Erwig (; after 642 – 687) was a king of the Visigoths in Hispania (680–687).
Parentage
According to the 9th-century Chronicle of Alfonso III, Erwig was the son of Ardabast, who had journeyed from the Byzantine Empire to Hispania during the time of Chindasuinth, and married Chindasuinth's niece Goda. Ardabast (or Artavasdos), was probably an Armenian or Persian Christian exile in Constantinople or in Byzantine Africa. In Hispania he was made a count.
Seventeenth-century Spanish genealogist Luis Bartolomé de Salazar y Castro gave Ardabast's father as Athanagild, the son of Saint Hermenegild and Ingund, and his mother as Flavia Juliana, a daughter of Peter Augustus and niece of the Emperor Maurice. This imperial connection is disputed by Christian Settipani, who says that the only source for Athanagild's marriage to Flavia Julia is José Pellicer, who he claims to be a forger.
Succession
After his predecessor Wamba had taken the monastic habit while on the verge of death, he was forced to retire from the kingship on 14 October 680, even though he recovered, and enter a monastery. He appointed Erwig his successor and the latter was anointed in Toledo on 31 October 680. Later, 9th-century legends attributed to Erwig the poisoning of the king, who was made a penitent by his supporters while Erwig's supporters raised him to the throne. The bishops of the Twelfth Council of Toledo, which Erwig opened on 9 January 681, confirmed that the documents of abdication and confirmation of Erwig from Wamba were authentic and contained his own signature. Nonetheless, some historians have seen in the rapidity of Erwig's unction after the king had received the penitential sacrament evidence for a pre-planned palace coup.
