ITALY UNDER THE LOMBARDS
By
L. M. HARTMANN
We know
nothing about the way the Lombard wanderings took, though tradition says a good
deal about them. The extensive farming they practised, consisting more in
cattle-breeding than agriculture, and the loose organisation of the tribe made
it easy for them to leave their dwelling-places. Perhaps here, as is so often
the case, the first motive was need of land, a natural result of the increase
of population, while at the same time so small a tribe had no possibility of
enlarging its boundaries. A division of Lombards invaded Pannonia with the Marcomanni
about the year 165, but were repulsed by the Romans and obliged to return. They did not again reach the old Roman frontier, the Danube, till 300
years later, under a certain king Godeoch, who occupied the desolated Rugiland
after the destruction of their empire by Odovacar in the year 487. Meanwhile during the troubles
of their wanderings and continual wars the institution of a constant
commander-in-chief in form of kingship seems to have taken the place of the
Tacitean duke who was invested for every single war. From Rugiland they
wandered into the land which was called "Feld" (in Hungary) but were
subdued by the Heruli and forced to pay tribute. At that time they were
probably landlords, leaving the land to subjected half-freemen (aldiones) for
culture; we may suppose that they were at that time strongly influenced by
their neighbours, the Bavarians, and it was then that they adopted Christianity
in its Arian form. But not very long afterwards, during the Franco-Ostrogothic war
in Gaul, the Lombards, under the reign of their king Tato of the family of
Leth, shook off the yoke of the Heruli, who were allied with Theodoric,
succeeded in beating them completely in a battle somewhere in the Hungarian
plain, and entirely destroyed their realm. The Lombards now had the Gepidae on
the south and the Danube on the west. Tato's nephew and successor, King Vacho,
who had married one daughter to a Frankish king and another to Garibald, duke
of Bavaria, considered himself friend and ally of the Roman Emperor.
When after
the death of the last "Lethingian" king his guardian Audoin had
mounted the throne, the Lombards crossed the Danube and, while the Ostrogothic
land was in great confusion, occupied the south-west of Hungary, and also
Noricum, the south of Styria, both belonging in name to the Roman Empire, but
left to them for settlement by Justinian. In this way they were loosely
federated with the Empire, which paid them subsidies, but was nevertheless
troubled by their raids. They assisted Narses in his decisive expedition to
Italy, bringing him 2500 warriors with 3000 armed followers, but the Byzantine
soon sent them back after the deciding battle, seeing how dangerous they were
to friend and foe through their fierceness and want of discipline. Meanwhile the
Lombards and Gepidae, stirred up by the Roman Emperor, were engaged in
constant battles and struggles. After Audoin's death his son and successor
Alboin, well known to fable, concluded a league with the Avars, engaging
himself to pay the tenth part of all cattle for their help in war and, in case
of victory, to give up the land of the Gepidae to the Avars. The latter made
their invasion from the north-east, the Lombards from the north-west. In the
decisive battle Kunimund, king of the Gepidae, was slain by Alboin's hand, the
king's daughter taken prisoner and made queen by Alboin. Part of the Gepidae
took flight, another part surrendered to the Lombards; their realm existed no
more, their land and the few who stayed behind fell under the government of the
Avars, who were now the Lombards' most dangerous neighbours. But the Lombards renewed their confederacy with them, and left to them
the land they had themselves occupied till then, intending to conquer for
themselves a better and richer land in Italy, which many of them already knew. At the command of Alboin
they assembled on 1 April 568, with family, goods and chattels, with a mixed
multitude of all the subjugated races already assimilated by their people. With
a great number of allies — 20,000 Saxons among others — and grouped in tribes
(fara) they crossed the Alps under the guidance of Alboin. About the same time
Narses was recalled by Justinian's successor: hence arose a rumour, reporting
that the commander had committed treason, by calling the Lombards ; and this
became the saga of Narses.
In spite of
the well-organised defensive system which Narses had established, the Romans
seem to have been surprised and made no attempt at defence. The Lombards threw
down the Friulian limes with its castles and, marching into the Venetian plain,
took Cividale (Forum Julii), the first important place that fell into their
hands, and afterwards the residence of the ducal dynasty of the Gisulfings;
they also destroyed the town of Aquileia, whose patriarch fled to Grado, the
later New-Aquileia, with his treasure, part of the population, and of the
soldiers. But the imperialists succeeded in holding out in Padua, Monselice,
and Mantua, thereby defending the line of the Po, while Vicenza and Verona fell
into Alboin's hands, so that the important limes of Tridentum, which bordered on
Bavaria in the north, was separated from the bulk of the imperial army. On 4
September 569, Alboin entered Milan; the archbishop Honoratus fled to Genoa, which
for two generations remained the asylum of the bishops of Milan. Ticinum
(Pavia) alone offered resistance for a time and could only be taken after a
long siege, during which and afterwards other Lombard troops scoured the
country up to the Alps and took possession of the land except a few
fortifications. Undoubtedly the Lombard bands had as little idea of systematic
attack as the imperialists of systematic defence: and it seems the latter
judged the Lombard invasions to be like other barbarian invasions, which soon
passed away. Alboin himself seems to have dated his reign in Italy from the
time of his occupation of Milan.
Alboin did
not long enjoy his fame. Revolted by her husband's insolence, who forced her to
drink from a cup made of her father Kunimund's skull, Rosamund conspired with
Alboin's foster-brother Helmechis and a powerful man called Peredeo ; the
barbarian hero-king was murdered in his bed (in spring 572). But as Rosamund could
not realise her plan of taking possession of the throne with Helmechis, against
the Lombards' opposition, the two fled to Ravenna, taking the royal treasure
with them. Here the queen wanted to get rid of her accomplice and marry
Longinus, praefect of Italy ; but Helmechis forced her to finish the poison she
had given him. So the praefect could only deliver Alboin's daughter and the
treasure to Constantinople. This is what the saga
related, and we can neither confirm nor contradict its details. The duke Cleph of the
family of Beleos was now made king by the Lombards at Pavia, but was murdered
after one and a half years' reign (574). Lombard bands spread further in middle
and southern Italy, but so small was the need of a single leader that they
chose no more kings, but every one of the dukes, 35 in number, reigned
independently in his own district.
These
dukes, called duces by our authorities, but whose Lombard titles we do not
know, are not to be confounded with the duces in the Tacitean sense. We must
picture them as leaders of a military division chosen by the king from among
the nobles. Their position changed naturally, when the Lombard people was no
longer on march, but the same clans were garrisoned permanently in the same
town, as the saga of Gisulf's appointment in Friuli exemplifies, and occupied
permanently the same district, living on its produce. These districts generally
coincided with the Roman division in civitates, and a walled town formed the centre.
Probably these towns were at first used as victualling stations, managed in a
more or less regular manner, sometimes perhaps by imposing payment of a third
on the peasants, of the district. But this could only be considered a
transition state, preparing the way for definite settlement. The fierce
Lombards had not come as federates or friends like the Goths, but as enemies,
and treated the Romans jure belli.
The Roman
freeman — the curialis who owned a moderate property in the town or the great
landowner in the country — had fled, or had been killed or enslaved, and only
the great mass of working people, the coloni, and the agricultural slaves, had
been left on the soil, though many had perished during the terrors of war. When
the Lombards began to settle, they divided the land, with all its bondmen, as
far as it had not been entirely devastated, between the free Lombards, who
thereby took the place of the Roman landlords. The coloni were considered as aldiones,
as half-freemen, and paid tribute and did socage service for the Lombards as
they had done for the Romans before. Of course the possessions of the Catholic
Church, which was the Church of the Roman State, fell under the same lot of
division. The dukes claimed for themselves all the public land with its
traditional duties as well, but every free Lombard warrior was entitled to part
of the booty, and therefore became also a landowner. In this way the local
division in all those parts which had not been totally devastated, and which
were ploughed again after a time, suffered no change. The culture was much the
same, with the one difference that the Lombards, having brought great herds of
cattle, especially swine, from Pannonia, attached more importance within the
manor to stock-management and cattle-breeding than the Romans had done. The towns and municipal settlements were likewise unchanged, because the
Lombards, who had known stone buildings only upon Roman soil, accommodated
themselves to the conditions of a higher culture. It is certain that
regard was paid to the connexion between the fara (clan) in every settlement,
but on the other hand it was just the manorial and municipal settlement which
entirely destroyed the connexion within the fara, so that the rest of the
original clan-organisation soon disappeared. Two of the duchies were somewhat
different in origin and organisation from those of the north of Italy, the "great
duchies" of Spoleto and Benevento. They did not go back to the time of
conquest in common, but were founded by independent enterprises of Lombard
bands, who had severed from the great mass under command of their chiefs and
invaded the land on their own account. They were much larger in extent than one
civitas, so that here the civitas forms a subdivision of the duchy.
Spoleto and Benevento. 574-579
In the year 575 or 576 the patrician Baduarius,
son-in-law to the Emperor Justin, and his army were entirely beaten by the
Lombards. They
approached Ravenna, the duke Faroald even occupied for a time Classis, its
port, destroyed the Petra Pertusa,, which defended the Via Flaminia, and
thereby forced the passage of the Apennines. Faroald occupied Nursia, Spoleto,
and other towns and installed an Arian bishop in Spoleto, which was now the
centre of his duchy. Another duke, Zotto, who with his partly heathen bands
inundated the province of Samnium and spread terror all around, settled down in
Benevento. The connexion between Ravenna and Rome was interrupted
at times; even Rome was besieged in the year 579, but the Lombards were obliged
to give up the siege as well as that of Naples two years later, because Roman
walls, kept in good condition and provided with a sufficient number of
defenders, were impregnable to them. During the next years the two dukedoms took a
still wider range, limited only by Rome with its surroundings and by Byzantine
seaport-towns, which could not be taken from the land side. During the kingless
time Benevento and Spoleto grew so strong that they were able to keep up their
independence.
In the
north of Italy too the incoherent government of the dukes did not permit any
uniform action. Even in Alboin's time various troops had detached themselves
and pillaged in Gaul, but upon the whole these adventurers had no success
against Mummolus, commander-in-chief of the Burgundian king Guntram. The
Saxons, who did not want to assimilate with the Lombards and intended to make
their way home through the land of the Franks, were likewise beaten in the
following years.
But these bands had shown the way into the
neighbouring kingdom to the dukes of North Italy. Some of these marched
into the upper valley of the Rhone and were beaten by the Burgundians near Bex
(574) and no better did they fare next year, as they were repulsed by Mummolus,
after having laid waste the land between the Rhone, the Isêre and the Alps. At this time Susa and Aosta, the most important passage over the West
Alps, seem to have fallen into the hands of the Franks, and on the other side,
a Frankish duke, Chramnichis, advanced from Austrasia into the dukedom of
Trent, but was, after a short success, totally defeated with his troops by the
duke Evin near Salurn. These
conflicts took a dangerous aspect when the Emperor Maurice sent subsidies (50,000
solidi) to the young king Childebert of Austrasia in order to drive out the
Lombards.
In 584 King
Childebert conducted an army against Italy, and so weak had the want of
monarchical leading rendered the Lombard dukes that they dared not offer
resistance, and sent presents in token of submission. Besides this their force
of resistance had been weakened by the treason of some of their
fellow-countrymen who were not ashamed of joining the imperialists against
their own people. The imperial policy was to combat barbarians with barbarians,
and to spend abundant means for this purpose. In this manner they had won over
the duke Drocton of Brexillum, a Lombard duke of Suevic family, who succeeded
in expelling Faroald from Classis, and other deserters were found as well. Standing
in danger of losing all their booty by dispersing their forces, the dukes of
West Italy at last resolved to unite again under a king's leading.
Authari. 584
They elected Authari the son of Cleph (584), and
conceded to him (as we hear), in order to give material foundation to the new
kingdom, half of their own lands, which were later administered by royal gastaldi. The dukedom
had, in consequence of the settlements during the last ten years, become quite
a different thing from what it had been at the time of Alboin, and also the new
kingdom was obliged to represent not only the leading power of the army as
before but also territorial power.
The king's
attempt to strengthen the new central power against the forces of disunion,
grown strong during the last period, now formed the most important part of the
Lombard State's politics, as it was the king's task to form a really united
State. He was no longer satisfied with the dignity of a barbarian chieftain,
but aspired to reign lawfully within the territory of the Roman Empire. We see
this from the fact that Authari first took up the name Flavius, which all his
successors kept, though he was not acknowledged by the Empire, as for instance
Theodoric had been.
Theodelinda. 588-590
The Lombards wanted this territory to comprise all
Italy, and a legend illustrating the fact tells us that Authari rode into the
sea at the south point of Italy, and touched a solitary column, projecting out
of the waves, with his spear and called out: "This is to be the boundary of
the Lombard realm"; but in reality Authari's task was of a more modest
character and limited to the north of Italy. A new attack of the Austrasians
failed in consequence of the leaders' disagreements, and as the Exarch
Smaragdus felt too weak to offer resistance to the Lombards without their help,
Authari managed to conclude an armistice for three years, the first that was
concluded between the Lombards and the Empire. Authari seems to have availed himself of
this opportunity partly to restore order in North Italy and partly to ensure
his boundary in the north, and above all to destroy the Franco-Byzantine
league, which threatened the existence of his realm. He therefore betrothed himself
to Childebert's sister, but the engagement was soon broken by the Franks when
the Frankish imperial and catholic party of Brunhild got the ascendant. Authari
however married Theodelinda (588?), the Catholic daughter of the Bavarian duke
Garibal, who, by her mother, belonged to the old Lombard royal family of the
Lethings. The other daughter was married to the mighty duke Evin of Tridentum,
and her brother Gundoald was made duke of Asti by Authari. When the Franks, by
this time, repeated their invasion of Italy under the leading of a few dukes,
they were entirely beaten after a hot battle. Childebert's revenge was
prevented by Authari's negotiations with him (589) and by his offer to become
even a dependent confederate and pay tribute. Meanwhile, after the armistice
had ended, Authari had succeeded in removing the last remnants of imperial
power on the northern boundaries of Italy, and had probably also obtained his
acknowledgment by the duke of Friuli. Nevertheless his position was much
impaired when a new exarch, Romanus, appeared in Ravenna with reinforcements, regained
Altinum, Modena, and Mantua, and induced the Lombard dukes of the Emilia, as
well as the duke of Friuli, to join the imperialists. The negotiations were
broken off, and imperialists and Franks planned to destroy the Lombard power by
a systematic and simultaneous attack from north and south, and had even agreed
already on the distribution of the booty. Twenty Frankish dukes broke forth
from the Alps in two divisions, one marching against Milan, the other under the
duke Chedinus against Verona, after having broken through the fortification of
the frontier and devastated the land all around (summer 590) ; but no important
conflicts took place, because the Lombards retired into their fortifications,
fearing the enemy's overwhelming numbers. The exarch came to meet the Franks at
Mantua, and intended to march in a line parallel to them against Pavia, to
which Authari had drawn back; but this plan was not put into practice, it is
said, in consequence of misunderstandings.
The Frankish dukes tried to secure their movable
booty, and Duke Chedinus is said to have concluded an armistice for ten months;
but epidemics and famine caused great losses on their way back. After these efforts,
which had brought no real success to them, the Franks ceased to invade Italy
for more than a century and a half. Authari lived to manage the negotiations
for peace which led to a lasting friendship between the Franks and Lombards
later on, though only on condition of paying tribute to the Franks — a burden
which was, as it seems, not for a long time thrown off by the Lombards. The northern boundary, at all events, was secured, and the Lombards were
only threatened from one side, by the imperials. But Authari did not live to see the
definite treaty of peace ; he is said to have been poisoned and died (5 Sept. 590).
The result of his active life was the establishment of a kingdom and the
Lombard State, though many difficulties still awaited the Lombards from within
and without.
Agilulf. 590-605
Two months after Authari's death, Agilulf, duke of
Turin, obtained the crown and married his predecessor's widow, Theodelinda. In May 591 an assembly
of Lombards at Milan acknowledged him solemnly, but a number of North Italian
dukes had then to be subdued in repeated battles; also Piacenza and Parma were
again subjected, and in the latter town the king's son-in-law was established
as duke, as the king generally claimed the right to nominate the dukes himself.
He ensured the northern boundary by an agreement with the Avars which became a
defensive and offensive alliance later on. The time had now come for a
systematic attack on the imperialists. The newly nominated duke of Benevento,
Arichis, who had consolidated his duchy by gaining nearly all the territories
in South Italy with the exception of a few towns on the coast, had the especial
task of marching against Naples and threatening Rome from the south, while
Ariulf of Spoleto had already destroyed the land communication between Rome and
Ravenna in April 592, and even appeared before Rome in the summer, afterwards turning
to the north and taking the castles on the upper Tiber. To be sure, the exarch
succeeded in regaining them during the time he was free of Agilulf; but in 593
the king himself advanced southward, occupied Perusia, and appeared before
Rome. The siege ended in a treaty with Pope Gregory who only wished for peace,
but it was not acknowledged by the exarch after the king had marched off ; the
war did not cease, and the Lombards made constant progress. It was only after
the Exarch Romanus' death (596) that, by the pope's urging, the transactions
were renewed seriously; it is true that the new exarch, Callinicus, carried on
the war in North Italy, but he concluded an armistice of a year in autumn 598 on
the basis of the status quo and engaged himself to pay 500 pounds in gold to
the Lombard king. The armistice was renewed for the time from spring 600-601
but, when the war was taken up again, the exarch succeeded in making prisoners
of the duke of Parma and his wife, Agiluif's daughter; but the Lombard king
took Padua, devastated Istria with Slav and Avar troops, conquered the
fortified town of Monselice, enforced peace on the rebellious dukes of Friuli
and Tridentum, and occupied in 603 Cremona and Mantua. The
central position of the imperialists at Ravenna appeared to be endangered after
the subjugation of all the north of Italy, and the Exarch Smaragdus, who was
again sent to Italy after the fall of the Emperor Maurice, hastily concluded a
new armistice till 605, and surrendered the king's daughter, Then Agilulf
crossed the Apennines once more, occupied Balneum Regis and Orvieto, but in
November, 605 the imperialists obtained a new armistice at the price of paying
a tribute of 12,000 solidi. From that time till Agilulf's death and even afterwards, this
armistice was continually prolonged. It is true that a definite state of peace,
which would have naturally led to a legal partition of the Italian soil, was
not effected, though Agilulf's ambassador Stablicianus seems to have entered
into negotiations on this subject in Constantinople. Agilulf died in 616 after
25 years of a warlike reign, in which he had expanded and strengthened his
empire and obliged the Romans to pay tribute.
Theodelinda and Adaloald . 605-628
To Agilulf
his son Adaloald (a minor) followed in name, but Theodelinda exercised the
ruling influence on government in his place. While Authari had never allowed
Lombard children Catholic baptism, a Catholic chapel had been conceded to
Theodelinda at Monza and Adaloald himself was already baptized as a Catholic,
though by a schismatic, and Theodelinda, who exchanged occasional letters with
Pope Gregory, was schismatic in relation to the Three Chapters. In this way
Agilulf had not tolerated the organisation of the Roman Church within the reach
of his power, but the schismatic bishop of Aquileia and his schismatic
suffragans had taken refuge with the Lombards. Agilulf had also given deserted
land in the Apennines at the confluence of the torrent Bobbio and the Trebbia
to the Irish monk Columba (Columbanus) who had fled from Gaul, and differed
dogmatically from Rome. He also gave permission to lay the foundations of a
monastery at Bobbio, but the monks soon turned to orthodoxy after Columbanus'
death, and even got a privilege in 628, by which they were exempted from the
power of the neighbouring bishop of Tortona. In contrast to the national
chiefs, who were still Arian, the government favoured the Catholics or at least
the schismatics, and in consequence Roman influence made rapid progress in the
Lombard kingdom, favoured partly by the social influence of the Roman subjects,
partly by the intercourse with the Roman neighbours, which the long armistices
had so well prepared. Nevertheless the peace was once more broken at the
beginning of Adaloald's reign between the Exarch Eleutherius and the Lombards
under the commander Sundrarius, who owed his training to Agilulf, but this war
was ended by another armistice, the exarch consenting to pay a tribute of 500
pounds in gold. In the following years the Roman influence on the king was so
great that he was generally said to be either mad or bewitched. Perhaps it was
the national party among the Lombards which raised upon the buckler Arioald,
the duke of Turin, the husband of Adaloald's sister Gundeberga, and after
several combats dethroned King Adaloald, who was then said to have been removed
by poison (626). Arioald reigned ten years too, without much change in the
course of Lombard politics. He came in conflict with
his Catholic wife, who was released from prison by the intervention of the
Franks and allowed Catholic service in a church of John the Baptist at Pavia.
Duchy of Friuli. 26-652
The alliance which Agilulf had formed with the Avars
was dissolved. They invaded Italy and killed Gisulf, duke of Friuli, with
nearly the whole of his army; his widow perfidiously surrendered Cividale which
was entirely burnt down and the open country was devastated, the Lombards
offering resistance only in the fortified castles at the frontier, till the
Avars turned back to Pannonia after their raid. No help was to be expected for Friuli at
that time from the weak kingdom ; but at last Gisulf's sons escaped from the
Avars, and the two eldest, Taso and Cacco, took the reins of government into
their hands. While the power of the Avars was decreasing, the young dukes in
alliance with Bavarians and Alemans fought successfully against the Slays, and
during Arioald's reign penetrated victoriously into the valleys of the Alps perhaps
as far as Windisch-Matrei and the valley of the Gail, and obliged the Slays to
pay tribute. But, following the intention of Arioald, it is said, the exarch
quietly removed Taso and Cacco, and their uncle Grasulf was nominated duke of
Friuli while the two younger sons of Gisulf, Radoald and Grimoald, appealed to
the protection of the mighty duke Arichis of Benevento.
After
Arioald's death the nobles in the kingdom elected the duke Rothari of Brescia,
an ardent Arian, who was connected with the former dynasty by his marriage with
the widowed queen Gundeberga. Nevertheless his policy (unlike that of his
predecessors in the last twenty years) was decidedly hostile to the Romans,
though he tolerated the gradual establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in the
Lombard kingdom. He sought to keep order in all internal matters and to raise
the king's authority over the nobles, and to this purpose war against the
imperials, which had rested during two decades, was taken up again, in order to
strengthen the king's royal domain by new conquests. He passed the Apennines
and conquered the coast between Luna and the Frankish boundary; he did not
instal dukes here but kept the conquered land under direct royal administration,
so that the greater part of the west of Italy was royal. He destroyed Oderzo in the east, the last remnant of Roman power on the Venetian
mainland, and slew the imperials in a bloody battle on the borders of the
Scultenna not far from the central seat of Roman dominion; he concluded a
suspension of hostilities shortly before his death (652). His son Rodoald followed
him, but was killed after a few months' reign.
Rothari. 643-662
More famous even than by his victorious enterprises
and by the saga that attaches itself to the name of "King Rother,"
Rothari was the first legislator of the Lombards. Up to that time, the
Lombards, like all barbarian nations, had been ruled by customary laws, handed
down to them verbally by their ancestors. Rothari
ordered them to be written down, published as Edictus after having consulted
his nobles, and confirmed according to Lombard custom by an assembly of
warriors at Pavia (22 Nov. 643). Of course it was a territorial law, for only the
Lombard, who alone was "fulc-free," was subject to Lombard law in the
Lombard State, and the fact of its being written down shewed clearly enough
that the Lombard State placed itself in the same line with the respublica (the Empire)
and the other acknowledged States as perfectly equal to them. When Rothari declares
the law should protect the poor against the oppressions of the mighty, we can
find therein part of the means he employed to keep order in internal matters.
The kingdom was not only protected by some of the laws of the Edictus but also
shewed its power by the fact of issuing legal regulations for the whole
country, which, if not at once, were at all events after a short time accepted
irrevocably from Benevento to Cividale. Its matter is essentially German law,
but in the supplements which Rothari's successors added, we can trace alien
influence; and, moreover, the form is naturally influenced by Roman patterns.
Comparative science of law has proved that Lombard law had the greatest
likeness to Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian law — a proof that the
Lombards preserved their law unchanged in essential matters since their
departure from the lower Elbe. The Edictus is systematically arranged, and
treats of crimes against king, state, or man, especially compensations for
bodily injuries, law of inheritance and family right, and manumission, then
obligations and real estate, crimes against property, oath, and bail. It can
well be called the best juridical codification of barbarian law.
The
successor of Rothari's son was Aripert, the son of that duke Gundoald of Asti,
who had come from Bavaria with his sister Theodelinda. During the nine years
of his reign he, as a Catholic, carried on the traditions of Theodelinda, in
opposition to Rothari. He built a Catholic church at Pavia and favoured the
Catholic hierarchy, although the assertion of a poem which celebrates the
merits of his dynasty about the year 700, that "the good and pious
king" abolished the Arian heresy, is probably exaggerated. The bishop of
Pavia was converted to Catholicism. A change of policy took place only after
his death (661), when his two young sons Godepert in Pavia and Perctarit in
Milan, to whom he had left the government, fell out, and Godepert claimed the
help of the mighty duke Grimoald of Benevento against his brother. After the death
of Arichis, and his son Ajo, who had perished in a battle against Slav pirates
near Sipontum (662), the two sons of Gisulf of Friuli, Radoald and Grimoald,
attained the dignity of dukedom consecutively, and energetically maintained
their power in several battles against the imperialists. Grimoald, duke of Benevento
since 657, now marched into North Italy by the east side of the Apennines
against the centre of the Lombard realm, while his subordinate, the count of
Capua, marched through Spoleto and Tuscia and joined the duke by Piacenza. Assisted by the treachery of the duke Garibald of Turin, Grimoald seized
the reins of government himself after having killed King Godepert with his
sword; Perctarit had fled from Milan to the Avars and his wife and young son
Cunincpert had been sent into exile to Benevento. Grimoald now married Aripert's
daughter; who was already betrothed to him, and legitimated his power by a
later election at Pavia; for the purpose of gaining firm support he bestowed
royal domains in upper Italy on several of his faithful followers of Benevento.
He was the first Lombard king who united the king's royal domain in the north
with Benevento under his actual government.
Grimoald.
662-671
Mighty as he was, Grimoald had a long struggle for the
preservation of his royal power. Perctarit came back, and seemed to submit
himself, but was soon obliged to fly to the Franks, after the discovery of a conspiracy
between his followers and some disaffected dukes. The intervention of a
Frankish army in favour of the banished dynasty had no success; by stratagem
Grimoald contrived to attack them suddenly near Asti and slew them. In the year
663 the Emperor Constans had landed at Tarentum, in order to obtain a new base
for his heavily oppressed empire by conquests in the West, and the expulsion of
the Lombards was naturally the first condition for this enterprise. The Emperor
occupied Luceria with superior forces, assaulted Acerenza without success, and then
besieged Grimoald's young son Romuald at Benevento. The
latter pledged his sister Gisa in token of submission after having offered
resistance bravely; but Grimoald had already reached the river Sangro with a relieving
army, though many Lombards had left him, and young Romuald did not fulfil his
pledge; the Emperor gave up his siege and moved on to his own city of Naples.
This imperial army was said to have been defeated twice: at all events Constans
gave up war against the Lombards for a time and after a short visit to Rome
went on to Sicily, where he was murdered. Romuald then occupied Tarentum, Brundusium, and
all the rest of the imperial dominion on the Adriatic coast of South Italy,
with the exception of Hydruntum; and Grimoald, after having installed Transamund,
a duke of his choice, in Spoleto, again devoted himself to his most urgent
tasks in North Italy, where he found in rebellion the duke Lupus of Friuli,
whom he had left in his place at Pavia. Evidently menaced by other rebellions
as well, the king himself appealed to the Khagan of the Avars, for help against
the duke; Lupus perished in the battle, but the Avars now prepared to occupy
Friuli as conquered land. But, in spite of the insufficiency of his military
forces, Grimoald induced them to depart, and set up Wechthari, a powerful
soldier and the terror of the Slays, as duke of Friuli in place of Arnefrit,
the son of Lupus, who had tried to regain his father's inheritance by help of
the Slays, but had been beaten and killed near Nimis. Grimoald
took away Forli from the imperials and razed to the ground Oderzo, where his
brothers had once been murdered: then he made peace with the Franks, so that Perctarit
did not feel safe any longer in his asylum, and prepared to fly to England. At this time the mighty
king Grimoald died, after having made sure the limits of his realm, and broken
the dukes' power, in the ninth year of his reign (671). His eldest son Romuald
took his place in the dukedom of Benevento, while the young boy Garibald, his
son by Aripert's daughter, inherited the royal crown.
The
Bavarian Dynasty. 671-698
By this time Perctarit returned from his exile and
dethroned his nephew Garibald with the help of his numerous followers; he and
his dynasty now held the throne for more than 40 years consecutively. He made his son
Cunincpert co-regent (680) and entered into friendly terms with Romuald of
Benevento, whose son, the younger Grimoald, married Perctarit's daughter. In
the south as well as in the north-west Catholicism gained exclusive power, and
in Benevento and Pavia many foundations of cloisters spoke of a growing piety,
shewn especially by the two princesses. Numerous Lombard bishops had already
assisted at the Roman synod of 680; on the other hand the Three Chapters
Schism lasted on in Austrasia, on the east border of the Adda, in contrast to
Neustria westwards, where royalty had taken root more decidedly. The duke
Alahis of Tridentum, who had extended his territory northward in the direction
of the Bavarians, was too strong for Perctarit and even added the dukedom of
Brescia to his own. After Perctarit's death he also occupied Pavia, drove King
Cunincpert to a refuge on an isle in the Lake of Como and acted as king,
acknowledged by the greater part of the north of Italy. But passing for a
heretic and acting recklessly against the Church, he made an enemy of the
hierarchy, and Cunincpert was soon able to return to Pavia, protected by their
adherents. Between Neustria and Austria on the field of Coronate a battle was
fought between them; Alahis fell, and a great part of his followers perished
in the flood of the Adda. This was at once a victory of kingdom over dukedom,
and orthodoxy over the Three Chapters Schism. An insurrection in Friuli was
also subdued; at a synod that had been convoked at the king's request in Pavia
(698 ?) even those bishops of Austrasia who were still schismatic acknowledged
the fifth and sixth oecumenical councils, and thus the unity of Catholic faith
was established in Lombard Italy. The only lasting effect of this schism was
the division of the patriarchate of Aquileia between the bishops of Grado and
of Old-Aquileia, following the civil boundaries between Lombards and Romans.
Even before the Roman Church triumphed throughout the whole Lombard realm,
after the Emperor Constans' attempt to reconquer what he had lost had failed, and
the Bavarian dynasty's traditional policy of peace had replaced Grimoald's
belligerent policy — even at that time definite peace had been made between the
Empire and the Lombards, thereby placing the Lombard State amid the States
which were officially acknowledged by the respublica. The acknowledgment of the
status quo, the limits, which had been fixed by a hundred years of war, formed
the basis of peace ; and the Lombards renounced any further policy of conquest. This peace seems to have been concluded between
678-681 at Constantinople, and from that time the Lombard bishops, when the
pope confirmed their nomination at Rome, swore to provide that "peace,
which God loves, be maintained in eternity between the Respublica and us, that
is, the Lombard people."
Roman
Influence. 671-712
Roman influence affected the Lombards in different
ways. Intercourse
with the half-free Roman subjects had always been a strong force since the
beginning of the settlement; the schismatics coming from the Roman Empire had
found reception even at a very early period, as had the merchants during the
times of armistice, who maintained friendly relations and profited by the great
Lombard market; but when definite peace had been made, lasting relations and
safe intercourse with the new allies were possible, so that free Romans and
above all Catholic clergy established themselves in the lands of their new
friends and allies, who also acknowledged their right to be tried by Roman law.
Intermarriage must have frequently happened at a very early period, and was
furthered by Lombard laws, which considered the freedman and free as equal, so
that marriages with freedmen or freedwomen were allowed and very common; after
the definite peace even unions between Lombards and women of the Roman Empire
were not a rare thing either. As the Lombards were in a small minority, even in
their own territory, intermarriage naturally had a marked effect. The
adaptation of the reigning people to the Roman culture they had found led the
same way. Thus they came to the knowledge of new forms of culture and luxury,
which could only be satisfied in the Roman manner, partly by the industry of
Roman subjects, partly by booty made in war, and since the peace also by regular
imports. Trade and art are of Roman stamp, although the workmanship is decayed and
accommodates itself somewhat to barbarian taste. It was only in Italy that the
Lombards learnt to erect stone buildings, to construct larger ships, and use
weapons of metal; their clothing changed similarly and they gradually accepted
the vulgar Latin language, especially because all the terms of their new
culture belonged to that language, the only written language used, not only for
written law, but all other documents which were drawn up by Roman ecclesiastics
and notaries following Roman formulae. As their importance grew, the written
word gained supremacy in all matters of law. The oldest stories of Lombard
history and tradition are also written in Latin, and whatever there was of
science, in connexion with the Roman Church, was of course Latin. So the lasting
peace, and especially the peace with the Catholic Church, essentially accelerated
the process of assimilation in this sphere as well as in all others.
Constitutional
development, as well as culture, was conditioned by the fact and manner of
settlement. The territorial State develops a centralizing kingship in combat
with centrifugal forces, and hides the original basis of German freedom. The sept or clan had already lost every economical foundation by the
settlement, and we find no traces of the centena among the Lombards. Politically the sept
recedes as well, but in matters of right it is only gradually superseded by the
State. Rothari's legislation endeavours to restrain the feud-right to the sept
; high penalties are fixed for the purpose of making the injured choose these instead
of feud ; guiltless acts are not to lead to feud. The members of the sept
intervene as assistants at an oath, as combatants for a woman's right at an
ordeal; and the mundium of an unmarried woman is due to the members of the
sept if she has no nearer family relations. In contrast to these poor remnants
of the sept's power, which once had been so great, family-connection is very
powerful, so that even by a disposal a last will was allowed only very late and
quite exceptionally. The national assembly, that is the assembly of arimanni, still
existed, and this as well as the kingship expressed the Lombard unity; but
this assembly also was naturally entirely changed by the territorial State,
having lost its organic foundations in the septs, and as an assembly comprising
all or nearly all warriors was quite impossible considering the territorial extension
of the State. In reality it consisted only in the army that was just ready for
military operations, the king's attendants and the dukes and nobles present,
and, whereas the nobles were actually often summoned to the preparatory
council, the assembly of warriors had no possibility of influencing current
state affairs and only served to heighten solemnities at a king's election or
law-giving. The other element of unity, which had probably been born only in
the time of wanderings — the kingship—predominated more and more in comparison; it seems to have been attached to one family at a very early period, and up
to the eighth century connection with the Lethingians was kept up at least by
the feminine line; but besides this inherited right, general German custom
demanded election, raising upon the buckler, and a solemn act of fealty from
the fideles. On the other hand, the territorial State and Roman influence soon
decided the extent of the king's power, though he called himself rex gentis
Langobardorum. This influence expresses itself not only in the addition of the
Roman name of Flavius and the Roman name of honour, vir excellentissimus, but
also in the assertion of the king's nearly unlimited power, which is already
expressed in Rothari's Edict: "we believe that the hearts of the kings
are in the hands of God." The king has not only the arriere-ban, and all
rights in connexion with it. As supreme justice and protector of peace, he has
his own peace secured by a high penalty, intercedes wherever all other forces give
way, is the Lombard State's supreme guardian in a certain sense, and being the
State's only representative, no difference is made between his own rights and
those of the State. His alone is the right of coinage, since the Lombards —
before Rothari even — had learnt the art and use of coining from the Romans;
and that the duke of Benevento coined as well as the king only shews how
independent he kept himself of the Lombard State.
Government . 671-712
Opposed to the centralising kingdom is the particular
power of the dukes, their different positions varying of course from the summus
dux gentis Langobardorum down to the duke of a small provincial town in North
Italy. But
on the whole the dukes endeavoured to found their power on inherited rights,
and to exercise in their own territory the same authority which belonged to the
king in the whole State, whereas the king claimed for himself the right of
nominating the dukes and treated them as his officials. But the foundation of
the king's royal domain was especially intended to counterbalance the power of
the dukes; the larger this royal domain, the greater was the power of the
State. Except those duchies which were in the hands of the royal family, this royal
domain is said to have been partly formed by the half of all ducal property,
which was given up to Cleph — though this cession can only relate to the dukes
of a part of northern Italy — and partly by the conquest of new land, which was
not left to the dukes. The whole royal domain has its own royal administration,
lying in the hands of the gastaldi who are partly royal stewards, partly the
king's representatives with competence in matters of arriêre-ban and judgment,
but being only the king's officials they have, in contrast to the dukes, no
independent jurisdiction. In Benevento and Spoleto, where immediate royal power
does not reach, the gastaldi are officials of the duke in the district of a civitas.
Subordinated to these iudices, that is the dukes and gastaldi who generally
reside in walled towns and whose office consists in a whole iudiciaria, stand
the actores (sculdahis, centenaries, locopositus) out of town, and these are
assisted by saltarii, decani, etc.
Change of
social structure caused a change of power in the Lombard State. Although
differences in distribution of the land had always been made in correspondence
with a family's rank, and although the wergeld was not uniform but varied by
habit and secundum qualitatem personae, every Lombard was not only warrior but
also landlord and lord of the manor. This ruling nation stood in contrast only
to those who had no political rights, the coloni and aldii and massarii (unfree
farmers on holdings), as well as the likewise unfree ministeriales of the
Salland and the unfree agricultural assistant labourers; the Lombards only
were taken into account politically as well as economically. But this distribution
having been made but once, gave no security whatever for a lasting condition;
the natural increase of population and the accidental impoverishment of Lombard
families, as well as manumissions to complete freedom, created a class of
Lombards without land. Part of them worked as tenants, that is small tenants,
who took holdings on lease for 29 years, remaining legally free, but losing in
social standard (libellarii); another part may have become merchants, trade
developing on account of the definite peace, and so commercial capital stood
alongside of land rent. This new state of
economic affairs expressed itself also in military service which was varied according
to property as early as the eighth century, commercial capital being placed on
a par with landed property. A law of 750 dictates cavalry service with coat of mailwand
horse and complete equipment to all who possess at least seven casae
massariae; the landlord of at least 40 iugera has to follow with one horse,
lance, and shield; those who possess still less, with shield and bow; a part
of the poor was obliged to do socage service in the fields at home. This
economic development rendered it possible for the king to form for himself a power
independent of its former limitations within the State, creating a central
organization of power by investing the free poor with landed property out of
his royal domain. The king, that is the State, at this time of natural economy
owed his income to landed property and payments in kind, for instance the
different munera (augariae and operae) to preserve public streets and
buildings, and different duties, market duties, port duties, which were raised
by royal actores and were of entirely Roman origin. The
royal property was naturally increased by every new conquest, and the coloni and
slaves paying duties were used as if they were private property; or the king
took possession of the land which had been public before the conquest, and let
it to the neighbouring hordes for pasture.
The royal
court lived on the income from the landed property, but this court was composed
of followers who stood in a special relation of fealty to the king, the Gasindi,
who on that account were greatly honoured, and had a higher wergeld than the
other free Lombards. The king entrusted them with all sorts of commissions and
delegations, chose all court officers from them, especially to the royal
marshal, the majordomus, the treasurer, the
sword-bearer, the chancellor. In this manner a
special court-nobility developed itself through the king's favour, standing in
contrast and competition with the Lombard nobility. But it was also the custom
that such Gasindi were endowed with land by the king, so that the king's landed
estate provided for this new nobility not only indirectly by keeping up the
royal household, but also directly. This new institution was only rendered
possible by the fact that a considerable part of the population, when the
original conditions of the Lombard settlement were changed, was obliged to seek
a new existence, and found it by the king's favour. On the other hand the
king's possessions diminished continually by these donations, so that for him
and his adherents it was necessary periodically to gain new land; and this was
generally only possible through new conquests, and so the peaceful period of
the Bavarian dynasty was followed by a belligerent period.
The Fall of the Bavarian Dynasty. 700-738
After Cunincpert's death (700), his young son Liutpert
reigned under the wise Ansprand's guardianship. Raginpert, duke of Turin, son of Godepert
and nephew of Perctarit, claimed the throne and defeated Ansprand near Novara,
eight months after Cunincpert's death. When
he died, shortly afterwards, his son and co-regent Aripert (II), after a second
battle, took prisoner Liutpert, who had again advanced against Pavia, and sent
the duke Rothari of Bergamo, who aspired to the throne, into exile to Turin,
where he was killed after a few days. Now Ansprand was also obliged to leave his
refuge on Lake Como and fly to the duke Teutpert of Bavaria. Liutpert was killed,
Ansprand's eldest son blinded, his wife and daughter mutilated, and only his
youngest son Liutprand spared. So the family of Godepert ruined the race of
Perctarit. But no change of policy took place. King Aripert II was peaceable
and friendly towards the Romans, and even gave back to the pope the patrimony
in the Cottian Alps. He was dethroned in winter 712, when Ansprand came back to
Italy, after nine years of exile, with a Bavarian army. Aripert fled to Pavia
and was drowned when trying to swim through the Ticino, burdened with all his
treasures. Ansprand was acknowleged as king but only reigned for three months;
but on his death-bed he was told that the Lombards had raised his son Liutprand
upon the buckler and thereby legitimated his own usurpation as well. He died 13
June 712.
Though
Liutprand did not reverse the Lombard State's development during the last
hundred and fifty years, he favoured Roman influence within his realm in every
way. He left no doubt concerning his orthodoxy and attachment to the Roman
faith, while nobody surpassed his generosity towards churches and monasteries,
but he still followed the glorious traditions of the victorious kings which had
been interrupted after Grimoald, and strictly kept in view his aim of uniting
Italy under the Lombard kingdom, although he chose various ways of approaching it
in the course of his reign. For this reason he was opposed by the Roman Empire
and the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento, who had been nearly independent during
the Bavarian dynasty's reign. Mixed up in quarrels about the Bavarian throne
through his affinity with the dukes of Bavaria, he advanced the Lombard
boundaries to Mais near Meran; for the rest the northern frontier was well
defended by his friendship with the Frankish Charles Martel, whose son Pepin he
had adopted by shaving of the hair according to an old custom, and to whom he
had even brought help against the Saracens in Provence (737-738). In domestic
politics he continued his predecessor's legislation, endeavoured to protect his
subjects against denial of legal help, and intervened with great energy in
administration and jurisdiction by the royal court of justice in Pavia and by
special missi. His aim was naturally to replace the loose structure of the
Lombard State by a series of officials ruled by the king, and one of his most
efficient means was to give the preference to the Gasindi, and another was to
instal relations and other fideles in all duchies and bishoprics. His ideal of
kingship, which is evident in his laws, already shews a great difference from
that of the former Lombard kings and is strongly influenced by Roman and
ecclesiastical interpretations.
Liutprand. 727-732
The time was favourable for an aggressive policy,
because Roman Italy, led by the pope, rose in rebellion against the Emperor. Common hostility against
the Emperor formed a link between Liutprand and Pope Gregory II for a while,
but the pope soon came to see clearly that the king near him was more dangerous
than the distant Emperor. As a token of friendship Liutprand, following the
pope's admonition, restored to him his confiscated patrimony in the Cottian
Alps. For the moment peace was only endangered by the duke Romuald II of
Benevento, who attacked the castle of Cumae by surprise; but after the duke of
Naples, aided by the pope's militia, had regained the place and killed the
garrison, the pope even paid Romuald the indemnification which he had offered
for a peaceable evacuation, and thereby won his friendship. Meanwhile the duke Faroald of Spoleto began to move as well; Narni was
taken, Liutprand occupied Classis, the port of Ravenna, and carried booty and prisoners
away. He gained other successes at the cost of the respublica; the frontier
castles surrendered to him and so he was able to extend the Lombard boundary to
Bologna; Osimo in Pentapolis went over to him as well. Then he turned
southwards, and attacked the castle of Sutri by surprise (728); this was too
much for the pope; the king approached too nearly his own sphere of action. After Liutprand had been
in possession of the castle for one hundred and seventy days, the pope insisted
on his "restoring and donating" it to the apostles Peter and Paul.
Meanwhile the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento had entered into a league with the
pope and defended the frontier of the ducatus Romae against the troops of the
Emperor. The new exarch Eutychius, who had landed at Naples, did not succeed in
making the two dukes desert the league with the pope; his entreaties had no
effect on Liutprand till he offered a very important service to the king,
placing his own troops at the king's disposal against the independent dukes, so
as to take them in the rear and force them to render homage to the king and
send hostages in token of their fidelity. The king repaid this service by
leading the exarch to Rome, and as the pope could not think of resistance, he
again submitted to the Emperor. But the Lombard troops did not enter the
imperial town and Liutprand paid homage to the graves of the Principes apostolorum whom he had never intended to combat (729). So
the Italian revolution brought double success to Liutprand: territorial
acquisition of land in the north and the two dukes' formal submission in the
south; and at the same time he had appeared as principal arbiter in these
differences on Italian soil.
Liutprand's
next care was to make the two duchies' formal dependency real and effective.
When difficulties arose after the death of Romuald II of Benevento (731-732),
on account of the succession, he marched on Benevento, carried away the young
duke Gisulf for education, and installed his own nephew Gregorius, relying upon
his own sovereign power. Nearly at the same time,
after a breach of the league with the exarch, a plot of the Roman dux of
Perusia against Bologna miscarried, and a Lombard army led by Hildeprand,
another nephew of Liutprand, occupied the impregnable town of Ravenna, the
centre of the imperial administration. But the exarch succeeded in regaining the
capital by a sudden attack and making Hildeprand prisoner, with help of the
navy of the lagoons, against which the Lombards were helpless. Soon after this
misfortune Liutprand seems to have concluded an armistice, on account of which
Hildeprand was sent back. Then Liutprand fell ill at Pavia (735), Hildeprand
was proclaimed king by the Lombards, and Liutprand acknowledged him as
co-regent after his recovery. New difficulties arose
in Friuli, where the duke Pemmo had covered the Lombard name with fame in
different combats with the Slays and displayed great splendour in his princely
court at Cividale; he got entangled in a quarrel with the king's favourite
Calistus, whom Liutprand had made patriarch of Aquileia, because the latter
wanted to remove his residence from the small town of Cormons to Cividale, and
had taken by force the bishop's palace, which the dukes had resigned to the
fugitive bishop of Julia Carnica. Liutprand interceded in the patriarch's favour,
dismissed the duke Pemmo, and set up in his place his son Ratchis, who proved
himself the king's faithful subject. No king had ever reigned so powerfully.
But now the
time had come when Liutprand thought it necessary to deal the death-blow to the
Roman Empire in Italy, as soon as the independence of the duke in middle Italy
was broken. This duke, Transamund of Spoleto, had taken the Roman castle
Gallese and might have been of great use to the king in barring the
communication between Ravenna and Rome, but he preferred to deliver up the
castle to the pope Gregory III, engaging himself never to carry arms against
him any more. But Liutprand, crossing the Pentapolis, arrived at Spoleto in June
739, and appointed a new duke Hilderich, while Transamund fled to Rome. The
king demanded in vain the rebel's delivery before the walls of Rome, took away
the castles of Ameria, Horta, Polimartium, and Bleda from the ducatus Romae, but
then returned to North Italy. Meanwhile a Roman party in Benevento set up one
Godescalc in the duchy in place of the deceased duke Gregorius, without regard
to the king's claims. In the following year (740) Liutprand and Hildeprand
attacked Ravenna and laid the exarchate under contribution, and at the same
time Lombard hordes breaking out of the castles devastated the Campagna. The pope
sent an embassy, praying the king to give back these border forts, and also
claimed the help of the Lombard bishops by a circular letter. At the same time
the army of the ducatus Romae, aided by Benevento, reinstated in Spoleto the
duke Transamund, who was accepted with open arms by his own people (Dec. 740).
But even now Transamund did not dare to attack the king and win back to the
Romans the four castles, as the pope had wished. Pope
Zachary, who had followed Gregory at the end of 741, gave up his predecessor's
Spoletan policy in consequence, and offered to the king the help of the Roman
army against Spoleto, on condition of his promise to restore the four castles. Attacked on two sides
(742) Transamund surrendered to the king; then the latter advanced against
Benevento, and as Godescalc abandoned his own country and was surrendered
before he reached the ship destined to bring him to Constantinople, the king
gave back his ancestral duchy to Gisulf who had by now grown up and was
faithfully devoted to him. But after he had brought all difficulties in South
Italy to an end the pope himself overtook him on his way back in his camp at
Terni, reminding him of his promise. The Catholic king received the pope with
all customary marks of reverence, and gave him the desired charter concerning
the restoration of the four towns. After this several nobles escorted the pope
on his return journey, and handed over to him the keys of the surrendered
towns, and the parts of the patrimony which had been conquered were also
restored to him. In exchange for this the pope concluded an armistice with the
king for twenty years in the name of the ducatus Romae. In this way the king
meant to eliminate one enemy, in order to concentrate all his forces against
the other part of the Roman dominion. After having appointed his nephew
Agripand duke of Spoleto, he crossed the Apennines and sent his army against Ravenna
at the beginning of the following year (743). The exarch and the archbishop of
Ravenna in their desperation begged for the pope's intervention, and the latter
actually came to meet the king at Pavia, by way of Ravenna. The king
condescended to conclude an armistice, occupying the castles of Caesena and
part of the territory of Ravenna meanwhile as a pledge, until the embassy he
sent to Constantinople should have concluded a definite peace. We do not know
Liutprand's real motives for giving up the attack; but it seems possible that
changes of foreign politics, especially with the Franks, as well as sympathy
with the Romans within the Lombard realm, nourished by the bishops, joined with
personal motives to cause his compliance. Though he had not attained his aim
when he died at the beginning of the year 744, he had brought the Lombard
State's power to a height which it had never before attained.
Ratchis. Aistulf . 749-753
Liutprand's former co-regent Hildeprand followed him
on the throne, but was not acknowledged everywhere. Transamund returned to Spoleto. Ratchis
of Friuli was proclaimed king and Hildeprand dethroned after eight months'
monarchy. The imperialists greeted the elevation of Ratchis with joy, and the
new king actually concluded peace with Rome for twenty years. In Spoleto he
asserted his authority, and Transamund was replaced by, a new duke, Lupus. We may judge by the severity of his orders concerning passports, and by
his rules against riot that Ratchis was prepared to meet dangers from within
and without, and so he tried to increase his party by ample distributions of
land to the Church, and to the Romans, the countrymen of his wife Tassia. He evidently strove to
lessen the disparity between Romans and Lombards. Nevertheless he saw himself
compelled to invade the imperial Pentapolis and besiege Perusia. But when he
desisted from this blockade upon the pope's personal intervention, the Lombards
gave vent to their indignation over their king's romanising policy. The nobles raised Aistulf, the king's brave and fierce brother, upon the
buckler at Milan (June 749); Ratchis was forced to abdicate, went to St Peter's
on pilgrimage, was accepted as a monk by the pope, and retired to Monte
Cassino.
Aistulf immediately took up again with the greatest
energy Liutprand's conquering policy. The donations which Ratchis had made before
Aistulf's elevation were annulled, intercourse with Romans was forbidden,
commerce with a foreign country keenly watched, the frontier well guarded, and
military duty regulated on the basis of the new social structure. The important
towns of Comacchio and Ferrara were occupied and the Lombard king gave forth a
charter as early as 7 July 751 in the palace of Ravenna, which the last exarch,
Eutychius, was said to have surrendered. The north of Italy was now entirely in
the hands of the Lombards, except the district of the Lagoons and the towns of
Istria. Aistulf turned to central Italy, where Duke Lupus had died, and took into
his own hands the government of Spoleto, the key-city of Rome. His next assault
was of course directed to Rome. He stood before the
walls of Rome in June 752 and received a papal embassy; it is alleged that he
promised peace for forty years but broke the armistice after four months. His
conditions were very hard: tribute paid by the inhabitants of the ducatus Romae
and acknowledgment of his sovereignty. He ordered the abbots of Monte Cassino and St
Vincenzo, who had appeared as the pope's envoys before him, to follow his
commands as Lombard subjects, and return to their monasteries without entering
Rome. The Emperor's embassy, which was conducted to Ravenna by the pope's
brother, only so far succeeded that Aistulf sent an envoy to Constantinople
with proposals that seemed unacceptable, at least to the pope. But the two
envoys returned to Italy without having effected their object, while the
Lombards had taken the castle of Ceccano, which belonged to the Church. Now
Pope Stephen obtained a safe conduct and at the Emperor's command marched
himself to Aistulf's court at Pavia (autumn 753). The king sent to meet him
with orders not to venture a word about restoring the conquered territory. But
the pope was not to be deterred, and fervently entreated the king to fulfil the
conditions contained in a letter which an imperial envoy had brought. But it
was in vain. Then the Frankish ambassadors, who had accompanied the pope, intervened
and required Aistulf to let the pope go to Gaul. When the pope, at his next
audience, declared that it was actually his intention to cross the Alps,
Aistulf, it is said, roared with rage like a wild beast. But after vain endeavours to change the pope's resolution, he was
obliged to dismiss him, not daring to detain him by force and expose himself to
immediate conflict with the Franks. The pope left Pavia on 5 November. The new
Frankish king Pepin was clearly resolved upon interfering in Italy, and Aistulf
saw himself face to face with a new situation immediately before reaching the
aim he had longed for so fervently.
The
Frankish Intervention . 753-756
But all links had not yet been broken off. Pepin sent embassies over
the Alps three times in order to induce Aistulf to yield, but in vain. The
public feeling among the Frankish nobles was by no means favourable to war, and
Aistulf, wishing to profit thereby, sent to Gaul Pepin's brother and former
co-regent Carloman, who was now monk in Monte Cassino. While the Frankish army
was already advancing, the pope once more sent a letter full of entreaties to
Aistulf, and Pepin offered 12,000 solidi as recompense for the disputed
territories; Aistulf refused with threats and brought the whole of his forces,
and the military material he had stored up for his enterprise against Rome, to
Susa at the foot of Mont Cenis, awaiting the Franks' attack. He was too impatient
however to hold out behind the fortified clusae, and attacked the Frankish
vanguard by surprise; but not being able to deploy his superior forces in the
narrow vale, he was thrown back and was himself very nearly killed ; then he
concentrated the rest of his army in the fortified city of Pavia, where the
main army of the Franks appeared after a few days. But as the Franks shrank
from a long siege and the Frankish nobles, who had kept up friendly relations
with the Lombards dating perhaps from the time of Charles Martel, tried to
mediate, peace was made, Aistulf confirmed the treaty by oath, promising to
surrender those territories of Italy he had occupied illegally and to
acknowledge formally the Frankish king's sovereignty. He sent forty hostages
and made lavish presents to the king and the nobles as recompense for the
expenses of war (autumn 754). The pope returned to Rome, accompanied by the
Frankish ambassador Fulrad, and Pepin retired over the Alps. But Aistulf did
not think of keeping his oath. Of all the towns he only surrendered Narni, and
seeing that Pepin did not interfere again, he resolved to put an end to the
quarrel by a master stroke. On 1 Jan. 756 a Lombard army again encamped before
Rome on the right bank of the Tiber, Aistulf rapidly approached from Spoleto, and
the Beneventans from the south. With terrible threats, he required the pope's
surrender while his bands plundered the Campagna. Pepin's envoy, the abbot
Warnehar, fought against the Lombards in full harness and then informed his
prince of what he had seen. But Rome's strong walls saved her again; Aistulf
gave up the siege after five months and returned to Pavia (5 April) to await a
new attack from Pepin when winter was over and the melting snow rendered the
passage possible.
The Lombards were once more dispersed by the Franks
near the clusae of Mont Cenis, and Aistulf again took refuge behind the walls of
Pavia. Shut
up in this fortress, he again entreated forgiveness and peace of Pepin by the
nobles' intervention. The latter granted the rebel life and realm, which he had
forfeited. Following the Frankish verdict to which he had appealed, he was
obliged to pay as indemnity a third of the great royal hoard and costlier
presents than two years before to guarantee his further submission, and engage
himself to pay a yearly tribute of 12,000 solidi, as the Lombards had once done
in the time of Agilulf. He actually now yielded up the towns whose surrender
had been stipulated two years earlier and Comacchio besides, and so the same boundaries
were re-established which had parted the two territories before Aistulf's
accession to the throne. Liutprand's conquests however remained to the Lombard
dominion, so that to the great disappointment of pope and emperor the status
of the peace made in 680 was not restored. Nevertheless this was the greatest
humiliation the Lombard realm had ever suffered for more than a century and a
half, since that first league between the Byzantine Emperor and the Franks had
been broken. Aistulf's eager policy of attack was crossed by a new factor which
had not entered into his predecessor's calculations. The proud king did not
long survive his fall. He died in consequence of an accident while hunting
(December 756).
After
Aistulf's death a grave crisis broke out in the Lombard State. The monk Ratchis
left Monte Cassino and was acknowledged as ruler, "servant of Christ and
prince of the Lombard people," especially in the north of the Apennines.
But Spoleto as well as Benevento detached itself from the kingdom and set up
Alboin as duke of Spoleto, who swore an oath of allegiance to the pope and the
Frankish king. The duke Desiderius was raised upon the buckler in Tuscany, and
as he engaged himself by document and by oath to surrender the towns belonging
to the Empire, and to live in peace and friendship with the pope and the
Frankish king, the Frankish plenipotentiary in Rome supported him with great
energy and the pope prepared the Roman army for his defence. Ratchis then
abdicated for the second time. On the pope's demand, Desiderius actually ceded
Faenza and Ferrara, but as soon as he felt himself sure on the throne, he
entered Spoleto by force without consideration of the pope's wishes, made Duke
Alboin prisoner as a rebel, drove away the duke Liutprand of Benevento, who was
obliged to take refuge behind the walls of Otranto, and set up Arichis as duke
in his place, and gave him his daughter Adelperga to wife. He made a proposal
of co-operation against the pope and the duke of Benevento to an imperial
embassy which passed by: at the same time he tried to render the pope's
connection with his former allies as difficult as possible, appeared at St
Peter's grave in Rome, pretending friendly intentions, and forced the pope to
write a letter to Pepin, interceding for the surrender of the Lombard hostages. To be sure the pope recalled this letter by means of
the very messenger who brought it, but still Desiderius succeeded in averting a
new Frankish intervention, greatly desired by the pope, by making certain
concessions, especially in relation to the patrimonies. At his next visit to
Rome, Desiderius framed a compact on the Frankish embassies' advice about 763
on the basis of mutual acknowledgment of the status quo; and Desiderius
promised to come to the pope's aid with all his forces in case of an attack
from the Emperor. It was only after Pope Paul's death (767) that new
difficulties with Rome arose when a party, hostile to the late government, had
raised Constantine to the papal throne, and the defeated party's leader, the primicerius
Christophorus, claimed the Lombards' help. The defeated party entered Rome by
force, led by Lombard troops and the Lombard priest Waldipert, but the Lombard candidate
Philip was not able to maintain himself on the papal throne in place of
Constantine; Stephen III was elected and Waldipert himself slain by his former
adherents (768). Shortly after this failure Desiderius tried to procure the
archbishopric of Ravenna for Michael, one of his confidants (769); but
Frankish commissioners dismissed him at the pope's wish.
A new
combination in foreign politics seemed to change the present situation to the
disadvantage of the pope and in favour of Desiderius. Desiderius and Tassilo of
Bavaria, both menaced by the Frankish preponderance, had entered into friendly
relations, and Tassilo had married Liutperga, daughter of Desiderius. Pepin's
widow Bertrada conceived the plan of securing peace by bringing one of her sons
into relationship with the Lombard royal family. Notwithstanding the pope's
amazement, she crossed the Alps and asked one of Desiderius' daughters in
marriage for her son Charles. The betrothal took place under the guarantee of
the Frankish nobles and the marriage was accomplished. Meanwhile Bertrada had
endeavoured to reassure the pope about her transactions with Desiderius. The
latter had evidently renewed his promise to respect the territorial status quo and
restore the patrimonies which were the private property of the Roman Church. Of
course the next consequence was the fall of the anti-Lombard party prevailing
in Rome. This was approved of by the pope, who wanted to escape his minister's
predominant influence. Desiderius appeared before Rome with military forces,
but under pretence of praying at the Apostle's grave and arranging disputed
questions. The pope came out to him and received his promise by oath. But a
papal chamberlain named Paulus Afiarta, the leader of the Lombard party, raised
up within the town a revolt against Christophorus, whereupon the pope
maintained that Christophorus and his party conspired against his life. The
accused offered resistance within the town, but were betrayed by the Romans, abandoned
by the pope, and cruelly killed by Paulus Afiarta and his accomplices. Desiderius did not now want to hear anything more about transactions
with the pope. But
the Frankish kings seem to have taken offence at his way of acting. Carloman
died in Dec. 771, but Charles, who laid claim to the whole Frankish realm
without considering Carloman's children, resolved to depart from the last
year's policy. He repudiated Desiderius' daughter, well knowing that he made an
enemy of the Lombard king by this insult. Carloman's widow Gerberga with her
children and followers fled to the Lombard king, who was ready to use them as
weapons against Charles. The new pope Hadrian was naturally on the side of
Charles, and so the political combination of the time before Bertrada's
intervention was re-established. Embassies between the pope and Desiderius had
no effect because the pope did not trust the king's promises, and for fear of
losing his hold upon the Frankish king firmly refused to anoint as kings
Carloman's children at the wish of Desiderius. Paulus Afiarta and his followers
(the Lombard party) were removed and punished, so that the Frankish influence
again decided the papal policy.
End of the Lombard Kingdom . 759-772
Meanwhile Desiderius had again occupied Faenza, Ferrara, Comacchio (spring 772), and threatened Ravenna on every side; then he took Sinigaglia, Jesi, Urbino, Gubbio commanded his troops to attack Bieda and Otricoli, in order to frighten the pope, and marched against Rome with Carloman's children, after having vainly entreated the pope to come to him. The latter made all preparations for defence and raised his forces in Rome, but sent three bishops to the royal camp at Viterbo with a bull, threatening with excommunication the king and all who dared to step upon Roman soil. Desiderius actually broke up his camp and retired; but the answer he made to the Frankish embassies, which appeared in Italy at the pope's wish, in order to become acquainted with the state of things, shews clearly enough that he expected to meet a decisive stroke. He had prepared himself for this moment during the whole time of his reign, trying to ensure the dynasty by the nomination of his son Adalgis as co-regent (759), and to restrain the independence of the dukes, though still attaching them to his person. He had made costly presents to the great monasteries, and endowed them with privileges, and had strengthened his party by new donations of landed property. But nevertheless the Lombard kingdom did not offer united resistance to the Franks. A number of emigrants had already fled to the Franks even before the beginning of the war, and many nobles now left Spoleto and went to Rome. Benevento did not take any part in the war, and after the first failure not only the Spoletan contingents but also a number of towns submitted to the pope voluntarily. Charles only found resistance from the towns where the Lombard kings defended themselves. Treason played a great part in the fall of the Lombard realm, a fact which can be traced even in the sagas. After having refused Charles' last offer, to pay 17,000 solidi if he fulfilled the pope's demand, Desiderius put his trust in the strong position near the clusae of Susa, which he had fortified. Here, at the Porta d' Italia, he expected Charles, who marched over Mont Cenis, while another corps took its way over the Great St Bernard. But, owing to this circuit, no battle seems to have taken place. Desiderius was obliged