Genial Explained

Genial (Latin Genialis or Genealis) was the Duke of Gascony (Vasconia) in the early seventh century. He is mentioned in the Chronicle of Fredegar.

Genial was probably a Frank or a Gallo-Roman when Theuderic II and Theudebert II appointed him dux over the Basques (Vascones) of southwestern Aquitaine:

Theudebert and Theuderic sent an army against the Wascones and with God's help defeated them, subjected them to their overlordship, and made them pay tribute. They appointed a duke named Genialis, who ruled them well.^[1]

Some scholars believe Genial was more of a tribal leader over whom the Frankish sovereigns exercised a vague suzerainty than a Frankish court official sent to the outskirts of the realm to lord it over a subject people.^[2] Sometime around 612, Sisebut, king of the Visigoths, reconquered the trans-Pyrenean portion of his realm, diminishing Frankish suzerainty in Vasconia.^[3] Genial was succeeded by Aeghyna.

Sources

• Collins, Roger. The Basques. Blackwell Publishing: London, 1990.
• Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., translator. The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar with its Continuations. Greenwood Press: Connecticut, 1960.
• Lewis, Archibald R. "The Dukes in the Regnum Francorum, A.D. 550-751." Speculum, Vol. 51, No. 3. (Jul., 1976), pp. 381–410.
• Auñamendi Encyclopedia: Ducado de Vasconia.
• Monlezun, Jean Justin. Histoire de la Gascogne. 1846.
• Higounet, Charles. Bordeaux pendant le haut moyen age. Bordeaux, 1963.

Notes and References

1. [Fredegar]
2. Lewis, p 396.
3. Collins, p 91. This included Biscay and Guipúzcoa.