Mauregatus the Usurper () was the

king of Asturias This is a list of the rulers of the Kingdom of Asturias, a kingdom in the Iberian peninsula during the Early Middle Ages. It originated as a refuge for Visigothic nobles following the conquest of Iberia by the Umayyad Caliphate. Following the for ...

from 783 to 788 or 789. He was an illegitimate son of Alfonso I, supposedly by a

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

serf. He usurped the throne on the death of

Silo A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used t ...

, the husband of his half sister

Adosinda Adosinda was the queen of Asturias during the reign of her husband, Silo, from 774 to 783. She was a daughter of Alfonso I and Ermesinda, daughter of the first Asturian king, Pelayo. She was a sister of Fruela I. Her husband probably succeede ...

and earning himself the nickname of the Usurper.

The British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

, ''Mauregatus of Asturias'' The nobility had elected Alfonso II at Adosinda's insistence, but Mauregatus assembled a large army of supporters and forced Alfonso into

Álava Álava ( in Spanish) or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Álava, former medieval Catholic bishopric and now Latin titular see. Its ca ...

. Nothing is known in detail of his reign. The adoptionist dispute was raging between

Elipandus Elipandus (717–805) was a Spanish theologian and the archbishop of Toledo from 782. He was condemned by the Catholic Church as an Adoptionist. Six letters written by Elipandus survive, including one to Migetius and another on behalf of the bi ...

Archbishop of Toledo This is a list of Bishops and Archbishops of Toledo ( la, Archidioecesis Metropolitae Toletana).

, and

Beatus of Liébana Saint Beatus of Liébana ( es, Beato; 730 – c. 800) was a monk, theologian, and geographer from the former Duchy of Cantabria and Kingdom of Asturias, in modern Cantabria, northern Spain, who worked and lived in the Picos de Europa mountains ...

and even occasioned the intervention of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

. Mauregatus also sent back an invading Muslim force. During his reign a hymn to Saint James was composed with an

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

mentioning the king's name. This is considered to presage the legend of the saint's burial at

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St ...

References

789 deaths Beni Alfons Year of birth unknown Illegitimate children of Spanish monarchs 8th-century Asturian monarchs {{Europe-royal-stub