Cunipert returns from exile and ousts Alahis from the Lombard capital, Pavia.
Alahis flees towards the east, into Austria, where he assembles an army to march against the king.
Within the same year, Alahis crosses the River Adda, the border between Neustria and Austria, and faces Cunipert in the plain of Coronate.
Wishing to spare the Lombard blood of so many, Cunipert offers to engage Alahis in single combat, but Alahis refuses and both camps prepare or battle.
Fearing for Cunipert’s life, a deacon named Seno begs the king to lend him his armor, so that he, the deacon, appears to be the king and distract all troubles from Cunipert.
Finally, Cunipert agrees to that plan and battle is joined.
Once Alahis spots the supposed king, he charges and kills him.
When Alahis is about to take off the helmet, and present to his troops the dead king, he realizes that he has only slain a cleric.
In fury, Alahis swears a horrible oath, as Paul the Deacon recorded, to “fill a whole well with the members of churchmen” if victorious.
Cunipert’s men are horrified by the news that the King had been killed, but Cunipert assures them all that he is alive and well.
Again the two hosts draw together for the battle, and again Cunipert renews his offer to settle the quarrel by single combat and spare the lives of the people, but Alahis again refuses to accept the challenge, this time alleging that he sees among the standards of his rival the image of the Archangel Michael.
The trumpets sound again for the charge, neither side giving way to the other, and a terrible slaughter is made of Lombard warriors, but at length Alahis falls, and the victory remains with Cunipert.
Of the fleeing troops of Alahis, those who are not killed by the sword drown in the River Adda.
The head and legs of Alahis are cut off, leaving only his trunk.
The body of the brave deacon Seno, however, is buried by the king’s order before the gates of the church of St. John.
Cunipert returns to Pavia in great triumph and afterward founds a monastery in honor of St. George the Martyr on the battlefield of Coronate in memory of his victory.
