Lombards

The Lombards, Longobards or Langobards (Latin: Langobardi) were a Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774 AD. They had previously settled in the Middle Danube in the 5th century, near what is now Austria, Slovenia and Hungary. Still earlier they lived further north, near present day Hamburg. Roman-era historians in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD mention the Lombards as one of the Suebian peoples, and report them living on the Lower Elbe already in the early 1st century. Their legacy is apparent in Lombardy, northern Italy, the region deriving its name from them.

There are no contemporary accounts of the Lombards in the 3rd or 4th century, or for most of the 5th century, which is when they reappear, near the Danube river far to the south. Legendary accounts of the Lombard migration are found in several early medieval texts, the oldest being the Origo Gentis Langobardorum (Origin of the Lombard People). There are two other notable later adaptions, the Chronicon Gothanum and the more scholarly History of the Lombards by Paul the Deacon, written between 787 and 796 AD, which contain more information. All three describe the Lombards as a people who moved to the Danube from somewhere near the North Sea. The details, however, differ until they enter "Rugiland" soon after Odoacer's defeat in 487/488 AD of the Rugii, who had a kingdom near what is now Vienna.

In the Danube region, the Lombards came into conflict with other small kingdoms, starting with the Heruls, neighbours of the Rugii, and culminating with their defeat of the Gepids. The Lombard king Audoin defeated the Gepid leader Thurisind in 551 or 552 AD, and Audoin's successor Alboin eventually destroyed the Gepids in 567 AD. The Lombards also settled further south in Pannonia, in modern-day Hungary. Near Szólád, archaeologists have unearthed burial sites of Lombard men and women being buried together as families, unusual among Germanic peoples at the time. Contemporary traces have also been discovered of Mediterranean Greeks and a possible migrant from France.

Following Alboin's victory over the Gepids, he led his people into northeastern Italy, which had become severely depopulated and devastated by the long Gothic War (535–554) between the Byzantine Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom. The Lombards were joined by numerous Saxons, Heruls, Gepids, Bulgars, Thuringians and Ostrogoths, and their invasion of Italy was almost unopposed. By late 569 AD, they had conquered all of northern Italy and the principal cities north of the Po River except Pavia, which fell in 572 AD. At the same time, they occupied areas in central and southern Italy. They established a Lombard Kingdom in north and central Italy, which reached its zenith under the 8th century ruler Liutprand. In 774 AD, the kingdom was conquered by the Frankish king Charlemagne and integrated into the Frankish Empire. Lombard nobles, however, continued to rule the southern parts of the Italian peninsula well into the 11th century, when they were conquered by the Normans and added to the County of Sicily. During this period, the southern part of Italy still under Lombard control was known to the Norse as Langbarðaland or 'land of the Lombards', as inscribed in Norse runestones.