Editing Gunderic

{{Short description|King of the Vandals}}
{{For|the Archbishop of Toledo|Gunderic (bishop)}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2007}}
'''Gunderic''' ({{langx|la|Gundericus}}; {{circa}} 379–428), [[King]] of [[Hasdingi|Hasding]] [[Vandals]] (407-418), then King of Vandals and [[Alans]] (418–428), led the Hasding Vandals, a [[Germanic tribes|Germanic]] tribe originally residing near the [[Oder]] [[River]], to take part in the [[barbarian]] [[Barbarian invasions into the Roman Empire of the 3rd century|invasions]] of the [[Western Roman Empire]] in the fifth century.

== History ==
He was a son of King [[Godigisel]], the [[Hasdingi]]'s Vandal king when his people [[Crossing of the Rhine|breached the Rhine river]] frontier of the Empire on the last day of 406. During that year, the Vandals had become heavily involved in a war with the [[Franks]], who were already settled as allies of the Romans, and who attempted to keep the Vandals out. Godigisel was [[Battle of Mainz (406)|killed in the fighting]] and Gunderic succeeded him.

Gunderic and his people ultimately crossed the [[Pyrenees]] into the [[Iberian Peninsula]] in October 409. With the [[Hasdingi]] portion of the Vandals he established the Kingdom in the Roman province of [[Gallaecia]] (north-western Iberia). They were driven out by the Visigoths in 418 on the orders of the Romans (the Visigoths were recalled and settled as a reward for their service in Aquitania). In 418 [[Attaces]], the king of the [[Alans]], fell in battle against the [[Visigoths]], who at the time were allies of [[Roman Empire|Rome]], in Hispania, and most of the surviving Alans appealed to Gunderic who accepted their request and thus became King of the Vandals and Alans. In 420 Comes Hispaniarum attacked the Vandals who had gone to war with the Sueves in Galicia where the tribes were confined after the Visigoths had severely defeated them in 418. The imperial vicar (head of a diocese) defeated Maximus, son of earlier usurper Gerontius (409), in 420–421, but it resulted in the Vandals moving south to Baetica. Conflicts with the [[Suebi]] drove him into [[Baetica]] in the south of [[Hispania]], where he joined the surviving [[Silingi]] portion of the Vandals. The Vandals moved south to Baetica in 420–1. They defeated a Roman army, led by magister militum Castinus, outside the walls of Cordoba in 422. The Vandals attacked Mauretania Tingitana, the Balearics, and sacked Cartagena and Seville in 425. They did not remain in these cities. Gunderic re-took the city in 428. The Vandals departed Spain in 429 and for 10 years Roman Spain was intact except for Galicia under the control of the Sueves.<ref>Late Roman Spain and its Cities, Michael Kulikowsi, 2004, pp. 173-180 {{ISBN|0-8018-7978-7}}</ref> Hydatius writes that in 428 Gunderic laid "hands on the church of that very city, by the will of God he was seized by a demon and died."  It is unclear how Gunderic died, however it is theorized that Hydatius' writing was in reference to Gunderic's attempt to convert a Catholic church to an Arian church.  The attempt was short-lived:  not long after his attempt to seize the church in Hispalis, he unexpectedly died.  After Gunderic died early in 428, the Vandals elected his half-brother [[Genseric]] as his successor, and Genseric left [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]] to the Visigoths in favor of invading Roman [[Africa]].

==See also==
* [[Vandal conquest of Roman Africa]]
* [[Vandal War (439-442)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Godigisel]]}}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Vandal|King of the Vandals]]|years=407&ndash;428}}
{{s-aft| after = [[Genseric]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Kings of the Vandals]]
[[Category:Vandal warriors]]
[[Category:370s births]]
[[Category:428 deaths]]
[[Category:5th-century monarchs in Europe]]