Ratchis was the son of Duke Pemmo of Friuli and the nephew of the Lombard king Liutprand, who, despite his history of strife with Pemmo, appointed Ratchis to succeed his father in 737. Ratchis was married to a Roman woman named Tassia. During his rule of Friuli, he launched an expedition against the Slavs in Carniola, across the Eastern Alps, fighting in person during the battles.
Ratchis denique aput Foroiuli dux, ut dixeramus, effectus, in Carniolam Sclavorum patriam cum suis ingressus, magnam multitudinem Sclavorum interficiens, eorum omnia devastavit.
—Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum, Liber VI [2]
He became king of the Lombards in 744, after the deposition of Hildeprand, most likely with the support of the more autonomous Lombard dukes. Ratchis ruled initially in peace, in particular with the neighboring Byzantine-ruled exarchate of Ravenna. However, perhaps pushed by more traditional parties among his followers, in 749 he invaded the Duchy of the Pentapolis and besieged Perugia. Pope Zachary convinced him to lift the siege, but this further reduced his prestige among the dukes, who deposed him later year at an assembly in Milan. His brother Aistulf succeeded him. Ratchis initially tried to raise opposition to the assembly's decision, but soon was forced to take refuge in Rome. He later entered the abbey of Montecassino with his family.
Following Aistulf's passing in 756, Ratchis fought to reclaim the throne. He was able to gain control of the royal palace in Pavia with the support of several Lombard nobles, but was defeated by the duke of Tuscany, Desiderius, who had the support of Pope Stephen II and the Frankish king Pepin the Short. In 757, Ratchis retired again to a monastery, either Montecassino or Cervaro.
Paul the Deacon, Historia LangobardorumStoria dei Longobardi; introduzione di Claudio Leonardi; apparati critici e iconografici a cura di Roberto Cassanelli. Milan: Electa, 1985 (Latin & Italian)
Jarnut, Jörg (1995) [1982]. Storia dei Longobardi. Translated by Guglielmotti, Paola. Torino: Einaudi. ISBN88-06-13658-5.
Sergio Rovagnati, I Longobardi, Milan: Xenia, 2003 ISBN88-7273-484-3
The Lombards or Longobards were a Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774.
Paul the Deacon, also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefridus, Barnefridus, or Winfridus, and sometimes suffixed Cassinensis, was a Benedictine monk, scribe, and historian of the Lombards.
Aistulf was the Duke of Friuli from 744, King of the Lombards from 749, and Duke of Spoleto from 751. His reign was characterized by ruthless and ambitious efforts to conquer Roman territory to the extent that in the Liber Pontificalis, he is described as a "shameless" Lombard given to "pernicious savagery" and cruelty.
Anselm was the Lombard duke of Friuli (749–751) and the founding abbot of the monastery of Nonantula.
The History of the Lombards or the History of the Langobards is the chief work by Paul the Deacon, written in the late 8th century. This incomplete history in six books was written after 787 and at any rate no later than 796, maybe at Montecassino.
Erchempert was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy in the final quarter of the ninth century. He chronicled a history of the Lombard Principality of Benevento, in the Langobardia Minor, giving an especially vivid account of the violence in southern Langobardia. Beginning with Duke Arechis II (758-787) and the Carolingian conquest of Benevento, his history, titled the Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum degentium, stops abruptly in the winter of 888-889. Just one medieval manuscript of this text survives, from the early fourteenth century.
The dukes and margraves of Friuli were the rulers of the Duchy and March of Friuli in the Middle Ages.
Langobardia Minor was the name that, in the Early Middle Ages, was given to the Lombard domains in central and southern Italy, corresponding to the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. After the conquest of the Lombard kingdom by Charlemagne in 774, it remained under Lombard control.
Ansa or Ansia was a Queen of the Lombards by marriage to Desiderius (756–774), King of the Lombards.
The Kingdom of the Lombards, also known as the Lombard Kingdom and later as the Kingdom of all Italy, was an early medieval state established by the Lombards, a Germanic people, on the Italian Peninsula in the latter part of the 6th century. The king was traditionally elected by the very highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes, which were in turn subdivided into gastaldates at the municipal level. The capital of the kingdom and the center of its political life was Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of Lombardy.
The Duchy of Friuli was a Lombard duchy in present-day Friuli, the first to be established after the conquest of the Italian peninsula in 568. It was one of the largest domains in Langobardia Major and an important buffer between the Lombard kingdom and the Slavs, Avars, and the Byzantine Empire. The original chief city in the province was Roman Aquileia, but the Lombard capital of Friuli was Forum Julii, modern Cividale.
Ferdulf or Fardulf, originally from the territories of Liguria, was the Duke of Friuli at some point between the end of the reign of Cunincpert (688-700) and the beginning of that of Aripert II (701-12). There is no evidence to associate his tenure to the year 705 alone or indeed to suggest that it was very brief.. Paul the Deacon described him as 'a man tricky and conceited' who had obtained the dukedom after the death of Duke Ado.
In the Byzantine Empire, the Duchy of the Pentapolis was a duchy, a territory ruled by a duke (dux) appointed by and under the Exarch of Ravenna. The Pentapolis consisted of the cities of Ancona, Fano, Pesaro, Rimini and Sinigaglia. It lay along the Adriatic coast between the rivers Marecchia and Misco immediately south of the core territory of the exarchate ruled directly by the exarch, east of the Duchy of Perugia, another Byzantine territory, and north of the Duchy of Spoleto, which was part of the Lombard Kingdom of Italy. The duchy probably extended inland as far as the Apennine Mountains, perhaps beyond, and its southernmost town was Humana (Numera) on the northern bank of the Misco. The capital of the Pentapolis was Rimini and the duke was both the civil and military authority in the duchy.
The Duchy of Tuscia, initially known as the Duchy of Lucca, was a Lombard duchy in Central Italy, which included much of today's Tuscany. After the occupation of the territories belonging to the Byzantines, the Lombards founded this flourishing duchy which, among other centres, also included Florence. The capital of the duchy was Lucca, which was located along the Via Francigena, being also the city where the duke resided.
Austria was, according to the early medieval geographical classification, the eastern portion of Langobardia Major, the north-central part of the Lombard Kingdom, extended from the Adda to Friuli and opposite to Neustria. The partition had not only been territorial, but also implied significant cultural and political differences.
Neustria was, according to the early medieval geographical classification, the western portion of Langobardia Major, the north-central part of the Lombard Kingdom, extended from the Adda (river) to the Western Alps and opposite to Austria. The partition had not only been territorial, but also implied significant cultural and political differences.
Among the Lombards, the duke or dux was the man who acted as political and military commander of a set of "military families", irrespective of any territorial appropriation.
Helmichis was a Lombard noble who killed his king, Alboin, in 572 and unsuccessfully attempted to usurp his throne. Alboin's queen, Rosamund, supported or at least did not oppose Helmichis' plan to remove the king, and after the assassination Helmichis married her. The assassination was assisted by Peredeo, the king's chamber-guard, who in some sources becomes the material executer of the murder. Helmichis is first mentioned by the contemporary chronicler Marius of Avenches, but the most detailed account of his endeavours derives from Paul the Deacon's late 8th-century Historia Langobardorum.
The coinage of the Lombards refers to the autonomous productions of coins by the Lombards. It constitutes part of the coinage produced by Germanic peoples occupying the former territory of the Roman Empire during the Migration Period. All known Lombard coinage was produced after their settlement of Italy. The coinage originates from two distinct areas, in Langobardia Major between the last decades of the sixth century and 774, and in Langobardia Minor, in the duchy of Benevento, between approximately 680 and the end of the 9th century.
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