Prehistory

The Germanic-speaking peoples speak an Indo-European language. The leading theory for the origin of Germanic languages, suggested by archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence,^[102] postulates a diffusion of Indo-European languages from the Pontic–Caspian steppe towards Northern Europe during the third millennium BCE, via linguistic contacts and migrations from the Corded Ware culture towards modern-day Denmark, resulting in cultural mixing with the earlier Funnelbeaker culture.^[103]^{[lower-alpha 5]} The subsequent culture of the Nordic Bronze Age (c. 2000/1750 – c. 500 BCE) shows definite cultural and population continuities with later Germanic peoples,^[7] and is often supposed to have been the culture in which the Germanic Parent Language, the predecessor of the Proto-Germanic language, developed.^[104] However, it is unclear whether these earlier peoples possessed any ethnic continuity with the later Germanic peoples.^[8]

Generally, scholars agree that it is possible to speak of Germanic-speaking peoples after 500 BCE, although the first attestation of the name Germani is not until much later.^[5] Between around 500 BCE and the beginning of the common era, archeological and linguistic evidence suggest that the Urheimat ('original homeland') of the Proto-Germanic language, the ancestral idiom of all attested Germanic dialects, existed in or near the archaeological culture known as the late Jastorf culture, of the central Elbe in present day Germany, stretching north into Jutland and east into present day Poland.^[105]^{[lower-alpha 6]} If the Jastorf Culture is the origin of the Germanic peoples, then the Scandinavian peninsula would have become Germanic either via migration or assimilation over the course of the same period.^[106] Alternatively, Hermann Ament [de] has stressed that two other archaeological groups must have belonged to the Germani, one on either side of the Lower Rhine and reaching to the Weser, and another in Jutland and southern Scandinavia. These groups would thus show a "polycentric origin" for the Germanic peoples.^[107] The neighboring Przeworsk culture in modern Poland is thought to possibly reflect a Germanic and Slavic component.^[108]^{[lower-alpha 7]} The identification of the Jastorf culture with the Germani has been criticized by Sebastian Brather, who notes that it seems to be missing areas such as southern Scandinavia and the Rhine-Weser area, which linguists argue to have been Germanic, while also not according with the Roman era definition of Germani, which included Celtic-speaking peoples further south and west.^[109]

Thumb — Iron Age: Orange Field – La Tène culture (Celtic), Dark Red – Jastorf culture (Germanic), Dark Green – Iron Age Scandinavia (Germanic)

A category of evidence used to locate the Proto-Germanic homeland is founded on traces of early linguistic contacts with neighbouring languages. Germanic loanwords in the Finnic and Sámi languages have preserved archaic forms (e.g. Finnic kuningas, from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz 'king'; rengas, from *hringaz 'ring'; etc.),^[110] with the older loan layers possibly dating back to an earlier period of intense contacts between pre-Germanic and Finno-Permic (i.e. Finno-Samic) speakers.^[111] Shared lexical innovations between Celtic and Germanic languages, concentrated in certain semantic domains such as religion and warfare, indicates intensive contacts between the Germani and Celtic peoples, usually identified with the archaeological La Tène culture, found in southern Germany and the modern Czech Republic.^[112] Early contacts probably occurred during the Pre-Germanic and Pre-Celtic periods, dated to the 2nd millennium BCE,^[113]^{[lower-alpha 8]} and the Celts appear to have had a large amount of influence on Germanic culture from up until the first century CE, which led to a high degree of Celtic-Germanic shared material culture and social organization.^[114] Some evidence of linguistic convergence between Germanic and Italic languages, whose Urheimat is supposed to have been situated north of the Alps before the 1st millennium BCE, have also been highlighted by scholars.^[115] Shared changes in their grammars also suggest early contacts between Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages; however, some of these innovations are shared with Baltic only, which may point to linguistic contacts during a relatively late period, at any rate after the initial breakup of Balto-Slavic into Baltic and Slavic languages, with the similarities to Slavic being seen as remnants of Indo-European archaisms or the result of secondary contacts.^[116]^[117]^{[lower-alpha 9]}

Earliest recorded history

According to some authors the Bastarnae, or Peucini, were the first Germani to be encountered by the Greco-Roman world and thus to be mentioned in historical records.^[118] They appear in historical sources going as far back as the 3rd century BCE through the 4th century CE.^[119] Another eastern people known from about 200 BCE, and sometimes believed to be Germanic-speaking, are the Sciri (Greek: Skiroi), who are recorded threatening the city of Olbia on the Black Sea.^[120] Late in the 2nd century BCE, Roman and Greek sources recount the migrations of the Cimbri, Teutones and Ambrones whom Caesar later classified as Germanic.^[121] The movements of these groups through parts of Gaul, Italy and Hispania resulted in the Cimbrian War (113–101 BCE) against the Romans, in which the Teutons and Cimbri were victorious over several Roman armies but were ultimately defeated.^[122]^[123]^[124]

The first century BCE was a time of the expansion of Germanic-speaking peoples at the expense of Celtic-speaking polities in modern southern Germany and the Czech Republic.^[125]^[126] Before 60 BCE, Ariovistus, described by Caesar as king of the Germani, led a force including Suevi across the Rhine into Gaul near Besançon, successfully aiding the Sequani against their enemies the Aedui at the Battle of Magetobriga.^[127]^[128] Ariovistus was initially considered an ally of Rome.^[129] In 58 BCE, with increasing numbers of settlers crossing the Rhine to join Ariovistus, Julius Caesar went to war with them, defeating them at the Battle of Vosges.^[128] ^[130] In the following years Caesar pursued a controversial campaign to conquer all of Gaul on behalf of Rome, establishing the Rhine as a border. In 55 BCE he crossed the Rhine into Germania near Cologne. Near modern Nijmegen he also massacred a large migrating group of Tencteri and Usipetes who had crossed the Rhine from the east.^[131]

Roman Imperial Period to 375

Early Roman Imperial period (27 BCE – 166 CE)

Throughout the reign of Augustus—from 27 BCE until 14 CE—the Roman empire expanded into Gaul, with the Rhine as a border. Starting in 13 BCE, there were Roman campaigns across the Rhine for a 28-year period.^[132] First came the pacification of the Usipetes, Sicambri, and Frisians near the Rhine, then attacks increased further from the Rhine, on the Chauci, Cherusci, Chatti and Suevi (including the Marcomanni).^[133] These campaigns eventually reached and even crossed the Elbe, and in 5 CE Tiberius was able to show strength by having a Roman fleet enter the Elbe and meet the legions in the heart of Germania.^[134] Once Tiberius subdued the Germanic people between the Rhine and the Elbe, the region at least up to Weser—and possibly up to the Elbe—was made the Roman province Germania and provided soldiers to the Roman army.^[135]^[136]

However, within this period two Germanic kings formed larger alliances. Both of them had spent some of their youth in Rome; the first of them was Maroboduus of the Marcomanni,^{[lower-alpha 10]} who had led his people away from the Roman activities into Bohemia, which was defended by forests and mountains, and had formed alliances with other peoples. In 6 CE, Rome planned an attack against him but the campaign was cut short when forces were needed for the Illyrian revolt in the Balkans.^[135]^[138] Just three years later (9 CE), the second of these Germanic figures, Arminius of the Cherusci—initially an ally of Rome—drew a large Roman force into an ambush in northern Germany, and destroyed the three legions of Publius Quinctilius Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.^[139] Marboduus and Arminius went to war with each other in 17 CE; Arminius was victorious and Marboduus was forced to flee to the Romans.^[140]

Following the Roman defeat at the Teutoburg Forest, Rome gave up on the possibility of fully integrating this region into the empire.^[141] Rome launched successful campaigns across the Rhine between 14 and 16 CE under Tiberius and Germanicus, but the effort of integrating Germania now seemed to outweigh its benefits.^[142] In the reign of Augustus's successor, Tiberius, it became state policy to expand the empire no further than the frontier based roughly upon the Rhine and Danube, recommendations that were specified in the will of Augustus and read aloud by Tiberius himself.^[143] Roman intervention in Germania led to a shifting and unstable political situation, in which pro- and anti-Roman parties vied for power. Arminius was murdered in 21 CE by his fellow Germanic tribesmen, due in part to these tensions and for his attempt to claim supreme kingly power for himself.^[140]

In the wake of Arminius's death, Roman diplomats sought to keep the Germanic peoples divided and fractious.^[144] Rome established relationships with individual Germanic kings that are often discussed as being similar to client states; however, the situation on the border was always unstable, with rebellions by the Frisians in 28 CE, and attacks by the Chauci and Chatti in the 60s CE.^[145] The most serious threat to the Roman order was the Revolt of the Batavi in 69 CE, during the civil wars following the death of Nero known as the Year of the Four Emperors.^[146] The Batavi had long served as auxiliary troops in the Roman army as well as in the imperial bodyguard as the so-called Numerus Batavorum, often called the Germanic bodyguard.^[147] The uprising was led by Gaius Julius Civilis, a member of the Batavian royal family and Roman military officer, and attracted a large coalition of people both inside and outside of the Roman territory. The revolt ended following several defeats, with Civilis claiming to have only supported the imperial claims of Vespasian, who was victorious in the civil war.^[148]

The century after the Batavian Revolt saw mostly peace between the Germanic peoples and Rome. In 83 CE, Emperor Domitian of the Flavian dynasty attacked the Chatti north of Mainz (Mogontiacum).^[150] This war would last until 85 CE. Following the end of the war with the Chatti, Domitian reduced the number of Roman soldiers on the upper Rhine and shifted the Roman military to guarding the Danube frontier, beginning the construction of the limes, the longest fortified border in the empire.^[151] The period afterwards was peaceful enough that the emperor Trajan reduced the number of soldiers on the frontier.^[152] According to Edward James, the Romans appear to have reserved the right to choose rulers among the barbarians on the frontier.^[153]

Marcomannic Wars to 375 CE

Following sixty years of quiet on the frontier, 166 CE saw a major incursion of peoples from north of the Danube during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, beginning the Marcomannic Wars.^[154] By 168 (during the Antonine plague), barbarian hosts consisting of Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatian Iazyges, attacked and pushed their way to Italy.^[155] They advanced as far as Upper Italy, destroyed Opitergium/Oderzo and besieged Aquileia.^[156] The Romans had finished the war by 180, through a combination of Roman military victories, the resettling of some peoples on Roman territory, and by making alliances with others.^[157] Marcus Aurelius's successor Commodus chose not to permanently occupy any territory conquered north of the Danube, and the following decades saw an increase in the defenses at the limes.^[156] The Romans renewed their right to choose the kings of the Marcomanni and Quadi, and Commodus forbid them to hold assemblies unless a Roman centurion was present.^[158]

The period after the Marconmannic Wars saw the emergence of peoples with new names along the Roman frontiers, which were probably formed by the merger of smaller groups.^[157] These new confederacies or peoples tended to border the Roman imperial frontier.^[159] Many ethnic names from earlier periods disappear.^[160] The Alamanni emerged along the upper Rhine and are mentioned in Roman sources from the third century onward.^[161] The Goths begin to be mentioned along the lower Danube, where they attacked the city of Histria in 238.^[162] The Franks are first mentioned occupying territory between the Rhine and Weser.^[163] The Lombards seem to have moved their center of power to the central Elbe.^[61] Groups such as the Alamanni, Goths, and Franks were not unified polities; they formed multiple, loosely associated groups, who often fought each other and some of whom sought Roman friendship.^[164] The Romans also begin to mention seaborne attacks by the Saxons, a term used generically in Latin for Germanic-speaking pirates. A system of defenses on both sides of the English Channel, the Saxon Shore, was established to deal with their raids.^[165]^[166]

From 250 onward, the Gothic peoples formed the "single most potent threat to the northern frontier of Rome".^[163] In 250 CE a Gothic king Cniva led Goths with Bastarnae, Carpi, Vandals, and Taifali into the empire, laying siege to Philippopolis. He followed his victory there with another on the marshy terrain at Abrittus, a battle which cost the life of Roman emperor Decius.^[162] In 253/254, further attacks occurred reaching Thessalonica and possibly Thrace.^[167] In 267/268 there were large raids led by the Herules in 267/268, and a mixed group of Goths and Herules in 269/270. Gothic attacks were abruptly ended in the years after 270, after a Roman victory in which the Gothic king Cannabaudes was killed.^[168]

The Roman limes largely collapsed in 259/260,^[169] during the Crisis of the Third Century (235–284),^[61] and Germanic raids penetrated as far as northern Italy.^[170] The limes on the Rhine and upper Danube was brought under control again in 270s, and by 300 the Romans had reestablished control over areas they had abandoned during the crisis.^[170] From the later third century onward, the Roman army relied increasingly on troops of Barbarian origin, often recruited from Germanic peoples, with some functioning as senior commanders in the Roman army.^[171] In the 4th century, warfare along the Rhine frontier between the Romans and Franks and Alemanni seems to have mostly consisted of campaigns of plunder, during which major battles were avoided.^[172] The Romans generally followed a policy of trying to prevent strong leaders from emerging among the barbarians, using treachery, kidnapping, and assassination, paying off rival tribes to attack them, or by supporting internal rivals.^[173]

Migration Period (c. 375–568)

The Migration Period is traditionally cited by historians as beginning in 375 CE, under the assumption that the appearance of the Huns prompted the Visigoths to seek shelter within the Roman Empire in 376.^[174] The end of the migration period is usually set at 568 when the Lombards invaded Italy. During this time period, numerous barbarian groups invaded the Roman Empire and established new kingdoms within its boundaries.^[175] These Germanic migrations traditionally mark the transition between antiquity and the beginning of the early Middle Ages.^[176] The reasons for the migrations of the period are unclear, but scholars have proposed overpopulation, climate change, bad harvests, famines, and adventurousness as possible reasons.^[177] Migrations were probably carried out by relatively small groups rather than entire peoples.^[178]

Early Migration Period (before 375–420)

The Greuthungi, a Gothic group in modern Ukraine under the rule of Ermanaric, were among the first peoples attacked by the Huns, apparently facing Hunnic pressure for some years.^[179] Following Ermanaric's death, the Greuthungi's resistance broke and they moved toward the Dniester river.^[180] A second Gothic group, the Tervingi under King Athanaric, constructed a defensive earthwork against the Huns near the Dniester.^[181] However, these measures did not stop the Huns and the majority of the Tervingi abandoned Athanaric; they subsequently fled—accompanied by a contingent of Greuthungi—to the Danube in 376, seeking asylum in the Roman Empire.^[182] The emperor Valens chose only to admit the Tervingi, who were settled in the Roman provinces of Thrace and Moesia.^[181]^[183]

Due to mistreatment by the Romans, the Tervingi revolted in 377, starting the Gothic War, joined by the Greuthungi.^[184]^[181]^{[lower-alpha 11]} The Goths and their allies defeated the Romans first at Marcianople, then defeated and killed emperor Valens in the Battle of Adrianople in 378, destroying two-thirds of Valens' army.^[186]^[187] Following further fighting, peace was negotiated in 382, granting the Goths considerable autonomy within the Roman Empire.^[188] However, these Goths—who would be known as the Visigoths—revolted several more times,^[189] finally coming to be ruled by Alaric.^[190] In 397, the disunited eastern Empire submitted to some of his demands, possibly giving him control over Epirus.^[191] In the aftermath of the large-scale Gothic entries into the empire, the Franks and Alemanni became more secure in their positions in 395, when Stilicho, the barbarian generalissimo who held power in the western Empire, made agreements with them.^[192]

Thumb — A replica of an ivory diptych probably depicting Stilicho (on the right), the son of a Vandal father and a Roman mother, who became the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire from 395 to 408 CE^[193]^[194]

In 401, Alaric invaded Italy, coming to an understanding with Stilicho in 404/5.^[195] This agreement allowed Stilicho to fight against the force of Radagaisus, who had crossed the Middle Danube in 405/6 and invaded Italy, only to be defeated outside Florence.^[196] That same year, a large force of Vandals, Suevi, Alans, and Burgundians crossed the Rhine, fighting the Franks but facing no Roman resistance.^[197] In 409, the Suevi, Vandals, and Alans crossing the Pyrenees into Spain, where they took possession of the northern part of the peninsula.^[198] The Burgundians seized the land around modern Speyer, Worms, and Strasbourg, territory that was recognized by the Roman Emperor Honorius.^[199] When Stilicho fell from power in 408, Alaric invaded Italy again and eventually sacked Rome in 410; Alaric died shortly thereafter.^[200] The Visigoths withdrew into Gaul where they faced a power struggle until the succession of Wallia in 415 and his son Theodoric I in 417/18.^[201] Following successful campaigns against them by the Roman emperor Flavius Constantius, the Visigoths were settled as Roman allies in Gaul between modern Toulouse and Bourdeaux.^[202]^[203]

Other Goths, including those of Athanaric, continued to live outside the empire, with three groups crossing into the Roman territory after the Tervingi.^[204] The Huns gradually conquered Gothic groups north of the Danube, of which at least six are known, from 376 to 400. Those in Crimea may never have been conquered.^[205] The Gepids also formed an important Germanic people under Hunnic rule; the Huns had largely conquered them by 406.^[206] One Gothic group under Hunnic domination was ruled by the Amal dynasty, who would form the core of the Ostrogoths.^[207] The situation outside the Roman empire in 410s and 420s is poorly attested, but it is clear that the Huns continued to spread their influence onto the middle Danube.^[208]

The Hunnic Empire (c. 420–453)

In 428, the Vandal leader Geiseric moved his forces across the strait of Gibraltar into north Africa. Within two years, they had conquered most of north Africa.^[209] By 434, following a renewed political crisis in Rome, the Rhine frontier had collapsed, and in order to restore it, the Roman magister militum Flavius Aetius engineered the destruction of the Burgundian kingdom in 435/436, possibly with Hunnic mercenaries, and launched several successful campaigns against the Visigoths.^[210] In 439, the Vandals conquered Carthage, which served as an excellent base for further raids throughout the Mediterranean and became the basis for the Vandal Kingdom.^[211] The loss of Carthage forced Aetius to make peace with the Visigoths in 442, effectively recognizing their independence within the boundaries of the empire.^[212] During the resulting peace, Aetius resettled the Burgundians in Sapaudia in southern Gaul.^[213] In the 430s, Aetius negotiated peace with the Suevi in Spain, leading to a practical loss of Roman control in the province.^[214] Despite the peace, the Suevi expanded their territory by conquering Mérida in 439 and Seville in 441.^[215]

By 440, Attila and the Huns had come to rule a multi-ethnic empire north of the Danube; two of the most important peoples within this empire were the Gepids and the Goths.^[216] The Gepid king Ardaric came to power around 440 and participated in various Hunnic campaigns.^[206] In 450, the Huns interfered in a Frankish succession dispute, leading in 451 to an invasion of Gaul. Aetius, by uniting a coalition of Visigoths, part of the Franks, and others, was able to defeat the Hunnic army at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.^[217] In 453, Attila died unexpectedly, and an alliance led by Ardaric's Gepids rebelled against the rule of his sons, defeating them in the Battle of Nedao.^[206] Either before or after Attila's death, Valamer, a Gothic ruler of the Amal dynasty, seems to have consolidated power over a large part of the Goths in the Hunnic domain.^[218] For the next 20 years, the former subject peoples of the Huns would fight among each other for preeminence.^[219]

The arrival of the Saxons in Britain is traditionally dated to 449, however, archaeology indicates they had begun arriving in Britain earlier.^[220] Latin sources used Saxon generically for seaborne raiders, meaning that not all of the invaders belonged to the continental Saxons.^[165] According to the British monk Gildas (c. 500 – c. 570), this group had been recruited to protect the Romano-British from the Picts, but had revolted.^[221] They quickly established themselves as rulers on the eastern part of the island.^[222]

After the death of Attila (453–568)

In 455, in the aftermath of the death of Aetius in 453 and the murder of emperor Valentinian III in 455,^[223] the Vandals invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 455.^[224] In 456, the Romans persuaded the Visigoths to fight the Suevi, who had broken their treaty with Rome. The Visigoths and a force of Burgundians and Franks defeated the Suevi at the Battle of Campus Paramus, reducing Suevi control to northwestern Spain.^[215] The Visigoths went on to conquer all of the Iberian Peninsula by 484 except a small part that remained under Suevian control.^[225]

The Ostrogoths, led by Valamer's brother Thiudimer, invaded the Balkans in 473. Thiudimer's son Theodoric succeeded him in 476.^[226] In that same year, a barbarian commander in the Roman Italian army, Odoacer, mutinied and removed the final western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus.^[227] Odoacer ruled Italy for himself, largely continuing the policies of Roman imperial rule.^[228] He destroyed the Kingdom of the Rugians, in modern Austria, in 487/488.^[229] Theodoric, meanwhile, successfully extorted the Eastern Empire through a series of campaigns in the Balkans. The eastern emperor Zeno agreed to send Theodoric to Italy in 487/8.^[230] After a successful invasion, Theodoric killed and replaced Odoacer in 493, founding a new Ostrogothic kingdom.^[231] Theodoric died in 526, amid increasing tensions with the eastern empire.^[232]

Toward the end of the migration period, in the early 500s, Roman sources portray a completely changed ethnic landscape outside of the empire: the Marcomanni and Quadi disappeared, as had the Vandals. Instead, the Thuringians, Rugians, Sciri, Herules, Goths, and Gepids are mentioned as occupying the Danube frontier.^[233] From the mid-5th century onward, the Alamanni had greatly expanded their territory in all directions and launched numerous raids into Gaul.^[234] The territory under the Frankish influence had grown to encompass northern Gaul and Germania to the Elbe.^[235] The Frankish king Clovis I united the various Frankish groups in 490s,^[236] and conquered the Alamanni by 506.^[237] From the 490s onward, Clovis waged wars against the Visigoths, defeating them in 507 and taking control of most of Gaul.^[236] Clovis's heirs conquered the Thuringians by 530 and the Burgundians by 532.^[238] The continental Saxons, composed of many subgroups, were made tributary to the Franks, as were the Frisians, who faced an attack by the Danes under Hygelac in 533.^[239]

The Vandal and Ostrogothic kingdoms were destroyed in 534 and 555 respectively by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) empire under Justinian.^[240] Around 500, a new ethnic identity appears in modern southern Germany, the Baiuvarii (Bavarians), under the patronage of Theodoric's Ostrogothic kingdom and then of the Franks.^[229] The Lombards, moving out of Bohemia, destroyed the kingdom of the Heruli in Pannonia in 510. In 568, after destroying the Gepid kingdom, the last Germanic kingdom in the Carpathian basin,^[229] the Lombards under Alboin invaded northern Italy, eventually conquering most of it.^[241] This invasion has traditionally been regarded as the end of the migration period.^[175] The eastern part of Germania, formerly inhabited by the Goths, Gepids, Vandals, and Rugians, was gradually Slavicized, a process enabled by the invasion of the nomadic Avars.^[242]

Early Middle Ages to c. 800

Merovingian Frankia became divided into three subkingdoms: Austrasia in the east around the Rhine and Meuse, Neustria in the west around Paris, and Burgundy in the southeast around Chalon-sur-Saône.^[243] The Franks ruled a multilingual and multi-ethnic kingdom, divided between a mostly Romance-speaking West and a mostly Germanic-speaking east, that integrated former Roman elites but remained centered on a Frankish ethnic identity.^[244] In 687, the Pippinids came to control the Merovingian rulers as mayors of the palace in Neustria. Under their direction, the subkingdoms of Frankia were reunited.^[245] Following the mayoralty of Charles Martel, the Pippinids replaced the Merovingians as kings in 751, when Charles's son Pepin the Short became king and founded the Carolingian dynasty. His son, Charlemagne, would go on to conquer the Lombards, Saxons, and Bavarians.^[246] Charlemagne was crowned Roman emperor in 800 and regarded his residence of Aachen as the new Rome.^[247]

Following their invasion in 568, the Lombards quickly conquered larger parts of the Italian peninsula.^[248] From 574 to 584, a period without a single Lombard ruler, the Lombards nearly collapsed,^[249] until a more centralized Lombard polity emerged under King Agilulf in 590.^[250] The invading Lombards only ever made up a very small percentage of the Italian population, however Lombard ethnic identity expanded to include people of both Roman and barbarian descent.^[251] Lombard power reached its peak during the reign of King Liutprand (712–744).^[252] After Liutprand's death, the Frankish King Pippin the Short invaded in 755, greatly weakening the kingdom.^[252] The Lombard kingdom was finally annexed by Charlemagne in 773.^[253]

After a period of weak central authority, the Visigothic kingdom came under the rule of Liuvigild, who conquered the Kingdom of the Suebi in 585.^[254] A Visigothic identity that was distinct from the Romance-speaking population they ruled had disappeared by 700, with the removal of all legal differences between the two groups.^[255] In 711, a Muslim army landed at Grenada; the entire Visigothic kingdom would be conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate by 725.^[256]

In what would become England, the Anglo-Saxons were divided into several competing kingdoms, the most important of which were Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex.^[257] In the 7th century, Northumbria established overlordship over the other Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, until Mercia revolted under Wulfhere in 658. Subsequently, Mercia would establish dominance until 825 with the death of King Cenwulf.^[257] Few written sources report on Vendel period Scandinavia from 400 to 700, however this period saw profound societal changes and the formation of early states with connections to the Anglo-Saxon and Frankish kingdoms.^[258] In 793, the first recorded Viking raid occurred at Lindisfarne, ushering in the Viking Age.^[259]