ALBOIN (d. 572 or 573), king of the
Lombards, and conqueror
of Italy, succeeded his father Audoin about 565. The
Lombards were at that time dwelling in Noricum and Pannonia
(archduchy of Austria, Styria and Hungary, west of the
Danube). In alliance with the Avars
?, an Asiatic people
who had invaded central Europe, Alboin defeated the Gepidae,
a powerful nation on his eastern frontier, slew their king
Cunimund, whose skull he fashioned into a drinking-cup, and
whose daughter Rosamund he carried off and made his wife.
Three years later (in 568), on the alleged invitation of Narses
?, who was irritated by the treatment he had received
from the emperor [Justin II]
?, Alboin invaded Italy, probably
marching over the pass of the Predil. He overran Venetia and
the wide district which we now call Lombardy, meeting with
but feeble resistance till he came to the city of Ticinum
(Pavia), which for three years (569-572) kept the Lombards at
bay.
While this siege was in progress Alboin was also engaged
in other parts of Italy, and at its close he was probably
master of Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany, as well as of the
regions which afterwards went by the name of the duchies
of Spoleto and Benevento. In 572 or 573, however, he was
assassinated by his chamberlain Peredeo at the instigation
of Queen Rosamund, whom Alboin had grievously insulted by
forcing her to drink wine out of her father's skull. After
his death and the short reign of his successor Cleph the
Lombards remained for more than ten years without a king, ruled by the various dukes.
The authorities for the history of Alboin are Procopius, Paul the Deacon and Agnellus? (in his history of the church of Ravenna?).
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed