Alduin (Langobardic: Aldwin or Hildwin, Latin : Audoinus; [1] also called Auduin or Audoin) was king of the Lombards from 547 to 560. [2]
Alduin (Langobardic: Aldwin or Hildwin, Latin : Audoinus; [1] also called Auduin or Audoin) was king of the Lombards from 547 to 560. [2]
Audoin was of the Gausi, a prominent Lombard ruling clan, and according to the Historia Langobardorum, the son of Menia, the Lombard wife of Basinus, king of the Thuringii. [3] Audoin was half-brother to Hermanafrid (king of the Thuringii peoples) and Raicunda, the wife of the Lombard king Wacho.
According to the Decem Libri of Gregory of Tours, in 531, Hermanafrid was defeated at the Battle of Unstrut, and so Thuringia was annexed to the Frankish empire. Hermanafrid traveled under safe conduct to meet with Theuderic at Zülpich. While walking along the city walls with Theuderic, Hermanafrid was thrown from the ramparts to his death. [4]
According to Procopius (History of the Wars V, 13), after Hermanafrid's death, his widow Amalaberga fled with her children, Amalafrid and Rodelinda, to her brother Theodahad who was at that time (534–536) King of the Ostrogoths. [5] Around 539, during the Gothic War, they were captured by the Byzantine general Belisarius and sent to Constantinople. Justinian made Amalafrid a general and married off his sister Rodelinda to Audoin. [6]
Around 540, Audoin was elected regent for Walthari, the minor son of King Wacho and his third wife Silinga. He led the Lombards to Pannonia, where they were settled by Justinian I and in 541 signed a treaty becoming fœderati of the Byzantines, entrusted with the task of securing the Danube border against the Franks. Audoin probably killed Waltari before he reached manhood, in order to gain the throne for himself around 546, and led the Lombards into Pannonia. [7] After Walthari's death around 547, Audoin became king of the Lombards. [8]
Beginning in 551, Audoin was obliged to send troops to serve Narses in Italy in the Gothic War against the Ostrogoths. The next year, he sent over 5,000 men to defeat the Goths on the slopes of Vesuvius. That same year Audoin had been able to inflict a heavy defeat on the Gepids with the help of his brother-in-law Amalafrid. [9] The Gepid king Thurisind lost his eldest son, Turismod, in the Battle of Asfeld. Turismod was killed by Alboin, son of Audoin.
He died in 563 or 565 and was succeeded by his son, Alboin, who brought the Lombards into the Italian peninsula.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
Alboin was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effect on Italy and the Pannonian Basin; in the former, his invasion marked the beginning of centuries of Lombard rule, and in the latter, his defeat of the Gepids and his departure from Pannonia ended the dominance there of the Germanic peoples.
The 530s decade ran from January 1, 530, to December 31, 539.
Year 546 (DXLVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 546 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 539 (DXXXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Strategius without colleague. The denomination 539 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 565 (DLXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 565 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Theudebert I was the Merovingian king of Austrasia from 533 to his death in 548. He was the son of Theuderic I and the father of Theudebald.
The Gepids were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary, and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava, and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion and language of the Goths and Vandals.
Mundus or Mundo was a Barbarian commander of Gepid, Hun, and/or Gothic origins. He appears to have been the son of the Gepid king Giesmus. In the early 500s he commanded a group of bandits in Pannonia, eventually allying himself to the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great. After Theodoric's death in 526, Mundus entered Byzantine service under emperor Justinian I, fighting in the Balkans, defending Justinian during the Nika riots, and fighting in the first stage of the Gothic War, during which he died in 536.
Hermanfrid was the last independent king of the Thuringii in present-day Germany. He was one of three sons of King Bisinus and his Lombard queen Menia. His siblings were Baderic; Raicunda, married to the Lombard king Wacho; and Bertachar.
Amalafrid was the son of the last Thuringian king Hermanafrid and his wife Amalaberga, daughter of Amalafrida and niece of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great.
Menia was the queen of the Thuringians by marriage and the earliest named ancestor of the Gausian dynasty of the Lombards. She became a legendary figure after her death, strongly associated with gold and wealth.
Amalaberga was the daughter of Amalafrida, daughter of Theodemir, king of the Ostrogoths.
The Battle of Asfeld was fought in 552 between the Lombards and the Gepids. The Lombards, led by King Audoin, were victorious, and, Turismod, the son of King Thorisind, was slain in the battle.
Walthari son of Wacho from his third wife Silinga, was a king of the Lombards from 539 to 546. He was an infant king, and rulership of the kingdom was administered by Audoin. Audoin probably killed Waltari before he reached manhood, in order to gain the throne for himself around 546, and led the Lombards into Pannonia. Procopius mentions he died of disease. He was the last of the Lething Dynasty.
The Lethings were a dynasty of Lombard kings ruling in the 5th and 6th centuries until 546. They were the first Lombard royal dynasty and represent the emergence of the Lombard rulership out of obscurity and into history.
Cunimund was the last king of the Gepids, falling in the Lombard–Gepid War (567) against the Lombards and Pannonian Avars.
Rodelinda (6th-century), was a Lombard queen by marriage to king Audoin, and mother of king Alboin.
Thurisind was king of the Gepids, an East Germanic Gothic people, from c. 548 to 560. He was the penultimate Gepid king, and succeeded King Elemund by staging a coup d'état and forcing the king's son into exile. Thurisind's kingdom, known as Gepidia, was located in Central Europe and had its centre in Sirmium, a former Roman city on the Sava River.
Turismod was a son of the king of the Gepids Thurisind. He was killed in 551 or 552 on the battlefield by Alboin, son of the king of the Lombards Audoin.
