In Asimov's Foundation trilogy, there is an Empire in its last days, and as it crumbled many succeeded it, forging their own path.

One state gained by adopting the legacy of a crumbling Empire, though it took a thousand years for the gain to materialize.

Story in the evening ..
Recaredo was born around 560 to Leovigildo. They lived in the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. The Visigoths held rule over a large part of the peninsula after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West in 476. 1/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reccared_I#/media/File:Recared
The 550s saw the Visigoths in a state of civil war, with the King Agila struggling against Atanagildo. With help from Constantinople, Atanagildo deposed Agila and became King. But this also led to Constantinople acquiring area in the peninsula. 2/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visigothic_Kingdom#/media/File
The presence of Constantinople changed the power equations in the peninsula. The people of the Roman Empire, including in the Iberian peninsula, followed the Roman version of Christianity, updated after Council of Chalcedon in 451. But Visigoths followed Arian Christianity. 3/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcedonian_Christianity#/medhttps://cdn.britannica.com/62/161162-050-5DD636AB/Ulfilas-Ch
King Atanagildo was unable to remove Roman authority from the peninsula. After his death in 568, the Visigoths elected another King - Liuva, brother of Leovigildo. Leovigildo married the King's widow, Gosvinta. Leovigildo succeeded his brother as King in 573. 4/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liuvigild#/media/File:Leovigil
Leovigildo campaigned to unite the Iberian peninsula under his rule and was largely successful. He had conquered the Kingdom of the Suevi by 585. He also encouraged the population to take up Arian Christianity, but was not as successful. 5/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reccopolis#/media/File:Iberia_
Instead, Recaredo's elder brother, Hermenegildo, left Arian Christianity and rebelled against his father in 581. But Leovigildo defeated his son, who was later exiled and executed. Recaredo succeeded his father as King in 586. 6/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermenegild#/media/File:Baptis
Recaredo, however, took a different stance on religion from his father. In 589, at the Council of Toledo, he accepted Roman Christianity and initiated conversion of his Kingdom to the Roman faith, thereby uniting the Iberian peninsula in faith, at least in theory. 7/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reccared_I#/media/File:Reccare
Recaredo was succeeded by his son, Liuva, in 601. But Liuva was quickly deposed in 603, threatening to reverse Recaredo's change in religion. But after an initial period of instability, Recaredo's change got reinforced. In 621, Recaredo's younger son, Suíntila, became King. 8/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visigothic_Kingdom#/media/File
In 624, Suíntila conquered the remaining part of the Iberian peninsula ruled by Constantinople and united the Iberian peninsula under one rule. But the Kingdom did not last long. In 711, Umayyads began their conquest of the peninsula and had captured most of it by 718. 9/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Covadonga#/media/Filhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus#/media/File:Al-Anda
But a small Kingdom stayed on under Pelayo, who defeating the Umayyads at Covadonga. The next seven centuries saw Christian Kingdoms work, at times, together, to retake the peninsula, with the help of the Church in Rome - A mission that became complete in 1492 with Granada. 10/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus#/media/File:Califathttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquista#/media/File:Spain_

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More from @Arby_K

17 Dec
It is kinda odd to listen to the @TheRestHistory presenter (Not sure if it was Holland or Sandbrook) talk of reading about the Burgundians when they were 17 or Bart van Loo talk of not studying about them in school earlier.

Since I had read about them when I was 12. 1/5
Of course, it was only a couple of pages and I didn't even even know they were related to the French Kings at the time. 2/5

And this deep dive / pet project cleared up many of the nuances of European history for me.

The obvious question then is why is someone who has never travelled outside Asia tweeting on European history (and not on Indian history).



3/5
Read 5 tweets
14 Dec
There was once a great Kingdom stretching across continents.

But at its peak, it got relegated into being just one Kingdom for a King with many crowns.

Until it rose up and got back its bragging rights, though as a spent force, like its former masters.

Story in the evening ...
João de Bragança was born to Teodosio de Bragança, Duke of Bragança and Ana de Velasco y Girón in 1604. The Duchy of Bragança was created in 1442 for Afonso, Count of Barcelos and an illegitimate son of Portuguese King João, by his nephew, Afonso, the then King of Portugal. 1/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_IV_of_Portugal#/media/Fil
The House of Bragança retained their influence in Portugal, even after the Portuguese Royal family died out. João's grandmother, Catarina, was among the contenders, but was overtaken by the Spanish King, Felipe, who also defeated his illegitimate cousin, António, in battle. 2/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_succession_crisis_ohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Portuguese_Successi
Read 11 tweets
13 Dec
.@bartvanloo talks of the Burgundians who almost carved out a nation in between France and Germany.

(The first of those nations came a century after they were gone)

It is interesting to note that the history of the Burgundians are not commonly taught in the Low Countries. 1/5
The Burgundy "project" as it ended up took a century in making when four successive Dukes of Burgundy acquired a large part of what we call the Low Countries. 2/5

Burgundy, like Lorraine, and to an extent, Switzerland, were the successors of a failed partition of the Carolingian Empire - Middle Francia. While France and Germany fought over it, it got divided into many parts which showed independent character. 3/5

Read 5 tweets
10 Dec
An enterprising King, but born illegitimate.

A Pope felt threatened, calls for mercenaries.

An unlikely King emerges, from a city that has spawned many Kings and many royal dynasties.

A Kingdom gets divided; two Kingdoms masquerading as the same.

Story in the evening ...
Charles was born in 1227 to King Louis VIII of France & Blanca de Castilla. Born posthumously, Charles had a long list of elder brothers including the eldest, the new King of France, Louis IX. It is likely a career with the Church awaited Prince Charles, but it wasn't to be. 1/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_Anjou#/media/File
In 1246, he married Countess Beatrice of Provence and Forcalquier. The same year, his brother installed him as the Count of Anjou and Maine in France. Anjou and Maine had been seized by their grandfather in 1203 from the Angevin Kings of England. 2/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rulers_of_Provence#/me
Read 11 tweets
7 Dec
A noble seeking great heights, gets crowned as an Emperor.

But only in the last days of the Empire.

Betrayed by his own kin and murdered, his grandson would play an unfortunate role in reviving the Empire decades later.

Story in the evening ...
Berengar was born around 845 to Eberhard, Margrave of Friuli and Gisela, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Louis. Friuli was one of the border realms of the Kingdom of Italy and part of the larger Carolingian Holy Roman Empire. 1/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
The Empire got divided many times after the death of Emperor Louis in 840, but the position of the Emperor persisted. Berengar became Margrave of Friuli in 874, after the death of his elder brother. His half-cousin, Louis, ruled Italy at the time. 2/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
Read 11 tweets
3 Dec
History has many who transformed their region only for it to fail with their end or soon after it. Asimov "called" them Mules.

One such Prince seized his cousin's Kingdom and conquered many others.

But his lasting legacy turned out to be a boundary.

Story in the evening ...
Offa was born around 730 to Thingfrith. Thingfrith may have been a descendant of Pybba, who had been King of Mercia in the 7th century. At the time of his birth, Mercia was ruled by Æthelbald, who may have been Thingfrith's second cousin. 1/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offa_of_Mercia#/media/File:Off
Mercia was one of the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms formed after the collapse of the Roman occupation of Britain. But by the time of Penda, son of Pybba, Mercia had started to emerge as the major power on the island. 2/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penda_of_Mercia#/media/File:Brhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_Mercia#/me
Read 11 tweets

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