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

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.

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

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.

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.

In that same year, Desiderius deposed Alboin of Spoleto and exercised himself the ducal powers there.

There, Alboin himself was killed by his own wife in 572.

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.

Alboin was assassinated on June 28, 572, in a coup d ' état instigated by the Byzantines.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

In the same piazza are Palazzo Guarnieri and a Baroque staircase leading to the church of St. Roch ( 1576 – 1632 ), flanked by the so-called " Castle of Alboin " with the Torre dell ' Orologio, once part of the Roman defensive apparatus.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

It was in the critical winter of 566-567 that the Avars, stuck in what is now eastern Germany, were sent feelers by Alboin, the strong ruler of the Lombards and brother-in-law of Sigebert, who sought an alliance to crush his old enemies the Gepids.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.