AMALARIC

died 531 king of the Visigoths (526531), son of Alaric I. Amalaric was a child when his father fell in battle against Clovis, king of the Franks (507). He was carried for safety into Spain, which country, with southern Languedoc and Provence, was thenceforth ruled by his maternal grandfather Theodoric the Great through his vice-regent, an Ostrogothic nobleman named Theudis. On Theodoric's death in 526, Amalaric assumed full royal power in Spain and a part of Languedoc, relinquishing Provence to his cousin Athalaric. He married Clotilda, daughter of Clovis, but his disputes with her, he being an Arian and she a Catholic, brought on a Frankish invasion, in which he lost his life.