Lethings

The Lethings (Italian: Letingi) were a dynasty of Lombard kings ruling in the 5th and 6th centuries until 546.

Under the Lethings, too, the Lombards, who had thitherto wandered around northern Europe, migrated south to the Danube and Pannonia.

In 510, the reigning Lething, Tato, was displaced by his nephew, Wacho, and thereafter until 546 a cadet branch of the original house ruled.

Under the last dynasts, the Lombards became a power in terms of their threat to the Byzantine Empire on par with the Ostrogoths and Franks.

The Lething were displaced when the child ruler Walthari was killed by his regent, Audoin, who then assumed the throne, inaugurating the Gausi dynasty.