Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/233

662-671] himself after having killed King Godepert with his sword; Perctarit had fled from Milan to the Avars and his wife and young son Cunincpert had been sent into exile to Benevento. Grimoald now married Aripert's daughter; who was already betrothed to him, and legitimated his power by a later election at Pavia; for the purpose of gaining firm support he bestowed royal domains in upper Italy on several of his faithful followers of Benevento. He was the first Lombard king who united the king's royal domain in the north with Benevento under his actual government.

Mighty as he was, Grimoald had a long struggle for the preservation of his royal power. Perctarit came back, and seemed to submit himself, but was soon obliged to fly to the Franks, after the discovery of a conspiracy between his followers and some disaffected dukes. The intervention of a Frankish army in favour of the banished dynasty had no success; by stratagem Grimoald contrived to attack them suddenly near Asti and slew them. In the year 663 the Emperor Constans had landed at Tarentum, in order to obtain a new base for his heavily oppressed empire by conquests in the West, and the expulsion of the Lombards was naturally the first condition for this enterprise. The Emperor occupied Luceria with superior forces, assaulted Acerenza without success, and then besieged Grimoald's young son Romuald at Benevento. The latter pledged his sister Gisa in token of submission after having offered resistance bravely; but Grimoald had already reached the river Sangro with a relieving army, though many Lombards had left him, and young Romuald did not fulfil his pledge; the Emperor gave up his siege and moved on to his own city of Naples. This imperial army was said to have been defeated twice: at all events Constans gave up war against the Lombards for a time and after a short visit to Rome went on to Sicily, where he was murdered. Romuald then occupied Tarentum, Brundusium, and all the rest of the imperial dominion on the Adriatic coast of South Italy, with the exception of Hydruntum; and Grimoald, after having installed Transamund, a duke of his choice, in Spoleto, again devoted himself to his most urgent tasks in North Italy, where he found in rebellion the duke Lupus of Friuli, whom he had left in his place at Pavia. Evidently menaced by other rebellions as well, the king himself appealed to the Khagan of the Avars, for help against the duke; Lupus perished in the battle, but the Avars now prepared to occupy Friuli as conquered land. But, in spite of the insufficiency of his military forces, Grimoald induced them to depart, and set up Wechthari, a powerful soldier and the terror of the Slavs, as duke of Friuli in place of Arnefrit, the son of Lupus, who had tried to regain his father's inheritance by help of the Slavs, but had been beaten and killed near Nimis. Grimoald took away Forli from the imperials and razed to the ground Oderzo, where his brothers had once been murdered: then he made peace with the Franks, so that Perctarit did not feel safe any longer in his asylum, and prepared to fly