Recaredo I

Recaredo I (Latin: Flavius Reccaredus, Gothic: Rekkareþ) (559-Toledo, December 21, 601) He was king of the Visigoths from 586 to 601.

The son and successor of Leovigildo and his first wife, he fought the Franks, the Byzantines (still present on the Andalusian coast) and the Basques, and had to put down several revolts by the noble Visigoths.

The most outstanding event of his reign occurred in 589, when he convened the III Council of Toledo in which, together with several noblemen and ecclesiastical dignitaries, he abjured Arianism and converted to Nicene Christianity, with which he carried out the religious unification between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans, to which his father aspired inversely and who, apparently and paradoxically, advised him this path, thus sealing the spiritual and territorial unity of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania.

Biography

Hermenegildo's brother, he was associated to the throne by his father making the monarchy hereditary, which raised the protests of the Visigothic nobles since the Visigothic monarchy was characterized precisely by being elective.

In 584, in his desire to become related and reach an alliance with the Franks, he sent ambassadors to marry Rigunda, daughter of Chilperic I, king of Neustria, and Fredegunda. Once the marriage was agreed, Rigunda was sent together with a splendid dowry from her, in August 584, to the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania to marry Recaredo. After a very hazardous trip, with a multitude of robberies that left her with nothing, she arrived in Toulouse, where she received the news of the murder of her father Chilperic, with which her marriage to the Visigothic king no longer made sense for an alliance between kingdoms.. A short time later, maintaining the same desire to become related to the Franks, Recaredo sent a new delegation of ambassadors to marry Clodosinda, daughter of Sigebert I, King of Austrasia, and Brunegilda, but the negotiations failed for unknown reasons.

Access to the throne

When his father Leovigildo died, Recaredo was in Septimania. He surely remained there, as he continued the war against Gontran I of Burgundy, despite his defeat the previous year. Carcassonne was attacked again by Desiderio, a Neustrian nobleman who held the position of dux (Duke) of Aquitaine, although he was repulsed.

Peace with Austrasia and war with Burgundy

Recaredo, advised by his stepmother Gosuinda, sent messengers to Childebert II of Austrasia asking for peace. It had been a long time since Gosuinda had mistreated Ingundis, and the treaty could be made with some ease. As there was no pending conflict with Neustria, only one of the three Merovingian kings, Gontran I of Burgundy, remained hostile to the Visigoths.

Recaredo also sent messengers to Gontrán, but he refused to receive them and closed the border with Septimania. The Visigoths carried out various attacks in the region of the mouth of the Rhone.

Execution of Sisberto

Not long after acceding to the throne, the new king had the Goth Sisberto executed, responsible for the death of his brother Hermenegildo, although probably by order of Leovigildo, since if he had not had the authorization of the king, he could not have disobeyed him. so badly and go on living.

Conversion of Recaredo

At the beginning of the year 587

Recaredo, who must already have Catholic sympathies, had himself baptized in secret. From then on he tried to convince the Arian bishops to accept the Trinitarian doctrine, holding three meetings: one with the Arian bishops, whom he encouraged to meet with Catholic bishops to discuss theological problems and determine what the true faith was; a joint meeting of Catholic and Arian bishops, with strong polemics between both sides, and with a Reccaredo pressing in favor of the Catholics; and finally, having failed to convince the Arians, a meeting with the Catholic bishops to whom he communicated that he had already made his choice for Catholicism. In communicating his faith to the Catholic bishops, many Visigothic nobles were present and apparently followed him, and in the spring and summer of 587 the Arian churches were expropriated and turned over to the Catholics.

New embassies to the Frankish kings

After his conversion, Recaredo sent new embassies to Childebert of Austrasia and Gontran of Burgundy. He offered Childeberto a large sum (ten thousand sueldos) and the Austrasian king (advised by his mother Brunegilda) recognized that Recaredo was not at all guilty of the death of Ingundis, concluding an alliance treaty. Even Recaredo negotiated his marriage with Clodosinda, Childeberto's sister, but to grant it Brunegilda asked for Gontran's assent. The embassy sent to Burgundy requested this consent but Gontran refused to give it. A few months later, Childeberto expressed his approval of the marriage, alleging that he knew that the Visigoths were already Catholic, but apparently it did not take place, since in 589 the king was already married to Baddo, his Gothic commoner concubine.

Aryan conspiracies and new war with Burgundy

The Arian reaction was not long in coming. The Arian bishop of Mérida, Sunna, and the Gothic noblemen Segga and Vagrila (probably counts) planned to assassinate the local Catholic bishop, Masona, and the dux of Lusitania, Claudio, and raise the entire province, surely proclaiming Segga king. We do not know the development of the conspiracy, but it seems that some noble Goths - who had agreed to return to Arianism - recovered their old faith and that many Roman citizens (supposedly Catholics) joined them. When the assassination attempt on Masona failed, one of the conspirators, the future King Witerico, probably a count, revealed the details of the plot. Claudio easily put down the attempt. Segga's hands were cut off (a punishment that seems to have been reserved for usurpers), his property was confiscated, and he was exiled to Galicia. Vagrila took refuge in what is now the Basilica of Santa Eulalia (Mérida), and the king ordered the confiscation of his properties and deliver them to said Church, but Bishop Masona forgave him and returned them to him. They made an offer to Sunna to receive another bishopric if he converted to Catholicism (the Arian bishopric of Mérida should have been suppressed and the Catholic one was already covered, in any case the offered bishopric would not be metropolitan). Sunna refused and was banished, marching to Mauritania, where he propagated Arianism until his violent death, the date of which is unknown (supposed to be around 600).

Recaredo ordered the burning of all Arian books and texts, excluded the Arians from any public office and suppressed the organization of the Arian Church, which disappeared in a few years. Some Goths were forced to convert to Catholicism.

A second Arian attempt had as protagonists Bishop Uldila, whose seat is unknown, assuming that he could be the Bishop of Toledo, who, although he had nominally abjured, retained his Arian beliefs, and Queen Gosuinda, widow of Atanagildo and Leovigildo. The conspiracy was aborted and Uldila sent into exile. Gosuinda died soon after.

A third conspiracy had been planned for a few months: some nobles from Septimania were preparing a plot to overthrow the king. It was headed by the counts Granista and Wildigerno and the Arian bishop of Narbona, Athaloc. The conspirators asked the King of Burgundy Gontran (who was a Catholic) for help.

Hostilities with Burgundy, suspended since 586, suddenly resumed in 589. Burgundian forces under Boso, who had been called in by the conspirators, approached Carcassonne, which was apparently occupied, but were defeated by forces Visigoths under the command of Claudio, dux of the Lusitanian province (apparently Hispano-Roman, although he may have adopted a Roman name upon converting to Catholicism), in the vicinity of the Aude river. The Franks left five thousand corpses and two thousand prisoners on the ground. The defeat was complete and the safety of Septimania was assured. It appears that Granista and Wildigerno were killed in the fighting and that Athaloc died shortly after a natural death.

The Third Council of Toledo

Recaredo's gold mobs.

Shortly before the Council of Toledo was held, Recaredo announced that he was annulling the prohibition for the Church to hold provincial synods of bishops.

On May 8, 589, the Third Council of Toledo began. Recaredo made a profession of Catholic faith and anathematized Arius and his doctrines, he attributed the conversion of the Gothic and Swabian people to Catholicism. Several Arian bishops publicly abjured their beliefs, among them four probably Swabians: Beccila de Lucus (Lugo), Gardingus de Tute (Tuy), Argiovittus de Portus Cale (Oporto) and Sunnila de Vaceum (Viseo, probably from the Lusitana province); and four other Goths: Ugnus from Barcino (Barcelona), Fruisclus from Dertosa (Tortosa), Maurila from Palentia (Palencia) and Ubiligisclus from Valentia (Valencia). We know that the meeting was attended by a bishop from Pamplona named Loliolo (with a Gothic name), but later the headquarters ceased to be represented until the year 684. The resolutions of the Arian Synod of Toledo of 580 were condemned. Seventy-two bishops attended the Council, personally or through delegates (in addition to the five metropolitans), and the main figures were the metropolitan bishop of Mérida, Masona, who promoted the conversion of Recaredo and presided over the council, Leandro de Sevilla, supposed instigator of the conversion of Hermenegildo, and the abbot of the Servitan monastery, Eutropio.

The decisions of the Council acquired the force of law when the king published an Edict confirming the Council. Disobedience was punished with severe penalties (the confiscation of half of the property for the honest and exile and the loss of their property for the inferior).

The Fourth Conspiracy

After the council, in the year 590 a new conspiracy was organized headed by Argimundo, cubiculario of the king and dux of a province, and by influential people from the palace. Although the conspirators intended to assassinate the king and proclaim Argimundo in his place, it is unknown if they were trying to restore Arianism or were acting motivated by the ambition of power. Discovered the conspiracy, Argimundo suffered flogging, decalvation, amputation of his right hand and public ridicule.

Social Changes

We know that, coinciding with the conversion to Catholicism, some social changes took place among the Goths: their way of dressing was adapted to that of the Romans, the traditional brooches and buckles disappeared, and the properties of the deceased were no longer buried with these, but rather cremated.

Recaredo's family

The conversion of Recaredo, by Antonio Muñoz Degrain, 1888 (Palacio del Senate de España, Madrid).

There were negotiations to marry Recaredo with the Frankish princesses Rigunthis and Clodosinda, but there is no record that said liaisons took place. Shortly before the III Council of Toledo in 589, Recaredo married the commoner Baddo, Bado or Bada, with whom he had been related for some years and had had his son Liuva. Their marriage was carried out to please the Church, when it was already foreseen that in said Council the king would make a public and solemn profession of embracing the Catholic faith and, consequently, also on behalf of the kingdom. Proof of the importance of the act is the fact that Baddo, his wife, was the only Visigothic queen who signed the acts of a Council.

Although the date of the king's birth is unknown, it is known that Hermenegildo, his older brother, was born around 564, so he himself must have been born in 565 or after this date. Therefore, in 589 he was at most 24 years old. His brother Hermenegildo married in 579, counting, therefore, 15 years of age and his wife, Princess Ingundis, would have been about 13 or 14 years old. The negotiations to marry him with Rigunthis were carried out around 582 or 583 when he would have been a little over 15 years old, and the new negotiations of which we have news are from 587, when he was a little over 20 years old. The marriage must already have a certain urgency, not because he was already king (since the monarchy was not hereditary), but because of Recaredo's age, who immediately married Baddo, his former concubine.

His son, Liuva, was born around 581 or 582, in any case before 584, and was the product of his relationship with Baddo before the canonical marriage, an extreme supported by the text of the Chronicle of Saint Isidore, which says: « Ignobile quidem matre progenitus, sed virtutum indole in signitus” (which could be translated as “He was created by an undoubtedly obscure mother, but she emphasized his virtuous character”).

The Byzantine Question

Around 599 there was a war against the Byzantines, without our knowing the causes or evolution, although it seems that the fight was favorable to Byzantium, which occupied some territories, not very extensive in any case. It must have been after that when Recaredo requested, through the Pope's mediation, a copy of the treaty concluded with the Byzantines, which set the limits of the province of Spania, because it is possible that the Visigothic copy had been lost and the imperial copy is supposed probably destroyed in a fire in 564 or 565. The Pope replied that he should desist from it, because, if the treaty appeared, even with the presumed Byzantine conquests, the Visigothic kingdom would be harmed, since the extension of the province should be less than at the time of the treaty (551? 564?). Since we know that Leovigildo had recovered all or part of the region of the Strait with Asidona, the regions close to Málaga and Baza, and perhaps Baza itself, and probably the territory between Baza and Málaga, the regions occupied by the Byzantines would be well placed. in the coastal area between Malaga and Cartagena or in the area of the Strait.

Death of Recaredo

Recaredo died a natural death in Toledo on December 21, 601, and was succeeded by his still very young son Liuva II, whose legitimacy is disagreed by different authors.