Léovigild

Léovigild is a king Visigoth of Hispanie which reigns of 567 with 586. It reaches jointly the throne with his brother Liuva died of his older brother Athanagild of which it marries the widow, the princess Goïswinthe.

In 573, with died of Liuva, it only reigns. Its reign marks a true turning for the history of Spain as for that of the Visigoths. It starts a series of military campaigns against the Byzantine of the Andalusia and seizes Cordoue and Malaga. In north, it fights Vascons and Francs, makes reinforce the fortifications of Narbonne and Carcassonne, and throws the foundations of the current Basque city of Vitoria (towards 580), at the origin, a named wisigothic fortress Gasteiz . In the North-West of the Iberian peninsula , it fights starting from 575 against the Christian Suèves become again S and several campaigns are necessary to subject them; by its victory of Braga in 585, it destroys their kingdom of Galicia and reconverts them with the Arianisme. Its military victories enable him to carry out the unification of the peninsula partly, but there remains a major hurdle, its attachment with the arianism.

Having led the kingdom Visigoth to the top of his power, he believes then possible to establish the religious unit around the faith arienne and persecutes the catholics violently. One of its sons, the prince Herménégild, married to Ingonthe, a franque princess mérovingienne (Christian), takes the head of the catholic party and revolts against his/her father, not hesitating to be combined with of Suèves catholics and the Byzantine . Herménégild raises the Andalusia in 579/580. The reaction of Léovigild is pitiless: it fights his son, the captive fact (584) and sends it to Tarragone where it is carried out in 585. This murder made of him a Martyr with the eyes of the catholics. The same year, its other wire Récarède pushes back in Septimanie an attack of the mérovingien Gontran, king of Burgondie. Léovigild then tries to compose with its catholic subjects by avoiding persecutions and trying to establish the unit of the faith on the basis of expurgé arianism. It then makes concessions on the entry in the arianism, made easier, and on the dogmatic questions (admitting the equality of the Father and the Son). It seems whereas a certain number of conversion to the arianism proceed. However these concessions also throw the disorder at the ariens because it is increasingly difficult to see the differences between the two confessions.

Politically, Léovigild is detached from the Byzantine Empire while making strike currency and by being considered “emperor in his kingdom”. Moreover, he is the first king Visigoth to reject the traditional fur of the warriors goths against the coat of crimson, worthy of the Roman emperors or Byzantines, to sit on a throne and to take as a starting point the Byzantine ceremonial. Its legislative activity is important. It promulgates, or collects its predecessors, 324 laws. This important legal work is continued besides by some of its successors (Chindaswinth and Recceswinth who gather the whole of these laws in the Liber judiciorum towards 654).

Under its reign the public domain, of which the sovereign at the whole disposal, does not cease increasing thanks to the inflicted fines or with the confiscations of goods of his political adversaries. The chronicler Gregoire de Tours writes of him: “It had not even left what piss against a wall” with its adversaries.

Léovigild, considered by Spanish as first “Unificador Nacional”, dies in its capital of Tolède the April 21st 586 of natural causes. His/her Récarède son succeeds to him.

He is at the origin of the town of “Recaredopolis” (the “Town of Récarède” in Greek), known today under the name of “Récopolis” and founded starting from 578 in the south of Tolède in the honor of his son Récarède (who was not supposed to succeed to him this date). It is one of the rare cities built by the Visigoths.

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