Garibald I of Bavaria

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Garibald I of Bavaria
GARIBALDO I DE BAVIERA.jpg
King of the Bavarians
Reign555 - 591
Successor Tassilo I of Bavaria
Born540
Bavaria
Diedc. 591
Spouse Waldrada
Issue Theodelinda
Gundoald, Duke of Asti
Grimoald I
Romilda of Friuli
Tassilo I of Bavaria
Tochter von Bayern
House Agilolfings
Bavarian dynasty (founder)

Garibald I (also Garivald; Latin : Garibaldus; born 540) was Duke (or King) of Bavaria from 555 until 591. [1] He was the head of the Agilolfings, and the ancestor of the Bavarian dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of the Lombards.

Contents

Biography

After the death of the Merovingian king Theudebald of Austrasia, his successor Chlothar I had "begun to have intercourse with" [2] his widow Waldrada (531–572), daughter of the Lombard king Wacho. Chlothar's bishops objected, so he gave Waldrada to Garibald to marry in 556. Not only did this grant Garibald prestige, but it created lasting political ties between the Bavarii and the Lombards of Pannonia and Bohemia. This would have consequences after the Lombards moved into Italy in 568.

Sometime before 585, the Merovingian court attempted to bind Duke Garibald more closely to its interests by arranging a marriage between his daughter Theodelinda and King Childebert II of Austrasia. At the same time, the Merovingians were attempting to normalise relations with Authari, the Lombard king, by arranging a marriage between Childebert's sister and Authari. Both these proposals fell through. The offended Authari was engaged to Theodelinda in 588. According to the "Nuremberg Chronicle", Chilperic, king of the Franks, was a bitter enemy of Authari. Fearing an anti-Frankish axis, he sent an army into Bavaria and overran the kingdom of Garibald and drove him out of Bavaria. Garibald fled to his son-in-law. [3]

Authari married Theodelinda at Verona in May 589 and named his brother-in-law, Gundoald, Duke of Asti. In 590, the Franks invaded Lombardy with help from Byzantium, but were defeated.

In 591, Childebert normalised relations with the Lombards and Bavarii. After King Authari died in 590, the Lombard dukes asked Theodelinda to marry again. She chose Authari's cousin Agilulf as her husband, and he was accepted as the next king. They then negotiated a peace with Childebert which lasted for decades. According to Paulus Diaconus, peace with Bavaria was restored when Childebert named Tassilo rex (king). It is unknown whether Garibald was deposed or died. Nor is it clear what Tassilo's relationship to Garibald was; though if not his son, he was certainly a close relation. He was reportedly also the father of Romilda of Friuli.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chlothar II</span> Frankish king (584–629)

Chlothar II, sometimes called "the Young", was king of the Franks, ruling Neustria (584–629), Burgundy (613–629) and Austrasia (613–623).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodelinda</span> 6th/7th-century Queen of the Lombards

Theodelinda also spelled Theudelinde, was a queen of the Lombards by marriage to two consecutive Lombard rulers, Autari and then Agilulf, and regent of Lombardia during the minority of her son Adaloald, and co-regent when he reached majority, from 616 to 626. For well over thirty years, she exercised influence across the Lombard realm, which comprised most of Italy between the Apennines and the Alps. Born a Frankish Catholic, she convinced her first spouse Autari to convert from pagan beliefs to Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chlothar I</span> King of the Franks (r. 511–558) of the Merovingian dynasty

Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old", also anglicised as Clotaire, was a king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty and one of the four sons of Clovis I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francia</span> United Frankish kingdom between the 6th and 9th century

The Kingdom of the Franks, also known as the Frankish Kingdom, the Frankish Empire or Francia, was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ages. Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms from the Migration Period era.

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Authari was king of the Lombards from 584 to his death. He was considered as the first Lombard king to have adopted some level of Romanitas (Roman-ness) and introduced policies that led to drastic changes, particularly in the treatment of the Romans and greater tolerance for the Christian faith.

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The Agilolfings were a noble family that ruled the Duchy of Bavaria on behalf of their Merovingian suzerains from about 550 until 788. A cadet branch of the Agilolfings also ruled the Kingdom of the Lombards intermittently from 616 to 712. They are mentioned as the leading dynasty in the Lex Baiuvariorum. Their Bavarian residence was at Regensburg.

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Wacho was king of the Lombards before they entered Italy from an unknown date until his death in 539. His father was Unichis. Wacho usurped the throne by assassinating his uncle, King Tato. Tato's son Ildchis fought with him and fled to the Gepids where he died. Wacho had good relations with the Franks.

The Bavarian dynasty was those kings of the Lombards who were descended from Garibald I, the Agilolfing duke of Bavaria. They came to rule the Lombards through Garibald's daughter Theodelinda, who married the Lombard king Authari in 588. The Bavarians were really a branch of the Agilolfings, and were themselves two branches: the branch descended in the female line through Garibald's eldest child and daughter, Theodelinda, and the branch descended from Garibald's eldest son Gundoald. Of the first branch, only Adaloald, Theodelinda's son by her second husband, whom she had chosen to be king, Agilulf, reigned, though her son-in-law Arioald also ruled. Through Gundoald, six kings reigned in succession, broken only by the usurper Grimuald, who married Gundoald's granddaughter:

Tassilo I was Duke of Bavaria from 591 to his death. According to Paul the Deacon, he was appointed as Bavarian rex by Childebert II, Frankish king of Austrasia, in 591, ending the war with the Franks. The war began during the reign of Tassilo's predecessor, Garibald I, when Garibald concluded a marriage alliance with the Lombards. We do not know whether Garibald died or was deposed. Nor do we know Tassilo's exact relationship to Garibald, though we can assume Tassilo was a close relation if not his son. The fact that Childebert named Tassilo duke shows Frankish control over the Bavarian state.

Waldrada (531–572), wife (firstly) of Theudebald, King of Austrasia, reputed mistress (secondly) of Chlothar I, King of the Franks, was the daughter of Wacho, King of the Lombards and his second wife called Austrigusa or Ostrogotha, a Gepid.

The Lethings were a dynasty of Lombard kings ruling in the 5th and 6th centuries until 546. They were the first Lombard royal dynasty and represent the emergence of the Lombard rulership out of obscurity and into history.

Gundoald or Gundwald was a Bavarian nobleman of the Agilolfing family, a son of Duke Garibald I and Waldrada, and Duke of Asti from sometime around 589.

Euin, also Ewin or Eoin, was the first Lombard Duke of Trent during the Rule of the Dukes, an interregnum (575–585) during which the Kingdom of Italy was ruled by its regional magnates, the dukes of the thirty or so cities. Euin participated in several significant wars during his long reign. The primary source for his career is Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum.

References

  1. Paul the Deacon (1907), History of the Langobards (Historia Langobardorum) Archived 2009-05-29 at the Wayback Machine , William Dudley Foulke, trans. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania), III, x Archived 2008-09-25 at the Wayback Machine , calls him "king of the Bavarians".
  2. "History of the Franks" IV.9, by Gregory of Tours
  3. Schedel, Hartmann. Liber chronicarum, Morse Library, Beloit College

Sources

Preceded by
New creation
Duke of Bavaria
555–591
Succeeded by