(“Alboin” (530s – June 28, 572) was “king of the lombards” from about 560 until 572)
(during his reign the ‘Lombards’ ended their migrations by settling in ‘Italy’, the northern part of which ‘Alboin’ conquered between 569 and 572)
(he had a lasting effect on ‘Italy’ and the ‘Pannonian Basin’; in the former his invasion marked the beginning of centuries of ‘Lombard’ rule, and in the latter his defeat of the ‘Gepids’ and his departure from ‘Pannonia’ ended the dominance there of the ‘Germanic’ peoples)
(the period of Alboin’s reign as king in ‘Pannonia’ following the death of his father, ‘Audoin’, was one of confrontation and conflict between the Lombards and their main neighbors, the ‘Gepids’)
(the ‘Gepids’ initially gained the upper hand, but in 567, thanks to his alliance with the ‘Avars’, ‘Alboin’ inflicted a decisive defeat on his enemies, whose lands the ‘Avars’ subsequently occupied)
(the increasing power of his new neighbours caused ‘Alboin’ some unease however, and he therefore decided to leave ‘Pannonia’ for ‘Italy’, hoping to take advantage of the Byzantine Empire’s reduced ability to defend its territory in the wake of the ‘Gothic War’)
(after gathering a large coalition of peoples, Alboin crossed the ‘Julian Alps’ in 568, entering an almost undefended ‘Italy’)
(he rapidly took control of most of ‘Venetia’ and ‘Liguria’)
(in 569, unopposed, he took northern Italy’s main city, ‘Milan’)
(‘Pavia’ offered stiff resistance however, and was taken only after a siege lasting three years)
(during that time ‘Alboin’ turned his attention to ‘Tuscany’, but signs of factionalism among his supporters and Alboin’s diminishing control over his army increasingly began to manifest themselves)
(‘Alboin’ was assassinated on June 28, 572, in a coup d’état instigated by the ‘Byzantines’)
(it was organized by the king’s foster brother, ‘Helmichis’, with the support of Alboin’s wife, ‘Rosamund’, daughter of the Gepid king whom Alboin had killed some years earlier)
(the coup failed in the face of opposition from a majority of the ‘Lombards’, who elected Cleph as Alboin’s successor, forcing Helmichis and Rosamund to flee to ‘Ravenna’ under imperial protection)
(Alboin’s death deprived the ‘Lombards’ of the only leader who could have kept the newborn Germanic entity together, the last in the line of ‘hero-kings’ who had led the Lombards through their migrations from the vale of the ‘Elbe’ to ‘Italy’)
(for many centuries following his death Alboin’s heroism and his success in battle were celebrated in ‘Saxon’ and ‘Bavarian’ epic poetry)