Albsuinda (or Alpsuinda) was the only child of

Alboin Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was List of kings of the Lombards, king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migration period, migrations by settling in Kingdom of the Lombards, Italy, the northern ...

, King of the

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, on the west by Noricum and upper Roman Italy, Italy, and on the southward by Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia and upper Moesia. It ...

(reigned c. 560 – 572), and his first wife Chlothsind, daughter of the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

king of the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

Chlothar (reigned 511 – 561). While still young Albsuinda had lost her mother shortly before the final clash in 567 with the people of the

Gepids The Gepids (; ) were an East Germanic tribes, East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary, and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava, and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion and language of the G ...

in Pannonia (modern

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

), in which the Gepids were completely destroyed. After the victory her father had promptly remarried, taking as second wife Rosamund, daughter of the Gepid king Cunimund that Alboin had personally killed on the battlefield. In 568 Alboin left Pannonia with his people to invade

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

-held

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, most of which by 572 he had conquered. In the same year Albsuinda's stepmother Rosamund successfully connived to have Alboin killed in

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

. According to

Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, sc ...

, following the assassination of her father she was carried still a child to

-held

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

by her stepmother Rosamund and the usurper Helmichis. They carried her there because as Alboin's only child she had considerable political value, since she could possibly become the link to transmit through a marriage dynastic rights to an eventual husband.Martinelli Perelli 1995, p. 38Bognetti 1968, pp. 28 – 29Martindale 1992, ''s.v. Albsuinda'', p. 40 Another reason for her presence with the fugitives was that she also served to guarantee the loyalty of the Lombard garrison of Verona that had followed Helmichis to Ravenna. Shortly after having reached Ravenna, Rosamund and Helmichis killed each other. After that the highest Byzantine official in Italy, the Pretorian Prefect Longinus, sent her to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, the Empire's capital.Christie 1998, p. 82 Here the Byzantine diplomacy probably thought to use her as a political tool to impose on the Lombards a pro-Byzantine king, but nothing more is heard of her from the sources.

Notes

References

* Bognetti, Gian Piero. "S. Maria Foris Portas di Castelseprio e la Storia Religiosa dei Longobardi", ''L'età longobarda - II''.

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

: Giuffrè, 1948 966 pp. 11 – 511. * Bognetti, Gian Piero. "I rapporti etico-politici fra Oriente e Occidente dalsecolo V al secolo VIII", ''L'età longobarda - IV''. Milan: Giuffrè, 1955 968 pp. 3 – 65. * Christie, Neil. ''The Lombards: The Ancient Longobards''. Oxford:

Wiley-Blackwell Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...

, 1995 998 . * * Martindale, John R. (ed.), '' Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire - Volume III: A.D. 527 – 641'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, . * Martinelli Perelli, Liliana. "Albsinda o Albsuinda", ''Dizionario biografico delle donne lombarde: 568 – 1968''. Rachele Farina (ed.). Milan: Baldini e Castoldi, 1995, p. 38. {{ISBN, 978-88-8089-085-0. Lombard women 6th-century Lombard people 6th-century Byzantine people 6th-century Italian women 6th-century Byzantine women