The Kingdom of Asturias, the documentary heir of the Kingdom of Toledo

Rex versus princeps: what two charters from 660 and 812 reveal

In 660, a notary at the court of Toledo drafts a donation by King Recceswinth to a church. In 812, another notary, in Oviedo, puts down in writing the founding charter of San Salvador. A century and a half apart, two courts, one kingdom extinct and another under construction. And yet the invocatio, the sanctio and the architecture of the document are the same. That coincidence underpins the thesis that the Kingdom of Asturias inherited the legal and documentary tradition of the Kingdom of Toledo, rather than inventing it from scratch.

What diplomatics is and what it compares in these two charters

Diplomatics is an auxiliary science of History that studies legal, administrative and economic documents: their content, authenticity and drafting process. Applied to two official documents separated by more than a century, it allows a piece-by-piece comparison. The invocatio is identical. This is not a generic formula: it is the typical Visigothic invocatio, not the Carolingian one, which usually adds more trinitarian formulas.

The same goes for the sanctio, the spiritual condemnations and the anathema, where the formulas appear practically copied. The expositio — the motivation — repeats the same logic: the king's soul's salvation, divine protection, the unity of the Christian kingdom. In the dispositio, the donation of goods, the comparison shows a Toledo with a mature administration and technical terms alongside an Oviedo that inherits the formulas but simplifies them. It is not ignorance: it is limited capacity.

Rex versus princeps: the word that changes everything

Here is the detail that raises the most hackles. The Visigothic kings sign as rex. Alfonso II signs as princeps. Part of the analysis argues that this difference delegitimizes the entire continuity: if they did not call themselves kings, they were not heirs.

The alternative reading is less dramatic. Some argue that they did not assume the title of Rex because they were aware they controlled a minimal part of the old Kingdom of Toledo and that there were other Christians who might not recognize it. Princeps is, moreover, a Roman-Visigothic term. Kings of Toledo such as Chindasuinth, Recceswinth or Leovigild also appear in documents under that designation, which diminishes the supposed significance of the word. By the mid-9th century, once Asturias was established as a state, the title of Rex returned.

Legitimate inheritance or a story to legitimize expansion?

The underlying objection is not philological but political. It is argued that proclaiming oneself heir of the Kingdom of Toledo does not make it so, and that it was a convenient narrative to legitimize the territorial expansion of these kingdoms. The same mechanism by which the Visigoths had adopted Roman law to consolidate their power.

The counterargument is that documentary continuity does not require intent. The only way a scribe in Oviedo in 812 could use the same formulas as one in Toledo in 660 is if someone with that trade and that training was there to pass it on. Continuity of elites, not a mass transfer of population. The idea of an entire Gothic people migrating north after the Muslim invasion does not hold up; what does hold up is that part of the aristocracy and the administrative staff withdrew and kept writing the same way.

The 8th-century fortifications that bolster the thesis

The debate is not just about parchments. The study of fortifications on the peaks of the Cantabrian range has provided data. C-14 analyses of organic materials at two of them, el Homón de Faro (La Carisa) and El Muro (La Mesa), date most of the remains to the 8th century. The scale and quality of those defenses point to an organized political entity behind them.

There are also traces of 5th-century ceramic material and of reuse: the hypothesis is that the Christians of Asturias repaired defenses that already existed. And an older theory, without a confirmed source, suggests that the Legio VII Gemina stationed in León in 395 fled to Asturias in 409 with the invasion of the Vandals, Suebi and Alans.

The last Visigothic king held out until 726

A little-cited fact: Ardo resisted in Septimania until 726. In other words, he was still king of the Goths when Pelayo was proclaimed, in 718 or 722. His neighbor, Duke Peter of Cantabria, surely still recognized Ardo as king. If Pelayo needed his alliance, he could not proclaim himself rex without prolonging a civil war in the middle of an invasion. Hence, according to this reading, the princeps.

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One question remains that the analysis does not close: why do two notaries separated by a century and a half write with the same legal formula and the same Visigothic script? It can be answered with the narrative, with interested legitimation or with the transmission of a craft. None of the three fully explains the same thing: that the kingdom being rebuilt in the north wrote exactly like the one that had just disappeared in the south.