The Kingdom of the Lombards ( la, Regnum Langobardorum; it, Regno dei Longobardi; lmo, Regn di Lombard) also known as the Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy ( la, Regnum totius Italiae), was an
early medieval state established by the
Lombards, a
Germanic people, on the
Italian Peninsula in the latter part of the 6th century. The king was traditionally elected by the very highest-ranking aristocrats, the
dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes, which were in turn subdivided into
gastaldates at the municipal level. The capital of the kingdom and the center of its political life was
Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
.
The Lombard invasion of Italy was opposed by the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...
, which retained control of much of the peninsula until the mid-8th century. For most of the kingdom's history, the Byzantine-ruled
Exarchate of Ravenna
The Exarchate of Ravenna ( la, Exarchatus Ravennatis; el, Εξαρχάτο της Ραβέννας) or of Italy was a lordship of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) in Italy, from 584 to 751, when the last exarch was put to death by the ...
and
Duchy of Rome separated the northern Lombard duchies, collectively known as
Langobardia Maior
Langobardia Major was the name that, in the Early Middle Ages, was given to the domains of the Lombard Kingdom in Northern Italy. It comprised Lombardy proper with its capital Pavia, the Duchies of Friuli and Trent as well as the Tuscany region. ...
, from the two large southern duchies of
Spoleto and