Egilona

Egilona, as depicted in Mugeres célebres de España y Portugal ("Celebrated Women of Spain and Portugal"), 1868. AB195 0203 (cropped) Egilona (or Egilo) was a Visigothic noblewoman and the last known queen of the Visigoths. She was the wife first of Roderic, the Visigothic king (710–11), and then of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Muslim governor (wālī) of al-Andalus (714–16). Her name is rendered Aylū by Arabic writers, who also give her the kunya Umm ʿAṣim ("mother of ʿAṣim"). She was independently wealthy.

Biography Egilona may have been related to Kings Egica and Wittiza. Since the succession of 710 was contested, Roderic may have married Egilona to strengthen his position. Their marriage did not last long, as he died at the Battle of the Guadalete the following year.

The date of Egilona's second marriage is uncertain. She may have married ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz before he became governor, when he was still merely the son of the conquering general, Mūsā bin Nuṣayr, who had overthrown the Visigothic kingdom. Although both Arabic and Latin sources depict Egilona and her second husband as communicating directly, it is not clear whether they could have done so directly, since Egilona would have spoken a vulgar Latin dialect and did not likely have time or reason to learn Arabic quickly. Likewise, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz could have had little reason to learn Latin, although he was criticised for certain foreign (ʿajamī) practices. The Christian Chronicle of 754 records that: "on the advice of Queen Egilona, wife of the late king Roderic, whom he had joined to himself, [ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz] tried to throw off the Arab yoke from his neck and retain the conquered kingdom of Iberia for himself." In 1845, the Cuban playwright Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda published a play titled Egilona.