Siege of Pavia and fall of the Lombard kingdom
Answering the Pope’s call, Charlemagne crossed the Alps and starved out the Lombard capital; King Desiderius surrendered, and Charlemagne took the title King of the Lombards.
- Date
- September 773 – June 774month known · duration: ≈ 9 months
- Place
- Pavia (Ticinum)today: Pavia, Lombardy, Italy · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Francia (Frankish realm), Charlemagne, Lombards, Desiderius
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Franco-Lombard war of 773–774; Франкско-лангобардская война
Relations between the Franks and the Lombards broke down after Charlemagne repudiated Desiderius’ daughter and Desiderius gave refuge to the family of Charlemagne’s late brother Carloman and attacked papal territory. In 773 two Frankish armies crossed the Alps, turned the Lombard defences at the Susa pass, and by September laid siege to Pavia. During the ten-month blockade Charlemagne took Verona, and at Easter 774 visited Pope Hadrian I in Rome.
Famine and disease finally forced Desiderius to open the gates in June 774; he ended his life in a Frankish monastery, while his son Adelchis fled to Constantinople. Charlemagne now styled himself “King of the Franks and the Lombards”, and the kingdom founded by Alboin two centuries earlier became part of the Frankish realm.
Connections
Related events
- Lombard invasion of Italy2 April 568 – 572 · Western and Central EuropeThe end of the kingdom founded by Alboin in 568
- Donation of PepinApril 754 – 756 · Western and Central EuropeCharlemagne continued his father’s alliance with the papacy against the Lombards
- Saxon Wars772–804 · Western and Central EuropeIn 773 Charlemagne interrupted the Saxon war to march against the Lombards
Same participants
- Battle of Roncevaux Pass15 August 778 · Western and Central Europevia Francia (Frankish realm)
Same place
- Establishment of the Tetrarchy1 March 293 · Western and Central Europe
- Edict of MilanFebruary 313 · Western and Central Europe
- Division of the Roman Empire17 January 395 · Western and Central Europe
- Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supperc. 1495 – 1498 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Eastern Europe
- Founding of Ladoga753
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861
Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843
- Second Council of Nicaea24 September – 23 October 787
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Siege of Pavia (773–774)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Осада Павии (773—774)
- McKitterick R. Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- Wikidata: Q114717