{"id":2425,"date":"2026-08-23T16:18:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T16:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/?p=2425"},"modified":"2026-08-23T16:18:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T16:18:48","slug":"theodelinda-the-queen-who-shaped-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/theodelinda-the-queen-who-shaped-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Theodelinda: the queen who shaped Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Theodelinda\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Theodelinda<\/strong><\/a> (c. 570\u2013627) was one of the first women to exercise political power over a large part of Italy, and one of its longest-serving female rulers. Queen of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lombards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Lombards<\/strong><\/a> from 589 to 616, she then governed as regent for her son <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adaloald\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Adaloald<\/strong><\/a> until 624\u2014about 35 years in all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was influential less through military force than through diplomacy and religion. A Catholic queen in a largely Arian Lombard kingdom, she promoted closer ties between the Lombards and the Catholic Church and helped foster a more peaceful coexistence between the Lombard and Roman populations.<br>She made <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Monza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Monza<\/a> her preferred royal residence and founded the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Basilica_of_St._John_the_Baptist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>basilica of St. John the Baptist<\/strong><\/a>, laying the foundations of the city&#8217;s extraordinary religious and cultural heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her reputation endured for centuries: Theodelinda became one of the most celebrated women of early medieval Italy\u2014not because she conquered a kingdom, but because she helped hold one together.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"824\" src=\"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Theodelinda_married_Agilulf.jpg\" alt=\"theodolinda\" class=\"wp-image-2426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Theodelinda_married_Agilulf.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Theodelinda_married_Agilulf-182x300.jpg 182w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theodelinda (c. 570\u2013627) was one of the first women to exercise political power over a large part of Italy, and one of its longest-serving female rulers. Queen of the Lombards from 589 to 616, she then governed as regent for&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/theodelinda-the-queen-who-shaped-italy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[829,827,831,828,830,826],"class_list":["post-2425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-basilica","tag-lombard","tag-monza","tag-queen","tag-st-john-the-baptist","tag-theodolinda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2427,"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425\/revisions\/2427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.giannisarcone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}