Kingdom of The Lombards

The Kingdom of the Lombards or Lombard Kingdom (Regnum Langobardorum in Latin) was an early medieval Germanic state, with its capital in Pavia, established by the Lombards on the Italian Peninsula between 568-569 (invasion of Italy) and 774 (fall of the kingdom at the hands of the Franks led by Charlemagne). Effective control by the rulers of both the major areas that constituted the kingdom, Langobardia major in northern-central Italy and Langobardia Minor in the south, was not constant during the two centuries of life of the kingdom; from an initial phase of strong autonomy for the many duchies that constituted it, it developed over time an ever greater authority of the sovereign, even if the dukes' drive for autonomy was never fully harnessed and its Lombard character gradually evaporated and evolved into the Kingdom of Italy. The Lombards gradually adopted Roman titles, names, and traditions, and partially converted to orthodoxy (7th century), though not without a long series of religious and ethnic conflicts. By the time Paul the Deacon was writing in the 8th century, the Lombard language, dress and even hairstyles had all disappeared.