Liuvigild

Liuvigild
Imaginary portrait by Juan de Barroeta (1854)
King of Hispania
Reign	568 – 21 April 586
Predecessor	Liuva I
Successor	Reccared I
Co-king	Liuva I (568–572)
Born	c. 519 AD[citation needed] Hispania
Died	21 April 586 Toledo, Hispania
Spouse	unknown Goiswintha
Issue	Reccared I Saint Hermenegild
Names Flavius Leovigildus
Religion	Arianism

Liuvigild, Leuvigild, Leovigild, or Leovigildo (

When the Visigothic king Athanagild died in 567, Liuva I was elevated to the kingship at a ceremony held in Narbonne, the last bastion of Visigothic rule.^[2] Recognizing the leadership qualities of his younger sibling, in the second year of his reign, King Liuva I declared his brother Liuvigild co-king and heir, assigning him Hispania Citerior, or the eastern part of Hispania (Spain),^[2] to directly rule over.^[3] Both co-regents were Arian Christians, which was the dominant religious faith of the Visigothic rulers until 587.^[4]

Liuvigild was married twice: first to Theodosia, who gave birth to two sons, Hermenegild and Reccared I, and after her death, to Athanagild's widow Goiswintha.^[5]

Almost every single year of his kingship, Liuvigild marched against the

The Visigoths were still a military aristocracy and kings had to be formally ratified by the nobility. Visigoths and their Ibero-Roman subjects were still separated by religion and by distinct law codes. Liuvigild modified the old

Gregory of Tours contended that Liuvigild exceeded his power when he divided the kingdom between his two sons, but it is feasible that he took this action to weaken the authority of the nobles from amid both the Visigoths and the Spanish-Romans. Whatever Liuvigild's original motivation was or whether this move to empower his children can be viewed as beyond his authority, the act stirred several insurrections— first among the Cantabri, then amid the people of Cordova and Asturia, and lastly in Toledo and Evora—at a time when the Suebi and Byzantines were planning attacks against Liuvigild.[15] Undeterred by these manifold threats, he attended to the concerns within his empire and with his son Reccared's assistance, he succeeded in subduing the rebels who rose to oppose him. In doing so, he seized Ammaia, the capital of the Cantabri; he took the Asturian stronghold, Saldania (Saldana); he also successfully quelled insurgent activities in Toledo and Evora (Aebura Carpetana). Not given to mercy—in every rebellious region—he sealed his victories by exacting terrible punishments upon his erstwhile enemies.^[15] Sometime during this campaign in 576, Liuvigild's predominance led to the Suebian king Miro rapidly agreeing to a treaty which included paying tribute, if but for a short period.^[16]

In 577 Liuvigild marched into Orespeda, a region in southeastern Spain, and after suppressing an immediate revolt "of the common people" added this province to his kingdom. Upon the conclusion of these campaigns, Liuvigild celebrated his victories by founding a city in Celtiberia, which he named Recopolis for his son Reccared.^[17] In 582 Liuvigild then went on to capture Mérida, which had been under the political control of its popular bishop Masona since the early 570s.^[d] Over the course of his reign, Liuvigild had conquered most of the peninsula.^[18]

Hermenegild's Revolt

In 579, Hermenegild had converted to orthodox Christianity, persuaded by his Frankish wife

Hermenegild's revolt worried Liuvigild, as it raised concerns about his relations with the Merovingians; namely, since Ingund's brother, Childebert II—who had gained power following the death of his Merovingian father, Sigibert I—began taking an interest in the developments of his sister's realm. Attempting to counteract any possible Frankish support for the Hermengild's rebellion, Liuvigild pressed for a marriage between Reccared and Chilperic's daughter, Rigunth, which unfortunately proved diplomatically useless upon Chilperic's death.[21]

During this father-son feud, Hermengild presented himself as a victim as he tried to forge alliances in the name of Catholicism.

In 585, Liuvigild conquered the Suebi peoples, bringing an end to some forty-years of their independence in Spain.^[24] Despite several failed attempts by the Suebi to rebel against the Visigoths, Liuvigild eventually forced them to swear their fidelity.^[25] By the end of his reign, only the Basque lands^[f] and two small southern territories of the Byzantine Empire made up the non-Visigothic parts of Hispania.^[27] However, despite his best efforts, Liuvigild was unable to establish common religious ground between Arian Christians and those of the Catholic majority.^[28] Liuvigild's last year was troubled by open war with the Franks along his northernmost borders. But overall, Liuvigild was one of the more effective Visigothic kings of Hispania, the restorer of Visigothic unity, ruling from his capital newly established at Toledo,^[27] where he settled toward the end of his reign. (From this, the Hispanic Visigothic monarchy is sometimes called the "Kingdom of Toledo"). While successful, Liuvigild attained unity and royal authority only through conquest.^[29]

According to Gregory of Tours, Liuvigild fell ill in 586 and on his deathbed repented, wept for seven days and "embraced the Catholic faith" before he "gave up the ghost."

The Visigoths in Hispania considered themselves the heirs of western Roman imperial power, not its enemies. Signs of this can be seen in their mimicry of Roman bureaucratic and administrative norms, such as tax collection and the institution of Roman-based laws. Further evidence of Visigothic affinity for all things Roman included the reestablishment of imperial style by Liuvigild, who recreated the royal regalia.[32] Under Liuvigild, Spain was essentially unified and according to historian Chris Wickham, the "most Roman-influenced legislation of any of the barbarian kingdoms" was enacted.^[33] Throughout his reign, Liuvigild tried to find a compromise solution between Arian Christianity and Catholicism to no avail.^[33] However, important if not permanent changes in the Spanish realm came when Liuvigild's son Reccared aggressively promoted the Catholic faith at the expense of Arian Christianity, whereby he made Catholicism the official religion of the entire kingdom in 589.^[34]

Later successors to Liuvigild included the likes of King

Citations

1. ^ Wallace-Hadrill 2004, p. 118.
2. ^ ^{a b} Wolfram 1997, p. 265.
3. ^ John of Biclaro 1990, p. 60 [Chron. 10].
4. ^ Collins 1995, p. 40.
5. ^ Gregory of Tours 1974, p. 233 [IV.38].
6. ^ ^{a b} Wolfram 1997, p. 266.
7. ^ Heather 1998, p. 279.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Altamira 1913, p. 166.
9. ^ John of Biclaro 1990, pp. 60–62 [Chron. 12, 17, 20].
10. ^ Wilentz 1999, p. 111.
11. ^ Davis 2005, p. 99.
12. ^ Wallace-Hadrill 2004, p. 119.
13. ^ López 1998, p. 153.
14. ^ Williams 2004, p. 54.
15. ^ ^{a b} Altamira 1913, p. 167.
16. ^ Collins 2004, p. 54.
17. ^ John of Biclaro 1990, pp. 62–67 [Chron. 27, 32, 36, 40, 47, 51].
18. ^ Frassetto 2003, p. 242.
19. ^ Wolfram 1997, pp. 266–267.
20. ^ ^{a b} Wolfram 1997, p. 267.
21. ^ Wood 1994, p. 171.
22. ^ ^{a b} Frassetto 2003, p. 241.
23. ^ Wolfram 1997, p. 268.
24. ^ Goffart 2006, pp. 107.
25. ^ Goffart 2006, pp. 213.
26. ^ Wickham 2005, p. 584.
27. ^ ^{a b} Wickham 2005, p. 38.
28. ^ Frassetto 2003, p. 240, 242.
29. ^ Wickham 2005, p. 94.
30. ^ Gregory of Tours 1974, p. 477 [VIII.46].
31. ^ Wolfram 1997, pp. 271–272.
32. ^ McKitterick 2001, p. 173.
33. ^ ^{a b} Wickham 2016, p. 39.
34. ^ Frassetto 2003, pp. 359–360.
35. ^ ^{a b} Frassetto 2003, p. 360.

Bibliography

• Altamira, Rafael (1913). "Spain under the Visigoths". In J.B. Bury; H. M. Gwatkin; J.P. Whitney (eds.). The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 2, The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of the Western Empire. New York: The Macmillan Company.
  OCLC 716605555
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• Collins, Roger (1995). Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400–1000. London: Macmillan.
  ISBN 978-1-34924-135-4
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• Collins, Roger (2004). Visigothic Spain, 409–711. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
  ISBN 978-0-47075-461-0
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• Davis, R.H.C. (2005). A History of Early Medieval Europe. London and New York: Routledge.
  ISBN 978-0-582-78462-8
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• Frassetto, Michael (2003). Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
  ISBN 978-1-57607-263-9
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• Goffart, Walter (2006). Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  ISBN 978-0-81222-105-3
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• Gregory of Tours (1974). The History of the Franks. Translated by Lewis Thorpe. New York: Penguin Books.
  ISBN 978-0-14044-295-3
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• Heather, Peter (1998). The Goths. Oxford: Blackwell.
  ISBN 978-0-63120-932-4
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• John of Biclaro (1990). Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain. Translated by
  ISBN 978-0-85323-554-5
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• López, Gisela Ripoll (1998). "The Arrival of the Visigoths in Hispania: Population Problems and the Process of Acculturation". In Walter Pohl; Helmut Reimitz (eds.). Strategies of Distinction: The Construction of Ethnic Communities, 300–800. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
  ISBN 978-9-00410-846-2
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• McKitterick, Rosamond (2001). The Early Middle Ages: Europe, 400–1000. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-19873-172-6
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• Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. (2004). The Barbarian West, 400–1000. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
  ISBN 978-0-63120-292-9
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• Wickham, Chris (2005). Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
  OCLC 1025811203
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• Wickham, Chris (2016). Medieval Europe. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-30020-834-4
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• Wilentz, Sean (1999). Rites of Power: Symbolism, Ritual, and Politics since the Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  ISBN 978-0-81221-695-0
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• Williams, Mark (2004). The Story of Spain. San Mateo, CA: Golden Era Books.
  ISBN 978-0-97069-692-2
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• Wolfram, Herwig (1997). The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
  ISBN 0-520-08511-6
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• Wood, Ian (1994). The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450–751. London and New York: Longman.
  ISBN 0-582-49372-2
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Further reading

• E. A. Thompson, The Goths in Spain (1969).

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Leovigild".

• Visigothic kingdoms
• Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 37.
• (in Spanish) Coins of King Liuvigild

Regnal titles
Preceded by Athanagild	King of the Visigoths 568 – 21 April 586 with Liuva I (568–573)	Succeeded by Reccared I