War and Conquest: Lombards, Saxons, Avars, and the Frontier Marches

In 773, Pope Hadrian I appealed to Charlemagne for aid against the Lombard king Desiderius, prompting a Frankish invasion of the Lombard kingdom that lasted from 773 to 774. The campaign culminated in the siege and capture of Pavia, the Lombard capital, in 774, and the deposition of Desiderius as the last independent Lombard king. Charlemagne then assumed the title "King of the Lombards" that same year and confirmed and extended the earlier Donation of Pippin in the papacy's favor. Rather than simply erasing Lombard rule, the Franks integrated the Lombard kingdom into their sphere of power while preserving a degree of administrative autonomy, and semi-independent Lombard dukes continued to hold Benevento and Spoleto.