Tulga or Tulca (died in or af. 642) 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 Galicia from 639, if his father died in December 639, as some sources state, to 642. Other sources have his rule beginning as early as 639 or ending as early as 641. He succeeded his father Chintila in an ultimately vain attempt to establish dynastic kingship.

Biography

In 642, Chindasuinth, a Gothic warlord, who may have been as old as 79, commenced a rebellion. He had command of the frontier with the

Basques The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a Basque culture, common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous peoples, ...

. He saw the crown's weakness, and a convention of nobles (landholding Goths) and other Gothic inhabitants at Pampalica (probably modern Pampliega) proclaimed him king without the support of the church. According to

Sigebert of Gembloux Sigebert or Sigibert of Gembloux ( or ; – 5 October 1112) was a medieval author, known mainly as a pro-Imperial historian of a universal chronicle, opposed to the expansive papacy of Gregory VII and Pascal II. Early in his life he became a ...

, the rebel deposed Tulga in Toledo and

tonsure Tonsure () is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word ' (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice in ...

d him, sending him to live out his days in a monastery, since monks were ineligible for the elective throne. However, Saint Ildephonsus of Toledo says that the rebellion failed without the church's support and Chindasuinth succeeded only on the death of Tulga. Modern historians consider it impossible to discern the truth.

Sources

* ''El Libro de La Genealogía de Los Reyes de España'' * Alonso de Cartagena, Bonifacio Palacios Martín, Biblioteca Nacional (Spain), Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués. Contribuidores Bonifacio Palacios Martín, Biblioteca Nacional Editor Scriptorium, 1995 , * Roger Collins, ''Early medieval Spain: unity in diversity, 400-1000'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995) , 9780312126629 7th-century Visigothic monarchs {{europe-noble-stub