Theodelinda

Theodelinda also spelled Theudelinde (570–628 AD), was The 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.

Quotes about Queen Theodelinda

• Like ballad burthen music kept, / As on the Lariano crept / To that fair port, below the castle / Of Queen Theodolind? where we slept; / Or hardly slept, but watched awake / A cypress in the moonlight shake, / The moonlight touching o’er a terrace / One tall agave above the lake.
  • Alfred Tennyson, while contemplating the illuminated Castle of Vezio from the terrace of the Hotel Royal Victoria in Varenna (1830)