In our first ranking episode, come learn about Leovigild, his favoritest son, subtweeting with architecture, and whether we let Leovigild sign the fuero!
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Conquistadores
So here’s the list of battles Leovigild fought and won when he was sub-king under Liuva:
- 570: beats the Byzantine Empire in Bastetania and Málaga
- 571: he takes Sidonia from an unnamed rival, but this may not have been a battle – John of Biclaro states that the city is taken through the treachery of someone named Framidaneus.
- 572: seizes Córdoba from unnamed rivals
And these are the battles he fights and wins after becoming king:
- 573: beats the Sappi, a local tribe
- 574: beats the Suevi and seizes the city of Amaya (in Cantabria)
- 575: beats the Suevi and captures Aspidius, the “lord of the region” (in Galicia)
- 576: fights the Suevi again and agrees to a truce with Miro
- 577: there is a revolt in Orespeda (near Cordoba) which he calms
- 581: beats the Basques and founds the city of Victoria
- 583: siege of Seville where Miro dies, siege lasts till Hermenegild’s exile in 584
- 585: beats the Suevi again
The Suevi interludes are interesting. They are a tribe that has been in the northwest of Spain since the Western Roman empire and they are one of the named tribes that the Goths were settled in Spain to deal with back in the 400s. It seems like Miro and Leovigild have an understanding and are on friendly terms ever since that truce in 576.
Miro is definitely at the siege of Seville but it’s not clear why. John of Biclaro states that Miro comes to help Leovigild siege Hermenegild, and unfortunately dies in the siege. Gregory states that Miro comes to relieve the siege and is intercepted by Leovigild, swears allegiance to him, and goes back home. Regardless, he is dead by 584 and this kind of marks the end of any organized Suevi resistance to the Goths. Leovigild does have to fight the Suevi again because Miro’s son, Eboric, has been usurped by his stepfather Andeca, and Leovigild takes this as a just cause to invade Galicia, which is the 585 entry in the Chronicle. The full entry is: “Leovigild devastated Galicia, deprived the captured King Audeca of his rule, and brought the people, treasure, and territory of the Suevi under his own power. He made Galicia a province of the Goths.” One more pretender, Malaric, is also defeated by Leovigild in 585 and after this there are no more kings of Galicia.
Leovigild’s battles against the Byzantine Empire are also noteworthy, although they took place before he was officially king. He also has a lot of success against the Basques. However, neither of these battles have many more details than what I told you in the summary above.
His battles against the Franks are less impressive. John of Biclaro barely mentions them, only stating that Recarred fought the Franks in 589, after Leovigild’s death. But Gregory of Tours mentions all the intrigue with Guntram and Fredegund, along with the harassing of Frankish ships done by Leovigild in 586, as well as Guntram’s taking of Septimania. I think because it wasn’t as resoundingly successful, John didn’t want to include much of it.
Score
Peter: 7
Sarah: 6
Total: 13
No Me Digas
John doesn’t want to share anything that could tarnish Leovigild’s reputation as a uniting hero, and he doesn’t really go in for scandalous stuff anyway, so most of this is from Gregory and from later chroniclers like Isidore of Seville. Leovigild has a reputation for cruelty. Gregory states that he divided his kingdom among his sons, that is, Hermenegild and Recarred, and kills off all possible rivals to himself and them, for example. Isidore states that he beheads or sends into exile “those who excelled in nobility and power”. But he is most cruel when it comes to Catholics. Although Gregory mostly blames this on Goswintha, Leovigild is known to persecute Catholics and cause them to be “driven into exile, deprived of possessions, weakened by hunger, thrown into prison, beaten with sticks, and tortured to death”, and Isidore claims that Leovigild confiscates church revenues, exiles bishops, and bribes Catholics to convert to Arianism with gold and property. He also tries to have a bishop killed, named Pronomius, because he warned Ingundis not to get mixed up in heresy before she moved to Spain and married Hermenegild.
He also just seems a bit shady in general. He gets one of his sons to go in after another son who is claiming sanctuary in a church, with the promise of safety, and then arrests and exiles the first son. He tries to go around Guntram and have Guntram’s hated sister-in-law poison Guntram and Brunhilda (who is his own step-daughter!). That’s all a bit shady.
Score
Peter: 5
Sarah: 4
Total: 9
Ortodoxia
I mean, he was a heretic. Gregory states that Leovigild converts to Catholicism on his deathbed but I don’t believe it. John and Isidore don’t mention this at all.
Isidore states that Leovigild corrects Euric’s laws, allowing Visigoths and Ibero-Romans to get married, but nothing is really done to resolve the issue of what religion any children from these marriages will follow, so this probably causes more trouble than it solves.
He also engages in a bit of trickery by going to well-known Catholic shrines and praying there to try to get Catholics to convert to Arianism.
Score
Peter: 2
Sarah: 2
Total: 4
El Rey-sto
Children: 2
Length of Rule: 14 years, 4 months
Death: Pretty boring – but that completely fake deathbed conversion adds a little spice, maybe?
He is the first king in Spain to wear a crown and sit on a throne. He also sets the capital to be at Toledo, which will be the Visigothic capital for the next 150 years.
Score
Peter: 6
Sarah: 6
Total: 12
¿Fuero o Fuera?
Sources
Primary
Chronicle, John of Biclaro. As translated in Wolf, Kenneth Baxter (1999). Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain.
History of the Franks, Gregory of Tours. As translated in Brehaut, Ernest (1916). A History of the Franks.
Secondary
Thompson, E. A. (1969). The Goths in Spain.
Collins, Roger (1995). Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400-1000.
O’Callaghan, Joseph F. (1975). A History of Medieval Spain.
Recommendations
The Sinica Podcast
All About Me, by Mel Brooks
Battle Royale “Fredegund” episode
The Spanish ArPodA 