112 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINinsoluble problems of credibility and in every case child rulers fell
victims to aristocratic coups d'etat. Despite the achievements of his
father Reccared and grandfather Leovigild, the infant Liuva II (601-
603) was deposed, mutilated and murdered by the Gothic nobility,
led by Witteric. In 621 the child king Reccared II died suspiciously
soon after succeeding his father Sisebut (611/12-620), and in 642
the brief rule of the boy king Tulga (639-642) was terminated by the
usurpation, with aristocratic backing, of Chindasuinth (642-653).-
The principal effect of the need for efficient war-leadership in
Visigothic kingship is that it did make dynastic succession impossible
in the long term. Just as the dynasty of Theoderic I (419-451) had
foundered due to its military incompetencies in the face of Frankish
aggression, so the various successor dynasties failed to establish them-
selves securely enough to be able to carry off successfully the trans-
mission of power to a child, or to survive military disaster. In theory
the kingship of the Visigoths was, from its earliest appearance in our
sources, purely elective; in practice though, from the time of Alaric
I onwards it appears that when the reigning monarch had a male heir
of age, son might be expected to succeed father automatically, with
the process of election no more than a formality. Even those child
kings who so quickly came to be deposed, were initially accepted
because they were the direct heirs of the former ruler and only on
their subsequent inability to perform their functions were they dis-
posed of. If election had been the serious and fundamental part of
the process of kingmaking that it is often claimed to be, how do we
explain the Visigothic nobility voluntarily choosing children as kings?
The point is that it was only in the most exceptional circumstances
that election played a crucial role in the choosing of a new king. This
occurred in 672 after the death of Reccesuinth (649-672), who seems
to have had no male heirs and, as we are told in Julian of Toledo's
History ofWamba (written in the 670s), the army then elected Wamba
(672-680).41 Even in this case it is hard to credit that we are talking
of an open election. Much negotiation and prior planning must have
preceded the spontaneous unanimity ofWamba's selecting. In reality,
direct dynastic succession was the norm in the transmission of royal
power in the Visigothic kingdom, but this was tempered by the occa-
sional natural failure of a line to produce an heir and by successful
conspiracy or revolt.
Only when a dynasty failed, as each did in turn, and left no heir or
only a minor, did serious problems arise in relation to the succession.