The new Frankish alliance was important because of the Franks ' known hostility to the Byzantine empire, providing the Lombards with more than one option.

The first phase Migration Period displacement from between CE 300 and 500 included relocation of the Goths ( Ostrogoths and Visigoths ), Vandals, Franks, various other Germanic people ( Burgundians, Lombards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi, Alemanni, Varangians and Normans ), Alans and numerous Slavic tribes.

Seven large German-speaking tribes – the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians, Lombards, Saxons and Franks – moved west and took part in the Decline of the Roman Empire and transformation of the old Western Roman Empire.

This weakness became even more evident when the Lombards had to face the increasing power of the Franks.

Liutprand's successor Aistulf conquered Ravenna for the Lombards for the first time, but was subsequently defeated by the king of the Franks Pippin III, called by the Pope, and had to leave it.

Complete emancipation appears to have been granted only among the Franks and the Lombards.

Monaco then passed hands between the Lombards and Franks.

These humiliations, the weakening of the empire in the face of Muslim expansion, and the inability of the emperor to protect the papal estates against the Lombards, made Pope Stephen II turn from Emperor Constantine V. He appealed to the Franks to protect his lands.

It covers the story of the Lombards from their legendary origins in the north in ' Scadinavia ' and their subsequent migrations, notably to Italy in 568 / 9 to the death of King Liutprand in 744, and contains much information about the Byzantine empire, the Franks, and others.

The story is told from the point of view of a Lombard and is especially valuable for the relations between the Franks and the Lombards.

Perceiving that the Lombard threat would continue to fester and they would take imperial territory in Italy a piece at a time, in around 721 Gregory appealed to the Franks, asking Charles Martel to intervene and drive out the Lombards.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was repeatedly invaded by the Burgundians, the Goths ( 5th century ), Byzantines, Lombards ( 6th century ), Franks ( 773 ).

Milan surrendered to the Franks in 774 when Charlemagne, in an utterly novel decision, took the title " King of the Lombards " as well ( before then the Germanic kingdoms had frequently conquered each other, but none had adopted the title of King of another people ).

Afterwards, the city formed the centre of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna until the invasion of the Franks in 751, after which it became the seat of the Kingdom of the Lombards.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the independent bishopric of Trento was ruled by Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Lombards and Franks, finally becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire.

The city did not easily recover from this blow, and Padua was still weak when the Franks succeeded the Lombards as masters of northern Italy.

Pelagius appealed for help from Emperor Maurice against the Lombards, but the Byzantines were of little help, forcing Pelagius to " buy " a truce and turn to the Franks, who invaded Italy, but left after being bribed by the Lombards.

Between the 4th and the 10th centuries Liguria was dominated by the Byzantines, the Lombards of King Rothari ( about 641 ) and the Franks ( about 774 ) and it was invaded by the Saracens ( according to Arthur Hill Hassall, under Saracen occupation and rule from c. 876 – c. 972 ) and the Normans.

In the succeeding century, the town was repeatedly plundered by the Franks and Lombards, and was occupied by the Saracens in 731 and by Charles Martel in 737.

At the age of 3, he was, together with his father, Pepin the Short, and his elder brother, Charlemagne, anointed King of the Franks and titled " Patrician of the Romans " by Pope Stephen II, who had left Rome to beg the Frankish King for assistance against the Lombards.

However it was, by the end of the year Bertrada and Charlemagne had successfully encircled Carloman: Charlemagne had married Desiderata, the daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius, Carloman's immediate eastern neighbor, and the marriage created an alliance between Charlemagne and the Lombards ; Bertrada had also secured for Charlemagne the friendship of Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, her husband's nephew ; she had even attempted to secure Papal support for the marriage by arranging for Desiderius to cede to Rome certain territories to which the Papacy laid claim, although Pope Stephen III remained in theory hostile to an alliance between his allies the Franks and his enemies the Lombards, and in reality deeply conflicted between the threat the Lombards posed to him and the chance to dispose of the anti-Lombard Christopher the Primicerius, the dominant figure at the Papal court.

After the fall of the Western Empire, was ruled by the Ostrogoths, the Lombards and the Franks.

), Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective ( Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology ), Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2003, ISBN 1-84383-035-3.

The 3rd century saw the emergence of a number of large West Germanic tribes: Alamanni, Franks, Bavarii, Chatti, Saxons, Frisii, Sicambri, and Thuringii.

Tribes that became stem duchies were originally the Alamanni, the Thuringii, the Saxons, the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Rugii.

Germanic tribes, the Franks and the Alamanni, entered Gaul at this time.

A member of the Constantinian dynasty, he was made Caesar over the western provinces, by Constantius II in 355, where he campaigned successfully against the Alamanni and Franks.

From the 2nd century onwards, many of the Germanic tribes recorded as active during the Principate started to unite into bigger tribal unions, resulting in the Franks, Alamanni, Bavarii, and Saxons.

King Clovis subjugates the Alamanni, and is baptized as a Catholic with a large number of Franks by Remigius, bishop of Reims

Many non-Roman soldiers are from Germanic tribes: Alamanni, Franks, Goths, Saxons and Vandals.

From the end of the 3rd century, Heruls are also mentioned as raiders in Gaul and Spain, together with Saxons, Franks and Alamanni.

After the Franks under Clovis I defeated the Alamanni in the Battle of Tolbiac in 496, the Franks eventually displaced the Alamanni in the Wiesbaden area over the course of the 6th century.

* The Franks cross the Rhine, the Alamanni reach Milan.

* Winter – Valentinian I mobilises a massive army for his campaign against the Alamanni and the Franks.

* The Alamanni and the Franks defeat the Roman army, taking control of 40 towns between the Moselle and the Rhine.

* Loseby, S. T., " Gregory's cities: urban functions in sixth-century Gaul " from Wood, Ian, Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian period: an ethnographic perspective pp. 239 – 270, ( Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1998 )

As Caesar he defeated the usurper Allectus in Britain and campaigned extensively along the Rhine frontier, defeating the Alamanni and Franks.

During his reign, the Rhine and Danube frontier was strengthened after successful wars against several Germanic tribes such as the Goths, Alamanni, Longiones, Franks, Burgundians, and Vandals.

Gratian's general Mallobaudes, a king of the Franks, and Naniemus, completely defeated the Lentienses, the southernmost branch of the Alamanni, in May 378 at the Battle of Argentovaria.

The conflict between Magnentius and Constantius had allowed the Alamanni and Franks to take advantage of the confusion and cross the Rhine, attacking several important settlements and fortifications.

The Lex Alamannorum took laws from the Alamanni, then subject to the Franks.

The Vandals, and new Germanic tribal coalitions like the Alamanni and the Franks now became the Roman ’ s primary security concerns.

The able general having been disposed of, Constantius besieged the city for three months until the general of Constantine, Edobichus, who had been sent across the border to find allies, did return with a large army of Franks and Alamanni.

Postumus declared his sole intention was to protect Gaul – this was his larger Imperial task – and in 261 he repelled mixed groups of Franks and Alamanni to hold the Rhine limes secure, though lands beyond the upper Rhine and Danube had to be abandoned to the barbarians within a couple of years.