Euric
King of the Visigoths (466-484)
Euric, also known as Eurico or Erwig (born about 415, died 484) was
one of the most powerful German kings in the last years of the western
Roman Empire. He reigned as King of the Visigoths from 466 until his
death.
The eighth king in line from Alaric, Euric was the son of Theodoric II,
who ruled a large portion of the Visigothic possessions in the
Aquitaine region of Gaul. The area had been under Visigoth control
since 415, and they had gradually expanded their holdings at the
expense of the weak Roman government over the decades, advancing well
into Spain in the process.
Upon becoming king, Euric defeated several other Visigothic kings and
war chiefs in a series of civil wars, and soon became the first ruler
of a truly unified Visigoth nation in many years. Taking advantage of
the Romans' problems, he extended Visigoth power in Spain, and by the
time the western empire ended in 476, controlled nearly the entire
Iberian peninsula.
In 470, Euric defeated an attempted invasion of Gaul by the Celtic
magnate Riothamus and expanded his kingdom even further north, possibly
as far as the Somme River.
Previous Visigoth kings had officially ruled only as officers of the
Roman Emperor, but Euric was the first to declare his complete
independence from the Romans. In 475, he forced the western emperor
Julius Nepos to recognize his full independence in exchange for the
return of the Provence region of Gaul. The Roman citizens of Spain then
turned their allegiance to Euric, recognizing him as their king.
Euric was one of the more learned of the great Germanic kings, and was
the first German to formally codify his people's laws.
At Euric's death in 484, the Visigothic kingdom encompassed all of Spain except for the region of Galicia,
still ruled by the Suebi, and more than two-thirds of modern France.
Note: Some of you will notice this text is almost exactly the same as that in the Wikipedia. Before you accuse me of stealing from them, please be advised that 1) the Wikipedia is an open-source project; and 2) I wrote the entire original article on that site myself.