Liutprand (713-44) raised the Lombard kingdom to its highest prosperity. He quelled with strong hand the turbulence of the nobles, gave the finishing blow to the exarchate of Ravenna, and sought to extend his dominion over all Italy. But the popes now entered upon that Macchiavellian policy which they long incessantly pursued, of laboring to prevent a union of all Italy under one government, in order to secure for themselves the greater power in the midst of contending parties. This, with the dis putes which arose concerning the succession to the Lornbard throne, led to the downfall of the Lombard kingdom within no long time after it had reached its utmost greatness. The popes allied themselves with the Frankish kings, and Pepin, who had been anointed by Stephen II. to the " patriciate," i. e., the governorship of Rome, invaded Italy (754), and compelled the Lombard king Aistulf (749--54), who cherished the same ambitious designs as Liutprand, to refrain from further conquests, and even to give up some of the cities which had already yielded to his arms, which Pepin (755) bestowed upon the Roman church and commonwealth. New causes of hostility between the Frank and Lombard monarchs arose when Charlemagne sent back to her father his wife, the daugh ter of the Lombard king Desiderius (754-74), and Dcsiderius supported the claims of the children of Carloman, Charlemagne's brother. In the autumn of 773, Charlemagne
invaded Italy; and in May of the following year, Pavia was conquered, and the Lom bard kingdom, after an existence of 206 years, was overthrown. In 776 an insurrection of some of the Lombard dukes brought Charlemagne again into Italy, and the dukedoms were broken down into counties, and the Lombard system, as far as possible, supplanted by that of the Franks. In 803 a treaty between Charlemagne, the western, and Niceph orus, the eastern emperor, confirmed the right of the former to the Lombard territory, with Rome, the Exarchate, Ravenna, Istria, and part of Dalmatia; whilst the eastern empire retained the islands of Venice and the maritime towns of Dalmatia, with Naples, Sicily, and part of Calabria. Compare Tilrk's Die Longobarden vnd tar Volksrecht (Rost. 1835); and Flegler's Das Konigreich der Longobarden in Italien (Leip. 1851).