Thiufadus

The thiufadii (singular: thiufadus) were generals of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo, which in the mid-century VI increased their powers by becoming military commanders and perhaps —although there are contradictory theses— at the same time judges not only in their military field.

According to this last theory, the thiufadii would have assistants in the so-called “smocks” (the old saios of the Late Roman Empire), a function that would become necessary due to the dual judicial and military mission, as well as the increase in work derived from the Liber Iudiciorum, which applied to both the Gothic and Hispano-Roman populations. Until then, both groups were governed by different laws: the Alaric Breviary for the Romans and the Euric Code for the Goths, both repealed with the promulgation of the Code of Leovigildo who, in an attempt to unify the kingdom, made the right territorial., converting the right of Roman origin of the Brevarium into supplementary for the Hispano-Romans. This trend crystallized when Recesvinto finished the legislative work of his father Chindasvinto in the Liber Iudiciorum , a basic legal reference in medieval Hispania until the Siete partidas , attributed to Alfonso X from Castile.

However, the thiufadus or chamberlain, after this time, lost importance as almost all military functions passed to the count, who instead reduced his judicial functions to appeals; direct command of the army was left in the hands of the officers.