The Image of the Christian Ruler in the Catholic Monarchy of Visigothic Spain: Julian of Toledo’s Historia Wambae

Abstract

King Wamba (672–680) was arguably the last strong ruler of Visigothic Spain able to assert royal power against aristocratic factions and ecclesiastical authorities alike. He is famous in medieval history first and foremost for the ecclesiastical inauguration ritual at the beginning of his reign, which involved the first attested royal unction in medieval Europe. The description of Wamba’s royal inauguration comes from bishop Julian of Toledo, who was later involved in Wamba’s deposition. In his Historia Wambae, he describes Wamba as an exemplary Christian ruler, a princeps religiosus, imbued with Christian virtues. He contrasts the ideal figure using the usurper Paul as an example of a bad, un-Christian ruler, depicted as a tyrant supported by hostile forces from the outside. The Historia Wambae may have been written after Wamba’s deposition, reflecting political interests of aristocratic elites during the reign of his second successor, king Egica. The literary figure of Wamba is completely different from the historical Wamba. Julian of Toledo aptly constructs the image of an ideal Christian ruler, following literary models from the Roman past, such as Sallust, and the Old Testament. Christian kingship appears as a fusion of both Roman and biblical traditions but geared to the conditions of late Visigothic Spain and, in particular, to its leading ecclesiastical circles, which interestingly had been in opposition to the historical Wamba. The ideal Christian king appears to be a literary projection serving the political interests of particular social elites.