THEUDIS

died 548 also spelled Teudis the first Visigothic king of Spain (531548), in the sense that he was the first to reside there permanently. An Ostrogoth, he had acquired great possessions in the valley of the Ebro by marriage with a Roman lady when Theodoric the Great chose him to be the regent and guardian for the three-year-old Amalaric, who had inherited the Visigothic kingdom. Theudis, who resided first at Barcelona and then at Seville, became king himself when Amalaric was assassinated in a Frankish invasion in 531. He endeavoured to complete his mastery of the diocese of Spain by occupying Mauritania Tingitana, but he was defeated by the Roman imperial officers at Ceuta. He was in due course murdered at Seville by his usurping successor Theudigisel (Theudesgesil).