(the Lombards or Longobards (Latin: Langobardi, Italian Longobardi [loŋɡoˈbardi]) were a Germanic people who ruled large parts of the “Italian Peninsula” from 568 to 774)
(the Lombard historian “Paul the Deacon” wrote in the Historia Langobardorum that the ‘Lombards’ descended from a small tribe called the Winnili, who dwelt in southern ‘Scandinavia’ (Scadanan) before migrating to seek new lands)
(in the 1st century AD, they formed part of the ‘Suebi’, in northwestern ‘Germany’)
(by the end of the 5th century, they had moved into the area roughly coinciding with modern Austria north of the Danube river, where they subdued the Heruls and later fought frequent wars with the ‘Gepids’)
(the Lombard king ‘Audoin’ defeated the ‘Gepid’ leader ‘Thurisind’ in 551 or 552; his successor ‘Alboin’ eventually destroyed the ‘Gepids’ at the ‘Battle of Asfeld’ in 567)
(following this victory, ‘Alboin’ decided to lead his people to Italy, which had become severely depopulated and devastated after the long ‘Gothic War’ (535–554) between the ‘Byzantine Empire’ and the ‘Ostrogothic Kingdom’ there)
(the ‘Lombards’ were joined by numerous Saxons, Heruls, Gepids, Bulgars, Thuringians, and Ostrogoths, and their invasion of Italy was almost unopposed)
(by late 569 they had conquered all north of Italy and the principal cities north of the Po River except ‘Pavia’, which fell in 572)
(at the same time, they occupied areas in central Italy and southern Italy)
(they established a ‘Lombard Kingdom’ in north and central Italy, later named Regnum Italicum (“Kingdom of Italy”), which reached its zenith under the 8th-century ruler ‘Liutprand’)
(in 774, the Kingdom was conquered by the Frankish King ‘Charlemagne’ and integrated into his ‘Empire’)
(however, Lombard nobles continued to rule southern parts of the Italian peninsula, well into the 11th century when they were conquered by the Normans and added to their ‘County of Sicily’)
(in this period, the southern part of ‘Italy’ still under ‘Longobardic’ domination was known by the name ‘Langbarðaland’ (‘Land of the Lombards’) in the Norse runestones)
(their legacy is also apparent in the regional name ‘Lombardy’ (in the north of ‘Italy’))