How a Germanic migration shattered Roman unity and paved the way for the Franks

History · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 568, the Lombards swept into Italy, ending centuries of Roman political unity. Their kingdom, centered in Pavia, became a persistent rival to the papacy. This friction eventually invited the Frankish Carolingians to intervene, fundamentally shifting the power balance of medieval Europe and creating the foundations for papal territorial claims.

The Lombard Kingdom emerged in the late 6th century after King Alboin led his people from Pannonia into Italy in the spring of 568. This migration capitalized on a peninsula left fragile by the Byzantine Empire’s Pyrrhic victory in the Gothic War (535–554), which had been compounded by famine, plague, and volcanic winter. The arrival of the Lombards fractured Italy into two distinct zones: Langobardia Maior in the north, centered on their capital at Pavia, and the more autonomous southern duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, known as Langobardia Minor.

For much of their history, the Lombards were defined by their complex relationship with the papacy and the Byzantine Empire. Initially pagan or Arian, the Lombards eventually converted to Catholicism by the end of the 7th century, yet territorial disputes persisted. King Aistulf’s aggressive expansion into the Exarchate of Ravenna and his siege of Rome in the mid-8th century proved to be a turning point. Pope Stephen II, seeking protection, turned to the Frankish ruler Pippin III, who had recently been anointed king in 751.

Pippin III’s military campaigns against Aistulf in 754 and 756 were pivotal, as they secured a pledge to restore Roman properties to the pope, effectively originating the papal claims to Italian territory. Following Aistulf’s death in 756 and the succession of King Desiderius, the Lombard Kingdom’s power began to wane. The Franks, under Charlemagne, eventually conquered the kingdom in 774. By this time, the Lombards had largely assimilated, adopting Roman traditions and losing their distinct language and customs, leaving behind a legacy as the last minor Germanic kingdom in Europe.

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