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LOMBARDS, or LANGOBARDI
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See also:LOMBARDS, or LANGOBARDI , a Suevic See also:people who appear to have inhabited the See also:lower See also:basin of the See also:Elbe and whose name is believed to survive in the See also:modern Bardengau to the See also:south of See also:Hamburg. They are first mentioned in connexion with the See also:year A.D. 5, at which See also:time they were defeated by the See also:Romans under Tiberius, afterwards See also:emperor. In A.D. 9, however, after the destruction of Varus's See also:army, the Romans gave up their See also:attempt to extend their frontier to the Elbe. At first, with most of the Suevic tribes, they were subject to the See also:hegemony of Maroboduus, See also: The leaders of the latter prayed to Wodan for victory, while Gambara and her sons invoked Frea. Wodan promised to give victory to those whom he should see in front of him at sunrise. Frea directed the Winnili to bring their See also:women with their See also:hair let down See also:round their faces like beards and turned Wodan's See also:couch round so that he faced them. When Wodan awoke at sunrise he saw the See also:host of the Winnili and said, " Qui sent isti Longibarbi ?"—" Who are these See also:long-beards?"—and Frea replied, " As See also:thou hast given them the name, give them also the victory." They conquered in the See also:battle and were thenceforth known as Langobardi. After this they are said to have wandered through regions which cannot now be identified, apparently between the Elbe and the See also:Oder, under legendary See also:kings, the first of whom was Agilmund, the son of Mo. Shortly before the end of the 5th century the Langobardi appear to have taken See also:possession of the territories formerly occupied by the Rugii whom See also:Odoacer had overthrown in 487, a region which probably included the See also:present See also:province of Lower See also:Austria. At this time they were subject to Rodulf, king of the See also:Heruli, who, however, took up arms against them; according to one story, owing to the treacherous See also:murder of Rodulf's See also:brother, according to another through an irresistible See also:desire for fighting on the See also:part of his men. The result was the See also:total defeat of the Heruli by the Langobardi under their king Tato and the See also:death of Rodulf at some date between 493 and 5o8. By this time the Langobardi are said to have adopted See also:Christianity in its Arian form. Tato was subsequently killed by his See also:nephew Waccho. The latter' reigned for See also:thirty years, though frequent attempts were made by Ildichis, a son or See also:grandson of Tato, to recover the See also:throne. Waccho is said to have conquered the Suabi, possibly the Bavarians, and he was also involved in strife with the Gepidae, with whom Ildichis had taken See also:refuge. He was succeeded by his youthful son Walthari, who reigned only seven years under the guardianship of a certain Audoin. On Walthari's death (about 546?) Audoin succeeded. He also was involved in hostilities with the Gepidae, whose support of Ildichis he repaid by protecting Ustrogotthus, a See also:rival of their king Thorisind. In these quarrels both nations aimed at obtaining the support of the emperor Justinian, who, in pursuance of his policy of playing off one against the other, invited the Langobardi into See also:Noricum and See also:Pannonia, where they now settled. A large force of Lombards under Audoin fought on the imperial See also:side at the battle of the See also:Apennines against the Ostrogothic king See also:Totila in 553, but the assistance of Justinian, though often promised, had no effect on the relations of the two nations, which were settled for the moment after a See also:series of truces by the victory of the Langobardi, probably in 554• The resulting See also:peace was sealed by the murder of Ildichis and Ustrogotthus, and the Langobardi seem to have continued inactive until the death of Audoin, perhaps in 565, and the See also:accession of his son See also:Alboin, who had won a See also:great reputation in the See also:wars with the Gepidae. It was about this time that the See also:Avars, under their first Chagun Baian, entered See also:Europe, and with them,Alboin is said to have made an affiance against the Gepidae under their new king Cunimund. The Avars, however, did not take part in the final battle, in which the Langobardi were completely victorious. Alboin, who had slain Cunimund in the battle, now took Rosamund, daughter of the dead king, to be his wife. In 568 Alboin and the Langobardi, in accordance with a compact made with Baian, which is recorded by See also:Menander, abandoned their old homes to the Avars and passed southwards into See also:Italy, were they were destined to found a new and mighty See also:kingdom. (F. G. M. B.) The Lombard Kingdom in Italy.—In 568 Alboin, king of the Langobards, with the women and See also:children of the tribe and all their possessions, with Saxon See also:allies, with the subject tribe of the Gepidae and a mixed host of other barbarians, descended into Italy by the great See also:plain at the See also:head of the Adriatic. The war which had ended in the downfall of the Goths had exhausted Italy; it was followed by See also:famine and pestilence; and the See also:government at See also:Constantinople made but faint efforts to retain the province which See also:Belisarius and See also:Narses had recovered for it. Except in a few fortified places, such as See also:Ticinum or See also:Pavia, the Italians did not venture to encounter the new invaders; and, though Alboin was not without generosity, the Lombards, wherever resisted, justified the See also:opinion of their ferocity by the See also:savage See also:cruelty of the invasion. In 572, according to the Lombard chronicler, Alboin See also:fell a victim to the revenge of his wife Rosamund, the daughter of the king of the Gepidae, whose See also:skull Alboin had turned into a drinking See also:cup, out of which he forced Rosamund to drink. By this time the Langobards had established themselves in the See also:north of Italy. Chiefs were placed, or placed themselves, first in the border cities, like See also:Friuli and See also:Trent, which commanded the north-eastern passes, and then in other See also:principal places; and this arrangement became characteristic of the Lombard See also:settlement. The principal seat of the settlement was the See also:rich plain watered by the Po and its afliuents, which was in future to receive its name from them; but their See also:power ex-tended across the Apennines into See also:Liguria and See also:Tuscany, and then southwards to the outlying dukedoms of See also:Spoleto and See also:Benevento. The invaders failed to secure any maritime ports or any territory that was conveniently commanded from the See also:sea. Ticinum (Pavia), the one See also:place which had obstinately resisted Alboin, became the seat of their kings. After the See also:short and cruel reign of Cleph, the successor of Alboin, the Lombards (as we may begin for convenience See also:sake to See also:call them) tried for ten years the experiment of a See also:national confederacy of their See also:dukes (as, after the Latin writers, their chiefs are styled), without any king. It was the See also:rule of some thirty-five or thirty-six See also:petty tyrants, under whose oppression and private wars even the invaders suffered. With anarchy ariiong themselves and so See also:precarious a hold on the See also:country, hated by the See also:Italian See also:population and by the See also:Catholic See also:clergy, threatened also by an alliance of the See also:Greek See also:empire with their persistent rivals the See also:Franks beyond the See also:Alps, they resolved to See also:sacrifice their See also:independence and elect a king. In 584 they See also:chose Authari, the grandson of Alboin, and endowed the royal domain with a See also:half of their possessions. From this time till the fall of the Lombard power before the arms of their rivals the Franks under See also: The Lombards who, after they had occupied the lands and cities of Upper Italy, still went on sending forth furious bands to See also:plunder and destroy where they did not care to stay, never were able to overcome the mingled fear and scorn and loathing of the Italians. They adapted themselves very quickly indeed to many Italian fashions. Within thirty years of the invasions, Authari took the imperial title of Flavius, even while his bands were leading Italian captives in leash like See also:dogs under the walls of Rome, and under the eyes of Popp See also:Gregory; and it was retained by his successors. They soon became Catholics; and then in all the usages of See also:religion, in See also: It brought the Langobards See also:face to face, not merely with the emperors at Constantinople, but with the first of the great statesmen popes, Gregory the Great (590-604). But Lombard conquest was bungling and wasteful; when they had spoiled a See also:city they proceeded to See also:tear down its walls and raze it to the ground. Authari's chief connexion with the fortunes of his people was an important, though an accidental one. The Lombard chronicler tells a romantic See also:tale of the way in which Authari sought his See also:bride from Garibald, See also:duke of the Bavarians, how he went incognito in the See also:embassy to See also:judge of her attractions, and how she recognized her disguised suitor. The bride was the See also:Christian Theodelinda, and she became to the Langobards what Bertha was to the Anglo-See also:Saxons and See also:Clotilda to the Franks. 934 She became the+Inediator between the Lombards and the Catholic Church. Authari, who had brought her to Italy, died shortly after his See also:marriage. But Theodelinda had so won on the Lombard chiefs that they bid her as queen choose the one among them whom she would have for her See also:husband and for king. She chose Agilulf, duke of Turin (592-615). He was not a true Langobard, but a Thuringian. It was the beginning of peace between the Lombards and the Catholic clergy. Agilulf could not abandon his traditional Arianism, and he was a very uneasy neighbour, not only to the Greek See also:exarch, but to Rome itself. But he was favourably disposed both to peace and to the Catholic Church. Gregory interfered to prevent a national See also:conspiracy against the Langobards, like that of St Brice's See also:day in See also:England against the Danes, or that later uprising against the See also:French, the Sicilian See also:Vespers. He was right both in point of humanity and of policy. The Arian and Catholic bishops went on for a time side by side; but the Lombard kings and clergy rapidly yielded to the religious influences around them, even while the national antipathies continued unabated and vehement. Gregory, who despaired of any serious effort on the part of the Greek emperors to expel the Lombards, endeavoured to promote peace between the Italians and Agilulf; and, in spite of the feeble hostility of the exarchs of Ravenna, the pope and the king of the Lombards became the two real See also:powers in the north and centre of Italy. Agilulf was followed, after two unimportant reigns, by his son-in-law, the husband of Theodelinda's daughter, King Rothari (636-652), the Lombard legislator, still an Arian though he favoured the Catholics. He was the first of their kings who collected their customs under the name of See also:laws—and he did this, not in their own Teutonic See also:dialect, but in Latin. The use of Latin implies that the laws were to be not merely the See also:personal law of the Lombards, but the law of the See also:land, binding on Lombards and Romans alike. But such See also:rude legislation could not provide for all questions arising even in the decayed See also:state of Roman civilization. It is probable that among themselves the Italians kept to their old usages and legal precedents where they were not overridden by the conquerors' law, and by degrees a See also:good many of the Roman See also:civil arrangements made their way into the Lombard See also:code, while all ecclesiastical ones, and they were a large class, were untouched by it. There must have been much change of See also:property; but appearances are conflicting as to the terms on which land generally was held by the old pEssessors or the new corners, and as to the relative legal position of the two. See also:Savigny held that, making See also:allowance for the anomalies and usurpations of conquest, the Ronian population held the bulk of the land as they had held it before, and were governed by an uninterrupted and acknowledged exercise of Roman law in their old municipal organization. Later inquirers, including See also:Leo, Troya and See also:Hegel, have found that the supposition does not See also:tally with a whole series of facts, which point to a Lombard territorial law ignoring completely any parallel Roman and personal law, to a great restriction of full civil rights among the Romans, analogous to the See also:condition of the See also:rayah under the See also:Turks, and to a reduction of the Roman occupiers to a class of half-See also:free " aldii," holding immovable tenancies under lords of superior race and See also:privilege, and subject to the sacrifice either of the third part of their holdings or the third part of the produce. The Roman losses, both of property and rights, were likely to be great at first; how far they continued permanent during the two centuries of the Lombard kingdom, or how far the legal distinctions between Rome and Lombard gradually passed into desuetude, is a further question. The legislation of the Lombard kings, in form a territorial and not a personal law, shows no signs of a disposition either to depress or to favour the Romans, but only the purpose to maintain, in a rough See also:fashion, strict See also:order and discipline impartially among all their subjects. From Rothari (d. 652) to Liutprand (712-744) the Lombard kings, succeeding one another in the irregular fashion of the time, sometimes by descent, sometimes by See also:election, sometimes by conspiracy and violence, strove fitfully to enlarge their boundaries, and contended with the See also:aristocracy of dukes inherent in the See also:original organization of the nation, an element which, though much weakened, always embarrassed the power of the crown, and checked the unity of the nation. Their old enemies the Franks on the See also:west, and the Slays or See also:Huns, ever ready to break in on the north-See also:east, and sometimes called in by mutinous and traitorous dukes of Friuli and Trent, were See also:constant and serious dangers. By the popes, who represented Italian interests, theywere always looked upon with dislike and See also:jealousy, even when they had become zealous Catholics, the founders of churches and monasteries; with the Greek empire there was chronic war. From time to time they made raids into the unsubdued parts of Italy, and added a city or two to their dominions. But there was no sustained effort for the complete subjugation of Italy till Liutprand, the most powerful of the See also:line. He tried it, and failed. He See also:broke up the independence of the great See also:southern duchies, Benevento and Spoleto. For a time, in the See also:heat of the dispute about images, he won, the pope to his side against the Greeks. For a time, but only for a time, he deprived the Greeks of Ravenna. Aistulf, his successor, carried on the same policy. He even threatened Rome itself, and claimed a capitation tax. But the popes, thoroughly irritated and alarmed, and hopeless of aid from the East, turned to the See also:family which was rising into power among the Franks of the West, the mayors of the palace of See also:Austrasia. Pope Gregory III. applied in vain to Charles Martel. But with his successors See also:Pippin and Charles the popes were more successful. In return for the See also:transfer by the pope of the See also:Frank crown from the decayed line of See also:Clovis to his own, Pippin crossed the Alps, defeated Aistulf and gave to the pope the lands which Aistulf had torn from the empire, Ravenna and the Pentapolis (754-756). But the angry quarrels still went on between the popes and the Lombards. The Lombards were still to the Italians a " foul and horrid " race. At length, invited by Pope See also:Adrian I., Pippin's son See also:Charlemagne once more descended into Italy. As the Lombard kingdom began, so it ended, with a See also:siege of Pavia. Desiderius, the last king, became a prisoner (774), and the Lombard power perished. Charlemagne, with the title of king of the Franks and Lombards, became See also:master of Italy, and in 800 the pope, who had crowned Pippin king of the Franks, claimed to bestow the Roman empire, and crowned his greater son emperor of the Romans (800). Effects of the Carolingian Conquest.—To Italy the overthrow of the Lombard kings was the loss of its last See also:chance of independence and unity. To the Lombards the conquest was the destruction of their legal and social supremacy. Henceforth they were equally with the Italians the subjects of the Frank kings. The Carolingian kings expressly recognized the Roman law, and allowed all who would be counted Romans to " profess " it. But Latin influences were not strong enough to extinguish the Lombard name and destroy altogether the recollections and habits of the Lombard rule; Lombard law was still recognized, and survived in the See also:schools of Pavia. See also:Lombardy remained the name of the finest province of Italy, and for a time was the name for Italy itself But what was specially Lombard could not stand in the long run against the Italian See also:atmosphere which surrounded it. See also:Generation after generation passed more and more into real Italians. Antipathies, indeed, survived, and men even in the loth century called each other Roman or Langobard as terms of reproach. But the altered name of Lombard also denoted henceforth some of the proudest of Italians; and, though the Lombard speech had utterly perished their most See also:common names still kept up the remembrance that their fathers had come from beyond the Alps. But the See also:establishment of the Frank kingdom, and still more the re-establishment of the Christian empire as the source of law and See also:jurisdiction in Christendom, had momentous See also:influence on the See also:history of the Italianized Lombards. The Empire was the counterweight to the See also:local tyrannies into which the local authorities established by the Empire itself, the feudal powers, judicial and military, necessary for the purposes of government, invariably tended to degenerate. When they became intolerable, from the Empire were sought the exemptions, privileges, immunities from that local authority, which, anomalous and anarchical as they were in theory, yet in fact were the See also:foundations of all the liberties of the See also:middle ages in the Swiss cantons, in the free towns of See also:Germany and the See also:Low Countries, in the Lombard cities of Italy. Italy was and ever has been a land of cities; and, ever since the downfall of Rome and the decay of the municipal See also:system, the bishops of the cities had really been at the head of the peaceful and See also:industrial part of their population, and were a natural refuge for the oppressed, and sometimes for being the nearest great See also:town to the tunnels of the St Gothard the mutinous and the evil doers, from the military and civil and the Simplon. The other railway centres of the territory powers of the duke or See also:count or judge, too often a rule of cruelty are See also:Mortara, Pavia and See also:Mantua, while every considerable town or See also:fraud. Under the Carolingian empire, a vast system See also:grew is situated on or within easy reach of the railway, this being rendered up in the North Italian cities of episcopal " immunities," by comparatively easy owing to the relative flatness of the greater which a city with its surrounding See also:district was removed, more part of the country. The line from See also:Milan to See also:Porto Ceresio is or less completely, from the jurisdiction of the See also:ordinary authority, worked in the See also:main by electric motor driven trains, while on military or civil, and placed under that of the See also:bishop. These that from See also:Lecco to Colico and See also:Chiavenna over-head wires are " immunities " led to the temporal See also:sovereignty of the bishops; adopted. The more remote districts and the immediate environs under it the spirit of See also:liberty grew more readily than under the of the larger town are served by See also:steam tramways and electric military chief. Municipal organization, never quite forgotten, See also:railways. The most important See also:rivers are the Po, which follows, naturally revived under new forms, and with its " consuls " for the most part, the southern boundary of Lombardy, and at the head of the citizens, with its "arts" and "crafts" and the See also:Ticino, one of the largest tributaries of the Po, which forms " See also:gilds," grew up secure under the See also:shadow of the church. In for a considerable distance the western boundary. The See also:majority due time the city populations, free from the feudal yoke, and of the Italian lakes, those of See also:Garda, Idro, See also:Iseo, See also:Como, See also:Lugano, safe within the walls which in many instances the bishops had See also:Varese and See also:Maggiore, See also:lie wholly or in part within it. The built for them, became impatient also of the bishop's govern- See also:climate of Lombardy is thoroughly See also:continental; in summer ment. The cities which the bishops had made thus See also:independent the heat is greater than in the south of Italy, while the See also:winter of the dukes and See also:counts next sought to be free from the bishops; is very See also:cold, and See also:bitter winds, See also:snow and mist are frequent. In the in due time they too gained their charters of privilege and liberty. summer See also:rain is rare beyond the lower Alps, but a system of irriga-See also:Left to take care of themselves, islands in a sea of turbulence, tion, unsurpassed in Europe, and dating from the middle ages, they grew in the sense of self-reliance and independence; they prevails, so that a failure of the crops is hardly possible. There grew also to be aggressive, quarrelsome and ambitious. Thus, are three zones of cultivation: in the mountains, pasturage; by the 11th century, the Lombard cities had become " com- the lower slopes are devoted to the culture of the See also:vine, fruitmunes," commonalties, republics, managing their own affairs, trees (including chestnuts) and.the silkworm; while in the regions and ready for attack or See also:defence. Milan had recovered its great- of the plain, large crops of See also:maize, See also:rice, See also:wheat, See also:flax, See also:hemp and ness, ecclesiastically as well as politically; it scarcely bowed to See also:wine are produced, and thousands of mulberry-trees are grown Rome, and it aspired to the position of a See also:sovereign city, See also:mistress for the benefit of the silkworms, the culture of which in the over its neighbours. At length, in the 12th century, the inevit- province of Milan has entirely superseded the See also:sheep-breeding able conflict came between the republicanism of the Lombard for which it was famous during the middle ages. Milan is indeed cities and the German See also:feudalism which still claimed their the principal See also:silk See also:market in the See also:world. In 1905 there were 490 See also:allegiance in the name of the Empire. Leagues and See also:counter- See also:mills reeling silk in Lombardy, with 35,407 workers, and 276 leagues were formed; and a confederacy of cities, with Milan throwing-mills with 586,000 spindles. The chief centre of silk at its head, challenged the strength of Germany under one of See also:weaving is Como, but the silk is commercially dealt with at its sternest emperors, See also:Frederick See also:Barbarossa. At first Frederick Milan, and there is much exportation. A considerable amount was victorious; Milan, except its churches, was utterly destroyed; of See also:cotton is manufactured, but most of the raw cotton (600,000 everything that marked municipal independence was abolished See also:bales) is imported, the cultivation being insignificant in Italy. in the " See also:rebel " cities; and they had to receive an imperial There are 400 mills in Lombardy, 277 of which are in the province See also:magistrate instead of their own (1158-1162). But the Lombard of Milan. The largest See also:linen and woollen mills in Italy are situated See also:league was again formed. Milan was rebuilt, with the help even at Fara d'See also:Adda. Milan also manufactures motor-cars, though of its jealous rivals, and at See also:Legnano (1176) Frederick was utterly Turin is the principal centre in Italy for this See also:industry. There defeated. The Lombard cities had regained their independence; are See also:copper, See also:zinc and See also:iron mines, and numerous quarries of See also:marble, and at the peace of See also:Constance (1183) Frederick found himself See also:alabaster and See also:granite. In addition to the above See also:industries the compelled to confirm it. chief manufactures are hats, rope and See also:paper-making, iron-casting, From the peace of Constance the history of the Lombards is See also:gun-making, See also:printing and See also:lithography. Lombardy is indeed the merely part of the history of Italy. Their cities went through the most industrial district of Italy. In parts the peasants suffer ordinary fortunes of most Italian cities. They quarrelled and much from See also:pellagra. fought with one another. They took opposite sides in the great strife of the time between pope and emperor, and were Guelf and The most important towns with their communal population Ghibelline by old tradition, or as one or other See also:faction prevailed in in the respective provinces, according to the See also:census of 1901, are them. They swayed backwards and forwards between the power See also:Bergamo (46,861), Treviglio (14,897), total of province 467,549, of the people and the power of the few; but See also:democracy and See also:oligarchy passed sooner or later into the hands of a master who veiled his number of communes 306; See also:Brescia (69,210), Chiari (10,749), lordship under various titles, and generally at last into the hands of total of province 541,765, number of communes 280; Como a family. Then, in the larger political struggles and changes of (38 174), Varese (17,666), Cantii (10,725), Lecco (10,352), total of Europe, they were incorporated into a kingdom, or principality p594,304, number of communes 510; See also:Cremona (36,848), or duchy, carved out to suit the See also:interest of a foreigner, or to make province ovinc Soresina toe of See also:ince a heritage for the nephew of a pope. But in two ways especially eggl4r (16,407), (10,358), province the energetic race which grew out of the See also:fusion of Langobards and 329,471, number of communes 133; Mantua (30,127), Viadana Italians between the 9th and the 12th centuries has left the memory (16,082), Quistello (11,228), Suzzara (11,502), St Benedetto Po of itself. In England, at least, the enterprising traders and bankers (10 908), total of province 315,448, number of communes 68' who found their way to the West, from the 13th to the 16th centuries, though they certainly did not all come from Lombardy, See also:bore the Milan (490,084), Monza (42,124), See also:Lodi (26,827), Busto Arsizio name of Lombards. In the next place, the Lombards or the Italian (20,005), Legnano (18,285), Seregno (12,050), See also:Gallarate (11,952), builders whom they employed or followed, the " masters of Como," Codogno (11,925), total of province 1,450,214, number of com- of whom so much is said in the See also:early Lombard laws, introduced a munes 297; Pavia (33,922), See also:Vigevano (23,560), See also:Voghera (20,442), manner of building, stately, See also:solemn and elastic, to which their name has been attached, and which gives a See also:character of its own to total of province 504,382, number of communes 221; See also:Sondrio some of the most interesting churches in Italy. (R. W. C.) (7077), total of province 130,966, number of communes 78. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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