Witiza

Witiza ( Flavius Vitiza Rex ; † 710 ) was king of the Visigoth Empire from 702 to 710 . He was the son of King Egica and Queen Cixilo and successor to his father.

Co-regency

Egica raised his son Witiza to co-regent either in 694 or 695 (this date is unequivocally secured by a contemporary document). Witiza's anointing of the king did not take place until November 15, 700 on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of his father's accession to power. Egica gave his son responsibility for the area of the former Suebian Empire in the far north-west of the Pyrenees Peninsula; Witiza resided there in the city of Tui . Supposedly he slew Fafila, the father of Pelayos , who later founded the Asturian Empire in Tui . Egica was decrepit in the last phase of his rule, so Witiza was already running the government. Egica died in November or December 702 and Witiza assumed sole rule.

Sole rule

Gold coin Witizas from Braga

What happened next is portrayed very differently in the sources. The best source is the Mozarabic Chronicle , written in 754 . It is relatively close in time to the events and is classified as credible in research. According to her, Witiza was extremely popular and successful; his rule is described as a time of peace and splendor. Witiza's gentleness is also praised and reports that he rehabilitated opponents of his father, whom he had expropriated and exiled, and returned their property to them and pursued a general policy of reconciliation.

The Chronicon Moissiacense and the Chronicle of Alfonso III, written in the late 9th century, paint a completely different picture . as well as the subsequent historiography that followed them. They describe Witiza as a vicious person who had several wives and mistresses and who ruined the church by ordering not only priests but even bishops to take wives. In doing so, he had challenged the wrath of God, and the consequence was the fall of the Visigoth Empire by the Arab invasion one year after Witiza's death.

The representation in the late anti-witiza sources is unbelievable. It is part of the propaganda of King Alfons III. of Asturias (Neo-Gothicism). The motive is obvious. For the Christians, the Arab conquest was an incredible catastrophe that required a theological explanation. This could only consist in the fact that the Goths had sinned badly and were punished by God for it. Since Witiza's successor Roderich , who lost the battle against the Muslims, only ruled for one year, he was only partially considered a scapegoat. Therefore Witiza fell to the role of the main villain. Added to this was the fact that Witiza's family willingly came to terms with the Muslim victors after the fall of the Visigoth Empire; Witiza's granddaughter Sara (known as Sara la Goda) married a Muslim and may convert to Islam. His sons Alamund, Romulus and Ardabast were accused by opposing circles of having collaborated with the Arabs in a treasonous way before the defeat. The accusation against Witiza of having promoted the unchastity of the clergy was very grave in view of the strict moral standards traditional in Spain; In the Visigoth Empire, celibacy for the higher degrees of ordination was already strictly prescribed by the 4th Imperial Council of Toledo in 633 . The claim that Witiza ordered the priests to marry could be a polemically skewed account of the actual approval of priestly marriages.

It is noticeable that the files of the only imperial council that Witiza held, the 18th Toletanum, have been lost; the acts of the many councils of his predecessors have been preserved. This may be due to the fact that Witiza steered a different (more liberal) course in church politics than his father and that his measures were displeased to influential parts of the clergy.

The historian Roger Collins has suspected that Witiza was overthrown by his successor Roderich and probably killed in the process. This assumption is speculative, however, since no source reports a fall and violent death of Witiza. In any case, his sons were passed over in the succession to the throne.

Most historians put Witiza's death in the year 710.

swell

Jan Prelog (Ed.): The Chronicle of Alfonso III. Frankfurt a. M. 1980, pp. 10-17, 143-151, ISBN 3-8204-6688-6
Yves Bonnaz (Ed.): Chroniques asturiennes. Paris 1987, ISBN 2-222-03516-3
Juan Gil (Ed.): Chronica Muzarabica , in: Juan Gil (Ed.): Corpus scriptorum Muzarabicorum Vol. 1, Madrid 1973, pp. 15-54, ISBN 84-00-03910-6

literature

Franz Görres: Character and religious policy of the penultimate Spanish King of the Visigoths Witiza. In: Journal of Scientific Theology. Vol. 48, 1905, pp. 96-111
Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz: Investigaciones sobre historiografía hispana medieval. Buenos Aires 1967

Remarks

↑ For the chronology of Witiza's elevation to co-regent and his anointing, see Prelog, pp. 143–147; Julia Montenegro / Arcadio del Castillo: The Chronology of the Reign of Witiza in the Sources , in: Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire Vol. 80, 2002, pp. 367-370.
↑ Prelog p. 144f., Bonnaz p. 126.
↑ Bonnaz p. 79f.
↑ Chronica Muzarabica chap. 37-39.
↑ Dietrich Claude : Investigations into the fall of the Visigoth Empire (711-725) . In: Historisches Jahrbuch , Vol. 108, 1988, pp. 329–358, here: 347f.
↑ On the "antiwitizan legend" see Prelog S. CXLIII-CXLVI; Alexander Pierre Bronisch: The Visigoth imperial ideology and its further development in the empire of Asturias , in: The early Middle Ages Kings , ed. Franz-Reiner Erkens, Berlin 2005, pp. 183-185; Alexander Pierre Bronisch: Reconquista and Holy War. The interpretation of the war in Christian Spain from the Visigoths to the early 12th century , Münster 1998, pp. 264–270.
↑ Dietrich Claude: Investigations into the fall of the Visigoth Empire (711-725) . In: Historisches Jahrbuch , Vol. 108, 1988, pp. 329–358, here: 330, 343–350. For the oldest surviving Arabic version of the treacherous legend, which appears in a source from the 10th century, see Ann Christys: How the royal house of Witiza survived the Islamic conquest of Spain . In: Walter Pohl, Maximilian habenberger (ed.): Integration und Herrschaft , Vienna 2002, pp. 233–246.
^ Bronisch (1998) pp. 260f.
^ Roger Collins: The Arab Conquest of Spain. Oxford 1989, pp. 15-19.
^ Roger Collins: Visigothic Spain 409-711. Malden (MA) 2004, pp. 113 and 132f.
↑ The basis for this are the calculations by Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz: Orígenes de la nación española , Vol. 1, Oviedo 1972, pp. 219–222. Julia Montenegro / Arcadio del Castillo: The Chronology of the Reign of Witiza in the Sources , in: Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire Vol. 80, 2002, pp. 367–383, represent a different dating (beginning of November 709) .

predecessor	Office	successor
Egica	King of the Visigoths 702–710	Roderich

personal data
SURNAME	Witiza
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	King of the Visigoths (702–710)
DATE OF BIRTH	7th century
DATE OF DEATH	710

[1] For the chronology of Witiza's elevation to co-regent and his anointing, see Prelog, pp. 143–147; Julia Montenegro / Arcadio del Castillo: The Chronology of the Reign of Witiza in the Sources , in: Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire Vol. 80, 2002, pp. 367-370.

[2] Prelog p. 144f., Bonnaz p. 126.

[3] Bonnaz p. 79f.

[4] Chronica Muzarabica chap. 37-39.

[5] Dietrich Claude : Investigations into the fall of the Visigoth Empire (711-725) . In: Historisches Jahrbuch , Vol. 108, 1988, pp. 329–358, here: 347f.

[6] On the "antiwitizan legend" see Prelog S. CXLIII-CXLVI; Alexander Pierre Bronisch: The Visigoth imperial ideology and its further development in the empire of Asturias , in: The early Middle Ages Kings , ed. Franz-Reiner Erkens, Berlin 2005, pp. 183-185; Alexander Pierre Bronisch: Reconquista and Holy War. The interpretation of the war in Christian Spain from the Visigoths to the early 12th century , Münster 1998, pp. 264–270.

[7] Dietrich Claude: Investigations into the fall of the Visigoth Empire (711-725) . In: Historisches Jahrbuch , Vol. 108, 1988, pp. 329–358, here: 330, 343–350. For the oldest surviving Arabic version of the treacherous legend, which appears in a source from the 10th century, see Ann Christys: How the royal house of Witiza survived the Islamic conquest of Spain . In: Walter Pohl, Maximilian habenberger (ed.): Integration und Herrschaft , Vienna 2002, pp. 233–246.

[8] Bronisch (1998) pp. 260f.

[9] Roger Collins: The Arab Conquest of Spain. Oxford 1989, pp. 15-19.

[10] Roger Collins: Visigothic Spain 409-711. Malden (MA) 2004, pp. 113 and 132f.

[11] The basis for this are the calculations by Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz: Orígenes de la nación española , Vol. 1, Oviedo 1972, pp. 219–222. Julia Montenegro / Arcadio del Castillo: The Chronology of the Reign of Witiza in the Sources , in: Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire Vol. 80, 2002, pp. 367–383, represent a different dating (beginning of November 709) .