Which Lombard king did Charlemagne defeat and depose in 774?

Charlemagne defeated and deposed the Lombard king Desiderius in 774. The conflict began after Charlemagne intervened in Italy, responding in part to a request from Pope Adrian I for help against Lombard pressure on papal territories.

Charlemagne crossed the Alps and besieged Desiderius in Pavia, the Lombard capital. After the city fell in June 774, Desiderius was removed from power and taken into Frankish custody, probably entering monastic confinement. Charlemagne then assumed the Lombard royal title, becoming king of the Lombards as well as ruler of the Franks.

The conquest transformed the balance of power in Italy. It strengthened the Frankish alliance with the papacy and made Charlemagne the dominant ruler north of Rome. Lombard institutions and local elites were not simply erased, but the kingdom was incorporated into Charlemagne’s expanding realm.

Desiderius is sometimes confused with earlier Lombard kings such as Aistulf or Liutprand. Those rulers also fought the papacy and the Franks, but Desiderius was the king defeated and deposed in Charlemagne’s 774 conquest.