The Lombards

The past few days have been filled with discussion about the Lombards, aka the Langobards, and their origin according to medieval texts. This blog has mostly dealt with them previously because of their occupation of the northern Italian peninsula. That's not where they started, however.

They are mentioned by 1st-century Roman historians as a group occupying the Lower Elbe (the river that connects Hamburg to the North Sea). At one time defeated by the Ostrogoths, after the departure of Ostrogoths from the region, some Lombards traveled west. Paul the Deacon describes their migrations and their conflicts with various peoples as they moved across the Danube and into Europe.

By 570CE they had conquered northern Italy, and in the next few years added central Italy to their kingdom. The height of their presence and influence in that part of Europe was reached during the reign of King Liutprand. Liutprand reigned more than 30 years (712 - 744), and you can see his minted gold coinage above. Charles Martel of the Franks allied with Liutprand as a Christian defense against threatened Muslim incursions.

The first Lombards to enter Italy had been pagans, although some had become Arian Christians. They slowly adopted Roman Christianity and Romanized names, s that by the time Paul the Deacons was writing he did not report any evidence of their paganism.

Lombardy continued 36 duchies. They had expanded throughout much of Italy by taking advantage of local conflicts and conquering the divided communities—especially due to violence between groups that feel on both sides of the iconoclasm controversy. Some of the duchies have been mentioned before: Friuli, Pavia, Spoleto, Benevento.

By the time of Charles Martel's grandson, Charlemagne, the Lombards were not seen as allies so much as another territory to conquer. But that would come a little later. Tomorrow we'll look at more of the Kingdom of Lombardy.