Mediaeval and modern history . ved to be one ofthe nails of the cross upon which Christ had suffered. The Kingdom of the Lombards was destroyed by Charlemagne,the most noted of the Frankish rulers, in the year 774; but theblood of the invaders had by this time become intermingledwith that of theformer subjects ofthe Empire, so thatthroughout all thatpart of the penin-sula which is stillcalled Lombardyafter them, one willto-day occasionallysee the fair hair andlight complexionwhich reveal thestrain of Germanblood in the veinsof the present in-habitants. One importantresult of the Lom-bard conqu
Mediaeval and modern history . ved to be one ofthe nails of the cross upon which Christ had suffered. The Kingdom of the Lombards was destroyed by Charlemagne,the most noted of the Frankish rulers, in the year 774; but theblood of the invaders had by this time become intermingledwith that of theformer subjects ofthe Empire, so thatthroughout all thatpart of the penin-sula which is stillcalled Lombardyafter them, one willto-day occasionallysee the fair hair andlight complexionwhich reveal thestrain of Germanblood in the veinsof the present in-habitants. One importantresult of the Lom-bard conquest ofItaly was the de-struction of the po-litical unity estab- Hshed by the Romans and the breaking up of the country intoa multitude of petty states. This resulted from the incompletenature of the conquest and from the loose feudal constitution ofthe Lombard monarchy, which was rather a group of practicallyindependent duchies than a real kingdom. Not until our ownday did there emerge from this political chaos a united Map of Italy under the Lombards Showing how the pohtical unity of the peninsula wasshattered by the Lombard conquest. The unshadedportions represent the regions taken possession of bythe barbarians; the shaded areas indicate the landswhich remained in the hands of the Eastern Emperor 12 THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS 14. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain. —In the fifth cen-tury of our era, being then engaged in her death struggle withthe barbarians, Rome withdrew her legions from Britain in orderto protect Italy. Thus that province was left exposed to thedepredations of the Anglo-Saxon corsairs from the other province of the Roman Empire made such determinedand heroic resistance against the barbarians. It is to this periodof desperate struggle that the famous King Arthur belongs. Thelegends that have gathered about the name of this national heroare mostly mythical; yet it is possible that he had a real exist-ence and that the name represents one
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