Athanagild
Encyclopedia
Athanagild was Visigothic King
Visigothic Kingdom
The Visigothic Kingdom was a kingdom which occupied southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to 8th century AD. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was originally created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of...

 of Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....

 and Septimania
Septimania
Septimania was the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. Under the Visigoths it was known as simply Gallia or Narbonensis. It corresponded roughly with the modern...

. He had rebelled against his predecessor, Agila, in 551. The armies of Agila and Athanagild met at Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

, where Agila met a second defeat. Following the death of Agila in 554, he was sole ruler for the rest of his reign.

Roger Collins writes that Athanagild's reign "is perhaps more significant than our sources may care to let us believe." Collins argues that the account of Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville
Saint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...

 may be colored by the hostility subsequent Visigothic kings had towards Athanagild and his descendants.

The Byzantine invasion

During the conflict between the two, a Roman
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 force sent by Justinian seized control of a large portion of Hispania Baetica
Hispania Baetica
Hispania Baetica was one of three Imperial Roman provinces in Hispania, . Hispania Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania, and to the northeast by Hispania Tarraconensis. Baetica was part of Al-Andalus under the Moors in the 8th century and approximately corresponds to modern Andalucia...

 (Andalusia). It is unclear what was the pretext for their arrival. Peter Heather states that Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....

 implies that Agila had summoned them. Isidore of Seville offers two conflicting stories: in the section on Agila, the Goths surrounding him killed him out of fear "that Roman soldiers might invade Spain on the pretext of giving help"; while in the following section Isidore states Athanagild had asked Justinian for his help, but once they arrived in Spain "he was unable to remove them from the territory of the kingdom despite his efforts." Collins notes that "in both of the emperor Justinian's other western interventions, Africa in 533 and Italy in 535, he came in ostensibly to uphold the rights of legitimate monarchs against usurpers", thus agreeing with Jordanes' version of the events.

Although Athanagild recovered a few cities, the Romans held most of their conquest, which was organized as the province of Spania
Spania
Spania was a province of the Roman Empire from 552 until 624 in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. It was a part of the conquests of Roman Emperor Justinian I in an effort to restore the western half of the Empire....

, long after the end of his reign. It is unclear the exact area this province covered. J. B. Bury
J. B. Bury
John Bagnell Bury , known as J. B. Bury, was an Irish historian, classical scholar, Byzantinist and philologist.-Biography:...

 states that it "comprised districts and towns to the west as well as to the east of the Straits of Gades" and included the cities of New Carthage (Cartagena
Cartagena, Spain
Cartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality and the country’s 6th non-Province capital...

), Corduba (Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...

), and Assionia. Peter Heather, while agreeing it included New Carthage and Assionia, is dubious about Corduba, and is certain Malaga
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...

, and Sagontia were included. Collins agrees that Corduba was never under Byzantine control, nor was the Guadalquivir
Guadalquivir
The Guadalquivir is the fifth longest river in the Iberian peninsula and the second longest river to be its whole length in Spain. The Guadalquivir is 657 kilometers long and drains an area of about 58,000 square kilometers...

 valley, stating that their principal strongholds were Medina Sidonia, Malaga and New Carthage.

Athanagild died of natural causes in Toledo
Toledo
- Places :Belize:*Toledo District*Toledo SettlementBrazil:*Pedro de Toledo, São Paulo*Toledo, ParanáColombia:*Toledo, Norte de SantanderPhilippines:*Toledo City, CebuSpain:*Toledo, Spain *Kingdom of Toledo...

, according to Isidore, then after an interregnum of five months Liuva I
Liuva I
Liuva I was a Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania.He was made king at Narbonne following the death of Athanagild in 568. Roger Collins notes this was the first time a Visigothic king is mentioned in the north-eastern region of the realm since 531, when Amalric was murdered...

 became king.

Dynastic alliances

His queen Goiswintha gave him two daughters — Brunhilda
Brunhilda of Austrasia
Brunhilda was a Visigothic princess, married to king Sigebert I of Austrasia who ruled the eastern kingdoms of Austrasia and Burgundy in the names of her sons and grandsons...

 and the murdered Galswintha
Galswintha
Galswintha was the daughter of Athanagild, Visigothic king of Hispania , and Goiswintha...

 — who were married to two Merovingian brother-kings: Sigebert I
Sigebert I
Sigebert I was the king of Austrasia from the death of his father in 561 to his own death. He was the third surviving son out of four of Clotaire I and Ingund...

 of Austrasia
Austrasia
Austrasia formed the northeastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims, Trier, and...

 and Chilperic, king of the Neustria
Neustria
The territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities...

n Franks. Although Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours
Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...

 states the reasons for this was that Sigebert disdained the prevalent practice of "taking wives who were completely unworthy of them", and sought the beautiful and cultured Brunhilda, while Chilperic married her sister out of sibling rivalry, Ian Wood points out that the circumstances and the scale of the morgengab suggest that the situation was more complex. "Athangild had no sons. By marrying two daughters to Frankish kings, he may have intended to involve the Merovingians in the Visigothic succession. Perhaps he hoped that the marriages would produce grandsons who could succeed him."

However Athanagild's death in 567 altered the situation. Wood speculates that the date of Galswintha's murder followed soon after his death. Brunhilda avoided her sister's fate, and became a central figure of Frankish history for the remainder of the sixth century. Lastly, Goiswintha survived the upheaval that followed Athangild's death, and became the second wife of Liuvigild
Liuvigild
Liuvigild, Leuvigild, Leovigild, or Leogild was a Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania from 569 to April 21, 586. From 585 he was also king of Galicia. Known for his Codex Revisus or Code of Leovigild, a unifying law allowing equal rights between the Visigothic and Hispano-Roman population,...

the brother of Athangild's successor Liuva, and himself a future king of the Visigoths.
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