The Visigothic Monarchy and the Church in Spanish Levant. The roots of a Country

Abstract

The Mozarabic Church of visigothic tradition was still strong in the late xith Century. In 1084 Sancho Ramírez, King of Aragón, tried to use the Mozarabic legend of the so called Apostolic Fellows in order to legitimate his independence against the powerful! Alfonso VI of Castile and to make easier his influence on the Mozarabs of Spanish Levant and SE. The late visigothic conquest of Ebro's valley and Catalonia made marginal Valencia lands. And so, in mid VIth Century, this was becoming an actual country. Such a distinctive condition was backed by the old urban aristocracies holding sees and monasteries. Of course, this independece specially was evidenced in the ecclesiastic matters, showing its opposition to the old and new metropolitan sees of Cartagena and Toledo. The Byzantine attack and conquest in 552 and its following war againts the Visigoths miscarried this independence, and Valencia and its see became a strategic stronghold in the gothic expansionism.