I came across a mention, in the Cambridge Medieval History, of an incident in 788 AD. The Franks had just assumed control over the Lombard duchies of Benevento and Spoleto and allowed Grimoald, son of the previous Duke, to become Duke of the former. The son of Desiderius, ex-King of the Lombards, had been in exile in Constantinople and returned with a Byzantine army, led by the governor of Sicily, in the hope that his fellow-Lombards would defect to him. A Frankish army, assisted by Lombards from the duchies, defeated the Byzantines somewhere in Campania.
None of the other books on my shelves seems to mention this campaign - not even mentioned in the standard histories of Byzantium. Can anyone here help with more information or point to a possible source?
Thanks
Brief mention in Wikipedia under Adalgis (the son of Desiderius in question) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalgis - which has a few references perhaps worth following up?
Thanks, Duncan! Very useful. I had the chap's name as Hedalgis.
Ah, the vagaries of "Shakespearean and earlier spelling" (as noted elsewhere...)
There is a paragraph or two in Thomas Hodgkin Italy and her Invaders, Vol IX, Chapter II, section XXI
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/_Texts/HODIHI/2d_edition/9/2*.html
This includes casualty figures and more personalities engaged.
Excellent - thanks, Anthony.
I checked the index of Anthony Kaldellis' "The New Roman Empire" but no mention of Campania is to be found there.