What can be done to save Visigothic Spain?

Depends what you call save.

Preventing Arabo-Berber conquest? Relativly easy. Delay the inevitable civil war by some years and/or makes Arab an even harder time taking on Africa and Maghreb, make 709 or 710 raids being crushed, Musa ibn Nussayr called back because of a change in caliphal policies...

Or simply have Roderic defeating Tariq in 711. With enough -relative- stability, you may see an earlier Berber Revolt that would make the threat going away.

Preventing Visigothic decline? That's quite harder. Even with preventing Arabo-Berber conquest, the visigothic kingship and unity was quite fucked up.
Since the Ostrogothic protectorate and the end of Balthi, no dynasty managed to remain in throne more than two generations.

Conciliarism obviously failed to stabilize the succession (and was rather used as a legitimisation institution) and regional particularism seems to have been quite stubborn : Gaul and Tarraconesa openly rebelled when Paul wanted to crave a distinct kingdom, and sub-kingship on distinct provinces wasn't uncommon.

At this point, visigothic kingship was stuck in a vicious loop where calling foreigners to help was the best way to temporary get out : Franks in 632, for example, but also Arabo-Berbers in 711. Without the latter, I'd have little doubt that Franks would have been called back by one of the sides in presence maybe ending with a Frankish protectorate, similar to the Ostrogothic, at least in the north-eastern portions.

You plausibly may end with an established west/east polarisation in the peninsula (remember Roderic's capital was Merida).

It doesn't mean Visigoths were doomed, of course, but their survival as an independent power depends heavily from the weakness and issues of their neighbours (there Franks and Berbers) while they were going down in a spiral of civil war. How would Spania look like at this point may be a bit different (more divided territorially to begin with).

I don't think that the Councils may have survived as a political-religious institution, at least not as a central one : a bit too useless and essentially tied to a prestige and legitimizing feature.
 

Binturong

Banned
I suppose the question isn't very specific...


I guess I'm interested in any one of the following... not necessarily all of them...


A. Simply, but permanently butterflying the Moorish Conquest.
B. Making Visigothic Spain more of a regional power (maybe with a fairly early PoD regarding Spain's conquest by the Visigoths and the earliest days of the kingdom?).
C. Making a more centralized kingdom, a la France, out of the Visigothic Kingdom using PoD.
 
I suppose the question isn't very specific...

A. Simply, but permanently butterflying the Moorish Conquest.
See above : you have a whole net of non-conflicting possibilities to make the Arabo-Berber conquest butterflied or failing.

B. Making Visigothic Spain more of a regional power (maybe with a fairly early PoD regarding Spain's conquest by the Visigoths and the earliest days of the kingdom?).
Well, it *was* a regional power in its time. It did suffered from some issues.

The first of which was homeism, and hostility towards orthodoxy during Euric's reign. It can be butterflied, but I'd expect Visigoths to take less of Gaul and Spain as it was associated with an expansionist and anti-Roman (in the geopolitical sense) policy, and making them less of the huge player they were.

Eventually, Alaric II tried to smoothen things and to pull a Theodoric regarding religous differences (aka, tolerating orthodox, homeans and others), but it failed (and I don't think it would giving the multiple hostilities).

It's possible that the Battle of Vouillé could turn differently, though, as with Alaric living on (and stabilizing the Balthi succession with possibly keeping more of Gaul than IOTL) and/or defeating Clovis.
At this point, though, Franks became a power to be reckon with and even without Clovis you'd probably see the maintain of a Frankish-Burgundian alliance (at least until one of the Franks simply conquers Burdungy, that is).

It would still allow Visigoths to look a bit more as Ostrogoths when it come to rule, but I don't think it would really butterfly away religious issues (that would certainly allow for more Frankish intervention), revolts (as Peter in Ebre's region) and particularism (with a likely establishment of sub-kingdoms), meaning the same problems than IOTL, maybe atoned.

I suppose you could easily make Goths orthodox from the beggining, having Valentians having a nicean religious policy instead of homean, and therefore augmenting chances having nicean missionaries converting Goths.
It would certainly, however, change many things regarding Gothic history in the IVth and Vth history without certainty to see them settling in Aquitaine to begin with and then in Spain.

C. Making a more centralized kingdom, a la France, out of the Visigothic Kingdom using PoD.
I suppose you mean either "classical" Merovingian Francia or later Carolingian Francia, rather than contemporary late Merovingian?

You'd definitly need a dynastical stability. Ostrogoths fucked it up during their rule in Spain, so you'd have to boost one of the short dynasties : I'd think making Liuva/Liuvigild/Reccared/Liuva II dynasty living on being the best chance.

At this point, councils weren't yet the tentative of stabilisating institution it became, and you had a chance to establish a dynastic succession rather than legitimisation of coup and its transmission. Not that of a big chance, though : two centuries of political troubles let traces, and nobody was that interested on a strong kingship safe orthodox clergy (and that blostered anti-clerical and anti-royal revolts à la Witteric).

I suppose Liuva II managing to defeat Witteric would help, but that would be but one of the obstacles for a young king, and it would be a given to have more revolts for various reasons. It could be defeated, and really helps having a stronger kingdom, but it wouldn't be that easy.
 
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