Cunincpert

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cunincpert († 700 ) was King of the Longobards from 688 to 700 .

Life

Family and youth

Cunincpert was the son of King Perctarit from the Agilolfinger family and his wife Rodelinda . Cunincpert married the Anglo-Saxon Hermelinda around 688, who may have been related to the Kent royal family. With her he had the son Liutpert and the daughter Cunincperta, who later became abbess of the monastery of S. Maria Theodotis della Posterla .

When King Perctarit fled into exile to the Avars from the usurper Grimoald , the Duke of Benevento , his wife Rodelinda and his little son Cunincpert were taken hostage to Benevento.

After Grimoald died in 671, Perctarit returned from exile, expelled Garibald , Grimoald's minor son and successor, and a popular assembly unanimously elected Perctarit king. He immediately had his wife and son Cunincpert brought back from their Beneventine exile.

Co-regency

Around 679/680 Perctarit raised his son Cunincpert to co-king.

Dux Alahis of Tridentum ( Trient ) rose against Perctarit around 679. Perctarit advanced with his army and besieged Alahis in Tridentum. Cunincpert managed to reconcile the two. In addition, Perctarit also awarded the rebel the Ducat Brescia at the request of Cunincpert , although he mistrusted Alahis. Several times Cunincpert saved the life of the insurgent dux who Perctarit wanted to execute.

Domination

After Perctarit's death in 688, Cunincpert was sole king.

He seduced the noble Romaness Theodote and then put her in a monastery that was later named S. Maria Theodotis della Posterla . Theodote is also attested by an epitaph.

In 688 or 689/690 there was an uprising against Cunincpert, especially in the area of ​​the Duchy of Friuli , which was led by Alahis of Trento. The rebels, which included the brothers Aldo and Grauso from Brescia, were initially quite successful, so that they were able to occupy Pavia and Cunincpert had to flee to Lake Como . Alahis, however, quickly lost support, not least because of his anti-Catholic policies - he was one of the last important spokesmen for the Arians among the Lombards, who were otherwise largely won over to Catholicism. Aldo and Grauso began to distrust Alahis, ran over to Cunincpert and gave him the city of Pavia. Cunincpert led his army against Alahis, who also gathered troops in Friuli. Cunincpert challenged Alahis to a duel, which he refused. Then some of Alahis' army ran over to Cunincpert, while others whom Alahis had forced into his service deserted. The bloody battle of Coronate on the Adda about 15 km southwest of Bergamo, in which Alahis fell. The rebel army was slain or drowned while fleeing. Cunincpert later had a monastery dedicated to St. George built on the battlefield and the destroyed city of Modena rebuilt.

Cunincpert was the first Longobard king whose image was struck on coins. Tremissis embossed in pavia .
DN CVNI-INCPE RX; Dominus Noster Cunincpert Rex (Our Lord Cunincpert, the King)
SCS MI-HAHIL (Saint Michael)

There was further unrest when Ansfrit von Reunia ( Ragogna ) attacked the Ducat Friuli. Dux Rodoald fled to Pavia to Cunincpert. Ansfrit also aspired to kingship, but was caught in Verona and brought before the king. Cunincpert blinded and banished the usurper. The king took the Friuli ducat as "crown property" and appointed Ado, the brother of the dux who had fled, as loci servator (governor).

King Caedwalla of Wessex began a pilgrimage to Rome in 688. He was hospitably received by Cunincpert before he traveled on to Rome in 689, where he was baptized by Pope Sergius I shortly before Easter in 689 and died soon afterwards. Cunincpert's marriage to the Anglo-Saxon Hermelinda may have taken place in connection with this visit.

As a result, Cunincpert set out to complete the full catholization of the Lombards and to end the three-chapter dispute that had shaken the Italian Church for decades. In fact, under his government in 698 at the Synod of Reconciliation in Pavia, the Italian bishops who had fallen out on questions of Christology succeeded in reuniting.

Cunincpert died in 700 and was like his father Perctarit in Pavia next to the church Domini Salvatoris (Church of the Lord and Savior, today: Monastero di San Salvatore), which his grandfather Aripert I had built, cum multis Langobardorum lacrimis (with many tears of the Lombards). He left the kingdom to his underage son Liutpert and gave him claims as guardian. Because other Agilolfing pretenders rose up, a civil war of several years ensued.

character

Paul Diaconus described Cunincpert's character very ambiguously: he cited adultery, drunkenness, unsubstantiated murder plans against his followers Aldo and Grauso and the bishop John of Bergamo as examples. Cunincpert also showed indecision, because when the murder plans failed, the victims immediately regained his favor. On the other hand, he praised him as elegans et omni bonitate conspicuus (tasteful and outstanding in all good qualities) and as a brave warrior.

Historical assessment

Hodgkin emphasized the civilizing progress of the Longobards under Cunincpert. Cunincpert promoted the cult of the Archangel Michael and tried to link kingship with him, because he was revered by Catholics and Arians and, as the Lombard "national saint", represented a figure of integration.

swell

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Historia Langobardorum  - Sources and full texts (Latin)

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Historia Langobardorum V, 33
  2. ↑ a b c d e Historia Langobardorum V, 37
  3. ↑ Thomas Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders Vol VI, p. 305
  4. ↑ a b Martina Hartmann : The Queen in the Early Middle Ages . Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-17-018473-2 . , P. 51
  5. ↑ Martina Hartmann : The Queen in the Early Middle Ages . Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-17-018473-2 . , P. 181
  6. ^ Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum IV, 51
  7. ^ Historia Langobardorum V, 35
  8. ↑ Historia Langobardorum V, 36
  9. ^ Paul Darmstädter : The imperial property in Lombardy and Piedmont . Trübner, Strasbourg 1896. , p. 12
  10. ↑ a b Jörg Jarnut: Coin images as evidence of Lombard rule in Hagen Keller , Nikolaus Staubach (ed.): Iconologia sacra: Myth, visual art and poetry in the religious and social affairs of Old Europe p. 283f, de Gruyter, New York, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-11-013255-9
  11. ↑ a b c Thomas Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders Vol VI, p. 317
  12. ^ Historia Langobardorum V, 38
  13. ↑ Thomas Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders Vol VI, p. 311
  14. ↑ a b Historia Langobardorum V, 39–41
  15. ↑ a b c Historia Langobardorum VI, 17
  16. ↑ Thomas Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders Vol VI, p. 314, footnote 2
  17. ↑ Historia Langobardorum VI, 3
  18. ↑ Historia Langobardorum VI, 15
  19. ↑ Historia Langobardorum VI, 14
  20. ↑ Historia Langobardorum VI, 18ff
  21. ↑ a b Historia Langobardorum VI, 6
  22. ↑ a b Historia Langobardorum VI, 8
predecessor Office successor
Perctarite King of the Lombards
688–700 		Liutpert
personal data
SURNAME Cunincpert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kuninkpert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the Lombards
DATE OF BIRTH 7th century
DATE OF DEATH 700