Septimania
 |
Septimania in 537 AD |
Septimania was the western region of the Roman province of
Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the
Visigothic kingdom in 462, when Septimania was ceded to
Theodoric II, king of the Visigoths. It corresponded roughly with the modern French region of
Languedoc-Roussillon.
The name derives from part of the Roman name of the city of
Béziers,
Colonia Julia Septimanorum Beaterrae, which in turn alludes to the settlement of veterans of the
Roman VII Legion in the city. Another possible origin of the name is a reference to the seven towns of the territory: today's
Elne,
Agde,
Narbonne,
Lodève,
Béziers,
Maguelonne and
Nîmes. Septimania extended to a line half-way between the
Mediterranean Sea and the
Garonne River in the northwest; in the east the
Rhône separated it from
Provence; to the south its boundary was formed by the
Pyrénées.
*507: The
Frankish king
Clovis defeated the
Visigoths in the
Battle of Vouillé. Afterwards, the child-king
Amalaric was carried for safety into the
Iberian peninsula.
Aquitania passed into the hands of the Franks, and Septimania, with other Visigothic territories in Gaul, was ruled by Amalaric's maternal grandfather,
Theodoric the Great.
*509: Theodoric the Great created the first kingdom of Septimania, retaining its traditional capital at Narbonne. He appointed as his regent an
Ostrogothic nobleman named Theudis.
*522: The young Amalaric was proclaimed king.
*526: Theodoric died. Amalaric assumed full royal power in the
Iberian peninsula and Septimania, relinquishing Provence to his cousin
Athalaric. He married Clotilda, daughter of Clovis, but found, as other royal husbands of Merovingian princesses found, that the entanglement brought on him the penalty of a Frankish invasion.
*531: Amalaric lost his life in the Frankish invasion, and
Arian Visigothic Septimania was the last part of Gaul to remain in Visigothic hands.
* 534 Prince Theudebert son of Theuderic of Austrasia (Merovingian Frankish not Gothic) invaded Septimania in concert with Prince Gunthar son of King Chlothar. Gunthar stopped at Rodez and did not invade Septimania. Theudebert took and held the country as far as Beziers and Carbiriers from which he took the woman Deuteria as a wife. Theudebert and his half brother Childebert invaded Spain as far as Saragossa 534-538. At some point around this time, the Visigoths regained the territory they lost in this invasion.
* 586 Merovingian of Burgundy King Guntram raised a force to invade Septimania as a prelude to conquest of Spain. His forces plundered from Nimes to Carcassone (where the Frankish Count Tereniolus of Limoges was killed) but were unable to take the walled cities. Visigothic King Recared came in response from Spain to Narbonne and as far as Nimes and invaded nearby Frankish terrotories as far as Tolosa for plunder and to punish the Franks for the invasion (Gregory of Tours Book VIII 30-31 and 38. Frankish rebel Dukes Desiderius and Austrovald at that time in control of
* 587 It came under Catholic Rule with the conversion of Recared, the King of the Visigoths in 587. At that time Arian Bishop Athaloc and Counts Granista and Wildigern revolted against Recared in Septimania but were defeated (Gregory of Tours Book IX 15 and John of Biclar) Most of th christian province of the population were already Catholic and Arian Christians largely converted with the death of Athaloc soon after Recared's converstion.
* 589 Merovingian King of Burgundy Guntram again tried to invade Septimania sending Austrovald to Carcassone and Boso and Antestius to other cities. King Recarred sent General Claudius who defeated the Franks and preserved the territory of Septimania.
The
Moors, under
Al-Samh ibn Malik the governor-general of
al-Andalus swept up the Iberian peninsula.
*719: The Moors overran Septimania.
*720: Al-Samh set up his capital at
Narbonne, which the Moors called Arbūna. He offered the still largely
Arian inhabitants generous terms.
*Al-Samh quickly pacified the other cities. With Narbonne secure, and equally important, its port, for the Arab mariners were masters now of the Western Mediterranean, he swiftly subdued the largely unresisting cities, still controlled by their Visigoth counts: taking
Alet and
Béziers,
Agde,
Lodève,
Maguelonne and
Nîmes [
1].
*721: By now Al-Samh was reinforced and ready to lay siege to
Toulouse, a possession that would open up
Aquitaine to him on the same terms as Septimania. But his plans were overthrown in the disastrous
Battle of Toulouse (721), with immense losses, in which al-Samh was so seriously wounded that he soon died at Narbonne.
*720's:
Arab forces soundly based in Narbonne and easily resupplied by sea, struck eastwards.
*725: Arab raid on
Autun.
*731: The
Berber wali of Narbonne and the region of
Cerdanya,
Uthman ibn Naissa, called "Munuza" by the Franks, who was recently linked by marriage to duke Eudes of Aquitaine, revolted against
Córdoba, and was defeated and killed.
*732 October: An Islamic invasion force made up primarily of Berber and Arab cavalry under
Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi encountered
Charles Martel and his veteran Frankish army between
Tours and
Poitiers and was defeated, and Abd er-Rahman was killed, at what the majority of historians consider the macrohistorical "
Battle of Tours" that stopped the Moorish advance.
*732: The
Franks took the territory round
Toulouse.
Charles Martel directed his attention to Narbonne.
*737: Charles Martel destroyed Arles, Avignon, and Nimes, but unsuccessfully attacked Narbonne, which was defended by its Goths, and Jews under the command of its governor Yusuf, 'Abd er-Rahman's heir. Having crushed the relief force at the River Berre, he left Narbonne isolated.
*around 747: The government of the Septimania region (and the Upper Mark, from the
Pyrénées to the river
Ebro) was given to
Aumar ben Aumar.
*752: The
Gothic counts of
Nimes,
Melguelh,
Agde and
Beziers refused allegiance to the emir at
Cordoba and declared their loyalty to the Frankish king. The count of Nimes,
Ansemund, had some authority over the remaining counts. The Gothic counts and the Franks then began to besiege
Narbonne, where
Miló was probably the count (as succesor of the count
Gilbert), but Narbonne resisted.
*754: An anti-Frank reaction, led by
Ermeniard, killed Ansemund, but the uprising was without success and
Radulf was designated new count by the Frankish court.
*About 755:
Abd al-Rahman ben Uqba replaced Aumar ben Aumar.
*759: Charles Martel's son,
Pippin the Younger bessiged Narbonne, which capitulated. The county was granted to
Miló, who was the Gothic count in Muslim times.
*760: The Franks took the region of
Roussillon.
*767: After the fight against
Waifred of Aquitaine,
Albi,
Rouergue,
Gévaudan, and the city of
Toulouse were conquered.
*777: The
wali of
Barcelona,
Sulayman al-Arabi, and the wali of
Huesca,
Abu Taur, offered their submission to Charlemagne and also the submission of
Husayn, wali of
Zaragoza.
*778:
Charlemagne invaded the Upper Mark. Husayn refused allegiance and Charlemagne had to retreat.
*778 August 15: In the Pyrenees, the
Basques defeated Charlemagne's forces in the
Roncesvalles *Charlemagne found Septimania and the borderlands so devastated and depopulated by warfare, with the inhabitants hiding among the mountains, that he made grants of land that were some of the earliest identifiable
fiefs to Visigothic and other refugees. He also founded several monasteries in Septimania, around which the people gathered for protection. Beyond Septimania to the south Charlemagne established the
Hispanic Marches in the borderlands of his empire. Septimania passed to Louis, king in Aquitaine, but it was governed by Frankish margraves and then dukes (from 817) of Septimania.
*826: The Frankish noble
Bernat of Septimania (also, Bernat of Gothia) became ruler of Septimania and the Hispanic Marches and ruled them until 832. His career characterized the turbulent 9th century in Septimania. His appointment as
Count of Barcelona in 826 occasioned a general uprising of the Catalan lords at this intrusion of Frankish power. For suppressing
Berenguer of Toulouse and the Catalans,
Louis the Pious rewarded Bernat with a series of counties, which roughly delimit 9th century Septimania: Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Magalona, Nimes and Uzés.
*843: Bernard rose against Charles the Bald.
*844: He was apprehended at Toulouse and beheaded.
Septimania became known as
Gothia after the reign of
Charlemagne. It retained these two names while it was ruled by the
counts of Toulouse during early part of the
Middle Ages, but the southern part became more familiar as
Roussillon and the west became known as
Foix, and the name "Gothia" (along with the older name "Septimania") faded away during the 10th century, except as a traditional designation as the region fractured into smaller feudal entities, which sometimes retained Carolingian titles, but lost their Carolingian character, as the culture of Septimania evolved into the culture of
Languedoc.
The name was used because the area was populated by a higher concentration of
Goths than in surrounding regions. The rulers of this area, when joined with several counties, were titled the
Marquesses of Gothia (and, also, the
Dukes of Septimania).
|
Administrative building for the region in August 2005, with a Septimania banner |
After being elected head of the
Languedoc-Roussillon region in
2004,
Georges Frêche launched the idea of changing the name of the region to the ancient name of Septimania, or
Septimanie in French. The Regional Council started to use this name widely, without a mandate from the people. There was stauch opposition from some citizens, notably from Catalanists in Roussillon ("North Catalonia") who felt that the new name culturally excluded them from the region.
Those in favour of the change say that the modern region of Languedoc-Roussillon corresponds to neither ancient Languedoc or ancient Roussillon exactly, and that it is a clunky name.
Those against the change say that the modern region does not correspond exactly to ancient Septimania, and that it sounds like "
septicaemia". They call supporters "septimaniacs".
In September 2005, this opposition led to Georges Frêche giving up his idea, and cutting almost all use of the name. He declared that he still believed in it but could not go ahead without a mandate.
The area of Septimania started showing up in popular culture after the publication of the 1982
pseudohistorical book
Holy Blood Holy Grail and the later fame around the related 2003 bestselling novel,
The Da Vinci Code. This resulted in Septimania being mentioned on television "debunking" documentaries such as the 2006
Da Vinci Declassified on
The Learning Channel.
In
Holy Blood Holy Grail, the claim was made that as part of the territory disputes around Septimania in the 8th century, a small Jewish kingdom was established by Charles Martel's son
Pippin the Younger, as a way of tipping the power balance in the embattled city of Narbonne. According to the book, a pact was made to this effect in 759, and when the Jewish population rose up in 768 and evicted the Muslim controllers, Pippin kept his part of the bargain and established an official Jewish principality. It was to owe allegiance to Pippin (called "Pepin" in the book), but otherwise maintain independence. The installed ruler was allegedly a man named Aymery, who, when received into the ranks of Frankish nobility, took the name Theodoric, or Thierry. The man's origin was uncertain, with the book claiming that he was possibly of
Merovingian descent, or may have been a native of Baghdad who was descended from Babylonian Jews during the
Babylonian captivity. The Merovingian claim was important to the book, since the actual Merovingian dynasty had been destroyed in 679, when King
Dagobert II had been assassinated, though the book claimed that his son had been rescued and transported to the home of his mother, in the Septimania region, in the village that is now known as
Rennes-le-Chateau.
The book further stated that Theodoric was recognized by both Pepin and the caliph of Baghdad as "the seed of the royal house of David", and married a woman named Alda, who was an aunt to
Charlemagne. The region was endowed with estates "held in
freehold from the
Carolingian monarchs" and was granted tracts of Church land as well, against the wishes of
Pope Stephen III. Theodoric ruled the principality, and this crown was later given to his son,
William of Gellone, whose bloodline later produced the Dukes of
Aquitaine.
The reason for the book's claims, was an attempt to prove a blood link between the
House of David and Frankish royalty, specifically the Merovingians, as a way of showing that the Merovingians were the descendants of a bloodline starting with the child of
Jesus and
Mary Magdalene. However, it was later shown that many of the medieval documents which the book's authors had relied upon for research, were actually forgeries which had been produced as part of the
Priory of Sion hoax.
*
Archibald R. Lewis, "The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050"*
Ian Meadows, "The Arabs in Occitania"
