The Kingdom of the Lombards (regnum Langobardorum), later the Kingdom of (all) Italy (regnum totius Italiae) is an early medieval state established by the Lombards, a Germanic-speaking people, on the Italian Peninsula between 568–69.
The king is traditionally elected by the highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, and all attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty fails.
The kingdom is divided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by the semi-autonomous dukes, which are in turn subdivided into gastaldates at the level of each city.
The capital of the kingdom and center of its political life is Pavia.The Lombard invasion is opposed by the Byzantine Empire, which retains control of much of the peninsula until the mid-8th century.
The Exarchate of Ravenna and the Duchy of Rome separate the northern duchies, or Langobardia major, from the two large southern duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, which constitute Langobardia minor.
Because of this division, the southern duchies are more autonomous than the smaller northern duchies.The Lombards gradually adopt Roman titles, names and traditions.
By the time Paul the Deacon is writing in the late 8th century, the Lombard language, dress and hairstyles had all disappeared.
Initially the Lombards are Arians at odds with the Papacy both religiously and politically.
By the end of the 7th century, their conversion to Catholicism is all but complete.
The conflict with the Papacy continues, and is responsible for their gradual loss of power in the face of the Franks, who conquered the kingdom in 774.
Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, adopts the title "King of the Lombards", but never manages to control Benevento.
A reduced regnum Italiae, a heritage of the Lombards, continues in existence for centuries.
The so-called Iron Crown of Lombardy, which may have originated in Lombard Italy as early as the 7th century, continued to crown Kings of Italy down to Napoleon Bonaparte.
