Ergica
Encyclopedia
Visigothic Kingdom
The Visigothic Kingdom was a kingdom which occupied southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to 8th century AD. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was originally created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of...
of Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
and Septimania
Septimania
Septimania was the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. Under the Visigoths it was known as simply Gallia or Narbonensis. It corresponded roughly with the modern...
from 687 until his death. He was the son of Ariberga, and the brother in law of Wamba.
He was married (c. 670) to Cixilo, Cixilona, Cioxillo or Cixila, the daughter of his royal predecessor Erwig
Erwig
Erwig was a king of the Visigoths in Hispania . He was the only Visigothic king to be a complete puppet of the bishops and palatine nobility....
and wife Liuvigoto, who, on his deathbed on 14 November 687, confirmed Egica as his heir and sent him with the royal court to Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
to be crowned. There he was anointed on 24 November. Upon Ergica's marriage to Cixilo, Erwig had made him swear an oath to protect Erwig's children. Before his death Erwig required a second oath, swearing not to deny justice to the people. Shortly after taking the throne, Ergica called the Fifteenth Council of Toledo
Fifteenth Council of Toledo
The Fifteenth Council of Toledo first met on 11 May 688 under King Egica. It was the king's first of three councils.In 680-681, the sixth ecumenical council, the Third Council of Constantinople, had repudiated monothelitism and affirmed the doctrine of dythelitism, that Christ had two wills...
on 11 May 688, at which he claimed the two oaths were contradictory (because to do justice to the people required "harming" Erwig's children) and asked the council of bishops to release him from one or the other. Egica, however, met the opposition of Julian of Toledo
Julian of Toledo
Julian of Toledo was born to Jewish parents in Toledo, Hispania, but raised Christian. He was well educated at the cathedral school, was a monk and later abbot at Agali, a spiritual student of Saint Eugene II, and archbishop of Toledo...
. When the council allowed Egica to abandon his wife but only partially rescinded the oath to protect Erwig's children, Ergica waited until Julian's death (690) to call a second provincial council of Tarraconensis, which resulted in Erwig's widow, Liuvigoto, being sent to a convent.
In 691, Ergica oversaw the beginning of the building of the Church of San Pedro de la Nave
San Pedro de la Nave
San Pedro de la Nave is a Visigothic church in the town of Campillo, in the municipal unit of San Pedro de la Nave-Almendra, in the province of Zamora, Spain...
in Zamora
Zamora, Spain
Zamora is a city in Castile and León, Spain, the capital of the province of Zamora. It lies on a rocky hill in the northwest, near the frontier with Portugal and crossed by the Duero river, which is some 50 km downstream as it reaches the Portuguese frontier...
.
In 693, the metropolitan of Toledo, Sisebert
Sisebert of Toledo
Sisbert or Sisebert was the metropolitan archbishop of Toledo from 690 to 693 as successor to the famous Julian. In the latter year, he was at the head of a conspiracy to dethrone the king, Egica. He planned to assassinate the king, Queen Liuvigoto, and four of their closest advisors: Frogellus,...
, led a rebellion against Ergica in favor of raising a man named Suniefred to the throne. The rebels controlled Toledo for a time, because they were able to mint coins in the potential usurper's name. The plan to assassinate Ergica, the dowager queen Liuvigoto, and several main counsellors failed, and Sisebert was defrocked
Defrocking
To defrock, unfrock, or laicize ministers or priests is to remove their rights to exercise the functions of the ordained ministry. This may be due to criminal convictions, disciplinary matters, or disagreements over doctrine or dogma...
and excommunicated
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
. Furthermore, his descendants were barred from holding any offices and any other rebel or descendant of a rebel who might rise up against Ergica was to be sold into slavery.
In 694, Ergica enacted the most severe anti-Jewish law by a Visigothic king yet. In response, so he claimed to the Seventeenth Council of Toledo
Seventeenth Council of Toledo
The Seventeenth Council of Toledo first met on 9 November 694 under King Egica. It was the king's third council and primarily directed, as was the Sixteenth, against the Jews, of whom Egica seems to have had a profound distrust and dislike....
, to the connivance of Jews at home with Jews abroad who were fomenting rebellions to overthrow Christian leaders, Ergica declared all Jewish-held land forfeit, all Jews to be enslaved to Christians, and all Jewish children over the age of seven to be taken from their homes and raised as Christians. Jewish-owned Christian slaves were to be invested with the Jews' property and to be responsible for paying the taxes on the Jews. In towns where Jews were deemed indispensable to the economy, however, this law wasn't applied. Indeed, as a result of the disintegrating Visigothic power, it was hardly enforced beyond the capital city itself.
Shortly before he died, Ergica amended a law which stated that anyone accused of theft of goods worth 300 solidi was to undergo a trial by boiling water
Trial by ordeal
Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience...
. Under Ergica's changes, anyone accused of theft for whatever amount would have to undergo this ordeal. At the same time, Ergica published several laws which dealt harshly with the issue of fugitive slaves, while simultaneously rescinding laws which permitted slaveholders to mutilate their slaves as punishment. Ergica also remitted taxes, but this does not seem to have boosted his popularity. He got the bishops to order prayers to be said in his name and that of his family in every cathedral in Hispania.
As early as 694 he associated Wittiza
Wittiza
Wittiza was the Visigothic King of Hispania from 694 until his death, co-ruling with his father, Ergica, until 702 or 703.-Joint rule:...
, his son by Cixilo, with him even though he was a minor. As one of his very last acts he had Wittiza anointed in 700. He died in his bed, with his succession secured, sometime between 701 and 703.
His other two sons, who joined Musa bin Nusair
Musa bin Nusair
Musa bin Nusayr al-Balawi was a balawi who served as a governor and general under the Umayad caliph Al-Walid I. He had ruled over the Muslim provinces of North Africa , and directed the islamic opening of the Visigothic kingdom in Hispania....
and Tariq ibn Ziyad against Roderic
Roderic
Ruderic was the Visigothic King of Hispania for a brief period between 710 and 712. He is famous in legend as "the last king of the Goths"...
, were Don
Don (honorific)
Don, from Latin dominus, is an honorific in Spanish , Portuguese , and Italian . The female equivalent is Doña , Dona , and Donna , abbreviated "Dª" or simply "D."-Usage:...
Oppas
Oppas
Oppas or Oppa was a member of the Visigothic elite in the city of Toledo on the eve of the Muslim conquest of Hispania. He was a son of Egica and therefore a brother or half-brother of Wittiza....
, Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
or Bishop
Bishop (Catholic Church)
In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders and is responsible for teaching the Catholic faith and ruling the Church....
of Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, maybe a bastard son, and Sisebuto, who later became the Comes
Comes
Comes , plural comites , is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus, especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" +...
of the Christians of Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
, as were his son Ataulfo, his grandson Atanarico and his great-grandson Teudo in 770, 801/802 and 805.
Sources
- Collins, Roger. The Arab Conquest of Spain, 710–97. Oxford University Press, 1989.
- Collins, Roger. Visigothic Spain, 409–711. Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
- Thompson, E. A.Edward Arthur ThompsonEdward Arthur Thompson was a British classicist, medievalist and professor at the University of Nottingham from 1948 to 1979. He wrote from a Marxist perspective, and argued that the Visigoths were settled in Aquitaine to counter the internal threat of the peasant bagaudae...
. The Goths in Spain. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. - Luíz Paulo Manuel de Menezes de Mello Vaz de São-Payo, A Herança Genética de Dom Afonso I Henriques (Portugal: Centro de Estudos de História da Família da Universidade Moderna do Porto, Porto, 2002)