History of Europe

Worse than a mother-in-law, a mother-in-law

I already know about the fame of mothers-in-law, although it is not my case, but even worse is a mother-in-law.

We are going to move to Toledo, in the court of the Gothic king Leovigildo . He was the last Arian king and had a fundamental role in the reunification of the kingdom (he cornered the Byzantines in the Levantine area and expelled the Swabians from Galicia) and in the legal organization (he promulgated the Codex Revisus, an adaptation and revision of the Code of Laws of Eurico). She married at first, apparently with a Cantabrian native, and had two children: Hermenegildo and Recaredo . After the death of his first wife he married Goswinda (a pure goda) widow of Atanagildo and with whom he had no offspring. We already know about the succession problems of the Goths; so, in 579 he married Hermenegild to the princess Ingundis, daughter of the Frankish king Sigebert, to establish a pact with the northern power.

There was only one small detail that could upset the plans, Ingundis was Catholic (remember that the religion practiced among the Visigoths was Arianism and Catholicism among the Hispano-Roman natives). Goswinda, who was also Ingundis's grandmother on her mother's side, would see to it that the young princess was brought to justice. When he arrived in Toledo, Goswinda took her in and tried to persuade her with good words, but she did not count her strong resistance to the Ingundis' beliefs. The grandmother / mother-in-law proceeded to act on her: she beat her until she bled, humiliated her, humiliated her and finally undressed her and put her in a pool of ice water... but nothing could break Ingudis's faith .

Leovigildo, unaware of his wife's practices, appointed Hermengildo governor of Baetica and the young couple left there. What nobody suspected is that in Seville, away from the influence of the witch Goswinda and under the influence of Leandro (bishop of Seville) and his wife, the crown prince would convert to Catholicism. What would lead to the confrontation between Leovigildo, along with his other son Recaredo, against Hermenegildo. The Catholic prince lost the battle and later his life.

And since history is capricious, Hermenegildo, on his deathbed, advised Recaredo to convert to Catholicism. In the year 587, in the Third Council of Toledo , the Visigoth kingdom converted to Catholicism. Hermegildo was canonized in 1585 by Pope Sixtus V .

To learn more about the confrontation between Leovigildo and Hermenegildo, audio by Juan Antonio Cebrián.