Within Spoleto, the Roman capitolium dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva had already been occupied by the bishop's cathedral (the see was founded in the 4th century) which incorporated the pagan structure (now the church of San Ansano).

At Spoleto Faroald was deposed by his son Transemund II (724), who also rebelled against Liutprand and formed an alliance with Pope Gregory III, who sheltered him in Rome in 738.

In 776, two years after the fall of Pavia, Spoleto fell likewise to Charlemagne and his Carolingian Empire,[2] and he assumed the title King of the Lombards.

Lambert was a doughty fighter against Saracen raiders, but an individual who equally massacred Byzantines (as in 867), and was deposed in 871, restored in 876, and finally excommunicated by Pope John VIII.

About 949, the Frankish King Berengar II of Italy takes Spoleto from the margrave, diminishes the size of the duchy, and sets aside territory that will become the March of Fermo.

At that time, Emperor Otto I detached from the Duchy of Spoleto the lands called Sabina Langobardica and presented them to the Holy See.

After Pandolf's death in 981, the joint principality of Spoleto, Capua and Benevento is partitioned amongst the sons of Pandulf, who fight endlessly to gain supremacy.

After Henry VI died in 1197 and Otto of Brunswick became the king of Italy in 1198, however, Conrad left the position and ceded Spoleto to Pope Innocent III.

In 1201, in support of Pope Innocent's desire to strengthen the dominion of the Papal States, Otto made a gift of the Imperial rights for Spoleto to the Papacy.

In 1209, after the death of Philip of Swabia, however, Otto became the Holy Roman Emperor and reneged on his earlier promises to support the Pope.

Otto set his sights on reestablishing Imperial power and occupied Spoleto until 1213 when the duchy was brought back under papal rule with a governor, usually a cardinal.