Lombard Italy

Southern Italy Series

-----Lombard Italy: 630 to 774-----

In 632 Muhammad died and Abu Bakr, his father in law, was chosen as the Successor, the Caliph. After he died the warrior Umar became Caliph. Umar soon embarked on a campaign of conquest against the Byzantine and Persian Empires. By April of 637 the Muslims captured Jerusalem and Antioch fell the following year. Then in 642 Alexandria was conquered by the Muslims.

These conquests changed the hierarchy of Christianity because the Pentarchy [link] of the five patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Constantinople and Rome was reduced to a just the bishops of Constantinople and Rome. The Byzantines expected that because Constantinople was the center of the Empire, it should also be the center of the Christian faith. But the Bishop of Rome refused to be treated as a second and these religious disputes eventually lead to Schism [link] . At the same time around 681 various Slavic tribes such as the Serbs and Croats invaded the Byzantine Empire.

By 661 the Muslims were unified as part of the Umayyad Caliphate. Then in 698 they conquered Carthage and four years later finally defeated the Berbers of Africa. In 711 the Armies of the Prophet crossed the Straight of Gibraltar into Visigoth Spain. By 714 the Visigoth Kingdom had collapsed and Muslim armies now crossed over the Pyrenees into France.


Back in Italy, the Lombardy Kingdom was divided in a civil war. In 661 Aripert I, nephew of Theodolinda, died and left the kingdom to his sons Perctarit and Godepert. But Godepert was an Arian Christian and his brother Perctarit was a Roman Christian. To win the struggle Godepert called on the duke of Benevento, Grimoald to help him defeat Perctarit. But Grimoald assassinated Godepert and took the throne for himself in 662. Perctarit fled to the Frankish Kingdom until Grimoald died in 671; then he returned to Italy, ruling the Kingdom until his own assassination in 688. The kingdom continued to swing between Arian and Roman Christian rulers for the next half century.

In France the Merovingian Dynasty was coming to an end. As time went on military power came less and less from the King and more and more from the Mayor of the Palace. Then in 687 Mayor Pepin II of Herstal ended a civil war within the kingdom and confirmed his power as Mayor.

In 714 Pepin II died. Civil war again broke out until 718 when Charles Martel, the illegitimate son of Pepin II defeated all his rivals. Charles then spent the next decade conquering various tribes in Germany. In 721 the Muslims invaded Aquitaine, but were defeated at the Battle of Toulouse [link](721) by the duke of Aquitaine. But by 725 the Muslim armies recouped and marched north. In October of 732 Charles Martel defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Tours [link] .

Back in Italy the civil wars ended and Liutprand now ascended to the throne. Liutprand made an alliance with Charles Martel and symbolically adopted his son Pepin III as his own. This peace with the Franks allowed Liutprand to concentrate on pushing the Byzantines out of Italy. In 744 Liutprand died, and he was succeeded by his nephew Hildeprand. But Hildeprand’s reign didn’t last a year until Ratchis, duke of Friuli, overthrew him. But Ratchis was deposed after he attacked but failed to take the cities of the Romagna. His brother Asituf became king and conquered Ravenna in 751.

Back in France Charles Martel died. His title and power were divided between his sons Pepin and Carloman in 741. By 747 however Carloman decided to become a monk, leaving control of the kingdom to Pepin. In 754 Pepin III was anointed by the Pope in Paris as patricius Romanorum. Pepin later wrote a letter to the Pope asking him if he could depose the Merovingian kings who now held no real power. The Pope agreed.

Pepin then declared war on the Lombards for conquering Ravenna, a place that was as much subject to the Pope in Rome as to the Emperor of the Byzantines. But Pepin died in 768, before he could invade Italy.

The Kingdom of the Franks was now divided between Pepin’s sons Carloman and Charlemagne. Civil war almost broke out, but Carloman died in 771. In 774 Charlemagne invaded Italy, ending the Kingdom of the Lombards.

Southern Italy Series

500 BC [link] Origins
264 BC [link] The Punic Wars
115 AD [link] The Roman Empire
405 [link] East and West
526 [link] Collapse of the West
565 [link] Reconquest
572 [link] Lombard Invasion
751 Lombard Italy
814 [link] Charlemagne's Italy
1000 [link] Italy and the Holy Roman Empire
1095 [link] The Norman Conquest
1154 [link] The Kingdom of Sicily
1250 [link] Hohenstaufen Italy
1280 [link] Anjou Sicily
1300 [link] War of the Vespers
1400 [link] Black Death
1492 [link] Renaissance Italy
1559 [link] Italian Wars
1715 [link] Habsburg Italy
1780 [link] Bourbon Italy
1799 [link] Revolutionary Italy
1812 [link] Napoleonic Italy
1860 [link] United Italy

2/19/12 EDIT:
map base source [link]
map base created by Citypeek [link]