Date of Award
Spring 5-9-2024
Document Type
Honors Project
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
History and American Studies
Department Chair or Program Director
Claudine Ferrell
First Advisor
Bruce O'Brien
Major or Concentration
History
Abstract
The historiography of Visigothic Spain has always been relevant, from the days of what is known as the Reconquista, to Franco-era propaganda efforts, and even to the modern day. Scholars have debated the varying qualities of Roman-ness or Gothic-ness that appear in the Visigothic kingdom, the importance of the Visigothic conversion to Nicene Christianity at the Third Council of Toledo in 589, and other details. Leaving those debates to others, this paper focuses on the question why did the Arian Visigothic kingdom abandon the Arian religion that had defined the Visigoths for generations? In examining this question through archaeological research and the relevant primary narrative sources, a deeper idea, the reimagining of Visigothic kingship, begins to appear in the reigns of the sixth century kings Leovigild and Reccared. The impetus for this change – one that ultimately led to conversion at Toledo in 589 – was the Byzantine threat, a threat not only to the Visigothic kingdom’s territory, but also to the very legitimacy of Visigothic kingship.
Recommended Citation
Hungar, Lance, "From Goths to Romans? Changing Conceptions of Visigothic Kingship in the Reigns of Leovigild and Reccared" (2024). Student Research Submissions. 562.
https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/562