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The Donation of Pepin was the conferring of the lands formerly held by the Exarchate of Ravenna by Pepin the Short to Pope Stephen II after the former conquered lands from the Lombards. This in effect gave the pope temporal powers over the lands we would come to know as the Papal States stretching from Romagna in the north, the Marches and Umbria, and to Lazio. What would have happened if this donation never happened? What if Pepin kept the land for himself or conferred them to other nobles instead of the pope? How would that affect the history of these regions?
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