User:InflatableSupertrooper/Lombards

The Kingdom of the Lombards (Regnum Langobardorum) also known as the Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy (Regnum totius Italiae), was an early medieval state established by the Lombards, a Germanic-speaking people, on the Italian Peninsula in the latter part of the 6th century. The king was traditionally elected by the highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes, which were in turn subdivided into gastaldates at the municipal level. The capital of the kingdom and the centre of its political life was Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of Lombardy.

The Lombard invasion of Italy was opposed by the Byzantine Empire, which retained control of much of the peninsula until the mid-8th century. For most of the kingdom's history, the Byzantine-ruled Exarchate of Ravenna and Duchy of Rome separated the northern Lombard duchies, collectively known as Langobardia Maior, from the two large southern duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, which constituted Langobardia Minor. Because of this division, the southern duchies were considerably more autonomous than the smaller northern duchies.

Over time, the Lombards gradually adopted Roman titles, names and traditions. By the time Paul the Deacon was writing in the late 8th century, the Lombardic language, dress and hairstyles had all disappeared. Initially the Lombards were Arianist Christians, at odds with the Papacy both religiously and politically. However, by the end of the 7th century, their conversion to Catholicism was all but complete. Nevertheless, their conflict with the Papacy continued, and was responsible for their gradual loss of power in the face of the Franks, who conquered the kingdom in 774. Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, adopted the title "King of the Lombards", although he never managed to gain control of Benevento, the southernmost Lombard duchy.

A reduced Regnum Italiae, a heritage of the Lombards, continued to exist for centuries as one of the constituent kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire, roughly corresponding to the territory of the former Langobardia Maior. The so-called Iron Crown of Lombardy, one of the oldest surviving royal insignia of Christendom, may have originated in Lombard Italy as early as the 7th century and continued to be used to crown Kings of Italy until Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 19th century.

The founding of the kingdom
In the 6th century Byzantine Emperor Justinian attempted to reassert imperial authority in the territories of the Western Roman Empire. In the resulting Gothic War (535–554) waged against the Ostrogothic Kingdom, Byzantine hopes of an early and easy triumph evolved into a long war of attrition that resulted in mass dislocation of population and destruction of property, problems further exacerbated by widespread famine (538–542) and a devastating plague pandemic (541–542). Although the Byzantine Empire eventually prevailed, the triumph proved to be a pyrrhic victory, as these all factors caused the population of Italian Peninsula to crash, leaving the conquered territories severely underpopulated and impoverished.

Although an invasion attempt by the Franks, then allies of the Ostrogoths, late in the war was successfully repelled, a large migration by the Lombards, a Germanic people that had been previously allied with the Byzantine Empire, ensued. In the spring of 568 the Lombards, led by King Alboin, moved from Pannonia and quickly overwhelmed the small Byzantine army left by Narses to guard Italy.

The Lombard arrival broke the political unity of the Italian Peninsula for the first time since the Roman conquest (between the 3rd and 2nd century BC). The peninsula was now torn between territories ruled by the Lombards and the Byzantines, with boundaries which changed over time.

The newcoming Lombards were divided into two main areas in Italy: the Langobardia Maior, which comprised northern Italy gravitating around the capital of the Lombard kingdom, Ticinum (the modern-day city of Pavia in the the Italian region of Lombardy); and Langobardia Minor, which inclued the Lombard duchies of Spoleto and Benevento in southern Italy. The territories which remained under Byzantine control were called "Romania" (today's Italian region of Romagna) in northeastern Italy and had its stronghold in the Exarchate of Ravenna.

Arriving in Italy, King Alboin gave control of the Eastern Alps to one of his most trusted lieutenants, Gisulf, who became the first Duke of Friuli in 568. The duchy, established in the Roman town of Forum Iulii (modern-day Cividale del Friuli), constantly fought with the Slavic population across the Gorizia border. Justified by its exceptional military needs, the Duchy of Friuli thus had greater autonomy compared to other duchies of Langobardia Maior until the reign of Liutprand (712–744).

Over time, other Lombard Duchies were created in major cities of the kingdom. This was dictated primarily by immediate military needs as Dukes were primarily military commanders, tasked to secure control of territory and guard it against possible counter-attacks. However, the resulting collection of duchies also contributed to political fragmentation and sowed the seeds of the structural weakness of the Lombard royal power.

In 572, after the capitulation of Pavia and its elevation to the royal capital, King Alboin was assassinated in a conspiracy in Verona plotted by his wife Rosamund and her lover, the noble Helmichis, in league with some Gepid and Lombard warriors. Helmichis and Rosamund's attempt to usurp power in place of the assassinated Alboin, however, gained little support from Lombard duchies, and they were forced to flee together to the Byzantine territory before getting married in Ravenna.

Cleph and the Rule of the Dukes
Later in 572, the thirty-five Lombard dukes assembled in Pavia pledged allegiance to the new King Cleph. The new monarch extended the boundaries of the kingdom, completing the conquest of Tuscia (in present-day Tuscany) and laying siege to Ravenna. Cleph tried to consistently pursue the policy of Alboin, which aimed to break the legal and administrative institutions established during the Ostrogoth and Byzantine rule, by eliminating much of Latin aristocracy, occupying their lands and acquiring their assets. He too, however, fell victim of a regicide only 18 months into his rule, slain in 574 by a young guardsman in his entourage whom he had mistreated.

Following Cleph's assassination, another king was not appointed for the following decade (or for 12 years, according to some sources). During this time of interregnum, the dukes ruled as absolute monarchs in their duchies, in the period called the Rule of the Dukes. At this stage, the dukes were simply the heads of the various fara, or aristocratic estates, scattered around the kingdom, not yet firmly associated with the cities. As a result, and with no central political power to answer to, they acted independently. They were also under pressure from Lombard warriors nominally under their control to exploit opportunities to loot. This unstable situation, which persisted over time, led to the final collapse of the old Roman political and administrative structures, which had survived up to the Lombard invasion along with the same Roman-Italic aristocracy which had retained responsibility for civil administration (as exemplified by the likes of Cassiodorus who had served in the administration of King of the Ostrogoths Theoderic the Great).

Following the collapse of the Roman political administration, the Lombards imposed themselves at first as the dominant caste in Italy. Two thirds of the products of the land possessed by Lombard nobles were allocated to their Roman subjects that worked it, giving their Lombard masters a third of all crops (the tertia). The crops, however, were not given to individuals but to the fara, which collected in so-called halls (both terms are still used in Italian placenames). The economic system of late antiquity, which focused on large estates (latifundium) worked by peasants in semi-servile condition, was not revolutionised, but only modified to benefit the new Lombard rulers.

The final settlement: Authari, Agilulf and Theodelinda
In 574 and 575 the Lombards invaded Provence, then part of the kingdom of Burgundy of the Merovingian king Guntram. The latter, in alliance with his nephew, the king of Austrasia Childebert II, replied by invading northern Italy. The Austrasian army descended the valley of the Adige and took Trent. The Byzantine emperor, Tiberius II, began to negotiate an alliance with the Franks. The Lombard dukes, fearful of a pincer movement by the Franks and Byzantines, and realising the need for a stronger centralised monarchy, agreed to crown a new king.

In 584 the dukes elected Cleph's son, Authari, as the new king. They also ceded to him the Lombard capital of Pavia as well as half of their ducal domains as demesne. He spent his entire reign in wars with the Franks, the Byzantines, and Lombard rebels. His first major test was the quashing of the rebel duke Droctulf of Brescello, who had allied with the Romans and was ruling the Po valley. Having expelled him, he spent most of the rest of his six years on the throne fighting the exarch of Ravenna, Smaragdus, or the Merovingian kings.

Authari was then able to engage in the reorganisation of the Lombards and their settlements in more fixed form throughout Italy. He assumed, like the Ostrogoth Kings before him, the title of Flavio, intended to allow him to proclaim himself the protector of all Romans on its territory: it was a clear call, with anti-Byzantine overtones, to the heritage of the Western Roman Empire.

From a military point of view, Authari was successful in defeating both the Byzantines and Franks and breaking their coalition, thereby fulfilling the mandate which the dukes had entrusted him at the time of his election. In 585 he drove the Franks into modern Piedmont in northwestern Italy and forced the Byzantines to request a truce, for the first time since the Lombard invasion. Finally, he occupied the last Byzantine stronghold in northern Italy, Isola Comacina, a small island in Lake Como.

To ensure a stable peace with the Franks, Authari attempted to marry a Frankish princess, but the proposal failed. Then the king, in a move that would influence the fate of the kingdom for the following century, turned to the traditional enemies of the Franks, the Bavarii, and on 15 May 589 married Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I of Lething descent. A Catholic, she had great influence among the Lombards for her virtue.

The alliance with the Bavarii led to a rapprochement between Franks and Byzantines, but Authari managed (in 588, and again, despite some early setbacks, in 590) to repel Frankish attacks. The rule of Authari marked, according to Paul the Deacon, the first period of internal stability in the Lombard kingdom:

Erat hoc mirabile in regno Langobardorum: nulla erat violentia, nullae struebantur insidiae; nemo aliquem iniuste angariabat, nemo spoliabat; non erant furta, non latrocinia; unusquisque quo libebat securus sine timore "There was a miracle in the kingdom of the Lombards: there was no violence, no insidious plot; no others unjustly oppressed, no depredations; there were no thefts, there were no robberies, where everyone went where they wanted, safely and without fear"

- Paolo Diacono, Historia Langobardorum, III, 16

Authari died in Pavia in 590, probably by poison in a palace plot and, according to the legend recorded by Paul the Deacon, and was succeeded by Agilulf, Duke of Turin, on the advice, sought by the dukes, of Queen Theodelinda, who married the new king. The following year (in 591) Agilulf received the official investiture from the Gairethinx (Assembly of the Lombards), held in Milan. The influence of the Queen over Agilulf's policies was remarkable and major decisions are attributed to both.

After a rebellion among some dukes in 594 was nipped in the bud, Agilulf and Theodelinda developed a policy of strengthening their hold of Italian territory, while securing their borders through peace treaties with France and the Avars. The truce with the Byzantines was often violated and the decade up to 603 was marked by the continuation of Lombard advances. In northern Italy Agilulf occupied, among other cities, Parma, Piacenza, Padova, Monselice, Este, Cremona and Mantua, and in the south the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, extending the Lombards' domains.

The strengthening of royal powers, started by Authari and continued by Agilulf, also marked the transition to a new concept based on stable territorial division of the kingdom into duchies. Each duchy was led by a Duke, this time not just as the head of an aristocratic estate but also a royal official and holder of public powers. The locations of the duchies were established in strategically important centers, thus furthering the development of many urban centers placed along the main communication routes of the time (Cividale del Friuli, Treviso, Trento, Turin, Verona, Bergamo, Brescia, Ivrea, Lucca, etc.). In managing public administration dukes were joined by minor officials, called sculdahis and the gastalds.

The new organization of power, less linked to race and clan relations and more to land management, marked a milestone in the consolidation of the Lombard kingdom in Italy, allowing it to gradually lose its military occupation character and approach a more conventional state model. The inclusion of those defeated in the battlefield (the Romans) was an inevitable step in consolidating the kingdom, and Agilulf made some symbolic choices aimed at strengthening his power and crediting it with selected people of Latin descent. The ceremony of accession to the throne of Agilulf and Theodelinda's son, Adaloald, in 604, followed a Byzantine rite; the royal capital was moved from Pavia to the ancient Roman city of Milan (with Monza used as the royal summer residence). Agilulf also identified himself, in a votive crown, as Gratia Dei Rex totius Italiae ("By the grace of God king of all Italy", marking a departure from the title of Langobardorum Rex, "King of the Lombards").

These moves also contributed to the strong pressure, particularly from Theodelinda, to the conversion of the Lombards to Catholicism, at the time when they were still largely pagan or Arianist. The rulers also endeavored to heal the Schism of the Three Chapters (where the Patriarch of Aquileia had broken communion with Rome), maintained a direct relationship with Pope Gregory I (evidenced in the preserved correspondence between him and Theodelinda) and promoted the establishment of monasteries, like the Bobbio Abbey founded by Saint Columbanus in 614.

Even art flourished under Agilulf and Theodelinda. In architecture Theodelinda founded the Basilica of St. John the Baptist and the Royal Palace in Monza (both completed in 585), while some masterpieces of goldsmithing were created such as Agilulf Cross, the hen with chicks, the Theodelinda Gospels and the famous Iron Crown of Lombardy.

The revival of the Arians: Arioald, Rothari
After the death of Agilulf in 616, the throne passed to his son Adaloald, only fourteen years old at the time. The regency (which in fact continued even after Adoald reached adulthood) was exercised by the Queen Mother Theodelinda, who gave military command of the kingdom to Duke Sundarit. Theodelinda continued Agilulf's pro-Catholic policy and pursued peace with the Byzantines, although this caused increasingly stronger opposition to royal power by some warriors and Arianist components of the Lombard society. Internal conflict broke out in 624 and was led by Arioald, the Duke of Turin and Adaloald's brother in law (he had married Adaloald's sister Gundeperga). Adaloald was deposed in 625 and Arioald became king.

The coup d’etat against the Bavarian dynasty of Adaloald and Theodelinda, which led Arioald to the throne, opened a season of conflict between the two religious factions of the realm. Beside the choice of faith, however, the conflict had political overtones as well, as Arianist nobility opposed the policy of peace with Byzantium and the Papacy and integration with the Romans, and favoured a more aggressive and expansionist policy.

The rule of Arioald (626–636), who moved the capital back to Pavia, was troubled by these conflicts, as well as by external threats; the king was able to withstand an attack of the Avars in Friuli, but failed to limit the growing influence of the Franks in the kingdom. According to legend, following his death in 626, Queen Gundeperga was given the same privilege to choose her new husband and king as Queen Theodelinda had before her. Gundeperga chose Rothari, the Duke of Brescia and an Arianist.

Rothari reigned from 636 to 652 and led numerous military campaigns, which brought almost all of northern Italy under the rule of the Lombard kingdom. He conquered Liguria in 643, including the major port city of Genoa, Luni, and Oderzo. However, not even a landslide victory over the Byzantine Exarch of Ravenna, who was defeated and killed along with his 8,000 men at the Panaro river succeeded in forcing the Exarchate to submit to the Lombards. Internally, Rothari strengthened the central power at the expense of the duchies of Langobardia Maior, while in the south the Duke of Benevento Arechi I (who in turn was expanding Lombard domains in southern Italy) also recognized the authority of the king in Pavia.

The legacy of Rothari is linked to the famous Edictum Rothari ("Edict of Rothari"), a collection of Lombard law promulgated in 643 and written in Vulgar Latin, although it was only designed to apply to Lombards, as the Roman population was still subject to Roman law. The Edict consolidated and codified Germanic rules and customs, but also introduced significant innovations, a sign of Latin influence on Lombard society. The Edict tried to discourage blood feuds by increasing the mandatory weregild (financial compensation) for injuries or murders, and imposed drastic restrictions on the use of the capital punishment.

The Bavarian dynasty
After the short reign of Rothari's son, Rodoald (652–653), the dukes elected king Aripert I, the Duke of Asti and grandson of Theodolinda, which marked the return to the throne of the Bavarian dynasty. Aripert's ascent to the throne was a sign of the increasing dominance of the Catholic faction over the Arianists and his rule came to be known for the heavy repression of Arianism. At his death in 661 Aripert’s testament divided the kingdom between his two sons, Perctarit (a Catholic) and Godepert (an Arian). Although this procedure was common among the Franks, it remained a unique case among the Lombards. Perhaps because of the partition, the kingdom immediately entered a political crisis: a conflict broke out between Perctarit, based in Milan, and Godepert, who remained in Pavia, which also involved the Duke of Benevento, Grimoald. Grimoald intervened with substantial military force to support Godepert, but as soon as he arrived in Pavia, he killed the king and took his place in 662. Perctarit, clearly defeated both politically and militarily, fled to the Avars.

Although Grimoald obtained the formal investiture of the Lombard nobles, he still had to deal with the legitimist faction which formed international alliances to bring Perctarit back to the throne. Perctarit's wife, Rodelinde, and their son Cunincpert were captured by Grimoald and sent to Benevento. Perctarit returned soon thereafter to conspire against Grimoald, but fled again to Francia. When Grimoald concluded a treaty with the Franks, Perctarit prepared to flee to Britain, but news of Grimoald's death in 671 reached him first.

Grimoald, who in 663 had defeated an attempt to reconquer Italy by the Byzantine Emperor Constans II, exercised his sovereign powers with a fullness never attained by his predecessors. Not only did he entrust the Duchy of Benevento to his son Romuald, he also appointed dukes loyal to him to head the duchies of Spoleto and Friuli. He favoured a closer integration of the different components of the kingdom, and presented his subjects with an image modeled on that of his predecessor Rothari—at the same time, that of wise legislator (Grimoald added new laws to the Edictum Rothari), arts patron (he had a church vuilt in Pavia dedicated to Saint Ambrose) and valiant warrior.

In 671, Perctarit returned from exile and reclaimed his realm, which was for a short period ruled on behalf of Grimoald's son Garibald. He immediately came to an agreement with Grimoald's other son, Romualdo I of Benevento, who pledged loyalty in exchange for recognition of the autonomy of his duchy. Perctarit made Catholicism the official religion, but did not recognise papal authority. He made peace with the Byzantines, who acknowledged Lombard sovereignty over most of Italy. He sought to put down the rebellion of Alagis, duke of Trent. It was to be his only campaign; he captured the duke, then pardoned and released him. Perctarit was assassinated in 688 in a conspiracy.

Alahis again rose up, joining with the political opponents of the pro-Catholic Bavarian policy, at Perctarit's death in 688. His son and successor Cunipert was initially defeated and forced to take refuge on the Isola Comacina. In 689 he managed to crush the rebellion, defeating and killing Alahis in the Battle of Coronate at the Adda river.

The divergence between the two regions of Langobardia Maior caused a political crisis: the western region, also known as Neustria, was loyal to the Bavarian rulers, pro-Catholic and supported reconciliation with Rome and Byzantium; the eastern part, known as Austria, was still more strongly linked to Lombard traditions. The branch of the Lombard dukes of Austria challenged the increasing "latinisation" of Lombard customs, court practices, law and religion, which accelerated the disintegration and loss of Germanic identity of the Lombard people. The victory allowed Cuniperto, already long associated with the throne by his father and not a secondary actor of his policy, to continue the work of pacification of the kingdom, always with a pro-Catholic accent. In the synod which convened in Pavia in 698 the bishops who were suffragans of Old-Aquileia decided to end the Schism of the Three Chapters and return to communion with Rome.

The dynastic crisis
Cunipert's death in 700, marked the beginning of a dynastic crisis. The ascent to the throne of the minor son of Cunipert, Liutpert, was immediately challenged by the Duke of Turin, Raginpert, also leader of the Bavarian dynasty. Raginpert defeated in Novara the supporters of Liutpert (his tutor Ansprand, Duke of Asti, and the Duke of Bergamo, Rotarit) and in early 701, succeeded to the throne. However, he died after just eight months in power, passing the throne to his son Aripert II.

Ansprand and Rotarit reacted immediately and imprisoned Aripert II, returning the throne to Liutpert. Aripert II, in turn, managed to escape, and in 702 he defeated them in Pavia. Aripert II now imprisoned Liutpert and occupied the throne. Shortly after, he finally defeated his opposition: he killed Rotarit, suppressed his duchy and drowned Liutpert. Only Ansprand managed to escape, taking refuge in Bavaria. Subsequently Aripert crushed a new rebellion, that of the Duke of Friuli, Corvulus, and was able to develop a policy of appeasement, always favouring the Catholic element in the kingdom.

In 712 Ansprand returned to Italy with an army raised in Bavaria, and clashed with Aripert; in the battle, the king was abandoned by his supporters. He died while trying to escape to the realm of the Franks, and drowned in the Ticino river, where he sank due to the weight of gold that he brought with him. With his death the presence of the Bavarian dynasty on the throne of the Lombards ended.

Liutprand: the apogee of the reign
Ansprand died in 712 after only three months on the throne, leaving it to his son Liutprand. His 32 year reign, from 712 to 744, was the longest of all Lombard kings, and was characterised by the almost religious admiration that was expressed to the king by his people, who recognized in him boldness, courage and political vision; Thanks to these qualities Liutprand survived two attempts on his life.

On two occasions, in Sardinia and in the region of Arles (where he had been called by his ally Charles Martel) he successfully fought Saracen pirates, enhancing his reputation as a Christian king. His alliance with the Franks, crowned by a symbolic adoption of the young Pepin the Short, and with the Avars, on the eastern borders, allowed him to keep his hand relatively free in the Italian theater, but he soon clashed with the Byzantines and the Papacy. In his early reign, Liutprand did not attack the Exarchate of Ravenna or the Papacy. But in 726, the Emperor Leo III made his first of many edicts outlawing images or icons (see the iconoclastic controversy). The pope, Gregory II, ordered the people to resist and the Byzantine duke of Naples, Exhiliratus, was killed by a mob while trying to carry out the imperial command to destroy all the icons. Liutprand chose this time of division to strike the Byzantine possessions in Emilia. In 727, he crossed the Po and took Bologna, Osimo, Rimini and Ancona, along with the other cities of Emilia and the Pentapolis. He took Classis, the seaport of Ravenna, but could not take Ravenna itself from the exarch Paul. Paul was soon killed in a riot, however. Eventually, Ravenna would capitulate to Liutprand with barely a fight in 737.

In the following years, Liutprand entered into an alliance with the Exarch against the Pope, without giving up the old one with the Pope against the Exarch; he crowned this classic double play with an offensive that led to the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento under his authority, eventually arriving to negotiate a peace between the pope and Exarch beneficial for the Lombards. No Lombard king ever had obtained similar results in wars with other powers on the Italian territory. In 732 his nephew Hildeprand succeeded him on the throne.

Liutprand was the last of the Lombard king to count on the unity of his kingdom; after him no king was able to eliminate the opposition and to reign supreme, and indeed many dukes’ defections and the constant betrayals would lead to the kingdom's ultimate defeat. The strength of his power was based not only on personal charisma, but also on the reorganisation of the kingdom which he had undertaken since the early years of his reign. He strengthened the chancellery of the royal palace of Pavia and defined in an organic way the territorial competencies (legal and administrative) of sculdasci, gastalds and dukes. He was also very active in the legislative field: the twelve volumes of laws enacted by him introduced legal reforms inspired by Roman law, improve the efficiency of the courts, changed the wergild and, above all, protected the weaker sectors of society (minors, women, debtors, slaves).

Already in the 7th century, the socio-economic structure of the kingdom had been progressively changing. Population growth led to fragmentation of finances, which increased the number of Lombards who fell below the poverty line, as evidenced by the laws aimed to alleviate their difficulties. By contrast, some Romans began to ascend the social ladder, becoming rich through commerce, crafts, the professions, or the acquisition of lands that the Lombards had not been able to manage profitably. Liutprand intervened also in this process by reforming the administrative structure of the kingdom and freeing the poorest Lombards from military obligations.

The last kings
Hildeprand’s reign lasted only a few months, then was overthrown by a rebellion led by Duke Ratchis. The details of the episode are not clear, since the crucial testimony of Paul Deacon ended with a eulogy on the death of Liutprand. Hildeprand had been anointed king in 737, during a serious illness Liutprand (who did not like at all: "Non aequo animo accepit" wrote Paul Deacon ), although, once recovered, he accepted the choice. The new king, then, at least initially enjoyed the support of most of the aristocracy, if not that of the great monarch. Ratchis, the Duke of Friuli who took the throne in his place, came from a family with a long tradition of rebellion against the monarchy and rivalry with the royal family, but on the other hand, he owed his life and the ducal title to Liutprand, who had forgiven him after discovering a conspiracy headed by his father, Pemmo of Friuli.

Ratchis was a weak ruler: on one side he had to concede greater freedom of action to the other dukes, on the other extreme he had to take care not to exacerbate the Franks and, above all, the mayor of the palace and de facto king Pepin the Short, the adopted son of the king that had dethroned his nephew. Not being able to trust the traditional structures of support for the Lombard monarchy, he sought support among the gasindii, namely the gentry bound to the king by treaties of protection and especially among the Romans, the non-Lombard subjects.

These innovations of ancient costumes, along with public pro-Latin attitudes (he married a Roman woman, Tassia, and with Roman rite; adopted the title of princeps instead of the traditional ‘’rex Langobardorum’’) increasingly alienated the Lombard base which forced him to seek a total change of heart, with a sudden attack to the cities of the Pentapolis. The pope, however, convinced him to abandon the siege of Perugia. After this failure the prestige of Ratchis collapsed and the dukes elected as the new king his brother Aistulf, who had already succeeded him as duke in Cividale and now, after a short struggle, forced him to flee to Rome and finally to become a monk in Monte Cassino.

Aistulf
Aistulf was the political expression of the more aggressive stance of the dukes, who refused an active component of the Roman population. For his expansionist policy, however, he had to reorganize the army to include, albeit in a subordinate position of light infantry, all ethnic groups in the kingdom. To be subject to military obligations were all free men of the kingdom, both those of Roman and Lombard origin; the military standards promulgated by Aistulf mention several times the merchants, a sign of how the class had now become relevant.

Initially Aistulf achieved some notable successes, culminating in the conquest of Ravenna (751); here the king, residing in the Palace of the Exarch and coining money in Byzantine style, presented his program: to collect under its power all the Romans until then subject to the emperor, without necessarily merging them with the Lombards. The Exarchate was not homologous to other Lombard possessions in Italy (that is it was not converted into a Duchy), but retained its specificity as sedes imperii: this way Aistulf proclaimed himself heir, in the eyes of Italian Romans, of the Byzantine Emperor and of the Exarch, his representative.

His campaigns led the Lombards to a near complete domination of Italy, with the occupation (750-751) also of Istria, Ferrara, Comacchio, and all territories south of Ravenna up to Perugia. With the occupation of the stronghold of Ceccano he was putting further pressure on the territories controlled by Pope Stephen II, while in Langobardia Minor he was able to impose his power on Spoleto and, indirectly, on Benevento.

Just when it seemed Aistulf was now up and running to defeat all opposition on Italian soil, in Gaul Pepin the Short, the old enemy of the usurpers of Liutprand's family, finally managed to overthrow the Merovingian dynasty, deposing Childeric III and becoming king also de jure. The support of the papacy was decisive, although negotiations were also underway between Aistulf and the pope (which soon failed), and an attempt was made to weaken Pepin by lobbying against him his brother Carloman.

Because of the threat that this move was for the new king of the Franks, an agreement between Pepin and Stephen II settled, in exchange for the formal royal anointing, the descent of the Franks in Italy. In 754 the Lombard army, deployed in defence of the Locks in Val di Susa, was defeated by the Franks. Aistulf, perched in Pavia, had to accept a treaty that required the delivery of hostages and territorial concessions, but two years later resumed the war against the pope, who in turn called on the Franks.

Defeated again, Aistulf had to accept much harsher conditions: Ravenna was returned not to the Byzantines, but to the pope, increasing the core area of the Patrimony of St. Peter; Aistulf had to accept a sort of Frankish protectorate, the loss of territorial continuity of his domains and payment of substantial compensation. The duchies of Spoleto and Benevento were quick to ally themselves with the victors. Aistulf died shortly after this severe humiliation, in 756.

Aistulf's brother Ratchis left the monastery and attempted, initially with some success, to return to the throne. He opposed Desiderius, who was put in charge of the Duchy of Tuscia by Aistulf and based in Lucca; he did not belong to the dynasty of Friuli, frowned upon by the pope and the Franks, and managed to get their support. The Lombards surrendered to him to avoid another descent of the Franks and Rachis was persuaded by the Pope to return to Monte Cassino.

Desiderius with a clever and discreet policy gradually reasserted Lombard control over the territory by leveraging on the Romans again, creating a network of monasteries ruled by Lombard aristocrats (his daughter Anselperga was created abbess of San Salvatore in Brescia), dealing with Pope Stephen II's successor, pope Paul I, and recognizing the nominal domain on many areas truly in his power, such as reclaimed southern duchies. He also implemented a casual marriage policy, marrying his daughter Liutperga to the Duke of Bavaria, Tassilo (763), historical adversary of the Franks and, at the death of Pepin the Short, by marrying the other daughter Desiderata (who was immortalised in the tragedy Adelchi by Alessandro Manzoni as Ermengarde) to the future Charlemagne, offering him a useful support in the fight against his brother Carloman.

Despite the changing fortunes of central political power, the 8th century represented the apogee of the reign, also a period of economic prosperity. The ancient society of warriors and subjects had been transformed into a vivid articulation of classes with landowners, artisans, farmers, merchants, lawyers; the era saw great development, including economic, abbeys, notably Benedictine and expanded 's monetary economics, resulting in the creation of a banking class. After an initial period during which Lombard coinage created only imitation Byzantine coins, kings of Pavia developed an independent gold and silver coinage. The duchy of Benevento, the most independent of the duchies, also had its own independent currency.

The fall of the kingdom
Just when, in 771, Desiderius was about to reap the fruits of his skillful policy by managing to convince the new pope, Stephen II, to accept his protection, the death of Carloman left freehanded Charlemagne, now firmly on the throne, which repudiated the daughter of Desiderius. The following year a new pope, Adrian I, of the opposite party of Desiderius, reversed the delicate game of alliances, demanding the surrender of the area never ceded by Desiderius and thus bring him to resume the war against the cities of Romagna.

Charlemagne, though he had just begun his campaign against the Saxons, came to the aid of the pope, fearing the capture of Rome by the Lombards and the consequent loss of prestige. Between 773 and 774 he invaded Italy - once again the defence of the Locks was ineffective, the fault on the divisions among the Lombards - and, having prevailed against a tough resistance, captured the capital of the kingdom, Pavia.

The son of Desiderius, Adalgis, found refuge with the Byzantines. Desiderius and his wife were deported in Gaul. Charles then called himself Gratia Dei rex Francorum et Langobardorum ( "By the grace of God king of the Franks and the Lombards"), realizing a personal union of the two kingdoms; he maintained the Leges Langobardorum, but reorganized the kingdom on the Frankish model, with counts in place of dukes.

"Thus ended Lombard Italy, and nobody can say whether it was, for our country, a fortune or a misfortune. Alboin and his successors were awkward masters, more awkward than Theodoric, until they had been barbarians camped on a conquest territory. But now they were assimilating with Italy and could turn it into a Nation, as the Franks were doing in France. But in France there wasn't the Pope. In Italy, there was."

- Indro Montanelli - Roberto Gervaso, L'Italia dei secoli bui

After the Frankish conquest of Langobardia Maior, only the Southern Lombard Kingdom was called Langbarðaland (Land of the Lombards), as attested in the Norse Runestones.

Administration
The earliest Lombard law code, the Edictum Rothari, may allude to the use of seal rings, but it is not until the reign of Ratchis that they became an integral part of royal administration, when the king required their use on passports. The only evidence for their use at the ducal level comes from the Duchy of Benevento, where two private charters contain requests for the duke to confirm them with his seal. The existence of seal rings "testifies to the tenacity of Roman traditions of government".

Historiographical views
The age of the Lombard kingdom was, especially in Italy, devalued as a long reign of barbarism in the midst of the "dark ages". A period of confusion and dispersion, marked by the abandoned ruins of a glorious past and still in search of new identity; see, for example, the verses of Manzoni's Adelchi:

"From the mossy atria, from the crumbling Fora, from the woods, from the flaming strident forges, from the furrows wet with slave sweat, a dispersed mob suddenly awoke."

"Dagli atri muscosi, dai Fori cadenti, dai boschi, dall'arse fucine stridenti, dai solchi bagnati di servo sudor, un volgo disperso repente si desta."

- Alessandro Manzoni, Adelchi, Choir Third Act.

Sergio Rovagnati defines the continuing negative prejudice against the Lombards "a sort of damnatio memoriae", common to that given often to all the protagonists of the barbarian invasions. The most recent historiographical guidelines, however, have largely reassessed the lombard era of the history of Italy. The German historian Jörg Jarnut pointed out all the elements that constitute the historical importance of the Lombard kingdom.

The historical bipartition of Italy that has, for centuries, directed the North towards the Central-Western Europe and the south, instead, to the Mediterranean area dates back to the separation between Langobardia Major and Langobardia Minor, while Lombard law conditioned for long time the Italian legal system, so as not to be completely abandoned even after the rediscovery of Roman law, between the 11th and 12th centuries. Lombard, a Germanic language, made a large contribution to the formation of the Italian language in the sense that it hastened the population's detachment from vulgar Latin, causing it to take on autonomous forms known as Neo-Latin.

Regarding the role played by the Lombards within the emerging Europe, Jarnut shows that, after the decline of the kingdom of the Visigoths and during the period of weakness of the kingdom of the Franks in the Merovingian era, Pavia was about to take a guiding role for the West after determining, by tearing a large part of Italy from the dominance of the Basileus, the final boundary line between the Latin-German West and the Greek-Byzantine East.

Breaking sharply the rise of the Lombards in Europe intervened, however, the strengthening of the Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne, who inflicted decisive defeats on the last kings of the Lombards. The military defeat, however, did not correspond to a disappearance of the Lombard element: Claudio Azzara states that "the same Carolingian Italy is configured, in fact, as a Lombard Italy, in the constituent elements of society and culture".

In literature
The persistent injury historiography on the "dark ages" has long cast shadows on the Lombard kingdom, averting the interest of writers from that period. Few literary works have so been set in Italy between the 6th and 8th centuries; between them, relevant exceptions are those of Giulio Cesare Croce and Alessandro Manzoni. More recently the Friulian writer Marco Salvador has devoted a trilogy fiction to the Lombard kingdom.

The figure of Bertoldo/Berthold, a humble and clever farmer from Retorbido, who lived during the reign of Alboin (568-572), inspired many oral traditions throughout the Middle Ages and early modern period. In them found inspiration the 17th scholar Giulio Cesare Croce in his Le sottilissime astutie di Bertoldo ("the smart craftiness of Berthold") (1606), which in 1608 added the following Le piacevoli et ridicolose simplicità di Bertoldino ("The pleasant and ridiculous simplicity of Little Berthold"), about son of Berthold.
 * Berthold

In 1620 the abbot Adriano Banchieri, poet and composer, produced a further follow-up: Novella di Cacasenno, figliuolo del semplice Bertoldino ("News of Cacasenno, son of simple Little Berthold"). Since then, the three works are usually published in one volume under the title of Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno.

Set during the extreme end of the Lombard kingdom, the Manzonian tragedy Adelchi tells the story of the last king of the Lombards, Desiderius and his children Ermengarde (whose real name was Desiderata) and Adalgis: the first the divorced wife of Charlemagne, and the second the last defender of the Lombard kingdom against the Frankish invasion. Manzoni used the Lombard kingdom as the scene, adjusting its interpretation of the characters (real centers of the work) and portrayed the Lombards as having a role in paving the way to the Italian national unity and independence, while reproducing a then dominant image of a barbaric period after the classical splendor.
 * Adelchi

In cinema
Three films were inspired by stories of Croce and Banchieri and set in the initial period of the Lombard kingdom (very freely played): By far the most famous is the last of the three films, which boasted a cast composed of, among others, Ugo Tognazzi (Berthold), Maurizio Nichetti (Little Berthold), Alberto Sordi (fra Cipolla) and Lello Arena (king Alboin).
 * Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno (1936), directed by Giorgio Simonelli;
 * Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno (1954), directed by Mario Amendola and Ruggero Maccari;
 * Bertoldo, Bertoldino e... Cacasenno (1984), directed by Mario Monicelli.

Historiographical literature

 * Chris Wickham (1981). Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000. MacMillan Press.
 * Paolo Delogu.  Longobardi e Bizantini  in Storia d'Italia, Torino, UTET, 1980. ISBN 88-02-03510-5.
 * Paolo Delogu.  Longobardi e Bizantini  in Storia d'Italia, Torino, UTET, 1980. ISBN 88-02-03510-5.
 * Paolo Delogu.  Longobardi e Bizantini  in Storia d'Italia, Torino, UTET, 1980. ISBN 88-02-03510-5.