Alboin took as his first wife the Catholic Chlothsind, daughter of the Frankish King Chlothar.

These Saxons were tributaries to the Frankish King Sigebert, and their participation indicates that Alboin had the support of the Franks for his venture.

In 560 a new, energetic king emerged: Alboin, who defeated the neighboring Gepidae, made them his subjects, and, in 566, married the daughter of their king Cunimund, Rosamund .< BR > In the spring of 568, King Alboin led the Lombard migration into Italy :< BR >

Various other people who either voluntarily joined or were subjects of King Alboin were also part of the migration:

* April 1 – King Alboin leads the Lombards into Italy ; refugees fleeing from them go on to found Venice.

Alboin | King Alboin led the Lombards | Lombard migration into the Po Valley and made Pavia the capital

* Chlothsind, married Alboin, King of the Lombards

In 569, it was taken by Alboin, King of the Lombards, in whose kingdom it was, in a sense, the second most important city.

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.

As was customary among the Lombards, Alboin took the crown after an election by the tribe's freemen, who traditionally selected the king from the dead sovereign's clan.

Thus in 565 or 566 Justinian's successor Justin II sent his son-in-law Baduarius as magister militum ( field commander ) to lead a Byzantine army against Alboin in support of Cunimund, ending in the Lombards ' complete defeat.

Faced with the possibility of annihilation, Alboin made an alliance in 566 with the Avars under Bayan I, at the expense of some tough conditions ; the Avars demanded a tenth of the Lombards ' cattle, half of the war booty, and on the war's conclusion all of the lands held by the Gepids.

Cunimund attempted to prevent the two armies joining up by moving against the Lombards and clashing with Alboin somewhere between the Tibiscus and Danube rivers.

Historians consider this the decisive factor in convincing Alboin to undertake a migration, even though there are indications that before the war with the Gepids a decision was maturing to leave for Italy, a country thousands of Lombards had seen in the 550s when hired by the Byzantines to fight in the Gothic War.

Nevertheless the Lombards viewed Italy as a rich land which promised great booty, assets Alboin used to gather together a horde which included not only Lombards but many other peoples of the region, including Heruli, Suebi, Gepids, Thuringii, Bulgars, Sarmatians, the remaining Romans and a few Ostrogoths.

The Vipava Valley, through which Alboin led the Lombards into ItalyAs a precautionary move Alboin strengthened his alliance with the Avars, signing what Paul calls a foedus perpetuum (" perpetual treaty ") and what is referred to in the 9th-century Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani as a pactum et foedus amicitiae (" pact and treaty of friendship "), adding that the treaty was put down on paper.

By the conditions accepted in the treaty, the Avars were to take possession of Pannonia and the Lombards were promised military support in Italy should the need arise ; also, for a period of 200 years the Lombards were to maintain the right to reclaim their former territories if the plan to conquer Italy failed, thus leaving Alboin with an alternative open.

In 569, some Saxons accompanied the Lombards into Italy under the leadership of Alboin and settled there.

* Alboin succeeds his father Audoin as king of the Lombards.

* Invasion by the Lombards of northern Italy under Alboin.

* Cleph succeeds Alboin as king of the Lombards.

* Alboin, king of the Lombards ( or 573 )

The country was so ravaged by war that any return to normal life proved impossible, and only three years after his death most of the country was conquered by Alboin of the Lombards, who absorbed the remaining Ostrogothic population.

After the Avars and the neighbouring tribe of the Lombards had combined to destroy the Gepids, from whom Justin had obtained the Danube fortress of Sirmium, Avar pressure caused the Lombards to migrate West, and in 568 they invaded Italy under their king Alboin.

The skull-cup allegation may also have some history in relation with other Germanic tribes and Eurasian nomads, such as the Scythians and Pechenegs, and the vivid example of the Lombard Alboin, made notorious by Paul the Deacon's History.

It is a well attested historical Germanic name, alongside its Old High German and Lombard equivalents, Alwin and Alboin, respectively.

In 568, the Lombards under their king Alboin, together with other Germanic allies, invaded northern Italy.

* Lombards, a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe who settled in the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italy in 568 under the leadership of Alboin.

In 568, the Lombard leader Alboin invaded Italy, and founded an independent kingdom which in 774 was overthrown by Charlemagne, who was crowned Emperor of the Romans in 800.

During the reign of Wacho, they were Roman Catholics allied with the Byzantine Empire, but Alboin converted to Arianism as an ally of the Ostrogoths and invaded Italy.

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.

Following this victory, Alboin decided to lead his people to Italy, which had become severely depopulated after the long Gothic War ( 535 – 554 ) between the Byzantine Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom there.

An ancestor named Leupichis entered Italy in the train of Alboin and received lands at or near Forum Julii ( Cividale del Friuli ).

In the meantime large numbers of Slavs settled in Pannonia in the wake of the Avars ; and in 568 Alboin and his Lombards deemed it wise to move for the half-ruined but promising lands of Italy where they would establish a long-lasting kingdom.

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.

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.

Alboin was probably born in the 530s in Pannonia, the son of Audoin and his wife, Rodelinda.

Like his father, Alboin was raised a pagan, although Audoin had at one point attempted to gain Byzantine support against his neighbours by professing himself a Catholic.

However, the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire interprets events and sources differently, believing that Alboin married Chlothsind when already a king in or shortly before 561, the year of Chlothar's death.

Alboin first distinguished himself on the battlefield in a clash with the Gepids.

After the battle, according to a tradition reported by Paul the Deacon, to be granted the right to sit at his father's table, Alboin had to ask for the hospitality of a foreign king and have him donate his weapons, as was customary.

Alboin came to the throne after the death of his father, sometime between 560 and 565.

The cause of the conflict is uncertain, as the sources are divided ; the Lombard Paul the Deacon accuses the Gepids, while the Byzantine historian Menander Protector places the blame on Alboin, an interpretation favoured by historian Walter Pohl.

An account of the war by the Byzantine Theophylact Simocatta sentimentalises the reasons behind the conflict, claiming it originated with Alboin's vain courting and subsequent kidnapping of Cunimund's daughter Rosamund, that Alboin proceeded then to marry.

In 567 the allies made their final move against Cunimund, with Alboin invading the Gepids ' lands from the northwest while Bayan attacked from the northeast.

The Gepids were defeated in the ensuing battle, their king slain by Alboin, and Cunimund's daughter Rosamund taken captive, according to references in the Origo.

Some time before 568, Alboin's first wife Chlothsind died, and after his victory against Cunimund Alboin married Rosamund, to establish a bond with the remaining Gepids.

Despite his success against the Gepids, Alboin had failed to greatly increase his power, and was now faced with a much stronger threat from the Avars.