Planned Plots and Altered Alignments in Byzantine Efforts to Restore Adelchis (775–788)

The conquest of the Lombard kingdom by Charlemagne (773–74) and the flight of the last Lombard king, Adelchis, to Constantinople opened a period of about fifteen years during which the new political order in the Italian peninsula could still be challenged. During this time, the balance of power was repeatedly tested among external and regional power players, notably the Franks, Byzantium, the papacy, the duchy of Naples, and the principality of Benevento. This equilibrium was partly managed through the traditional instruments of early medieval diplomacy: territorial settlements (notably with the papacy in 781 and 787), a betrothal alliance (between Princess Rotrude and Constantine VI in 781), and the swearing of oaths of vassalage. At the two chronological extremities of this period, however, Byzantine attempts – planned in coordination with Lombard allies – to restore Adelchis and overturn Frankish rule in Italy were thwarted, reshaped, or redirected by the activities of special envoys on the ground. Responding to shifting regional dynamics, these envoys generated new political alignments that effectively altered the course of the initially prepared projects. This paper explores how the contrast between imperial plots negotiated at a distance and the interventions of envoys in local contexts sheds light on the decisive agency of ambassadors. It argues that what was prepared through letters and formal exchanges could be transformed viva voce by the practical negotiations and improvisations of legates.