Hilderic was a grandson of the legendary King Geiseric, who founded the Vandal kingdom in Africa. His father was Geiseric's son Huneric, and his mother was Eudocia, the daughter of the Roman emperor Valentinian III and Licinia Eudoxia. Despite his famous bloodline, he was violently unpopular with many of his subjects. Most of the Vandals were Arians and had persecuted Catholics while Hilderic favored the Catholicism of his mother, making his accession to the throne controversial. Soon after becoming king, Hilderic had his predecessor's widow, Amalafrida, imprisoned; and escaped a war with her brother, the Gothic king Theodoric the Great, only by the latter's death in 526.