Suintila

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From 621 to 631, Suintila (or Swinthila, Svinthila) was King of the Visigoths in Hispania. There was a new peace in the Kingdom of the Visigoths. As a direct result, by 624, the king was able to retake those lands that had been under the control of Byzantium.

On the linguistic front, it was around Suintila's time that a secondary form of the word Hispania was growing in usage: Spania, from which the modern name of Spain originated. According to Isidore of Seville, who died in 636, it was with the Visigothic domination of Hispania that the idea of a peninsular unity was sought, and the phrase mother Spain was first spoken. Up to that date it had been the word Hispania that designated all of the peninsula's lands. In Historia Gothorum, Suintila appears as the first king of totius Spaniae; the history's prologue is the well-known De laude Spaniae ("About Spain's Pride") where Spain is dealt with as a Gothic nation.

Preceded by: Reccared II

King of the Visigoths 621–631

Succeeded by: Sisenand