List of Galician monarchs
Encyclopedia
Galicia is an autonomous community and historical nationality in modern-day northwestern Spain, which continues and was a major part of the Roman province known as Gallaecia
prior to 409. The medieval and modern Kingdom of Galicia
derived of the kingdom of the Suebi
, founded by king Hermeric
in 409. By the 6th century the kingdom of the Suebi was already known as Kingdom of Galicia, Gregory of Tours
being the first chronicler to use this denomination.
Kings during a Suebic Civil War (457–469)
Note: the civil war split the kingdom, multiple kings ruled smaller regions of Gallicia.
Dark Period (469–550)
Final Suevic Period (550–585)
kings took control of Galicia in 585, which became the sixth province of the Kingdom of Toledo. Anyhow, Galicia maintained a distinguishable administrative and legal identity up to the collapse of the Visigothic monarchy:
From the fall of the Visigothic kingdom until the beginning of the 10th century, Galicia was integrated with other Christian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula (Kingdom of Asturias
and Kingdom of León
).
was forced to abdicate in favor of his sons, who partitioned the kingdom. This resulted in a briefly independent kingdom of Galicia:
In 914, Ordoño acquired the throne at León
, reuniting his father's kingdom. On the death of his brother Fruela II of León
in 925, there was a period of competing claimants, being made king in Galicia:
The death of Sancho led to Galicia again becoming part of the Kingdom of León, with which it was joined until 982, when the Galician nobility crowned in Santiago de Compostela
an anti-king:
Bermudo routed Ramiro III of León
in the battle of Portela de Areas, later becoming undisputed ruler of the Leonese kingdom, and so reunifying the realm.
Alfonso VI of León reunited the Kingdoms of Castile, León and Galicia.
He was succeeded by his son:
With the accession to the throne of Ferdinand III of Castile
in 1230, the Kingdom of Galicia became dinastically united with the kingdoms of León, Castile and Toledo inside the Crown of Castile
, but maintaining its personality as a kingdom, and its own legal institutions.
Gallaecia
Gallaecia or Callaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province and an early Mediaeval kingdom that comprised a territory in the north-west of Hispania...
prior to 409. The medieval and modern Kingdom of Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia
The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...
derived of the kingdom of the Suebi
Suebi
The Suebi or Suevi were a group of Germanic peoples who were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with Ariovistus' campaign, c...
, founded by king Hermeric
Hermeric
Hermeric was the Suevic King of Galicia from perhaps as early as 406 and certainly no later than 419 until his retirement in 438. He was a pagan and an enemy of the Roman Empire throughout his life...
in 409. By the 6th century the kingdom of the Suebi was already known as Kingdom of Galicia, Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours
Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...
being the first chronicler to use this denomination.
Suebic Kings of Galicia (409–585)
First Royal Dynasty (409–456)- HermericHermericHermeric was the Suevic King of Galicia from perhaps as early as 406 and certainly no later than 419 until his retirement in 438. He was a pagan and an enemy of the Roman Empire throughout his life...
(409–438) - RechilaRechilaRechila was the Suevic King of Galicia from 438 until his death. There are few primary sources for his life, but Hydatius was a contemporary Christian chronicler in Galicia....
(438–448) - RechiarRechiarRechiar or Rechiarius was the Suevic King of Galicia from 448 until his death. He was the first Catholic Germanic king in Europe and one of the most innovative and belligerent of the Suevi monarchs...
(448–456) - AioulfAioulfAioulf or Ag'iwulf was an obscure King of Galicia from 456. In 448, after eight years in captivity, the Roman ambassador Censorius was executed by one Agiulf at Seville...
(456–457)
Kings during a Suebic Civil War (457–469)
Note: the civil war split the kingdom, multiple kings ruled smaller regions of Gallicia.
- MaldrasMaldrasMaldras was the Suevic King of Galicia from 456 until his death. After the execution of Rechiar by the victorious Visigoths, the Suevi are said to have established Maldras on the throne...
(457–460) - FramtaFramtaFramta, Framtan, or Framtane was one of the kings of the Suevi in Galicia in 457....
(457) - RichimundRichimundRichimund or Rechimund was a Suevic leader in Galicia from 457 until about 464. He was not recorded as a king , though Hydatius wrote that inter Frumarium et Rechimundum oritur de regni potestate dissensio...
(457–464) - FrumarFrumarFrumar was a Suevic warlord who succeeded Maldras, assassinated in February 460, as leader of the Suevic group then raiding Lusitania...
(460–464) - RemismundRemismundRemismund was the Suevic King of Galicia from c. 464 until his death.According to Isidore of Seville, Remismund was a son of Maldras. Remismund's early career was spent as an ambassador between Galicia and Gaul, which trip he made several times...
(464–464) - reunification
Dark Period (469–550)
- HermenericHermenericHermeneric was a Suevic King of Galicia according to a now lost document claimed by the priest Antonio de Yepes. According to Yepes, the king reigned around 485, which would put him in a roughly century-long period of obscurity during which the Sueves were Arian Christians...
- VeremundVeremundVeremund or Veremundus was a Suevic King of Galicia around 485, during a period of obscurity for the region following the death of the chronicler Hydatius and the Sueves conversion to Arianism...
- TheodemundTheodemundTheodemund was a Suevic King of Galicia between the years 469 and 550. This period is very obscure and little is known about the rulers in this time save that they were Arians. The hypothesis of his existence is based on a twelfth-century document that mentions a Theodemundus ruling the Sueves...
Final Suevic Period (550–585)
- Chararic (550–558)
- AriamirAriamirAriamir was the Suevic King of Galicia, with his capital at Bracara, from around 561, when he is mentioned by the bishops of the First Council of Braga as the king who summoned them and under whose auspices they deliberated...
(558–561) - TheodemarTheodemarTheodemir or Theodemar was one of the last Suevic kings of Galicia and one of the first Catholics. He succeeded Ariamir sometime between the end of May 561 and the year 566 and ruled until his death....
(561–570) - Miro or Mirón (570–583)
- EboricEboricEboric or Euric was the last legitimate Suevic King of Galicia. He was the adolescent son of Miro and Sisegutia and he succeeded his father in 583, ruling for a year before being deposed by his mother's second husband, Audeca, who threw him in a monastery...
, or Euric (583–584) - AndecaAndecaAndeca or Audeca was the last de facto Suevic King of Galicia from 584 until his deposition the next year . He deposed Eboric and usurped the throne by marrying the young king's mother, Siseguntia , the widow of Eboric's father and predecessor, Miro...
(584–585) - MalaricMalaricMalaric or Amalaric was the last man to claim the kingship of the Suevi of Galicia. In 585, after the last king, Audeca, was defeated and captured by the Visigoths, Malaric rose in rebellion, but was, according to John of Biclar, "defeated by King Leovigild's generals and was captured and presented...
(585)
Visigothic Kings of Galicia, Hispania and Septimania
The VisigothVisigoth
The Visigoths were one of two main branches of the Goths, the Ostrogoths being the other. These tribes were among the Germans who spread through the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period...
kings took control of Galicia in 585, which became the sixth province of the Kingdom of Toledo. Anyhow, Galicia maintained a distinguishable administrative and legal identity up to the collapse of the Visigothic monarchy:
- LiuvigildLiuvigildLiuvigild, Leuvigild, Leovigild, or Leogild was a Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania from 569 to April 21, 586. From 585 he was also king of Galicia. Known for his Codex Revisus or Code of Leovigild, a unifying law allowing equal rights between the Visigothic and Hispano-Roman population,...
(585–586) - Reccared I (586–601)
- Liuva IILiuva IILiuva II, youthful son of Reccared, was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 601 to 603. He succeeded Reccared at only eighteen years of age....
(601–603) - WittericWittericWitteric was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 603 to 610....
(603–610) - GundemarGundemarGundemar was a Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia .Gundemar continued a policy of amity with Clotaire II of Neustria and Theodobert II of Austrasia. To this end, he sent grand sums of money to support their cause against their relative Theuderic II of Burgundy...
(610–612) - Sisebut (612–621)
- Reccared IIReccared IIReccared II was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia briefly in 621. His father and predecessor was Sisebut and his mother was his second wife, the bastard daughter of Reccared I by Floresinda...
(621) - SuintilaSuintilaSuintila was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 621 to 631. 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...
(621–631) - SisenandSisenandSisenand, or Sisinand in Spanish, Galician and Portuguese Sisenando , was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia...
(631–636) - ChintilaChintilaChintila was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 636. He succeeded Sisenand in a time of weakness and reigned until his death....
(636–640) - TulgaTulgaTulga was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 640 to 642, if his father died in December 640, as some sources state. Although some sources have his rule beginning as early as 639 or ending as early as 641...
(640–641) - ChindasuinthChindasuinthChindasuinth was Visigothic King of Spain, from 642 until his death. He succeeded Tulga, from whom he usurped the throne in a coup; he was "officially" elected by the nobles and anointed by the bishops 30 April 642....
(641–653) - ReccesuinthReccesuinthRecceswinth, or Reccesuinth, Recceswint, Reccaswinth, Recdeswinth, Recesvinto , Reccesvinthus ; was the Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia in 649–672: jointly with his father from 649 and as sole king from 653.Beginning in 654 Recceswinth was responsible for the promulgation of a...
(649–672) - Wamba (672–680)
- ErwigErwigErwig was a king of the Visigoths in Hispania . He was the only Visigothic king to be a complete puppet of the bishops and palatine nobility....
(680–687) - Egica, (687–702) - secured his son WittizaWittizaWittiza was the Visigothic King of Hispania from 694 until his death, co-ruling with his father, Ergica, until 702 or 703.-Joint rule:...
as his heir - WittizaWittizaWittiza was the Visigothic King of Hispania from 694 until his death, co-ruling with his father, Ergica, until 702 or 703.-Joint rule:...
(648-710) - associated to the throne as king in Galicia until 702; only king after his father's death - RodericRodericRuderic was the Visigothic King of Hispania for a brief period between 710 and 712. He is famous in legend as "the last king of the Goths"...
(710–712)
From the fall of the Visigothic kingdom until the beginning of the 10th century, Galicia was integrated with other Christian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula (Kingdom of Asturias
Kingdom of Asturias
The Kingdom of Asturias was a Kingdom in the Iberian peninsula founded in 718 by Visigothic nobles under the leadership of Pelagius of Asturias. It was the first Christian political entity established following the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom after Islamic conquest of Hispania...
and Kingdom of León
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
).
Kings of Galicia
In 910, Afonso III the GreatAlfonso III of León
Alfonso III , called the Great, was the king of León, Galicia and Asturias from 866 until his death. He was the son and successor of Ordoño I. In later sources he is the earliest to be called "Emperor of Spain"...
was forced to abdicate in favor of his sons, who partitioned the kingdom. This resulted in a briefly independent kingdom of Galicia:
- Ordoño IIOrdoño II of LeónOrdoño II was king of Galicia from 910, and king of Galicia and León from 914 until his death. He was the second son of King Alfonso III the Great and his wife, Jimena of Pamplona....
(910–914)
In 914, Ordoño acquired the throne at León
Leon
-Europe:* Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again from 1296 to 1301* Viscounty of Léon, a feudal state in France during the 11th to 13th centuries* Léon, Landes, a commune in France* Isla de León, a Spanish island...
, reuniting his father's kingdom. On the death of his brother Fruela II of León
Fruela II of León
Fruela II was the King of Asturias from the death of his father, Alfonso III of Asturias, in 910 to his own death. When his father died, the kingdom was divided, with the third son, Fruela, taking the original portion ; the second, Ordoño, taking Galicia; and the eldest, García, taking León...
in 925, there was a period of competing claimants, being made king in Galicia:
- Sancho I OrdóñezSancho I OrdóñezSancho I Ordóñez was king of Galicia from 926 and until his death, in 929. He was the eldest son of king Ordoño II, and as his father did before him, he acquired the rights to Galicia when he and his brothers divided the kingdom among themselves....
(926–929), first-born of Ordoño II
The death of Sancho led to Galicia again becoming part of the Kingdom of León, with which it was joined until 982, when the Galician nobility crowned in Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...
an anti-king:
- Bermudo IIBermudo II of LeónBermudo II , called the Gouty , was the King of Galicia and León . His reign is summed up by Justo Pérez de Urbel's description of him as "el pobre rey atormentado en la vida por la espada de Almanzor y en muerte por la pluma vengadora de un obispo" Bermudo (or Vermudo) II (956–999), called the...
(982–985)
Bermudo routed Ramiro III of León
Ramiro III of León
Ramiro III , king of León , was the son of Sancho the Fat and his successor at the age of only five. During his minority, the regency was in the hands of two nuns: his aunt Elvira Ramírez of León, who took the title of queen during the minority, and his mother Teresa Ansúrez, who was put in a...
in the battle of Portela de Areas, later becoming undisputed ruler of the Leonese kingdom, and so reunifying the realm.
The Jiménez dynasty (1037–1111)
Upon the death of Ferdinand I of León and Castile in 1065, Castile, León, and Galicia became three separated kingdoms:- García II (1065–1072) - reigned in Galicia and Portugal until deposed by his brother Alfonso in 1072, after which he was kept chained in a castle until his death in 1090.
Alfonso VI of León reunited the Kingdoms of Castile, León and Galicia.
The House of Burgundy
- Alfonso VII (1111–1126) – In 1111 he was crowned as the mediatizedMediatizationMediatisation is the loss of imperial immediacy. Broadly defined it is the subsumption of one monarchy into another monarchy in such a way that the ruler of the annexed state keeps his sovereign title and, sometimes, a measure of local power...
king of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela as his mother's heir apparentHeir apparentAn heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....
, and in 1126 he succeeded UrracaUrracaUrraca or Hurraca is a feminine given name, the same as the Spanish word for magpie, derived perhaps from Latin furax, meaning "thievish", in reference to the magpie's tendency to collect shiny items...
as king of LeónKingdom of LeónThe Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
, CastileKingdom of CastileKingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
and ToledoKingdom of ToledoThe Kingdom of Toledo was the juridical definition of a Christian medieval kingdom in what is now central Spain, created after Alfonso VI of León's capture of Toledo in 1085.-Background:...
. Galicia was again merged within the larger realm, its size reduced in 1139 when Afonso HenriquesAfonso I of PortugalAfonso I or Dom Afonso Henriques , more commonly known as Afonso Henriques , nicknamed "the Conqueror" , "the Founder" or "the Great" by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali and Ibn-Arrik by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal...
won the independence of the County of Portugal. From 1152 on Alfonso VII associated his sons to the throne, FerdinandFerdinand II of LeonFerdinand II was King of León and Galicia from 1157 to his death.-Life:Born in Toledo, Castile, he was the son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and of Berenguela, of the House of Barcelona. At his father's death, he received León and Galicia, while his brother Sancho received Castile and...
receiving the title of King of Galicia. On the death of his father, in 1156, Fernando became King of León.
- Ferdinand IIFerdinand II of LeonFerdinand II was King of León and Galicia from 1157 to his death.-Life:Born in Toledo, Castile, he was the son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and of Berenguela, of the House of Barcelona. At his father's death, he received León and Galicia, while his brother Sancho received Castile and...
, king of León (1156-1188) and Galicia (1152-1188)
He was succeeded by his son:
- Alfonso IXAlfonso IX of LeonAlfonso IX was king of León and Galicia from the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1188 until his own death...
, king of León and Galicia (1188-1230)
With the accession to the throne of Ferdinand III of Castile
Ferdinand III of Castile
Saint Ferdinand III, T.O.S.F., was the King of Castile from 1217 and León from 1230. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. He finished the work done by his maternal grandfather Alfonso VIII and consolidated the...
in 1230, the Kingdom of Galicia became dinastically united with the kingdoms of León, Castile and Toledo inside the Crown of Castile
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
, but maintaining its personality as a kingdom, and its own legal institutions.
Dynasty of Avís
- Afonso V of PortugalAfonso V of PortugalAfonso V KG , called the African , was the twelfth King of Portugal and the Algarves. His sobriquet refers to his conquests in Northern Africa.-Early life:...
and Juana la Beltraneja, acclaimed de jure kings of Galicia in 1475, saw their pretensions to the Castilian throne defeated at the Battle of ToroBattle of ToroThe Battle of Toro was a Royal battle from the War of the Castilian Succession, fought on 1 March 1476, near the city of Toro, between the Castilian troops of the Catholic Monarchs and the Portuguese-Castilian forces of Afonso V and Prince John....
in 1479.
See also
- List of Asturian monarchs
- List of Castilian monarchs
- List of Leonese monarchs
- List of Spanish monarchs
- Kings of Spain family treeKings of Spain family treeThis is a collection of the family trees of the kingdom of Spain. The former kingdoms of Aragon, Castile and Navarre were independent kingdoms that unified in the 15th century to become the Kingdom of Spain....