Desiderius, also known as Daufer or Dauferius, was king of the Lombards in northern Italy, ruling from 756 to 774. The Frankish king of renown, Charlemagne, married Desiderius's daughter and subsequently conquered his realm. Desiderius is remembered for this connection to Charlemagne and for being the last Lombard ruler to exercise regional kingship.
The Exarchate of Ravenna, also known as the Exarchate of Italy, was an administrative district of the Byzantine Empire comprising, between the 6th and 8th centuries, the territories under the jurisdiction of the exarch of Italy resident in Ravenna. The term is used in historiography in a double sense: "exarchate" in the strict sense denotes the territory under the direct jurisdiction of the exarch, i.e. the area of the capital Ravenna, but the term is mainly used to designate all the Byzantine territories in continental and peninsular Italy. According to the legal sources of the time, these territories constituted the so-called Provincia Italiae, on the basis of the fact that they too, until at least the end of the 7th century, fell under the jurisdiction of the exarch and were governed by duces or magistri militum under him.
The Donation of Pepin in 756 provided a legal basis for the creation of the Papal States, thus extending the temporal rule of the popes beyond the duchy of Rome.
Liutprand was the king of the Lombards from 712 to 744 and is chiefly remembered for his multiple phases of law-giving, in fifteen separate sessions from 713 to 735 inclusive, and his long reign, which brought him into a series of conflicts, mostly successful, with most of Italy. He is often regarded as the most successful Lombard monarch, notable for the Donation of Sutri in 728, which was the first accolade of sovereign territory to the Papacy.
Sisebut was King of the Visigoths and ruler of Hispania and Septimania from 612 until his death in 621. His rule was marked by forced Christian conversion, anti-Judaic measures, Roman-like administration, and intellectual cosmopolitanism.
Pandulf I Ironhead was the Prince of Benevento and Capua from 943 until his death. He was made Duke of Spoleto and Camerino in 967 and succeeded as Prince of Salerno in 977 or 978. He was an important nobleman in the fight with the Byzantines and Saracens for control of the Mezzogiorno in the centuries after the collapse of Lombard and Carolingian authority on the Italian Peninsula. He established himself over almost the whole of the southern half of Italia before his death in March 981. He was an ancestor of Sancho I.
Hildeprand, sometimes called the Useless, was the king of the Lombards from around 735 in association with his uncle, Liutprand. After Liutprand's death in 744, Hildeprand ruled in his own name until he was overthrown later that year by Ratchis, duke of Friuli.
Grimoald or Grimwald (†671) was a 7th-century King of Italy, ruling as Duke of Benevento from 647 to 662, and then as King of the Lombards from 662 until his death in 671.
Arechis II was a Duke of Benevento, in Southern Italy. He sought to expand the Beneventos' influence into areas of Italy that were still under Byzantine control, but he also had to defend against Charlemagne, who had conquered northern Italy.
Grimoald II was the duke of Benevento from 687 to his death. He was the son and successor of Romuald I of Benevento. He was possibly under the regency of his mother, Theodrada, daughter of Lupus of Friuli. His reign of three years was uneventful: Paul the Deacon records nothing but his marriage and death. He is said to have been an opponent of the crown. He was succeeded by his brother Gisulf. He was married to Wigilinda, daughter of King Perctarit.
Gisulf I was the duke of Benevento from 689, when his brother Grimoald II died. His father was Romuald I. His mother was Theodrada, daughter of Duke Lupus of Friuli, and she exercised the regency for him for the first years of his reign.
Ageltrude or Agiltrude was the Empress and Queen of Italy as the wife of Guy. She was the regent for her son Lambert and actively encouraged him in opposing the Carolingians, and in influencing papal elections in their favour.
The Duchy of Rome was a state within the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. Like other Byzantine states in Italy, it was ruled by an imperial functionary with the title of dux. The duchy often came into conflict with the Papacy over supremacy within Rome. After the founding of the Papal States in 756, the Duchy of Rome ceased to be an administrative unit and 'dukes of Rome', appointed by the popes rather than emperors, are only rarely attested.
The Widonids, also called Guidonids, or Lambertiner, after their leading names, were an Italian family of Frankish origin prominent in the ninth century. They were descended from Guy of Nantes, whose origins were Austrasian. They were an aggressive dynasty, expanding their base of power into the Papal States, ever loyal to the Empire and never the Papacy. They were related to the Carolingians in the female line and one even made a claim to the throne of France on that basis. The Widonids and the Rorgonids competed for control of the Breton March through much of the ninth century.
Burgundofara, also Saint Fara or Fare, was the founder and first abbess of the Abbey of Faremoutiers.
Christopher John Wickham is a British historian and academic. From 2005 to 2016, he was the Chichele Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; he is now emeritus professor. He had previously taught at the University of Birmingham from 1977, rising to be Professor of Early Medieval History from 1997 to 2005.
Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400–800 is a 2005 history book by English historian Christopher Wickham at the University of Oxford. It is a broad history of the period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the transition to the Middle Ages, often called Late Antiquity.
Erminethrudis, was a nun and a member of the Merovingian aristocracy who died in Paris about 600, leaving a will which survived as a rare example from the period.
The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 is a 2009 history book by English historian Christopher Wickham at the University of Oxford. It is a broad history of the Early Middle Ages, the period after what is commonly called the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The book received mostly positive reviews.
