he tried to take the throne, too. He defeated Liutpert and the regent Ansprand's men at Pavia and captured the king, whom he later had strangled in his bath. He seized the capital and forced Ansprand over the Alps. He was firmly in power by 703.

He thence reigned uninterrupted until his death. His reign was a troubled one. In 703, Faroald, duke of Spoleto,