Page "Amalaric" Paragraph 2

When Alaric II was killed fighting Clovis I, king of the Franks, in the Battle of Vouillé ( 507 ), his kingdom fell into disarray.

" More serious than the destruction of the Gothic army ," writes Herwig Wolfram, " than the loss of both Aquitanian provinces and the capital of Toulose, was the death of the king.

" Alaric had made no provision for a successor, and although he had two sons, one was of age but illegitimate and the other the offspring of a legal marriage but still a child.

The older son, Gesalec, was chosen king but his reign was disastrous.

King Theodoric of the Ostrogoths sent an army, led by his sword-bearer Theudis, against Gesalec, ostensibly on behalf of Amalaric ; Gesalec fled to Africa, and the Ostrogoths drove back the Franks and their Burgundian allies, regaining possession of " the south of Novempopulana, Rodez, probably even Albi, and even Toulose ".

Following the death of Clovis, Theodoric negotiated a peace with Clovis ' successors, securing Visigothic control of the southernmost portion of Gaul for the rest of the existence of their kingdom.