Alboin

Alboin (died 572), founder of the kingdom of Lombardy (Lombardia) in Italy. He became chief of the Lombards in 565, when the tribe lived in the region between the Danube River and the head of the Adriatic Sea. Three years later, with the assistance of the Avars, Alboin defeated the Germanic people known as the Gepidae. After forcing the Gepidae princess, Rosamund, to marry him, Alboin led the Lombards and some 20,000 Saxons across the Alps into northern Italy. He established a kingdom in the valley of the Po River, with Pavia as its capital. Rosamund had him killed after he made her drink from her slain father's skull.