The
Kingdom of the Lombards (
regnum Langobardorum), later the
Kingdom of (
all)
Italy (
regnum totius Italiae), was an
early medieval state established by the
Lombards, a Germanic-speaking people, on the
Italian Peninsula between 568–69. The king was traditionally elected by the highest-ranking aristocrats, the
dukes, and all attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was divided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by the semi-autonomous dukes, which were in turn subdivided into
gastaldates at the level of each city. The capital of the kingdom and centre of its political life was
Pavia.