Tulga

Tulga or Tulca (living 642) was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 640 to 642, if his father died in December 640, as some sources state. Other sources have his rule beginning as early as 639 or ending as early as 641. He came after his father Chintila in another vain attempt to establish dynastic kingship.

Imaginary portrait of Tulga by Agustín Sáez Glanadell. Oil on canvas, 1854

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

According to Sigebert of Gembloux, the rebel deposed Tulga in Toledo and tonsured 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. From our vantage point, so far in the future, it is impossible to discern the truth.

Before becoming a monk, he was married and had two daughters:

• Giscila, married Berà II of Razès and had female issue
• Ariberga, married and had issue:
  • Ergica

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 ISBN 84-605-2545-7, ISBN 978-84-605-2545-5

• Roger Collins, Early medieval Spain: unity in diversity, 400-1000 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995) ISBN 0-312-12662-X, 9780312126629