Adelchis, King of the Lombards

ADELCHIS, King of the Lombards.** - Son of Desiderius (v.), he was associated with the government by his father in 759. Ten years later, when, in order to strengthen the alliance with the Franks, the marriage of his sister Desiderata to Charlemagne was arranged, a marriage of his own to Gisela, sister of the same Charles, was also planned. But the negotiations were interrupted by the hostilities that arose between the two peoples. In 773, A. was sent at the head of the Lombard army against the Franks, who had descended into Italy by way of the Aosta Valley, and he defended the Chiuse of the Susa Valley. Defeated and put to flight, he sought refuge, in September of that same year, at Verona together with the wife and children of the deceased king Charlemagne. When the city fell into the hands of the Franks, in 774, he managed to flee to Salerno and from there to Constantinople, where he was granted the patriciate by the emperor Constantine IV Copronymus. In 787, strengthened also by the help of the Byzantine soldiers of southern Italy, he attempted to land in Calabria, but, after a bloody battle, he was repulsed by Grimoald duke of Benevento and by the Franks. It is not known whether he died fighting, whether he was taken prisoner by the Franks, or whether he managed to return to Constantinople.

Emma Santovito