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.
Franks
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, the last part of Gaul to remain in Visigothic hands, was officially converted to Catholicism.
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*.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Name-change controversy
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.
References in popular culture
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.
"Septimania".
