Swabians

SWABIANS. - The name of Suebi is attributed by classical writers to more than one Germanic stock, and at other times alternates with other names, especially with that of Alemanni.

When in the 5th century, once the defenses of the Rhine frontier had been overwhelmed, the Germanic peoples poured into Gaul and Spain, a kingdom of Suebi established itself in the northwestern region of the Iberian peninsula (Galicia and parts of Portugal). The fullest account of this Suebic 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 to continue the Chronicon of St. Jerome.

The Suebi of Galicia had remained pagan until the death of their king Rechila (448), whose son and successor Rechiar, however, became Catholic, though it is not known under what circumstances. But the influence of the neighboring great Kingdom of the Arian Visigoths soon caused the Suebi to pass over to Arianism. The author of the conversion is said to have been an Ajax, of whom Hydatius 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). When Hydatius' account breaks off, little more is known of the Suebi for about a century. Around 550 it is related that, the son of the Suebic king Chararic being gravely ill, his envoys came to Tours to ask for relics of St. Martin, who had come to be famed as a great thaumaturge. A cloth placed on the Saint's tomb worked 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. In this conversion the chief role was played by another Martin, who had emigrated to Galicia from the East, a learned and holy man, founder of the monastery of Dumio and later bishop of Bracara Augusta (Braga), the capital of the Suebic Kingdom. A preacher, writer, and president of councils, he lived to see the disappearance of Arianism. His death in the year 580 was followed shortly afterward (585) by the end of the Suebic Kingdom, absorbed by the Visigoths.

Roberto Paribeni

The Suebi, having settled during the 3rd century in the region north of Lake Constance, formed toward the end of the 9th century a duchy which, at the period of its greatest extent, comprised Swabia proper, Baden, Alsace, and the regions that are currently part of German-speaking Switzerland.

The dukes of Swabia, who had secured for themselves, along with the most absolute independence, the public domain and control over bishoprics, monasteries, and ecclesiastical property, later had to renounce all this and recognize the authority of Henry I, swearing fealty to him. The ties became even closer in 949, when the heir of the last duke was married to Liudolf, the firstborn son of Otto I, and even after the latter's death the Duchy remained with the imperial family and its descendants. In 1077 bishops and princes sought to replace Henry III with Henry, duke of Swabia, who nevertheless 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 retained it until 1268. The extinction of the imperial dynasty resulted in the dissolution of the Duchy, dismembered among great feudal lords and cities that proclaimed themselves autonomous; its name survived only as a simple geographical expression.

Gina Fasoli