Rosamund

The name Rosamund (also spelt Rosamond and Rosamunde) is a girls' name and can also be a family name (surname). Originally it combined the Germanic elements hros, meaning horse, and mund, meaning "protection". Later, it was influenced by the Latin phrases rosa munda, meaning "pure rose", and rosa mundi, meaning "rose of the world". "Rosamonda" is the Italian, "Rosamunde" is the German and "Rosemonde" the French form of the name.

People named Rosamund or variations thereof include:

Rosamund (wife of Alboin)

Rosamund (fl. 572) was the daughter of Cunimund, king of the Gepids, and wife of Alboin, king of the Lombards.

Rosamund was born into a kingdom in crisis, as the Gepid people had been fighting a losing battle against the Lombards since 546, firstly within the context of a Lombardic-Byzantine alliance, and later against the Lombards and the Turkic Avar nomads. These wars had taken the lives of not only her grandfather king Thurisind, but also her uncle, Thurismund, both of which served to establish a long standing hatred of the Lombards in her father, Cunimund, which he passed down to her.

This hatred was what spawned the final war of the Gepids, as Cunimund attempted to win back lost lands against the Lombards. The war, however, quickly turned, and in 567, the Gepid Kingdom would be completely subdued by a mixture of Lombard and Avar forces, her father was decapitated and she, along with many other Gepids, was taken as a prisoner of the Lombards. However, in an attempt to secure a male heir and following the death of his first wife Clotsuinda of Frankia, Alboin took her as his wife. Alboin was noted for his cruelty towards her; his most famous act of cruelty was reported by Paulus Diaconus, who states that at a royal banquet in Verona, Alboin forced her to drink from the skull of her dead father (which he carried around his belt), inviting her "to drink merrily with her father".

Rosamund (disambiguation)

Rosamund is a feminine given name.

It may also refer to:

See also