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In 511, Gesalec, King of the Visigoths of Spain, was overthrown by the King of the Ostrogoths of Italy Theodoric the Great. Gesalec fled to Carthage, to the court of the Vandal King Thrasamund. When he tried to reconquer Spain, Thrasamund entrusted him with the Vandal fleet. He later abandoned him, under pressure from Theodoric.
Context
The Goths, who had been living in Spain since the 5th Century, established a Kingdom there on the ruins of the old Roman administration. Since the conquest of Italy by Theodoric the Great, their Kingdom was called the Visigothic (Western Gothic) Kingdom of Spain, to distinguish it from the Ostrogothic (Eastern Gothic) Kingdom of Italy.
Alaric II, King of the Visigoths, was married to Theodegotha, the daughter of Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostrogoths. Theodoric was the most powerful Germanic King of his time.
Gesalec King of the Visigoths
Alaric II was killed in 507, in battle against the Franks. His only legitimate son, Amalaric, was too young to be king. The Visigoths chose Gesalec, an illegitimate son of Alaric II, as his successor. At the beginning of Gesalec’s reign, Theodoric the Great supported him.
In 508, the Burgunds conquered Narbonne, the Visigothic capital. Gesalec fled to Barcelona. Three years later, in 511, he was overthrown by Theodoric the Great, who proclaimed himself King of the Visigoths until his grandson Amalaric came of age.
Gesalec fled to Carthage, where he received the support of the Vandal King Thrasamund. To help him take back his throne, Thrasamund entrusted him with the Vandal fleet to invade Spain.
When Theodoric the Great heard that the King of the Vandals, who was his ally, married to his sister Amalafrida, had chosen to support Gesalec, he got angry, and sent him a letter ordering him to withdraw his support for Gesalec. Thrasamund, who understood that he was not powerful enough to confront the King of the Ostrogoths, abandoned Gesalec. Shortly after, Gesalec was captured and killed.
Theodoric the Great reigned over a unified Gothic Empire until his death in 522. After he died, his two grandsons Amalaric and Athalaric succeeded him in Spain and Italy.
