Roderic

Roderic (also spelled Ruderic, Roderik, Roderich, or Roderick; Spanish and Portuguese: Rodrigo, Arabic: لذريق, romanized: Ludharīq; died July 711) was the Visigothic king in Hispania between 710 and 711. He is well known as "the last king of the Goths". He is actually an extremely obscure figure about whom little can be said with certainty. He was the last Goth to rule from Toledo, but not the last Gothic king, a distinction which belongs to Ardo.

Roderic's election as king was disputed and he ruled only a part of Hispania with an opponent, Achila, ruling the rest. He faced a rebellion of the Basques and the Umayyad invasion. He was defeated and killed at the Battle of Guadalete. His widow Egilona is believed to have married Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, the first Muslim governor of Hispania.

According to the late Chronicle of Alfonso III, Roderic was a son of Theodefred, himself a son of king Chindaswinth and queen Recciberga, and of a woman named Riccilo. Roderic's exact date of birth is unknown but probably was after 687, estimated from his father's marriage having taken place after his exile to Córdoba following the succession of King Egica in that year.

According to the Chronicle of 754, Roderic "tumultuously [tumultuose] invaded the kingdom [regnum] with the encouragement of [or at the exhortation of] the senate [senatus]." Historians have long debated the exact meaning of these words. What is generally recognised is that it was not a typical palace coup as had occurred on previous occasions, but rather a violent invasion of the palace which sharply divided the kingdom.

It is probable that the "invasion" was not from outside the kingdom; because the word regnum can refer to the office of the king, it is likely that Roderic merely usurped the throne. Nonetheless, it is possible that Roderic was a regional commander (dux of Baetica in later, legendary sources) or even an exile when he staged his coup.

The "tumult" which surrounded this usurpation was probably violent, though whether or not it involved the deposition or assassination of the legitimate king, Wittiza, or was a consequence of his recent natural death has divided scholars. Some scholars believe that the king Achila, who ruled in opposition to Roderic, was in fact Wittiza's son and successor and that Roderic had tried to usurp the throne from him.

The senate with which Roderic accomplished his coup was probably composed of the "leading aristocrats and perhaps also some of the bishops." The participation of churchmen in the revolt is disputed, some arguing that the support of the bishops would not have led to the act being labelled a usurpation. The body of leading temporal and ecclesiastical lords had been the dominant body in determining the Visigothic succession since the reign of Reccared I. The palatine officials, however, had not been much affected by royal measures to decrease their influence in the final decades of the kingdom, as their effecting of a coup in 711 indicates.

After the coup, the division of the kingdom into two factions, with the southwest (the provinces of Lusitania and western Carthaginiensis around the capital Toledo) in Roderic's hands and the northeast (Tarraconensis and Narbonensis) in the hands of Achila is confirmed by archaeological and numismatic evidence. Roderic's twelve surviving coins, all bearing the name Rvdericvs, were minted at Toledo, probably his capital, and "Egitania", probably Idanha-a-Velha. The regions in which the coins have been discovered do not overlap and it seems highly probable that the two rulers ruled in opposition from different regions. It is unknown to whom the provinces of Gallaecia and Baetica fell. That Roderic and Achila never appear to have come into military conflict is probably best explained by the preoccupation of Roderic with Arab raids and not to a formal division of the kingdom.