Egica

Egica

Egica ( Flavius ​​Egica ; † November / December 702 ) was king of the Visigoths from November 15, 687 to November / December 702.

Origin and assumption of government

Egica was a relative (probably nephew) of King Wamba (672–680). Wamba was overthrown in 680 by his successor Erwig (680-687) by a court intrigue. Erwig married his daughter Cixilo to Egica, probably to bring about a balance with the powerful Wambas clan. When Erwig fell fatally ill, he designated Egica as his successor on November 14, 687 and abdicated the following day, whereupon Egica immediately took office. On November 24th, Egica received the anointing of the king in Toledo. A king election did not take place.

Egica was hostile to his predecessor. It is unclear why Erwig made this member of an opposing clan his son-in-law and successor, although he himself had sons who outlived him. Presumably he had relatively little support and was therefore forced to grant the relatives and supporters of his predecessor this concession.

government

Soon after taking office, Egica showed his strong opposition to his predecessor's party. He convened the 15th Council of Toledo , which met on May 11, 688, and asked the assembled bishops to release him from the oath with which he had committed himself to Erwig to always represent the interests of his sons. He stated that this obligation was incompatible with his ruler's duty to exercise justice. He indicated that Erwig had presented his children with wrongly confiscated property. He apparently wanted to take this away from them in order to weaken the opposing clan.

A dangerous uprising broke out during the time of Egica's government. An anti-king named Suniefred was raised. The political background to this rebellion is unknown, but it is certain that Suniefred was able to bring the capital Toledo under his control and drive Egica out for a while, because he had coins minted in Toledo. Egica's distrust of nobles, whom he suspected of conspiratorial activities, was great and prompted him to pursue a tough policy of repression; he proceeded against suspected opponents with executions, confiscations and exile. One of his enemies was Metropolitan Sisibert of Toledo, who was involved in a conspiracy against the king. The 16th Council of Toledo (693) then confirmed Sisibert's removal from office, which the ruler had already arbitrarily ordered.

Egica's reign was marked by the catastrophe of a severe plague epidemic, which depopulated the country in 693/694. The population losses were particularly high in the realm north of the Pyrenees ( Septimania ).

Under Egica the traditional anti-Jewish policy of the Visigoth kings reached a new high point. In 693, the 16th Council of Toledo upheld a law of the king that sought to induce Jews to change their faith through strong financial incentives. If they stayed with their religion, they had to pay a Jewish tax; They were forbidden from long-distance trade and all business dealings with Christians. The following year, the 17th Council of Toledo decided to expropriate and enslave the Jews and take away their children in order to raise them in a Christian way. The reason or pretext for this was provided by claims that the Jews, in cooperation with foreign co-religionists, had undertaken a conspiracy against the Reich. This probably meant that they encouraged the Muslims to attack.

An attack by a Byzantine fleet on the Spanish coast was repulsed by the Visigoths. Fights with the Franks who invaded Septimania are said to have gone badly for the Visigothic side; Details are not known.

Family, Succession, and Death

The claim of a late source that Egica rejected his wife Cixilo soon after his elevation to king, is incorrect, because she was mentioned in 694 in the files of the 17th Council of Toledo as a "glorious" queen.

In 694/695 Egica raised his son Witiza to co-regent. The heir to the throne temporarily resided in Tui in Galicia . On November 15, 700 Witiza received the anointing of the king; this step was only common when a previously nominal co-ruler took office. It can therefore be assumed that Egica was only able to act to a limited extent at this point in time and that Witiza was in fact already running the government. Egica died between November 15 and December 31, 702.

In addition to Witiza, Egica had another son named Oppa, who can probably be identified with the Metropolitan Oppa of Seville .

literature

• Dietrich Claude : Nobility, Church and Royalty in the Visigoth Empire. Sigmaringen 1971, pp. 182-194.
• Gerd Kampers: History of the Visigoths . Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-76517-8 , pp. 222-226.

Remarks

1. ↑ On the relationship, see Yves Bonnaz: Chroniques asturiennes , Paris 1987, p. 122f.
2. ↑ On Erwig's children see Concilium Toletanum XV c. 5, ed. José Vives, Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos , Barcelona 1963, p. 464f.
3. ↑ Alexander P. Bronisch: Wamba. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Vol. 33, Berlin 2006, p. 166.
4. ^ Concilium Toletanum XV , tomus, pp. 450f., 464f.
5. ^ Dietrich Claude: Nobility, Church and Kingship in the Visigoth Empire. Sigmaringen 1971, pp. 186-190.
6. ↑ Concilium Toletanum XVII , tomus, pp. 523-525; c. 8, pp. 534-536.
7. ↑ Chronica Muzarabica 47, ed. Juan Gil, Corpus Scriptorum Muzarabicorum Bd. 1, Madrid 1973, p. 34. See Julia Montenegro / Arcadio del Castillo: Theodemir's Victory over the Byzantines in the Joint Reign of Egica and Witiza: A Reference by the Chronicle of 754 , in: Byzantion Vol. 74, 2004, pp. 403-415.
8. ↑ Jan Prelog (ed.): The Chronicle of Alfonso III. Frankfurt a. M. 1980, pp. 10f., 143; Yves Bonnaz, Chroniques asturiennes. Paris 1987, pp. 35, 124.
9. ↑ For the sources and the chronology see Prelog pp. 143–147; Julia Montenegro / Arcadio del Castillo: The Chronology of the Reign of Witiza in the Sources , in: Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire Vol. 80, 2002, pp. 367-370.
10. ↑ Prelog p. 145.
11. ↑ Dietrich Claude: Investigations into the fall of the Visigoth Empire (711-725). In: Historisches Jahrbuch Vol. 108, 1988, pp. 341f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Erwig	King of the Visigoths 687–702	Witiza