Galicia
Galicia was a kingdom on the Iberian peninsula. It was situated directly north of what is now modern-day Portugal.
Contents
History
In the Winter of 1108, Demona and Angelika crossed paths with Skade, Magni, and Modi in Galicia. There, the Norse gargoyles invited the two to join them sailing across with Mediterranean Sea with King Sigurd Magnusson. ("Fortune Favors the Brave...")
Real World Background
Once a province of Rome, Galicia in time became its own kingdom in the 4th Century AD, before it was annexed by Liuvigild, the Visigoth king of Hispania and Septimania. In 711, Visigoth King Roderic fell to Tariq ibn Ziyad's forces and the Iberian peninsula began its transition to Muslim rule known as al-Andalus. Galicia's independence as a sovereign kingdom would fluxuate for the next several centuries, with the crown often shared and dependent with neighboring kingdoms.
By the 9th Century, Galicia was the destination for Christian pilgrims traveling to the tomb of St. James the apostle. The pilgrimage has continued into the modern day with routes across France, Spain, and Portugal known as the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), attracting more than 200,000 pilgrims a year.
In 1063, King Ferdinand I divided the three Kingdoms of Castile, León, and Galicia to his three sons: Sancho II, Alfonso VI, and García II respectively. The Castilian knight Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (later known as El Cid) led campaigns against Sancho's brothers, leading Galicia (and later León) to once more be ruled together, but still regarded as separated entities. After Sancho's assassination in 1072, the exiled Alfonso succeeded him to the three thrones.
The various kingdoms across the peninsula unified in 1833 as Spain and the Kingdom of Galicia ceased to be a separate entity. As a Historic region, it adopted a flag based on Saint Andrew's cross, similar to that of the Scotland flag. By 1891, confusion between the two flags led to the Galicians removing the blue band situated from the bottom-left to the top-right.
See Also
- Galicia at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
