Information AboutLombards |
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HISTORY Origins and conquest of Italy Their own traditions (preserved in the '' Origo Gentis Langobardorum '') describe how they were formerly called ''Winili'', and how they left Scandinavia under the leaders Ybor and Agio, and settled in Continental Europe, in the lower course of the Elbe River , where they were recorded by Tacitus as early as A.D. 98 : What, on the contrary, ennobles the Langobards is the smallness of their number, for that they, who are surrounded with very many and very powerful nations, derive their security from no obsequiousness or plying, but from the dint of battle and adventurous deeds. After the Langobardi come the Reudigni , Auiones , Angli , Varni , Eudoses , Suarines , and Nuithones , all well guarded by rivers and forests. There is nothing remarkable about any of these tribes unless it be the common worship of Nerthus (i.e., Earth Mother). Lombards were one of the tribes forming the Suebi , and during the 1st Century AD they lived in northwest Germany . They occasionally clashed with the Romans , but it seems they were mainly shepherds and farmers until, in the 4th Century , the great migrations of peoples coming from East changed the situation. At the end of the 5th Century Lombards settled in the area of what is now Austria , in the territory formerly occupied by the Rugians , and at the beginning of the 6th Century they were settled in Pannonia (now Western Hungary and the Czech Republic ) by the Emperor Justinian , in quality of '' Foederati ''. The Lombards at this time had already begun to change their tribal organisation to one led by a group of dukes and counts who commanded bands of warriors of related or kin people. In sent to Italy by Emperor Justinian II , Longinus, could defend only coastal cities that could be supplied by the powerful Byzantine fleet. Pavia fell after a siege of three years, in 572 , becoming the first capital city of the new Lombard kingdom of Italy. In the following years, the Lombards penetrated further south, conquering Tuscany and establishing two duchies, the Spoleto and Benevento under Zotto , which soon became semi-independent and even outlasted the northern kingdom, surviving well into the 12th Century . The Byzantines managed to retain control of the area of Ravenna and Rome, linked by a thin land corridor running through Perugia . The whole Lombard territory was divided into 36 duchies, whose leader settled in the main cities. The king controlled them and administered the land through emissaries called ''gastaldi''. This subdivision, however, together with the independent indocility of the duchies, deprived the kingdom of its unity, making it weak even with the Byzantines when they partly recovered after the initial invasion, and even more so when the Lombards had to face the increasing power of the Franks . As an answer to this problem, the kings tried to centralize power over time; but, in this attempt, they definitively lost control over Spoleto and Benevento . When they entered Italy, some Lombards were and remained pagan, while some were Arian Christians. Hence they did not enjoy good relations with the Catholic Church . Gradually, as they remained in Italy, they adopted Roman titles, names, and traditions, and partially converted to orthodoxy ( 7th Century ), not without a long series of religious and ethnic strifes. . On the foreign affairs side, Authari managed to thwart the dangerous alliance between the Byzantines and the Franks . Autari died in , the duke of Turin , who, in 591 , also married Theodelinda . He successfully fought the rebel dukes of Northern Italy , conquering Padova ( 601 ), Cremona , and Mantua ( 603 ), and obliging the Exarch of Ravenna to pay a conspicuous tribute. Theodolinda reigned alone until 651 , and was succeeded by Adaloald . Arioald , who had married Teodolinda's daughter Gundeberga, deposed Adaloald at the head of the Arian party opposing the former king. Rothari and his successors His successor was succeeded him in 652 still very young, and was killed by the Catholic party. At the death of king Aripert in 661 , the reign was split among its children Perctarit , who set its capital in Milan , and Godepert , who reigned from Pavia . Perctarit was thrown off by Grimoald , son of Gisulf, duke of Friuli and duke of Benevento since 647 . Perctarit fled to the Avars and then to the Franks . Grimoald managed to regain control over the duchies and pushed off the late attempt of the Byzantine Emperor Constans II to conquer southern Italy. He also defeated the Franks. At Grimoald's death in 671 Perctarit returned and promoted the tolerance between Arians and Catholics, but he could not defeat the Arian party led by Arachi, duke of Trento , who subdued only to his son, the filo-Catholic Cunipert . The end of the Lombard kingdom of Italy Religious strife remained a source of struggles in the following years. The Lombard reign began to recover only with Liutprand The Lombard (king from 712 ), son of Ansprand and successor of the brutal Aripert II . He managed to regain a certain control over Spoleto and Benevento , and, taking advantage of the disagreements between the Pope and Byzantium concerning the cult of images, he annexed the Exarchate of Ravenna and the duchy of Rome . He also helped the Frank marshall Charles Martel to drive back the Arabs . His son Aistulf conquered Ravenna for the Lombards for the first time, but was subsequently defeated by the king of the Franks Pippin III , called by the Pope, and had to leave it. After the death of Aistulf Ratchis tried once again to be king of the Lombardy but he was deposed in the same year. After his defeat of Ratchis , the last Lombard to rule as king of the Lombards was Desiderius , duke of Toscana , who managed to conquer in a definitive way Ravenna , ending the Byzantine presence in Central Italy. He decided to reopen struggles against the Pope, who was supporting the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento against him, and entered Rome in 772 , the first Lombard king to do so. But when Pope Hadrian I called for help from the powerful king Charlemagne , he was defeated at Susa and besieged in Pavia , while his son Adelchi had also to open the gates of Verona to Frank ish troops. Desiderius surrendered in 774 and Charlemagne , in an utterly novel decision took the title "King of the Lombards" as well. Before then the Germanic kingdoms had frequently conquered each other, but none had adopted the title of King of another people. Charlemagne took part of the Lombard territory to create the Papal States . The Lombardy region in Italy, which includes the cities of Brescia , Bergamo , and Milan , is a reminder of the presence of the Lombards. Lombard states after the kingdom Though the kingdom, centred on Pavia in the north, fell to Charlemagne, the Lombard-controlled territory to the south of the Papal States was never subjugated by Charlemagne or his descendants. In 774, Duke Arechis II Of Benevento , whose duchy had only nominally been under royal authority, though certain kings had been effective at making their power known in the south, declared himself '' Princeps '', or prince, effectually independent. He tried to claim the kingship, but with no support and no chance of a coronation in Pavia. Charlemagne came down with an army, and his son Louis The Pious sent many, to force the Beneventan Dukes to submit, but their submission and promises were never kept and they were ''de fact'' independent. In 839 , Duke Sicard was murdered by Radelchis , who seized the dukeship. Sicard's brother Siconulf was declared prince in Salerno and a ten year civil war erupted, settled only by Emperor Louis II 's permanent division of the principality. There were then two Lombard states in the Mezzogiorno . The independent state at Salerno inspired the Gastalds Of Capua to move towards independence and, by the end of the century, they were styling themselves " Prince " and there was a third Lombard state. The Capuan and Beneventan states were united by conquest in 910 and only separated in 982 , on the death of Pandulf Ironhead . The diminished Beneventan principality soon lost its independence to the Papacy and declined in importance until it was gobbled up by the Normans , who, first called in by the Lombards to fight the Byzantines for control of Apulia and Calabria (under the likes of Melus Of Bari and Arduin , among others), had become rivals for hegemony in the south. The Salernitan principality experienced a golden age under Guaimar III and Guaimar IV , but under Gisulf II , the principality shrunk to insignificance and fell in 1078 to the Robert Guiscard , who had married Gisulf's sister Sichelgaita . The Capua principality was hotly contested during the reign of the hated Pandulf IV , the ''Wolf of the Abruzzi'', and, under his son, it fell, almost without contest, to the Norman Richard Drengot ( 1058 ). The Capuans revolted against Norman rule in 1091 , expelling Richard's grandson Richard II and setting up one Lando IV . Capua was again put under Norman rule by the Siege Of Capua of 1098 and the city quickly declined in importance under a series of ineffectual Norman rulers. The independent status of these Lombard states is generally attested by the ability of their rulers to switch suzerains at will. Often the legal vassal of pope or emperor (either Byzantine or Holy Roman ), they were the real power-brokers in the south until their erstwhile allies, the Normans, rose to preeminence. Certainly the Lombards regarded the Normans as barbarians and the Byzantines as oppressors, regarding their own civilisation as superior, they did indeed provide the environment for the illustrious Schola Medica Salernitana . They left their mark also through such great figures as Hildeprand ( Pope Gregory VII ) and Napoleon Bonaparte , who have Lombard names, being descendants of those cultured Mediterraneans who ruled the Mezzogiorno for three centuries (774-1078). SOURCES Much of our knowledge of the mythological and semi-mythological early history of the Lombard people comes from Paul The Deacon's ''History of the Lombards'' (''Historia Langobardorum'') written in the late 8th Century , indebted to the 7th century '' Origo Gentis Langobardorum ''. According to the Lombards themselves, a legend documented by Paul the Deacon, their name was derived from a joke played on "). However, neither of these possibilities is considered by scholars at this time to be plausible. The translation of Paul The Deacon's ''History of the Lombards'' (''Historia Langobardorum'') published in 1907 by W. D. Foulke mentions these as well as other possibilities, but his speculation in that respect is now thought to be based on highly tenuous etymological links. HISTORIC KINGS OF THE LOMBARDS Lething Dynasty
Another Dynasty Gausian Dynasty Another Dynasty
Bavarian Dynasty , First Time Non-dynastic Kings Harodingians Dynasty Bavarian Dynasty , Second Time Beneventan Dynasty Bavarian Dynasty , Third Time Non-dynastic Kings SEE ALSO |
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