Editing Amalaric (section)

==Biography==
When [[Alaric II]] was killed while fighting [[Clovis I]], king of the [[Franks]], in the [[Battle of Vouillé]] (507), his kingdom fell into disarray. "More serious than the destruction of the Gothic army," writes [[Herwig Wolfram]], "than the loss of both Aquitanian provinces and the capital of [[Toulouse|Toulose]], was the death of the king."<ref>Herwig Wolfram, ''History of the Goths'', translated by Thomas J. Dunlap (Berkeley: University of California, 1988), p. 244</ref> Alaric had made no provision for a successor, and although he had two sons, one was of age but [[Legitimacy (family law)|illegitimate]] and the other, Amalaric, the offspring of a legal marriage but still a child.  Amalaric was carried for safety into [[Spain]], which country and [[Provence]] were thenceforth ruled by his maternal grandfather, [[Theodoric the Great]], acting through his vice-regent, an [[Ostrogoths|Ostrogothic]] nobleman named [[Theudis]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Amalaric|volume=1|page=777}}</ref> The older son, [[Gesalec]], was chosen as king but his reign was disastrous. King Theodoric of the Ostrogoths sent an army, led by his sword-bearer [[Theudis]], against Gesalec, ostensibly on behalf of Amalaric; Gesalec fled to Africa. The Ostrogoths then drove back the Franks and their [[Burgundians|Burgundian]] allies, regaining possession of "the south of [[Novempopulana]], [[Rodez]], probably even [[Albi]], and even Toulose". Following the 511 death of Clovis, Theodoric negotiated a peace with Clovis' successors, securing Visigothic control of the southernmost portion of [[Gaul]] for the rest of the existence of their kingdom.<ref>Wolfram, ''History of the Goths'', p. 245</ref>

In 522, the young Amalaric was proclaimed king, and four years later, on Theodoric's death, he assumed full royal power, although relinquishing Provence to his cousin [[Athalaric]].<ref name="EB1911"/> His kingdom was faced with a Frankish threat from the north; according to Peter Heather, this was his motivation for marrying [[Clotilde (died 531)|Chrotilda]], the daughter of Clovis.<ref name=Heather-277>Peter Heather, ''The Goths'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), p. 277</ref> However, this was not successful, for according to [[Gregory of Tours]], Amalaric pressured her to forsake [[Orthodoxy]] and convert to [[Arianism|Arian Christianity]], at one point beating her until she bled; she sent to her brother [[Childebert I]], king of [[Paris]], a towel stained with her own blood.<ref name=Gregory-10>Gregory of Tours, ''Decem Libri Historiarum'', III.10; translated by Lewis Thorpe, ''History of the Franks'' (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974), pp. 170f.</ref> Ian Wood noted that although Gregory provides the fullest information for this period, where it touches [[Merovingian dynasty|Merovingian]] affairs, he often "allowed his religious bias to determine his interpretation of the events."<ref>Wood, ''The Merovingian Kingdoms: 450-751'' (London: Longman, 1994), p. 171</ref> Peter Heather agrees with Wood's implication in this instance: "I doubt that this is the full story, but the effects of Frankish intervention are clear enough."<ref name=Heather-277/>

[[Childebert I|Childebert]] defeated the Visigothic army and took [[Narbonne]]. Amalaric fled south to [[Barcelona]], where according to [[Isidore of Seville]], he was assassinated by his own men.<ref>Isidore of Seville, ''History of the Goths'', chapter 40. Translation by Guido Donini and Gordon B. Ford, ''Isidore of Seville's History of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi'', second revised edition (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), p. 19</ref> According to Peter Heather, Theodoric's former governor Theudis was implicated in Amalaric's murder, "and was certainly its prime beneficiary."<ref>Heather, ''The Goths'', p. 278</ref> As for Chrotilda, in Gregory's words, she died on the journey home "by some ill chance". Childebert had her body brought to Paris where she was buried alongside her father Clovis.<ref name=Gregory-10/>