SVEVI. — The name Suebi is attributed by classical writers to more than one Germanic tribe, and at other times alternates with other names, especially that of Alemanni.
When, in the 5th century, the defenses of the Rhine frontier had been overrun and the Germanic peoples poured into Gaul and Spain, a kingdom of the Suebi was established in the northwestern region of the Iberian Peninsula (Galicia and parts of Portugal). The fullest information about this Suebian Kingdom comes from Idacius, bishop of Aquae Flaviae (Chaves in the Portuguese province of Traz-os-Montes) from 427 to 468, and author of a chronicle intended to continue the Chronicon of St. Jerome.
The Suebi of Galicia had remained pagan until the death of their king Rechilos (448), whose son and successor Rechiar, on the other hand, became a Catholic, though it is not known under what circumstances. But the influence of the neighboring great kingdom of the Arian Visigoths soon led the Suebi to embrace Arianism. The author of the conversion is said to have been an Aiax, of whom Idacius reports as follows: « Aiax, natione Galata, effectus apostata et senior arianus inter Suevos regis sui auxilio hostis catholicae fidei ed divinae Trinitatis emergit. A Gallicana Gothorum habitatione hoc pestiferum inimici hominis virus advenit » (Chronica, 232; cf. also Isidore of Seville, Hist. Suevorum, 87, 90). Once Idacius’s account comes to an end, little more is known of the Suebi for approximately a century. Around 550 it is related that, when the son of the Suebian king Cararic was seriously ill, his messengers came to Tours to ask for relics of St. Martin, who had acquired a reputation as a great miracle-worker. A cloth placed on the Saint’s tomb wrought the miracle. A basilica was built to preserve the precious cloth, and the miracles multiplied (among others, the disappearance of leprosy from the country), so that the King and all his people passed from Arianism to Catholicism. This conversion was promoted above all by another Martin, an immigrant from the East who settled in Galicia, a learned and holy man, founder of the monastery of Dumio and later bishop of Bracara Augusta (Braga), the capital of the Suebian Kingdom. Preacher, writer, and president of councils, he lived to see the disappearance of Arianism. His death in 580 was followed shortly afterward (585) by the end of the Suebian Kingdom, which was absorbed by the Visigoths.
The S., who settled during the 3rd century in the region north of Lake Constance, formed a duchy toward the end of the 9th century which, at the height of its extent, included Swabia proper, Baden, Alsace, and the regions now belonging to German-speaking Switzerland.
The dukes of Swabia, who, together with the most absolute independence, had secured control of the public domain and disposal of the bishoprics, monasteries, and ecclesiastical properties, subsequently had to renounce all this and recognize the authority of Henry I, swearing an oath of loyalty to him. The ties became still closer in 949,
when the heir of the last duke married Liudolf, eldest son of Otto I; and even after his death the Duchy remained in the imperial family and among its descendants. In 1077 the bishops and princes sought to replace Henry, duke of Swabia, with Henry III, who nevertheless prevailed and subsequently assigned the Duchy to his son-in-law Frederick of Hohenstaufen, whose descendants attained imperial dignity with Frederick Barbarossa (v.) in 1152 and retained it until 1268. The extinction of the imperial dynasty resulted in the dissolution of the Duchy, which was divided among great feudal lords and cities proclaiming themselves autonomous; its name survived merely as a geographical expression.