Rotarit (or Rotharit) (died

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, 702) was a Lombard

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

, the last Duke of Bergamo. In 700, fighting broke out over the succession of the just disappeared king,

Cunipert Cunincpert (also Cunibert or Cunipert) was king of the Lombards from 688 to 700. He succeeded his father Perctarit, though he was associated with the throne from 680. Life Soon after his assumption of the sole kingship, Cunincpert was ousted b ...

(to which was faithful), Rotarit stood in favor of his son,

Liutpert Liutpert (or Liutbert) (died 702) was the Lombard king of Italy from 700 and to 702, with interruption. Upon succeeding his father, King Cunincpert, at a young age, he ruled together with his tutor, Ansprand, the duke of Asti. After eight month ...

, who was still underage, and his tutor

Ansprand Ansprand ( 657 – 712) was king of the Lombards briefly in 712. Before that he was the duke of Asti and regent during the minority of Liutpert (700–701). He was defeated at Novara by Raginpert and exiled during the subsequent war over the succ ...

. Opposing him was the Duke of Turin

Raginpert Raginpert (also ''Raghinpert'' or ''Reginbert'') was the Duke of Turin and then King of the Lombards briefly in 701. He was the son of Godepert and grandson of Aripert I. He usurped the throne in 701 and removed Liutpert, his grandnephew, puttin ...

, the son of

Godepert Godepert (also ''Gundipert'', ''Godebert'', ''Godipert'', ''Godpert'', ''Gotebert'', ''Gotbert'', ''Gotpert'', ''Gosbert'', or ''Gottbert'') was king of the Lombards (crowned 661), eldest son and successor of Aripert I. He was an Arian who governe ...

and therefore an exponent of the ruling

Bavarian dynasty The Bavarian dynasty was those kings of the Lombards who were descended from Garibald I, the Agilolfing duke of Bavaria. They came to rule the Lombards through Garibald's daughter Theodelinda, who married the Lombard king Authari in 588. The Ba ...

. The fighting ended with a battle fought at

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It i ...

in early 701, during which Rotarit and his ally Ansprand succumbed.

, supported by the Lombards of

Neustria Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks. Neustria included the land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, approximately the north of present-day France, with Paris, Orléans, Tours, Soissons as its main cities. It later ...

(the Northwest region of the kingdom) ascended to the throne and immediately associated his son, the future

Aripert II Aripert or Aribert may refer to: * Aripert I, king of the Lombards from 653 to 661 AD * Aripert II, king of the Lombards from 701 to 712 AD {{Hndis ...

. With the death of Raginpert, which occurred a few months after the battle of Novara, Rotarit and Ansprand imprisoned Aripert II and restored

to the throne. Aripert II, however, managed to escape and the following year (702) defeated the protectors of Liutpert at Pavia, deposed and imprisoned the young king, and crowned himself in his place. Rotarit, back in

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

, proclaimed himself king but was defeated after a bloody siege by Aripert. After forcing Rotarit to shave his beard and his head as a sign of great dishonor, Aripert moved him to

where he killed him in 702.

See also