Thurisind was the penultimate Gepid king, and succeeded King Elemund by staging a coup d'etat and forcing the king's son into exile.
15 Facts About Thurisind
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2.
Thurisind's kingdom, known as Gepidia, was located in Central Europe and had its centre in Sirmium, a former Roman city on the Sava River.
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Thurisind's reign was marked by multiple wars with the Lombards, a Germanic people who had arrived in the former Roman province of Pannonia under the leadership of their king, Audoin.
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Thurisind had to face the hostility of the Byzantine Empire, which was resentful of the Gepid takeover of Sirmium and anxious to diminish Gepid power in the Pannonian Basin, a plain covering most of modern Hungary and partly including the bordering states.
5.
Thurisind lost his eldest son, Turismod, in the Battle of Asfeld, during which the prince was killed by Alboin, son of Audoin.
6.
Thurisind entered the clergy early, and eventually became a monk of the monastery of Monte Cassino.
7.
On becoming king in 548, Thurisind immediately found himself in a difficult situation.
8.
The build-up towards a war involving Lombards, Gepids, and Byzantines started possibly in 548 or 549, with Audoin and Thurisind each sending an embassy to Justinian's court at Constantinople, in attempts to obtain military support from Justinian or at least, in the case of Thurisind, to get a pledge of neutrality.
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Thurisind refused, but he did force Ildigis to leave the Gepids and search for another refuge.
10.
Thurisind found assistance from the Kutrigurs, who he ferried across the Danube into the Byzantine Illyricum in 550 or 551, before the truce expired and probably before the Gepids were ready to precipitate a new conflict.
11.
Thurisind protected and promoted another enemy of Byzantium, the Sclaveni.
12.
Thurisind's envoys asked for an alliance like the one bonding Byzantines and Lombards.
13.
Thurisind put together an army with renowned commanders in its ranks such as Germanus' sons Justin and Justinian, Aratius, the Herulian Suartuas, and Amalafrid, brother-in-law of Audoin.
14.
The Emperor imposed some territorial concessions on Thurisind, obligating him to return Dacia ripensis and the territory of Singidunum.
15.
Thurisind died around 560 and was succeeded by his son Cunimund, last king of the Gepids; under him Thurisind's people were annihilated in 567 by a joint coalition of the Lombards and the Avars, a Turkic nomad people that in 558 had migrated to Central Europe.