Pope Stephen II
In 751 the Exarchate of Ravenna fell to the Lombards under King Aistulf. Rome, under Pope Stephen II, attempted diplomatic negotiations with Aistulf, and upon the failure of those negotiations, entreated King Pepin the Short of the Franks to intervene on its behalf. Pepin defeated the Lombards by 756 and granted the lands of the Duchy of Rome as well as the former Lombard possessions to the Papacy in what is referred to as the Donation of Pepin, marking the true beginning of the Papal States.