Reccared I

## Background

Reccared I was the youngest son of Liuvigild I and his first wife Theodosia. Little is known of him until he and his brother Hermenegild were elevated to the level of co-king by their father in 586 in an attempt to establish the first stable dynastic transition of power since the ending of the Balti dynasty. Although this move was met with criticism initially, it, at least in the case of Reccared, was ultimately successful. Like his father and brother, most of Reccared's reign was preoccupied with the fight between the Arian and Catholic factions of Christianity. The Visigothic monarchy traditionally held to Arian Christianity, even as Frankish, Roman, and most importantly their Hispano-Roman population, made the transition to Catholic Christianity. The situation blew up in 579 when his elder brother Hermenegild, under the influence of his wife Ingund and Leander of Seville, officially renounced Arianism and embraced Catholicism. He did this with the authority of a co-king, but failed to recognize that his father Liuvigild was still the one with the power. When his father insisted on appointing Arian bishops in his region Hermenegild rebelled with the support of Leander. This did not end up being a popular move, even among his supporters such as Pope Gregory the Great. In the end Liuvigild besieged and took control of Hermenegild's stronghold of Seville and banished him to Valencia where he was, according to varying accounts, either murdered or executed.

## Reign

Reccared was officially given the office of king when Liuvigild died in 586. Leander of Seville, who had been exiled due to his influence on Hermenegild's rebellion, immediately began to make his way to the capital of Toledo. His efforts evidently paid off as Reccared officially converted from Arianism to Catholicism in 587, shortly after becoming king. Most nobles and clerics, especially in the Toledo region, followed suit, but the conversion was not traditionally accepted and there were several uprisings that occupied the rest of Reccared's reign. Ironically most of the opposition came from Septimania, the part of the kingdom on the French side of the Pyrenees where Catholicism was more prevalent. The region rebelled under the influence of the Arian bishop Athaloc who sought and received the aid of the Frankish king Guntram of Burgandy who sent his dux Desiderius. Despite this aid Reccared's army was able to defeat the Arian faction including Desiderius. The next uprising came from Lusitania, but was put down by Reccared's dux Claudius. In 588 there was an effort to form another rebellion by Arian bishop Uldila and Reccared's step-mother Goiswintha, but it was detected and stopped before it could do damage.

In 589 St. Leander organized the Third Council of Toledo on behalf of the king. The council included a public confession of faith that is thought to have been written for him by a cleric due to the complex Catholic rhetoric employed, a homily by St. Leander that touted the triumph of the church on the conversion of the goths. One of the first orders of business was to institute a program of forced conversion on the Jewish population and seeking out and destroying pockets of Arianism that remained, although the Church's version of history usually attributes this persecution to the Visigothic kings. Reccared was traditionally reported to have taken the position of a zealot against the Jews, but there is more evidence to the contrary. While Pope Gregory I was not entirely pleased with his policies of allowing Jews to continue to participate in the slave markets at Narbonne he did firmly believe that Reccared turned down attempted bribes from Jewish families.

The rest of Reccared's reign after the Third Council does not appear to have been eventful. He received the approval of the Catholic pope who sent him some holy relics including a piece of the True Cross. Reccared married Baddo and was engaged to Chlodoswintha but the marriage fell through. He died of natural causes in Toledo in 601 and was succeeded as king by his son Liuva II.