Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Lombards, also called Longobards or Langobards, were a Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774 AD. They had earlier settled the Middle Danube in the fifth century and, still earlier, lived near present-day Hamburg on the Lower Elbe.
The standard explanation joins lang, meaning long, with bard, meaning beard, making the name mean the Long-beards. Isidore of Seville wrote in the seventh century that it was commonly said the Langobards earned the name because they never cut their beards.
Alboin led the Lombards into Italy in the spring of 568. By late 569 they had taken northern Italy except Pavia, which fell in 572 and became the first capital of the Lombard Kingdom.
The Frankish king Charlemagne conquered the Lombard kingdom in 774, defeating King Desiderius and taking the title King of the Lombards. Lombard nobles continued to rule the southern parts of Italy into the eleventh century, when the Normans conquered them.
Lombardy in northern Italy derives its name from the Lombards. The region includes the cities of Brescia, Bergamo, Milan, and the old capital Pavia.
Theodelinda was the daughter of Garibald I of Bavaria and a Catholic queen who married King Authari in 589 and King Agilulf in 591. A friend of Pope Gregory I, she pushed for the Christianization of the Lombards.