At home with the Langobards: dukes Alboin and Gisulf

Mid 8th century: The Langobards had evolved quite a bit from those who had invaded Italy two centuries earlier. 8th-century Langobards only shared their name with those warrior groups and no longer differed from the Romans.

However, while we could rely on Paul the Deacon‘s Historia Langobardorum to cover the earlier exploits of this people, this is not the case for the last thirty years of their kingdom. The monk stopped his work in 744, with the death of Liutprand. The history of the last three kings, Ratchis, Astulf, and Desiderius, depends on entries from outside the kingdom, Frankish and papal: a Langobard entry is completely missing.

Last time we left off talking about Astulf, king of the Langobards and duke of Spoleto. Pope Stephen II (752-757), in his Life, informs us that Astulf, the unhappy Aistulf, the popes’ fierce foe, had been struck by divine wrath, and died suddenly from a hunting accident, falling from his horse. At that point, says the Liber Pontificalis,

Desiderio, duke of the Langobards, who had been sent to the parts of Tuscia by the same wicked Astulf, hearing that the aforementioned Astulf had died, hastily assembled the whole of the numerous army of Tuscia and tried to seize the Langobard kingdom.”

The scarce sources tell of a strong conflict within the Langobard kingdom: Ratchis, Astulf’s brother and king before him, had left the monastery of Montecassino where he had retired when he renounced the kingdom in 749, and had led several optimates Langobardorum, i.e. the kingdom’s aristocracy, to move against Desiderius and regain the throne. So Desiderius had to ask the Pope for help in order to fully assume power and drive Ratchis back into the cloister.

But relations with the papacy soon soured because of Stephen II’s new alliance with the Pippinids, the dynasty of Pepin the Short, and his sons Charlemagne and Carloman.

Amidst this turmoil, in 757, the Spoleto optimates elected their own duke: Alboin. This was an act to ensure their independence, all the more so since Alboin swore loyalty to the Pope and the Frankish king. A new fact that shows that Spoleto felt increasingly distant from the kingdom of Pavia and attracted instead to Rome.

The universality of the Spoleto people, – he wrote to Pippin, – by the hand of blessed Peter, and by your very strong arm, have made themselves a duke; and both they and the Benevento people wish to be recommended to Your Excellency.(Achille Sansi).

Desiderius, as soon as he had assumed full power over the kingdom and Pope Stephen II had died, ravaged the lands of the Exarchate and the Pentapolis, and entered with his army those of Spoleto, the rebel duchy, supporter of Pepin. And again Sansi:

He defeated the ducal troops, and having taken Alboino and most of the optimates into his hands, he threw them into the prisons, where they were badly wounded and mutilated. Nor was he more merciful to the Beneventans, whose duke had the great good fortune to escape.”

In April 759 Desiderius reconquered Spoleto and installed a duke loyal to him, Gisulf.

Throughout the next twenty years, the duchy appears closely united with the kingdom. On the documents, which unlike his predecessors he headed with the king’s name, Gisulf appears until July 761.

Happy Monday at home with the Langobards!

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