After Rome fell, the Western Roman Empire was destroyed, but the ideals of Roman civilisation endured in the barbarian tribes which replaced it. The Heruli and the Ostrogoths which conquered them are sometimes considered a continuation of the Roman sequence of rulers in Italy. When the Lombards sufficiently threatened the Pope in 774, he persuaded Charlemagne, King of the Franks, to come to the rescue of him and Rome, and conquer the Lombards. In 800, the Pope rewarded Charlemagne by making him the first Holy Roman Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire was not, however, a legitimate succession of the Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Emperors took great offence at the Franks taking the title.