Theudemir, King of the Ostrogoths

Other Events and Attributes:

• History: birth to death

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History:
He was King of the Ostrogoths in Pannonia.

Family/Spouse: Ereleuva, a concubine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Crowned: 471; In 471 he was crowned the King of the Ostagoths. He ruled an independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526.
• Miscellaneous: 490; In the 490s, the Visigothic King Alaric II was fixed on Italy in support of Theodoric the Ostrogoth against Odoacer, the self-proclaimed King of Italy who had overthrown the last West Roman emperor.
• Miscellaneous: 493; In 493 the Ostrogoth, Theodoric the Great, took Italy from Odoacer and began to spread his influence through a series of marital alliances with the various other Germanic kings, including Clovis whose sister Audefleda was married off to Theodoric himself.
• Miscellaneous: 507; In 507, Clovis, King of the Franks took the offensive against Alaric II of the Visigoths. King Alaric II sent urgent pleas for help to Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king of Italy, while doing his best to delay the Franks without engaging them in decisive battle. In a letter preserved in the records of Cassiodorus (a Roman serving King Theodoric), Theodoric gave the following reply to Alaric: Surrounded as you are by an innumerable multitude of subjects, and strong in the remembrance of their having turned back Attila, still do not fight with Clovis. War is a terrible thing, and a terrible risk. The long peace may have softened the hearts of your people, and your soldiers from want of practice may have lost the habit of working together on the battlefield. Before blood is shed, draw back if possible. We are sending ambassadors to the King of the Franks to try to prevent this war between our relatives [Theodoric was married to Clovis’ sister]; and the ambassadors whom we are sending to you will go on to Gundobad, King of the Burgundians, to get him to interpose on behalf of peace. Your enemy will be mine also. Theodoric also wrote to Clovis in an attempt to avert war: The affinities of kings ought to keep their subjects from the plague of war. We are grieved to hear of the paltry causes which are giving rise to rumours of war between you and our son Alaric, rumours which gladden the hearts of the enemies of both of you. Let me say with all frankness, but with all affection, just what I think. It is the act of a passionate man to get his troops ready for action at the first embassy which he sends. Instead of that refer the matter to our arbitration. It would be a delight to me to choose men capable of mediating between you. What would you yourselves think of me if I could hear unmoved of your murderous intentions towards one another? Away with this conflict, in which one of you will probably be utterly destroyed. Throw away the sword which you wield for my humiliation. By what right do I thus threaten you? By the right of a father and a friend. He who shall despise this advice of ours will have to reckon us and our friends as his adversaries. I send two ambassadors to you, as I have to my son Alaric, and hope that they may be able so to arrange matters that no alien malignity may sow the seeds of dissension between you, and that your nations, which under your fathers have long enjoyed the blessings of peace, may not now be laid waste by sudden collision. You ought to believe him who, as you know, has rejoiced in your prosperity. No true friend is he who launches his associates, unwarned, into the headlong dangers of war. Before the Ostrogoths could come to his aid or diplomatic interventions could dissuade either Clovis or Gundobad, Alaric was forced to give battle by his own men who were incensed that their king took no decisive action against the Franks while their lands were being plundered. The battle fought at Vouillé, near Poitiers, determined the future of France but unfortunately we know very little about it.
• Military: 523; All four of Clovis’ sons united to attack the Burgundians, apparently supported by the Ostrogothic King Theodoric in 523.
• Last Full Review: 25 May 2020

Notes:

Name:

Theodoric married a concubine in not married. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Theodoric married Audefleda on yes date unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Theodegotha married Alaric II, King of the Visigoths in 494. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ostrogotho married Sigismund, King of Burgundy on 494 or 496. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Eutharic. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• General Information: Theodoric of Italy having married a sister of king Clovis, died, and left his wife and a little daughter. When this girl was grown, because of her fickle temper she refused the counsel of her mother, who was looking out for a king's son for her, and took her slave named Traguilanis, and fled with him to a city where she hoped to defend herself. And when her mother raged at her furiously, and begged her not to disgrace further a noble family and said it was her duty to send the slave off and take one of equal rank with herself from a royal family, whom her mother had provided, she was by no means willing to agree to it. Then her mother, still raging at her, set an army in motion. And they came upon them, and killed Traguilanis with the sword, chastised the girl herself, and took her to her mother's house. Now they belonged to the Arian sect, and as it is their custom that of those going to the altar the kings receive one cup and the lesser people another, she put poison in the cup from which her mother was going to , receive the communion. And she drank it and died forthwith. There is no doubt that such harm is from the devil. What shall the wretched heretics answer to this charge that the enemy dwells in their holy place? But as for us who confess the Trinity in one similar equality and omnipotence, even if we should drink a deadly draught in the name of the Father, Son and holy Spirit, the true and incorruptible God, it would not do us any harm. The Italians were indignant this woman, and they invited Theodad, king of Tuscia, and made him king over them. When he learned what the harlot had been guilty of, how she had slain her mother on account of a slave whom she had taken, he gave orders that a bath be raised to a great heat, and that she be shut in the same with one maid. And when she entered the hot vapors she fell at once on the pavement, and died, and was consumed. And when the kings Childebert and Chlothar, her cousins, as well as Theodobert, learned this, namely, that she had been put to death in so shameful a manner, they sent an embassy to Theodad, blaming him for her death, and saying: "If you do not make an arrangement with us for what you have done, we will take your kingdom from you, and condemn you to a like punishment." Then he was afraid, and sent to them fifty thousand gold pieces. And Childebert, being envious of king Clothar, and deceitful, joined with Theodobert his nephew, and they divided the gold between them, and refused to give any of it to king Clothar. But he made an attack upon the treasures of Chlodomer, and took much more from them than that of which they had defrauded him.
• Last Full Review: 18 Aug 2020

Family/Spouse: Sigusmund, King of the Burgundians. Sigusmund (son of Gundobad, King of the Burgundians) died in 523. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]