Battle of Guadalete

The Battle of Guadalete took place July 19, 711 at the Guadalete River in the extreme south of the Iberian peninsula. It represented a decisive defeat for the Visigothic king Roderic (or Rodrigo), who was killed, and a decisive victory for the Moslem forces that defeated him, 7000 Berbers led by Tariq ibn Ziyab. The governor of Northern Africa, Musa ibn Nusayr, who had sent Tariq, followed the next year with an army of 18,000. The Moors proceeded to conquer most of the Iberian peninsula within the next five years.

Pelayo of Asturias escaped the defeat and went on to found the Kingdom of Asturias, resisting Moslem overlordship from the northwest corner of the peninsula.