, which had
endured two hundred and five years in Italy; for never afterwards was
there a king in Lombardy. Of a truth there remained the families of
the lords and barons and great citizens descended from the Lombards,
both in Lombardy and in Apulia; and still to-day there are certain
gentlemen of ancient lineage whom in common speech we call Lombard
Cattani, descended from the said Lombards which had been lords of
Italy. Charles the Great, after the said victory, came to Rome, and by
the said Adrian and by the Romans was received with great triumph and
honour; and as Charles the Great drew nigh to Rome, and beheld the
holy city from Montemalo, he alighted from his horse, and reverently
entered Rome on foot; and when he came thither, he kissed the gates of
the city and of all the churches, and gave rich offerings to every
Church. And when he came to Rome he was made patrician of Rome, and he
restored the affairs of Holy Church, and of the Romans, and of all
Italy, and he restored them to privileges and liberty, having subdued
in all parts the forces of the emperor of Constantinople, and of the
king of the Lombards, and of their followers, and confirmed the Church
in the donation which Pepin, his father, had given to her, and beyond
that he endowed the Church with the duchy of Spoleto and of Benevento.
And in the kingdom of Apulia he fought many battles against the
Lombards and the rebels against Holy Church, and besieged and
destroyed the city of Lacedonia, which is in Abruzzi between Aquila
and Sermona, and besieged and conquered Tuliverno, the strong fortress
at the entrance of Terra di Lavoro. And many other cities of the
Kingdom [Apulia] which were held by the rebels against Holy Church, he
entirely subdued to his governance. And when he had done this, leaving
Rome and all Italy in peaceful condition under his lordship, in happy
hour he was minded to attack the Saracens which had taken possession
of Provence, and of Navarre, and of Spain, and with the troops of his
twelve barons and peers of France, called Paladins, he entirely
conquered and destroyed them; and he passed beyond seas at the request
of the Emperor Michael of Constantinople and of the Patriarch of
Jerusalem, and conquered the Holy Land and Jerusalem, which were
occupied by the Saracens, and gained for the emperor of
Constantinople all the empire of the East which had been occupied by
the Saracens and the Turks. And when he returned to Constantinople,
a