16. Ricimer, the unwanted and unwilling king (1231-1254)
Ricimer I, king of Spania and lord of Naples (1231-1254)
16. Ricimer, the unwanted and unwilling king (1231-1254)
Ricimer, Theodofred's son and heir, was one of the greatest generals of his father. He had conquered most of Occitania by himself and had proved his might in Palestine. He was 56 years old when his father died and, according to his own chronicle, wanted nothing to do with the crown. However, he wasted little time to sit on the throne and, as his father had done before, he relied heavily on the reformed Aula Regia. However, he never made up his mind about it. Sometimes he semeed to have the Aula Regia ruling wihout him and some other times he was really upset when the Aulia Regia acted without his consent or in a different way as he wished. In the end, he despised its members and ignored its demands.
In 1232, when Toulouse revolted again, he send his two older sons, Sisebut and Recceswinth, to bring the city back into line. It was a short campaign, more a display of power than a realy military expedition. Then, as the situation in Jerusalem worsened again after the assasination of Raymond-Roupen. Thus, Ricimer send his heir, Recceswinth, with a small crusading army to install some order and common sense in the Holy City. However, Recceswinth died in 1233. It seems that Recceswin't death plunged his father into a bout of depression that he never recovered from. Hardly six months later As-Salih Ismail, emir of Damascus, fell upon the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Two heavy blows paralized the Christian lords when first Gaza (November) and then Jerusalem (December) were conquered by the Muslim army. Then, Ascalon was the next one to fell, followed by Safed, while the Principality of Antioch was reduced to its capital and the surrounding area. It was the beginning of the end of the Crusader States.
Ricimer did not bother about it. In fact, he had become tired of politics and began to rely on his royal favourites while withdrawing from the public view in 1236, after making his son Sisebut his regent. Finally, in 1240, he left Reccopolis and withdrew to a vila, close to Toletum. Embittered with the Aula Regia, he left the government in hands of Sisebud, until he unexpectedly died in 1240. Then, the kingdom fell in the hands of one of Ricimer's most brilliant and ambitious generals, Alaric, who, from 1242 onwards, was left in control of the administration of the empire. . It was said that Alaric had a hand in Sisebud's death. In fact, he married his widow, Fredegonda, in 1242. Alaric, determined to secure his position, began to purge the nobility, until he was, in turn, purged by Ricimer himself, when he made an unexpected return to Reccopolis in 1246.
His last years were sad. His unwillingness to meddle in state affairs reached its highest mark. However, Spania continued to run under the inertia of the bureaucracy established by his predecessors in spite of the king's bouts of paranoia, which resulted in summary trials and executions from time to time. He was to be succeeded by his grandson, Chindaswinth, son of the late Recceswinth, who the king raise as his own son and educated him to succeed him.
Ricimer died in 1254, much to his own relief and everybody else's too.
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