Lombards remained for more than ten years in a state of anarchy. |
Lombards remained for more than ten years without a king, ruled by the various dukes. |
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?).