Adelchis, King Of The Lombards

ADELCHI, king of the LONGOBARDS. – Son of Desiderio (v.), he was associated by his father in the government 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 was also planned for him with Gisella, Carlo’s own sister. But the negotiations were interrupted by hostilities that arose between the two peoples. In 773, A. was sent at the head of the Longobard army against the Franks, who had entered Italy through the Aosta Valley, and defended the Chiuse of the Susa Valley. Defeated and put to flight, in September of that same year he sought refuge 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, also relying on the help of the Byzantine soldiers of southern Italy, he attempted to land in Calabria, but, after a bloody battle, he was repulsed by Grimoaldo, duke of Benevento, and the Franks. It is not known whether he died fighting, was taken prisoner by the Franks, or managed to return to Constantinople.