Audelais of Benevento

Last updated March 12, 2019

Audelais (also Adelais or Andelais) was an usurper of the duchy of Benevento for two years after the death of Romuald II. He overthrew Romuald's son and heir, Gisulf II. Liutprand, King of the Lombards, came down and removed both Gisulf and Audelais and placed his own candidate, Gregory, on the throne.

The Duchy of Benevento was the southernmost Lombard duchy in the Italian peninsula, centered on Benevento, a city in Southern Italy. Being cut off from the rest of the Lombard possessions by the papal Duchy of Rome, Benevento was practically independent from the start. Only during the reigns of Grimoald, King of the Lombards and the kings from Liutprand on was the duchy closely tied to the kingdom. After the fall of the kingdom, however, alone of Lombard territories it remained as a rump state, and maintained its de facto independence for nearly three hundred years, though it was divided after 849.

Romuald II the Younger was the son of Gisulf I and Winiperga. He succeeded as duke of Benevento on the death of his father, which is dated variously as 698, 706, or 707. According to Paul the Deacon, Gisulf reigned 17 years, which would imply his death in 698, but Paul also mentions acts which seem certainly to have occurred around 705. He gives Romuald a reign of 26 years, which puts his death in either 724, 731, or 732.

Gisulf II was the third last duke of Benevento before the fall of the Lombard kingdom. He ruled from 743, when King Liutprand came down and removed Godescalc, to his death up to ten years later.

Sources

Notes of the Historia Langobardorum at Northvegr.

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Regnal titles
Preceded by Romuald II	Duke of Benevento 732–733	Succeeded by Gregory

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