SUEBI. — The name Suebi is attributed by classical writers to more than one Germanic tribe, and it is sometimes interchanged with other names, especially that of Alemanni.
When, in the 5th century, the defenses of the Rhine frontier were overwhelmed and the Germanic peoples flooded into Gaul and Spain, a Suebi kingdom was established in the north-western region of the Iberian peninsula (Galicia and parts of Portugal). The most extensive account of this Suebi kingdom comes from Hydatius, bishop of Aquae Flaviae (Chaves in the Portuguese province of Trás-os-Montes) from 427 to 468, author of a chronicle intended as a continuation of the Chronicon of St Jerome.
The Suebi of Galicia remained pagan until the death of their king Rechila (448), whose son and successor Rechiar, however, became Catholic, though the circumstances of his conversion are unknown. But the influence of the neighboring great Arian kingdom of the Visigoths soon led the Suebi to adopt Arianism. The agent of this conversion is said to have been an Aiax, of whom Hydatius reports: "Aiax, natione Galata, effectus apostata et senior arianus inter Suevos regis sui auxilio hostis catholicae fidei et divinae Trinitatis emergit. A Gallicana Gothorum habitatione hoc pestiferum inimici hominis virus advenit" (Chronica, 232; cf. also Isidore of Seville, Hist. Suevorum, 87, 90). When Hydatius’ narrative breaks off, little more is known of the Suebi for about a century. Around 550 it is reported that, when the son of the Suebi king Cararic fell gravely ill, his envoys went to Tours to seek relics of St Martin, renowned for his great thaumaturgic powers. A cloth placed on the saint’s tomb worked the miracle. A basilica was built to preserve the precious cloth, and miracles multiplied (among them, the disappearance of the plague from the land), so that the king and all his people passed from Arianism to Catholicism. A major role in this conversion was played by another Martin, who had come to Galicia from the East, a learned and holy man, founder of the monastery of Dumio and later bishop of Bracara Augusta (Braga), capital of the Suebi kingdom. As preacher, writer, and president of councils, he succeeded in seeing the disappearance of Arianism. After his death in the year 580, the end of the Suebi kingdom followed shortly afterwards (585), when it was absorbed by the Visigoths.
Roberto Pariboni
The Suebi, settled in the course of the 3rd century in the region north of Lake Constance, formed towards the end of the 9th century a duchy which, at the height of its power, included Swabia proper, Baden, Alsace, and the regions now forming part of German-speaking Switzerland.
The dukes of Swabia, who had secured for themselves, together with absolute independence, control of public lands, the disposal of bishoprics, monasteries, and ecclesiastical property, later had to relinquish all this and acknowledge the authority of Henry I, to whom they swore fealty. The ties became even 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 hands of the imperial family and its descendants. In 1077 bishops and princes sought to replace Henry, duke of Swabia, with Henry IV, who however prevailed and then assigned the duchy to his son-in-law Frederick of Hohenstaufen, whose line attained the imperial dignity with Frederick Barbarossa (v.) in 1152 and held 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 their autonomy; the name survived only as a geographical expression.