- Authari
Authari (c. 540 –
5 September 590 ,Pavia ) also known as Agilolf, was king of theLombards 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 thekingdom of Burgundy of theMerovingian Guntram . Guntram, allied with his nephew, the king ofAustrasia ,Childebert II , invaded Lombardy. The Austrasian army descended the valley of theAdige and tookTrent . TheByzantine emperor ,Tiberius II , began to negotiate an alliance with theFranks 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 ademesne . He spent his entire reign in wars with Franks, Greeks, and rebels. His first major test was the quashing of the rebel dukeDroctulf ofBrescello , who had allied with the Romans and was ruling thePo valley . Having expelled him, he spent most of the rest of his six years on the throne fighting theexarch 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 motherBrunhilda 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 overMont Cenis and theBrenner toMilan andVerona . 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 betweenPadua andRavenna . Faroald,duke of Spoleto , captured the Ravennan seaport of Classis and utterly devastated it. Authari swept through the peninsula all the way toReggio , vowing to takeCalabria — a vow never to be kept by any Lombard.On
15 May 589 , he marriedTheodelinda , daughter of theBavaria n duke Garibald I. ACatholic , she had great influence among the Lombards for her virtue. When Authari died inPavia in 590, possibly bypoison , he was succeeded as king byAgilulf , duke ofTurin , on the advice, sought by the dukes, of Theodelinda, who married the new king.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.