Hilderic

Who was Hilderic?

Hilderic was the penultimate king of the Vandals and Alans in North Africa in Late Antiquity. Although dead by the time the Vandal kingdom was overthrown in 534, he nevertheless played a key role in that event.

Hilderic was the grandson of king Genseric, founder of the Vandal kingdom in Africa. His father was Genseric's son Huneric, and his mother was Eudocia, the daughter of the Roman Emperor Valentinian III and Licinia Eudoxia. Most of the Vandals were Arians and had persecuted Catholics, but Hilderic favored it as the religion of his mother, making his accession to the throne controversial. Soon after becoming king, Hilderic had his predecessor's widow, Amalafrida, imprisoned; he escaped war with her brother, the Gothic king Theoderic the Great, only by the latter's death in 526.

Hilderic's reign was noteworthy for the kingdom's excellent relations with the Eastern Roman Empire. Procopius writes that he was "a very particular friend and guest-friend of Justinian, who had not yet come to the throne", noting that Hilderic and Justinian exchanged large presents of money to each other. Hilderic allowed a new Catholic bishop to take office in the Vandal capital of Carthage, and many Vandals began to convert to Catholicism, to the alarm of the Vandal nobility.