DESIDERIO, King of the LOMBARDS. - He obtained the throne in 757 upon the death of Aistulf, thanks to promises made to Pope Stephen II to restore the conquests of recent years. However, he did not make the restitution; indeed, upon the death of Paul I in 768, he attempted to influence the election of the successor in Rome, with the assistance of a faction that had formed within the city. Having then traveled
Pope Hadrian I having been elected, D. attempted a rapprochement with Charlemagne, king of the Franks, for the purpose of removing the protection that the papacy enjoyed from that quarter—which alone prevented him from securing his conquests in central Italy—and he attempted a new descent toward Rome. But Hadrian persuaded King Charles to descend into Italy, and despite the difficulties raised by the Franks themselves, Charles, having forced the mountain passes (Chiuse) in 773, conquered northern Italy, besieged D. in Pavia, took him prisoner in June 774, and interned him along with his wife Ansa in the monastery of Corbie, where he died shortly thereafter. Together with his wife, D. had been a great patron of the monastic movement of his Kingdom. With D., the Lombard Kingdom passed under Frankish rule.