At the same time he encouraged him to push his
victory to the utmost and make himself king of the Lombards, advising
him, however, not to incorporate his conquest with the Frankish
dominions, as it would wound the pride of the conquered people to be
thus absorbed by the conquerors, and to take merely the title of "King
of the Franks and Lombards." Charlemagne appreciated and accepted this
wise advice; for he could preserve proper limits in his ambition and in
the hour of victory. Three years afterward he even did more than Pope
Adrian had advised. In 777 Queen Hildegarde bore him a son, Pepin, whom
in 781 Charlemagne had baptized and anointed King of Italy at Rome by
the Pope, thus separating not only the two titles, but also the two
kingdoms, and restoring to the Lombards a national existence, feeling
quite sure that so long as he lived the unity of his different dominions
would not be imperilled. Having thus regulated at Rome his own affairs
and those of the Church, he returned to his camp, took Pavia, received
the submission of all the Lombard dukes and counts, save one only,
Aregisius, Duke of Beneventum, and entered France again, taking with
him, as prisoner, King Didier, whom he banished to a monastery, first at
Liege and then at Corbie, where the dethroned Lombard, say the
chroniclers, ended his days in saintly fashion.
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