Kingdom lombard

Installation

The area of currently named Italy Lombardy where the town of Milan is located, preserves by its name the memory of the kingdom lombard in Italy. Inter alia testimonys, the toponymy of central Lombardy attests the presence of these invaders Germanic through place names containing the Germanic root - fara- or trained with the suffix - engo (of Germanic the ing (O) : wire , descendant ) (whose Marengo, celebrates for its battles). As for the language lombarde she was certainly spoken until the beginning about the 8th century at least; then it disappeared completely at the 9th century.

At the end of the franque rapid conquest (774) and with the Tuscan removal of the duchies of ( Tuscie ), of Spolète and Cividale (the Friuli) in 776, only one duchy lombard resists more or less in Southern Italy: the duchy of Bénévent which is regarded as the heir to the kingdom lombard and which rises in principality. Relatively near to Byzance on the cultural level (via the duchy of Naples), it remained independent until the conquest Norman at the 11th century, briefly subjected by the Francs starting from 787.

When they entered to Italy, Lombards had never known the imperial authority. They were moreover still probably in majority pagan, though a certain number of them was touched by the arianism. In addition to their depredations and cultural shock that their arrival in the Roman world of the Bas-Empire caused, their faith constituted a powerful brake with their integration in the peninsula. In the facts, the kingdom of Lombards remained the last kingdom “heretic” of Western Europe (even if the arianism is still important in the officially catholic Royaume Visigoth, located on the grounds of Hispanie) in spite - or because - proximity of Rome and of a Papauté increasingly more influential.

They are the kings Authari (elected in 584) and especially Agilulf which installed truly the “kingdom lombard” in Italy. Dukes, especially in the north of the peninsula, the gastaldii (of Germanic, meaning the “hosts”, the “servants”) and the colonies military lombardes (the arimannii : the Germanic one; meaning the “free men”, i.e. the “warriors” for Germanic people) provided the first framework, policy and soldier, of the kingdom. This framework, primarily rural, the structure constituted in which lived Italian peasants, from now on related to the ground: the coloni .

After the restoration of the royalty, Lombards massacre the “powerful Romans” (the nobility). The senatorial class, which had preserved its capacity under Odoacre, Goths and the Byzantines, are rolled. The effective Roman administration, preserved formerly by Théodoric, was destroyed. It is not known if the Romans are reduced in slavery or if they preserve their personal freedom. The situation seems to vary according to the conditions of arrival of the invaders. In any event, the political power escapes to them with the profit from the warriors lombards and their families. The grounds of State (tax department) and those of the Roman leaders are confiscated. The small holders must pour rights corresponding to the third of the products of the ground. Little by little, they are impoverished and become to some extent the colonists of Lombards. Á the difference of the Germanic people before them the such Kingdoms burgondes and the Kingdom Visigoth, Lombards do not divide their grounds with the autochtones.

Italy of the end of the 6th century century is depopulated by the war and the disease, the famine and the floods, and the plague made its appearance at the beginning of the 7th century with its batch of victims. The rural dwellings of the plain are pushed back towards the hills and the mountains, the fields and the systems of irrigation are left with the abandonment.

The kings ariens of the beginning of the 7th century reflect in place the second framework, administrative and legal, of the kingdom: administration of the royal court with Pavia, capital lombarde starting from 626, supplanting Milan, Monza and Vérone. It was necessary to await the king Arioald so that in the capital lombarde an administration is functional. This one was inspired much by the Byzantine bureaucracy.

In 643, the king Rothari makes write the law of his people by a Latin edict (the Édit of Rothari), the Leges langobardorum which coexisted with the Roman law in a kingdom cut into two: Lombards, holding political power and military, and “Italians” making function the Church and the administration.

At the 8th century, in particular through the laws of Ratchis (746) and of Aistolf (or Aistulf ) (755), the influence of the Roman law grows at the court of Pavia what can prove a certain romanisation of Lombards to us, the nobility and royal court at least.

The kingdom lombard of Italy knew its greater extensions under the reigns of the king Agilulf (591 - 615), Rothari (636 - 652), Grimoald (662 - 671) and especially Liutprand (712 - 744), largest of the kings lombards, who brought the kingdom to his apogee in spite of his failure in his attempt at Italian unification.

Regional Géostratégie

A conflict between three capacities characterizes the history of the kingdom lombard in Italy: the capacity of Rome, sits apostolic; Byzantine capacity, remainder of the attempt at reconquest of the Occident undertaken by the general Bélisaire under the reign of Justinien and capacity of the kings lombards. Also, the political situation of the peninsula was never really stable under the latter.

Hegemony lombarde on Italy

Against Byzance, Lombards carry initially the possessions médidionales which become the duchies of Spolète and Bénévent in 570 and 571. After a shy person attempt at imperial reconquest carried out into 590, Lombards take then Genoa (under Rothari, in 650). The exarchat of Ravenne (Byzantine enclave made up around the last capital of the Western Empire), commonly called Romania , however continues to escape their control until in 751 and this, in spite of several attempts on behalf of the latter. As for Venezia and in Naples, they escape the yoke lombard.

With 7th and 8th centuries, the relations of Lombards with the Roman Church and, during one shorter period, with the Roman aristocracy, are as for them hateful.

Rome, initially officially attached to the exarchat of Ravenne and Byzance, sees the capacity of the pope to replace that of an emperor remote and unable to intervene on the fate of its peninsular subjects, while the primacy of the Roman apostolic seat continues more and more on the others évêchés of the peninsula.

Agilulf was the first sovereign lombard to be converted with the Orthodoxie not without involving sharp resistances within its people. Its successors, indeed, return quickly to the heresy arienne and the king arien Rothari confiscates the Roman goods of his kingdom. King Aripert (653 - 661) converts with Catholicism but it decides to be attached to the Church of Aquilée which refuses the papal authority on the Friuli. The king Perctarith is finally that which installs Roman orthodoxy in the kingdom, without for all this the political relations lombardes with Rome improve durably. In 698, a bringing together however takes place under the reign of the king Cunipert: a council puts an end to the schism of Aquilée and the goods of Rome are restored. Liutprand, in its dream to control all the Italian peninsula, made later profitable the divergences between Rome and Byzance, then iconoclast, to try to adapt Ravenne.

Papal reaction

Finally, against of Lombards increasingly pressing and threatening, Rome turns to the Francs, initially without success with the Pope Gregoire III, in 739 - 740. However, the successor of this last, Zacharie, decides to support the Carolingian family when the latter usurps the royalty with the last frank king Mérovingiens, Childéric III: this major event makes rock the relations between Lombards and Francs. After the catch of Ravenne by Lombards (751), indeed, Aistolf tries to take Rome. The pope Etienne II then accomplishes a voyage in Gaulle in 754 to ask for the assistance of Pépin the Brief, new king of the Francs. The king then achieves two short forwardings against Astolf, into 754 and 756, thus placing Rome and Papacy under his protection. It is probable that the frank king avoided weakening Lombards too much in order to preserve them like possible allies.

Integrated into the Carolingians

The last king of Lombards was Desiderius , or “Didier”, which reigns until March 774. This sovereign with the undecided temperament tries to counterbalance the franque influence while approaching the duchy of Bavaria. In 772, Charlemagne answers the call using the pope Etienne II, threatened by Didier, and intervenes in Italy in spring 773. It takes Pavia in March 774 after a difficult seat but a fast conquest and without notable resistance, putting thus fine to the reign of Didier and the domination lombarde on Italy. The lack of cohesion enters the various dukes lombards and one of the leading causes of their three defeats vis-a-vis the Francs.

The young Carolingian sovereign, taking into account the strategic importance of Italy for the Church, takes nevertheless on this occasion the title of “king of Lombards”, thus placing the peninsula under his direct control. He also takes part of the kingdom of Lombards for the apostolic seat, act which is at the origin of the creation of the Papal States and which existed until the middle of the 19th century. Thus, the Franc honors the promise to protect Rome like had made his/her father with the bishop of Rome.

It is in this context that Lombard Paul Diacre ( Warnefried of its true name) could take part in the Carolingian Renaissance and that the influence of the monastery of Bobbio gained the kingdom of the Francs.

As for Lombards, they preserved their national laws and were put up after a fashion with the Carolingian capacity. The name of “Langobardorum” to indicate the old kingdom lombard remained in force until the year 817, date on which one protested so that the peninsula finds its name of “Italy” to become the “kingdom of Italy of North”.

See too

List of the kings lombards of Italy

Posterity: Lombardy | Duchies lombards (Bénévent, Salerno, Capoue)

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