Authari

Authari

Authari (c. 540 – 5 September 590, Pavia) also known as Agilolf, was king of the Lombards from 584 to his death. After his father, Cleph, died in 574, the Lombardic nobility refused to appoint a successor, resulting in ten years interregnum known as the "Rule of the Dukes".

In 574 and 575 the Lombards made the blunder of invading Provence, then part of the kingdom of Burgundy of the Merovingian Guntram. Guntram, allied with his nephew, the king of Austrasia, Childebert II, invaded Lombardy. The Austrasian army descended the valley of the Adige and took Trent. The Byzantine emperor, Tiberius II, began to negotiate an alliance with the Franks and the Lombards, fearful of a pincer movement, elected another king.

In 584, they elected Duke Authari and ceded him not only the capital of Pavia, but half of their ducal domains as a demesne. He spent his entire reign in wars with Franks, Greeks, and rebels. His first major test was the quashing of the rebel duke Droctulf of Brescello, who had allied with the Romans and was ruling the Po valley. Having expelled him, he spent most of the rest of his six years on the throne fighting the exarch of Ravenna, Smaragdus, or the Merovingian kings.

Guntram and Childebert were still not satisfied with their successes in Italy and they many times threatened invasion, following through on their threats twice. The memory of Theudebert I of Austrasia's campaigns in Italy, the urging of Childebert's warlike mother Brunhilda and the Byzantine emperor and exarch, as well as the wrongs done Guntram in the past undoubtedly fueled their quarrelsomeness. In 588, Authari defeated them handily, but in 590, the uncle and nephew led to armies across the Alps, respecitvely over Mont Cenis and the Brenner to Milan and Verona. Though Authari shut himself up in Pavia, the Franks accomplished little as the exarch's army did not meet them and the could not even join up with each other. Pestilence turned them around and they left the Lombards much chastened, but hardly defeated.

Authari, when not controlled by foreign armies, expanded the Lombard dominion at the expense of Byzantium. He took the fortress of Comacchio and cut of communication between Padua and Ravenna. Faroald, duke of Spoleto, captured the Ravennan seaport of Classis and utterly devastated it. Authari swept through the peninsula all the way to Reggio, vowing to take Calabria — a vow never to be kept by any Lombard.

On 15 May 589, he married Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she had great influence among the Lombards for her virtue. When Authari died in Pavia in 590, possibly by poison, he was succeeded as king by Agilulf, duke of Turin, on the advice, sought by the dukes, of Theodelinda, who married the new king.


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  • Authari — (auch Autari, Authachar, Otharius; * um 540; † 5. September 590 in Pavia) war von 584 bis 590 König der Langobarden. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 1.1 Konsolidierung in Italien 1.2 Gesetzgebung …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Authari — est un roi lombard d Italie qui règne de 584 à 590. Biographie Fils du roi Cleph, Authari ne peut lui succéder à sa mort (574) et accède au pouvoir que dix années plus tard, rétablissant la royauté lombarde après un période d anarchie alors que… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Authari — Authari,   König der Langobarden (seit 584), ✝ (vergiftet?) Pavia 5. 9. 590; kam durch seine Heirat mit der Herzogstochter Theodolinde in engeren, politisch dauerhaften Kontakt mit den Baiern; die spätere Katholisierung der sich zum Arianismus… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Authāri — Authāri, Flavius, König der Langobarden, Sohn Klephs, nach dessen frühem Tode 574 die Langobarden 10 Jahre lang keinen König wählten, so daß das Reich in (35) Herzogtümer zerfiel. Durch den byzantinischen Kaiser Mauricius und den austrasischen… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Authari(ch) — Authări(ch), seit 584 König der Langobarden, vermählt mit Theodoline, Tochter des Bayernherzogs Garibald, herrschte mit Kraft und Glück, gest. 590 …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Cappella della Regina Teodolinda — 45°35′1.18″N 9°16′34.00″E / 45.5836611, 9.2761111 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Theudelinde — (d. 628)    Bavarian princess, Theudelinde (also spelled Theodelinda) was the wife of two Lombard kings, Authari (r. 584 590) and Agilulf (r. 590 616), and the mother of a third, Adaloald (r. 616 626). A powerful figure in the Lombard kingdom,… …   Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe

  • Autario — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Autario (c. 540 5 de septiembre de 590, Pavía), fue rey de los Lombardos de 584 a su muerte. Después de su padre, Cleph, murió en 574, la nobleza lombarda se negó a nombrar un sucesor, lo que en diez años interregno… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Garibald I of Bavaria — Garibald I (also Garivald ) (born 540) was Duke (or King) of Bavaria from 555 until 591. [Paul the Deacon (1907), [http://www.northvegr.org/lore/langobard/ History of the Langobards (Historia Langobardorum) ,] William Dudley Foulke, trans.… …   Wikipedia

  • Longobarden — (latinisirte, seit dem 12. Jahrh. übliche Namensform für die ursprüngliche Langobarden, welche die eigene nationale Sage von ihren langen Bärten herleitet, nach And. aber mit parta, barte, Streitaxt zusammengesetzt ist), eine wenig zahlreiche,… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

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