Sisenand (
Spanish
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,
Galician, and
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: ''Sisenando''; la, Sisenandus) ( 605 – 12 March 636) was a
Visigothic
The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
of
Hispania
Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hisp ...
,
Septimania and
Galicia from 631 to 636.
Reign
Sisenand was the governor of
Septimania, when the nobles revolted against the Visigothic king,
Suintila, over the latter's confiscations of lands and distribution of privileges between the nobility and clergy. Sisenand joined the rebellion and overthrew
Suintila with the aid of
Dagobert I
Dagobert I ( la, Dagobertus; 605/603 – 19 January 639 AD) was the king of Austrasia (623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dyna ...
, King of the
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
, to whom Gothic nobles offered a plate of pure gold in return, weighing 500 pounds. The plate was allegedly a gift that
Aetius, a Roman general, gave to
Thorismund
Thorismund (also Thorismod or Thorismud, as manuscripts of our chief source confusingly attestJordanes, ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''Getica'') 81, 174, 190, 201 and elsewhere.) ( 420–453), became king of the Visigoths after his father Th ...
, then king of the Visigoths, in 451. After successfully overthrowing Suintila and capturing
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
on 26 March 631, Sisenand proclaimed himself king. The victory of Sisenand also represented the triumph of the nobility over the common people, although the greatest beneficiary was the clergy, who took advantage of the weariness of the other contenders to enhance their own influence.
Upon assuming the throne, he had
Suintila, the previous king, declared a tyrant for his many crimes, iniquity, and accumulation of wealth at the expense of the poor; he also removed all taxes on the clergy.
Between 632 and 633, there was apparently an attempted uprising within the kingdom, led by
Iudila, only attested to by two coins from
Mérida and
Granada bearing the inscription IUDILA REX.
The revolution failed, and Iudila was later killed.
In order to obtain ecclesiastical conformity, on 8 December 633, Sisenand convoked the
IV Council of Toledo, which drew up civil and ecclesiastical laws within the Visigothic kingdom, including the death penalty, excommunication, and condemnation to perpetual perdition for those rebelling against the king. Similar penalties were approved for those who wished to dispense with such law of choice.
However, the council did not concede any hereditary right to the king; the next king would be elected by the bishops and magnates from one of their own.
Sisenand died a natural death in the city of
Toledo on 12 March 636.
Chintila
Chintila (Latin: ''Chintila, Chintilla, Cintila''; c. 606 – 20 December 639) was a Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 636. He succeeded Sisenand and reigned until he died of natural causes, ruling over the fifth and sixth p ...
was chosen by the bishops to succeed him.
References
{{Authority control
7th-century Visigothic monarchs
636 deaths
Year of birth unknown
fr:Sisenand#Souverains