LOMBARDY, that part of Upper Italy which lies between the Alps and the Po, having the territory of Venice on the E., and Piedmont on the W. Its history begins with the conquest by the Romans in 222, who called it Gallia Cisalpina. After the break-up of the Roman empire it was successively in the hands of Odoacer, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantine emperors, and the Lombards. Charle magne incorporated it in his empire, but from 843 it was ruled by a separate line of kings, though before the kingdom ended (961) it had broken up into a number of independent duchies and civic republics. The Lombard cities grew wealthy by industry and trade. They resisted sturdily and successfully the at tempts of the Emperors Frederick I. and II. to curtail their liberties, forming themselves into strong leagues, which were powerful enough to rout the em perors in pitched battles. But they were torn by internal dissension. After the death (1447) of the last Duke of Milan, whose ancestor, Count Azzo, had acquired the sovereignty over nearly all Lombardy in 1337, the country was made an object of contention between the King of France and the emperor. The last
named having got the better in the con test, Lombardy passed through Charles V. to Spain, which held possession of it till 1713, when the duchies of Milan and Mantua came into the hands of Austria, and were designated "Austrian Lom bardy." Napoleon made it a part of the Cisalpine republic, the Transpadane re public, and the kingdom of Italy succes sively. But in 1815 it was restored to Austria, and annexed politically to the newly-acquired Venetian territory under the name of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom. This union was dissolved in 1859, when Lombardy was given up to the new kingdom of Italy, which divided it into the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Mantua, Milan, Pavia, and Sondrio. Pop. about 5,000,000.