Lombard Court

Not an individual but a collective entity: the royal court and chancery of the Lombard (Langobard) kingdom, which ruled much of Italy from the late 6th to the late 8th century after the Lombards entered the peninsula in 568. Its administrative seat was Pavia (ancient Ticinum), the Lombard capital, from which kings such as Authari, Agilulf, Rothari, Liutprand, and Aistulf issued correspondence and edicts. The letters grouped under this heading (Epistulae Langobardorum) reflect royal diplomacy and administration during the Lombard ascendancy in Italy, a period bracketed by exchanges with the papacy and the Roman East and ending with the Frankish conquest of 774. As an institutional 'correspondent,' the court appears as the sending or receiving authority in this collection rather than as a single attested person.