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 of the Lombards, a Germanic tribe that invaded northern Italy in 569.

* 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.

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.

Alboin was murdered in 572 in Verona by a plot led by his wife, Rosamund, who later fled to Ravenna.

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.

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 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.

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.

The Lombard king Audoin defeated the Gepid leader Thurisind in 551 or 552 ; his successor Alboin eventually destroyed the Gepids at the Battle of Asfeld in 567.

There, Alboin created the first Lombard duchy, which he entrusted to his nephew Gisulf.

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.

Bishop Honoratus of Milan fled the city when it was besieged by the Lombard Alboin in 568.

The city was chosen as first capital of the newly formed Lombard Kingdom, then granted by Alboin to his nephew Gisulf as the capital of a Lombard Duchy of Friuli.

In this way the tale links first to Saxon England of Alfred the Great, then to the Lombard Alboin of St. Benedict's time, the Baltic Sea in Old Norse days, Ireland at the time of the Tuatha Dé's coming ( 600 years after the Flood ), prehistoric North in the Ice Age, a ' Galdor story ' of Third Age Middle-earth, and finally the Fall of Gil-galad, before recounting the prime legend of the Downfall of Númenor / Atlantis and the Bending of the World.

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

The Castle's attribution to the Lombard king of Alboin has no historical evidence

At the siege of Milan by the Lombard Alboin, the Bishop Honoratus ( 568 ) sought refuge in Genoa, with a great number of his clergy ,, and at his death the Milanese at Genoa elected to succeed him Laurentius II, while Fronto ( elected at Milan ) was not recognized.

* Rosamund ( Lombard ), wife and murderer of Alboin, king of the Lombards

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 precise size of the heterogeneous group gathered by Alboin is impossible to know, and many different estimates have been made.

Bayan crushed Cunimond's forces and made a cup from his defeated enemy's skull as a present ( and warning ) for his ally Alboin ( who is famously quoted as having forced Cunimond's daughter Rosamund, whom he had taken as war bride, to drink from it, sealing his own fate ).