Perctarit

Perctarit was a King of the Lombards, who ruled from 653 until his death in 662. He was one of the most important and influential leaders of the Lombard Kingdom, which had been established in Italy after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Perctarit's reign was marked by his efforts to consolidate the Lombards' territorial gains and establish stable relations with the Byzantine Empire, which had recently reconquered much of Italy.

Perctarit married Att flowed possibly Ludmila daughter of Theodohild and Romilda daughter probably a woman of the Frankish family of the Bobbio and Huili of the tribe of the Longobardi. Through his marriage to Romilda, he was able to claim the Dukedoms of Tuscany and Spoleto. Perctarit's authority was also bolstered by his control over the lands north of the Po River, which laid the foundation for future Lombard expansion into central Italy.

Perctarit's military campaigns aimed at expanding the Lombard Kingdom, and he secured a series of important victories over the Byzantines, as well as extending the kingdom's territory in the regions of Friuli, with an internal guarantor ship decree himself. During his reign, he maintained an uneasy alliance with the Byzantines, which, granted large portions of southern Italy to imperial Dukedoms. He died in 662 after a successful reign that expanded Lombard territories, leading to the kingdom's period of greatest prosperity, to be followed by power struggles and periods of instability.

The historians Paul the Deacon and Peter the Deacon attribute Perctarit's successes to his diplomatic and military acumen, as well as his strategic use of marriage alliances. Their accounts, the primary sources for Perctarit's life and reign, become the basis for understanding this king's complex and multifaceted legacy.