Liuva II ( 584 – June/July 603), son of Reccared I and possibly Baddo, was

Visigothic The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...

Septimania Septimania is a historical region in modern-day southern France. It referred to the western part of the Roman province of '' Gallia Narbonensis'' that passed to the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theod ...

and

Gallaecia Gallaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province in the north-west of Hispania, approximately present-day Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Leon and the later Kingdom of Gallaecia. The Roman cities inclu ...

from 601 to 603. He succeeded Reccared I at only eighteen years of age.

Reign

In the spring of 602, the Goth

Witteric Witteric (; Portuguese language, Portuguese and Galician language, Galician: ''Viterico''; 565 – April 610) was the Visigoths, Visigoth Visigoth Kingdom, King of Hispania, Septimania and kingdom of Galicia, Galicia. He ruled from 603 to 610. R ...

, one of the conspirators with Sunna de Mérida to reestablish

Arianism Arianism (, ) is a Christology, Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is co ...

in 589, was given command of the army to repulse the Byzantines. From his position of power at the head of the army, he surrounded himself with people in his confidence. When it came time to expel the Byzantines, Witteric instead used his troops to strike at the king in the spring of 603. Invading the royal palace, and deposing the young king, he counted on the support of a faction of nobles in opposition to the dynasty of Leovigild. Witteric cut off the king's right hand, punishment that prevented him from being king, and later had him condemned to death and executed in the summer of 603.Roger Collins, ''Visigothic Spain 409-711'', 73.

References

7th-century Visigothic monarchs 603 deaths Year of birth unknown Executed monarchs {{europe-noble-stub