Charlemagne and the Lombard Kingdom That Was: the Lombard Past in Post-Conquest Italian Historiography
Eduardo Fabbro
The Carolingian conquest of Lombard Italy (774) was preceded by a massive effort on the part Church to convince Frankish court legitimacy invasion. Relying terminology borrowed from Gregory I, papal produced an offensive portrait Lombards, depicted as treacherous, vile, and heathen. This article analyzes eighth-century epistolary Liber Pontificalis in order establish strategies behind this campaign. In second moment, we turn response after conquest, efforts Paul Deacon well anonymous author Origo Langobardorum codicis Gothanis question Lombards reclaim Christian past their people. Both Gotha focused importance conversion — especially role Great rehabilitation Lombards. Their works, suggests, represent attempt dissociate faith narrative about own past.
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association