 418, the Visigoths settled in Aquitaine. The Western Roman Empire was brought to an end in 476. In 481, the Visigoths occupied Pamplona, as well as other Vascon cities and other places of the Tarraconensis province. At that time, the fairly-Romanized Basque-Romans dominate essentially the political scene of the Vascon cities.

The Frankish expansion throughout Western Europe began in the year 486, in which the last Roman possessions of Gaul were terminated when Clovis defeated Syagrius at Soissons. In 506, the Franks carried out several campaigns against the Alemanni that were defeated in Tolbiac. In 507, the Franks defeated the Visigoths in Vouillé, what brought an end to the Visigothic realm of Toulouse and made them focus only on the Iberian peninsula. In 531 they conquered the kingdom of the Thuringii and in 534, the Franks subdued the Burgundians. As a consequence of all these events, there was established the Regnum Francorum or Kingdom of the Franks under Chlothar I, which extended from La Manche to central Danube and from the Saale river to, theoretically, the Pyrenees. It is said 'theoretically' because Aquitaine and Vasconia represented always a real headache for Franks and Visigoths that even Charlemagne, who had the most powerful army of the time, could not solve at his will.

The relations between Vascones, Visigoths and Franks were not good and wars followed each other continuously for three centuries. The successive attempts of each Visigothic king to subdue the Vascones were unsuccessful. The proof of this inability for conquering Vasconia is shown in the numerous references about the subjugation of the Vascones by each king, indicating that they were never able to achieve their purpose. Among the different references, there is an example about the Suebian king Rechiar (448-456), who, allied with the Visigoths, attacked Vasconia: 'Vasconias depraedatur' (he devastates the Vasconias). Another example, during the reign of the Visigothic king Suintila (621-631): 'Vascones devicit' (he defeated the Vascones), or the following one that was expressed during Wamba's time (672-680), in which Vasconia supported militarily the rebellion led by dux Paul in the Visigothic Septimania (ancient region of Gaul that included northern Catalonia and some northernmost territories), a situation that the Vascon army took advantage to conquer the Visigothic territories of Cantabria: 'prius feroces Vascones in finibus Cantabrie perdomuit' (he first subdued the fierce Vascones at the ends of Cantabria).

From today's perspective of the small Basque territory, the centuries-old inability of the Visigoths to conquer Vasconia is, at the very least, surprising. It must be taken into account that in those days the Vascones (as the Basques were denominated at that time) extended throughout the Pyrenean area up to Andorra (it means in the Basque language, 'the land covered by bushes') and northwards, up to the Garonne (middle France). In other words, the Basques covered a territory that was nine times larger than today, and they had a vast and well-trained army with the Franks as its main enemy. In fact, when the Arabs invaded the Iberian peninsula (711) while the Visigothic king Roderic was fighting once more against the Vascones, there were Vascon fortifications at the Loire (near Paris, northern France) whose purpose was to defend the territories of the Basque-Aquitanian alliance from the continuous Frankish incursions. Several decades later, those incursions would be commanded by Charlemagne that in the end, would devastate the Duchy of Vasconia in revenge for the killing of his nephew Roland at the battle of Roncevaux Pass (Navarre), where the Vascon army defeated the Frankish troops.

The most remarkable Visigothic and Frankish campaigns and expeditions against the Vascones since the 6th century to the Arab invasion of the peninsula are listed below:

 

Chronology	Events
541	Frankish expedition of kings Childebert and Chlothar.
581	Visigothic campaign of Liuvigild. Defeat of the Frankish dux Bladast at the hands of the Vascones.
590	Visigothic campaign of Reccared.
602	Frankish expedition of Theudebert II, king of Austrasia and Theuderic II, king of Burgundy. Both imposed Genial on the Vascones as a Dux.
610 - 612	Visigothic campaign of Gundemar.
621	Visigothic campaign of Suintila
626	Vascon uprising in the time of Dux Aeghyna, succesor of Genial.
635	Large Frankish expedition of Dagobert. Partial victory of the Vascones over the Frankish Dux Arimbert.
642	Visigothic campaign of Chindasuinth.
653	Rebellion of Froya against Chindasuinth. The uprising was supported by Vascon forces. The Vascon army attacked and looted Zaragoza, where they took a large number of prisoners.
671	Basque-Aquitanian uprising against the Frankish power.
672	Merovingian punitive expedition of Chlothar III against the Vascones. Paul's rebellion in Septimania against the Visigothic king Wamba. The Vascon army supports Paul.
711	Roderic's campaign against the Vascones, a situation that the Arabs took advantage to invade the peninsula.

 

As already mentioned in the previous chapter concerning the Roman Empire, the Vascones (designation used to refer to all the Basque tribes since the Late Roman period) have been considered, until recent times, a savage and primitive people without any internal structure. The archaeological findings in the necropolises of Aldaieta (near Vitoria-Gazteiz, Álava) and Buruzaga (Elortz, Navarre) make the study of the Basque history from 6th to 8th centuries be reconsidered, as well as the revision of the findings from the same time in Pamplona. The funerary offerings that have been found in those necropolises show a good number of weapons that are completely different from the ones of the Visigoths or Hispano-Visigoths, which had no weapons. On the other hand, there is the use of a kind of weaponry consisting of battle-axes, lances, swords or daggers that could only be found in Aquitaine so far. Furthermore, pottery, bronze utensils and glass vessels have been found, as well as wooden cubes of a specific style that once more, could only be found in Aquitaine, one of the most Romanized areas of western Europe.

Therefore, the burials from that period have nothing to do with the primitive, rough and savage image with which the Vascones of the time have been described. The Vascon burials totally differ from the Visigothic or Hispano-Visigothic ones and at the same time, they are similar to the ones from Aquitaine. The above-mentioned necropolises demonstrate the fact that with the decline of the Roman Empire and later invasion of the Germanic tribes, it began to emerge a new political power on both sides of the Pyrenees, continuer of the Roman way of life, in which the Vascon and Aquitanian profiles blur in the Merovingian (Frankish) chronicles themselves. A new Basque-Aquitanian power that constituted the last stronghold of western Europe that defended the continuity of the Roman institutions and way of life against the Germanic invasions, facing the Franks to north and Visigoths to south. A power that was able to develop a solid network of defensive fortifications with effective and regularly renewable armament, a fact that allowed it to fight continuously for three centuries.

 

 

 

 

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