Chindasuinth

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Chindasuinth as portrayed, holding the law, in the Códice Albedense.

Chindasuinth (Chindaswinth, Chindaswind, Chindasuinto, Chindasvindo, or Khindaswinth; in Spanish and Portuguese, Chindasvinto; and in Latin, Chintasvintus) (c.563-653) was king of Visigothic Hispania from 642 to 653. According to Edward Gibbon, during his reign, Moslem raiders began harrying Iberia: "As early as the time of Othman (644–656), their piratical squadrons had ravaged the coast of Andalusia."

Legend has it that Pelayo, the first king of Asturias, was a direct descendant of Chindasuinth, but this claim hasn't been proven.

He succeeded Tulga, from whom he usurped the throne in a coup; he was "officially" elected by the nobles and anointed by the bishops the 30 April, 642.

Despite his great age (he was already 79 years old), his great energy and force of character made the clergy and noblesse to submit. Somewhat famously, he cemented his control by preempting a revolt: he executed at one time over 200 Goths of the most noble families and 500 more of the petty nobility. This in accompaniment with many banishments and confiscations of property. All of this before any rebellion and without any investigation or trial or, for that matter, actual belief that a revolt was pending.

The VII Council of Toledo, held 16 October 646, consented to and backed his actions, toughening the punishments applied to those who rose against the sovereign and extending them even to members of the clergy who supported them.

Smothering all opposition, he lent the realm a peace and order not before known. To continue this, he had his son Reccesuinth, at the urging of St Braulio of Zaragoza, crowned co-king 20 January 648, and attempted to establish, as many before had, a hereditary monarchy in Spain. His associate-son was from this date until his death the true ruler of the Visigoths, in name of his father until 653, the date of the old man's passing.

Despite his implacable politics, Chindasuinth is recorded in ecclesiastical annals as a great benefactor of the church, donating many lands and bestowing privileges. He improved the public estates with the confiscated goods of the dispossessed nobility and through improved taxation methods. In the military arena, he undertook campaigns against rebellious Basques and Lusitanians.

As a legislator, he promulgated many laws dealing with civil matters. With the assistance of Braulio, bishop of Zaragoza, he began the elaboration of a code of law for both the Gothic population and the Hispanoroman one. That work would be finished by his son with the Lex Visigothorum. It superseded both the Breviary of Alaric used by the natives and the Code of Leovigild used by the Goths.

He spent the last years of his life, as so many mediaeval monarchs did, in acts of piety for the sake of his immortal soul. He founded the monastery of San Román de la Hornija, by the Douro, so that his remains could rest next to those of his wife, Recciberga. Nevertheless, to Eugene II, bishop of Toledo he was nothing but "impious, unjust, and immoral".

[edit] External links

Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 51
Visigothic Law Code: text. The preface was written in 1908, and should be read with reservations. Look at Book VI: Concerning Crimes and Tortures, under Title III: Concerning Abortion, the seventh article, which is not "ancient law", as so many others, but the words of FLAVIUS CHINTASVINTUS REX.
Museo Rey Chindasvinto: photograph (text in Spanish). This is a picture of the Museo Rey Chindasvinto in San Román de la Hornija.