Suintila

Suintila, or Suinthila, Swinthila, Svinthila; (588 – 633/635) was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 621 to 631. He was a son of Reccared I and his wife Bado, and a brother of the general Geila. Under Suintila there was an unprecedented peace and unity across the Kingdom of the Visigoths. As a direct result, by 624 the king was able to muster the forces necessary to retake those lands that had been under the control of the Eastern Roman Empire.

==Life== thumb|right|Votive crowns and crosses, from a 19th-century lithograph. Suintila was the second born son of King Reccared I, born sometime in AD 588 and after the deposition of his older brother Liuva II in 603, he was spared by the nobility, possibly due to his age (he was 15). Most of his life thereafter is unknown until around the year 620 when, under the orders of King Sisebut, he fought against the Romans, who had re-established themselves on the Iberian Peninsula during the 550s. The following year, he was elected king after the deaths of Sisebut and his son Reccared II. Once on the throne, Suintila secured a peace unknown in Hispania since the early 5th century, as no foreign troops were on its soil for the next 87 years. He managed this after ejecting the Eastern Roman Empire from their various strongholds in the Levante and according to Isidore of Seville, Suintila was the first to rule all of Spain. What Sisebut had begun by retaking Cartagena, Malaga, Sagunto, and Assidonia from the Byzantines, Suintila finished in 624 when he seized what his predecessor had not at Algarve. Byzantine power was severely weakened by Suintila's successes in the former enclave of the Eastern Empire, which was accompanied by a reduction in the enclave’s standing army. Like Liuvigild before him, Suintila also attempted to bring the Basques under his command, which led to the creation of a new town named Ologicus—believed to be the site of the later Olite in Navarre—but this has yet to be confirmed by archaeologists. Isidore of Seville characterized Suintila as a man of "faith, prudence, industry, strenuousness in examination in the passing of judicial sentences, outstanding care in the exercise of rulership, munificence towards all, generosity to the poor, a disposition towards quick forgiveness; so that not only is he worthy to be called the ruler of the people but also the father of the poor."