Mauregatus the Usurper was the king of Asturias from 783 to 788 or 789. He was an illegitimate son of Alfonso I

Alfonso I of Asturias

Alfonso I , called the Catholic , was the King of Asturias from 739 to his death in 757.He was son of Duke Peter of Cantabria and held many lands in that region. He may have been the hereditary chief of the Basques, but this is uncertain...

, supposedly by a Moorish

Moors

The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...

 serf. He usurped the throne on the death of Silo

Silo of Asturias

Silo was the king of Asturias from 774 to 783. He succeeded Aurelius, having married Adosinda, daughter of Alfonso I.He transferred the capital from Cangas de Onís to the village of Pravia, which was closer to the centre of the kingdom. He was a local magnate of the region around Pravia...

, his brother-in-law (the husband of his half sister Adosinda

Adosinda

Adosinda was the queen of Asturias during the reign of her husband, Silo, from 774 to 783. She was a daughter of Alfonso I and Ermesinda, daughter of the first Asturian king, Pelayo. She was a sister of Fruela I....

). The nobility had elected Alfonso II

Alfonso II of Asturias

Alfonso II , called the Chaste, was the king of Asturias from 791 to his death, the son of Fruela I and the Basque Munia.He was born in Oviedo in 759 or 760. He was put under the guardianship of his aunt Adosinda after his father's death, but one tradition relates his being put in the monastery of...

 at Adosinda's insistence, but Mauregatus assembled a large army of supporters and forced Alfonso into Álava

Álava

Álava is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Álava. Its capital city is Vitoria-Gasteiz which is also the capital of the autonomous community...

.

Nothing is known in detail of his reign. The adoptionist dispute was raging between Elipandus, Archbishop of Toledo, and Beatus of Liébana

Beatus of Liébana

Saint Beatus of Liébana was a monk, theologian and geographer from the Kingdom of Asturias, in modern northern Spain, who worked and lived in the Picos de Europa mountains of the region of Liébana, in what is now Cantabria and his feast day is February 19.-Biography:He created an important...

 and even occasioned the intervention of Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

. Mauregatus also sent back an invading Muslim force.

During his reign a hymn to Saint James was composed with an acrostic

Acrostic

An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...

 mentioning the king's name. This is considered to presage the legend of the saint's burial at Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...

.