Celts in Spain

Caligo

Banned
In this timeline we'll take a look at a scenario which would result in a continued presense of Celts in Northwest Spain up to the modern day. As many of you know Celtic was the first indo-european language spoken in the Iberian pennisula prior to Rome's Latinization of the penninsula. There was also a second arrival of Celts to Spain during the 6th century AD. Britons fleeing from the Anglo-Saxon Invasion of Britain left the island for Brittany, France as well as Galicia, Spain. However, the Britons of Spain where eventually assimulated by the surrounding culture.

In this timeline the King of León, Alfonso IX, requests mercenaries from a Welsh Prince in the 12th century to fight in the reconquista. Alfonso promises these mercenaries lands in northern Galicia as payment for their service. This Welsh Prince along with a few thousand civilians accompany these mercenaries in resettling in Galicia. These Celtic-Galicians become a ruling minority in Galicia. Over the subsequent centuries the Welsh language these Celts brought over develops into a seperate Brythonic language of its own. This language becomes known as Galician while the Romance language spoken by the majority of Galicia is known as Galician-Portuguese. However, All Galicians consider themselves Celts whether they speak a Celtic language or not. Galicia is known as a Celtic Nation along with Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany.

1280px-Bandeira_galega_civil.svg.png
[Flag of Galicia]

sketch-1561034544792.jpg

[Modern language family map of Western Europe.]
 
It would be more poetic to use Irish rather than Welsh mercenaries, as the Gaels according to legend originated in Galicia. Also, this would allow more influx of Celtic speakers with the Flight of the Earls and Flight of the Wild Geese assuming these arent buttsrflied.
 
Alfonso IX wasn't doing much with the Reconquista beyond some conquests in Extremadura, and fact of the matter is that he was once excommunicated for attacking his cousin Alfonso VIII of Castile shortly after his defeat at Alarcos. Furthermore, the Leonese were underrepresented at the victory at Las Navas de Toledo. He would be more likely to use mercenaries to fight Castile as opposed to participating in the Reconquista.

Now, Alfonso's son Fernando III, who would eventually unify his father's kingdom of Leon with his own Castile once Alfonso XI dies, was perhaps the greatest Christian conqueror of the Reconquista, so he would probably be thrilled to take on mercenaries into his armies. With all the new land, he needs more Christians to repopulate newly conquered territory. Alfonso VIII would probably also be thrilled to take on Welsh or Irish mercenaries too, especially if he's licking his wounds after Alarcos.

If you want Welsh mercenaries specifically, well, a lot of them will suddenly be available on the market in the 1280s after Edward I conquers Wales in 1283. His brother-in-law Alfonso X of Castile dies in 1284, who's successor Sancho IV had no real obligations towards England despite his half-aunt Eleanor being Edward's wife. Sancho might not have qualms about taking some Welsh refugees who decided they no longer wanted to live under the iron fist of Longshanks.
 

Caligo

Banned
@Arcavius well actually I think it would be more poetic for them to ve Welsh. This could have been the inspiration for the Prince Madoc legend. I fear the Flight of the Earls & Wild Geese would have occurred too late for their language to diverge into one of its own.

@Ivan Lupo Great! Thanks you really added great detail to my original tl
 
@Arcavius well actually I think it would be more poetic for them to ve Welsh. This could have been the inspiration for the Prince Madoc legend. I fear the Flight of the Earls & Wild Geese would have occurred too late for their language to diverge into one of its own.

My point was that the later flights could reinforce a medieval core of Goidelic speakers if necessary.
 
Irish Galloglass mercenaries fought in European Battlefield for Centuries.
It would be more poetic to use Irish rather than Welsh mercenaries, as the Gaels according to legend originated in Galicia. Also, this would allow more influx of Celtic speakers with the Flight of the Earls and Flight of the Wild Geese assuming these arent buttsrflied.
 
This is a nice idea, and yes, you could have the leader of the mercenaries be a Prince Madog ab Owain Gwynedd! But if they're going to become a 'ruling minority' they will inevitably lose the language within 200 years as they assimilate to the majority population and their leaders intermarry with other hispanic christian nobility. They'll remember their Welsh ancestry, but - it'll be a bit like the Normans in England.

What you need is for the Welsh to settle or be settled in a body in a compact and coherent area where they form a majority at all levels of society and so maintain their language and culture. A sort of 'Little Wales beyond the sea' if you like, similar to what must have happened in Armorica in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Reconquista perhaps provides an opportunity for them to be settled in a depopulated district; they can be tasked with holding part of the frontier against the saracens. Lack of much contact with Wales plus being surrounded by romance speakers will mean that the language diverges and becomes separate from Welsh.
 
This is a nice idea, and yes, you could have the leader of the mercenaries be a Prince Madog ab Owain Gwynedd! But if they're going to become a 'ruling minority' they will inevitably lose the language within 200 years as they assimilate to the majority population and their leaders intermarry with other hispanic christian nobility. They'll remember their Welsh ancestry, but - it'll be a bit like the Normans in England.

What you need is for the Welsh to settle or be settled in a body in a compact and coherent area where they form a majority at all levels of society and so maintain their language and culture. A sort of 'Little Wales beyond the sea' if you like, similar to what must have happened in Armorica in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Reconquista perhaps provides an opportunity for them to be settled in a depopulated district; they can be tasked with holding part of the frontier against the saracens. Lack of much contact with Wales plus being surrounded by romance speakers will mean that the language diverges and becomes separate from Welsh.

Not really there can be a cultural diffusion of Welsh and by extension Celtic language and practices on the people of Galicia, especially if they are slightly more isolated from the rest of Iberia. You might see the rise of a Hiberno-Iberic culture at the end of it.

Also on a separate note the existence of a Welsh-descended Galicia might mean that the Navarrese might also retain their Basque culture to a larger extant.
 

Caligo

Banned
@P L Richards well perhaps these Celtic-Galicians assimulated the Hispano-Galicians into their culture and language. Perhaps this Celtic-Galician language was the majority language in Galicia until the Franco's Spain when the language was suppressed & began to decline like in much of the Celtic world. Today the language only holds a majority status in the on the north coast of Galicia like in my map.
 
@P L Richards well perhaps these Celtic-Galicians assimulated the Hispano-Galicians into their culture and language. Perhaps this Celtic-Galician language was the majority language in Galicia until the Franco's Spain when the language was suppressed & began to decline like in much of the Celtic world. Today the language only holds a majority status in the on the north coast of Galicia like in my map.

Unfortunately not if it happens in the way you suggest. They will contribute something to local Galician culture, but not their language, they'll be too diluted and as I suggested previously they will lose their Welsh. They'll be like the Goths and the Suebi before them. As an elite minority they won't be strong enough to impose the language on the rest of the population., since they're a one-off migration. The only ways they can preserve the language and culture is by being granted their own area, as I've already suggested, or having continuing migrations - they keep coming and coming, and in the end swamp the existing inhabitants.

In fact my feeling is that the best way to have a Celtic Galicia is to have the focus of the Brythonic migrations of the 5th and 6th centuries be on Galicia rather than Brittany, so that they do swamp the local inhabitants. See my post from January on 'Insular Celtic domination of Europe':

Hm, very difficult to have them 'dominate' Europe, but much more than OTL is possible. Eg at the same time that Britons were migrating to Brittany - 5th and early 6th centuries, there was a parallel, but very much smaller migration to Galicia in the Iberian peninsula. We know very little about this; it appears to have had few longterm consequences. Now, supposing the main focus of Brythonic migration was Galicia and not Brittany. They are welcomed by the not very numerous local population, defeat the Suebi, and immigration is so overwhelming that by 600 CE Brythonic is the dominant speech throughout Galicia. The kingdom(s) they found there holds off the Visigoths. The Islamic invasion still happens much as in OTL, and as in OTL Galicia is mostly spared, and rapidly regains its independance. At this time the language is consolidated, and, because it's all one realm, even spreads into Asturias to some extent.

The Brytho-Galician kingdom takes part in the Reconquista, and the language naturally spreads south into the reclaimed lans of Lusitania, ie Portugal. Subsequent history runs parallel to ours; Lusitania remains independant of Spain, develops a maritime empire, and colonises half of South America. The language, though influenced by Iberian Romance, remains strongly Celtic. I envisage it as being a bit like the Vannes dialect of Breton. Even when the king is from a foreign dynasty, the aristocracy remains firmly Brythonic in speech and culture, and patronises poetry in the traditional Celtic manner.

Voila! Portugal, Galicia, Brazil, and Western Asturias all Celtic speaking!
 
Top