History of Burgundy

File:Map Burgundian Kingdom EN.png (411-534)]]

File:Map Burgundian Kingdom 2 EN.png rule between 534 and 879]]

{{More citations needed section|date=August 2022}}

The first recorded peoples of the area now referred to as Burgundy were various tribes of Celtic Gauls, the most prominent of which were the Aedui. Under a chief magistrate known as a Vergobret, the Aedui maintained a semi-republican form of government, but were eventually absorbed into the expanding Roman Empire. Following several revolts, the Aedui leadership was invited to join the Roman Senate, becoming the first Gauls to receive such an offering, after which Gallo-Roman culture flourished in the region.

{{main|Kingdom of the Burgundians}}

The Burgundians, who migrated into the Western Roman Empire as it collapsed, are generally regarded as a Germanic people, possibly originating in Bornholm (modern Denmark). (A fringe theory suggests that the Burgundians may have been the Βουρουγουνδοι Bourougoundoi later alluded to by the Aeolian historian Agathias, as a component of Eurasian steppe peoples, namely the "Scythian or Huns" and, by implication, Turkic peoples like the Bulgars).[https://books.google.com/books?id=Wp92bUzuMoQC&pg=PA146 Agathias, Histiriae, V, 11, 2-4]. See also: Runciman S., A history of the First Bulgarian empire, London, G.Bell & Sons, 1930, p.7, & notes. Agathias connects the Bourougoundoi and Ουλτιζουροι Oultizouroi to the Bulgars and Utigurs. While they were dominated by the Huns for a time and adopted some of their cultural practices, Agathias may have confused or conflated the Burgundians with the Lombards, who apparently had more significant ties to the Huns and Bulgars.Hyun Jin Kim, The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 151–2.

In 411, the Burgundians crossed the Rhine and established a kingdom at Worms. Amidst repeated clashes between the Romans and Huns, the Burgundian kingdom eventually occupied what is today the borderlands between Switzerland, France, and Italy. In 534, the Franks defeated Godomar, the last Burgundian king, and absorbed the territory into the Frankish Kingdom.

File:Vertrag von Prüm.svg under the Treaty of Prüm (855), including the realm of Charles the Young (in purple)]]

The Frankish period in the history of Burgundy is divided in two dynastic eras, the Merovingian (534–751) and the Carolingian (751–879).

Since the Frankish conquest in 534, Burgundy was ruled by various members of the Merovingian dynasty, and became one of the three main polities that together defined the core Frankish realm, together with Austrasia and Neustria. Between 561 and 592, and again between 639 and 737, several Merovingian rulers used the title of "King of Burgundy".{{cite book|author=Rolf Grosse |title=Du royaume franc aux origines de la France et de l'Allemagne 800–1214 |publisher=Presses Universitaires du Septentrion |date=2014 }}

File:Teilungsvertrag von 863.svg in 863]]

File:Map Kingdom Arelat EN.png and the Capetian Duchy of Burgundy in the 12th and 13th centuries]]

Under the Carolingian rule, since 751, Burgundy became the central region within the realm of Carloman I (768-771). In 843, under the Treaty of Verdun, most of Burgundy became part of the Middle Francia that included lands from the North Sea to central Italy and was ruled by emperor Lothair I, while the northwestern part of Burgundy was assigned to the kingdom of West Francia, thus setting the bases for a lasting division of Burgundian lands.

In 855, under the Treaty of Prüm (855), Lothair's realm was divided between his three sons: Italy went to Louis II, while Lothair II received Lotharingia with Upper Burgundy, and Charles being awarded Lower Burgundy with Provence. As Charles was still young, the actual power in his realm was held by regent, count Girart II of Vienne whose wife was the sister-in-law of emperor Lothair I. Girart was an able regent, who was successful in defending the kingdom from Vikings, who raided as far as Valence. In the same time, older Carolingians, who ruled West Francia and East Francia, tried to expand their influence towards the former Middle Francia. Thus in 861, Charles' uncle, Charles the Bald of West Francia, attempted to intervene in Provence after receiving an appeal for intervention from the Count of Arles. He invaded as far as Mâcon, before being restrained by the powerful archbishop Hincmar of Rheims.

In 858, count Girart made an arrangement that, if young Charles should die without heirs, his realm would revert to Charles' older brother Lothair II who ruled in Lotharingia, but when Charles died in 863,{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|p=179}} his kingdom was divided between both of his brothers: Lothair II received the bishoprics of Lyon, Vienne and Grenoble, to be administered by Girart, while emperor Louis II received Arles, Aix-en-provence and Embrun.

After the death of Lothair II, the Treaty of Meerssen was concluded in 870,{{sfn|West|2023|p=}} dividing much of his domains between West Francia and East Francia, while the Lower Burgundy with Provence remained under the control of emperor Louis II. After emperors death in 875, those regions were seized by the West Frankish king Charles the Bald, and also ruled by his son and successor Louis the Stammerer.{{sfn|MacLean|2003|p=}}

During and after the dissolution of the Frankish Empire a number of polities existed at different times and covering different areas. During the late 9th century there were three Burgundies:

1. the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy around the Jura mountains,
2. the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy with Provence,
3. the Duchy of Burgundy west of the Saône.

The two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Burgundy were reunited in 933 as the Kingdom of Burgundy. This kingdom in turn was absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire under Conrad II in 1032, and known from the 12th century as the Kingdom of Arles.

The Duchy of Burgundy was annexed by the French throne in 1004.

Image:Map France 1477-en.svg

During the 12th and 13th centuries, the County of Burgundy emerged from the area previously within the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy. It became known as the Free County of Burgundy or Franche-Comté.

During the Middle Ages, Burgundy was the seat of some of the most important Western churches and monasteries, among them Cluny, Cîteaux, and Vézelay.

During the Hundred Years' War, King John II of France gave the duchy to his youngest son, Philip the Bold, rather than leaving it for his successor on the French throne. Following a personal union between the Duchy and the County of Burgundy, the "Two Burgundies" soon became a major rival to the French throne. The Dukes of Burgundy succeeded in assembling an empire stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea, in large part by marriage. This Burgundian State consisted of a number of fiefdoms on both sides of the (then largely symbolic) border between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Its economic heartland was in the Low Countries, particularly Flanders and Brabant. The Burgundian court outshone the French court both economically and culturally. In Belgium and in the south of the Netherlands, the expression "Burgundian lifestyle" is still used to denote enjoyment of life, good food, and extravagant spectacle.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

In 1477, at the battle of Nancy during the Burgundian Wars, the last duke Charles the Bold was killed in battle, and the Duchy itself was annexed by France. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the other Burgundian territories provided a power base for the rise of the Habsburgs, after Maximilian of Austria married the surviving daughter of the ducal family, Mary. After her death, her husband moved his court first to Mechelen and later to the palace at Coudenberg, Brussels, and from there ruled the remnants of the empire, the Low Countries (Burgundian Netherlands) and Franche-Comté, then still an imperial fief. The latter territory was ceded to France in the Treaty of Nijmegen of 1678.

With the French Revolution in the end of the 18th century, the administrative units of the regions disappeared, but were reconstituted during the Fifth Republic in the 1970s. The modern-day administrative région includes most of the former duchy.

In 2016, the regions of Burgundy and Franche-Comté were merged to found the new administrative region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.{{Cite web |date=2013-06-30 |title=Welcome to Bourgogne-Franche-Comté |url=https://www.travelfranceonline.com/welcome-to-bourgogne-franche-comte/ |access-date=2025-07-08 |language=en-GB}}

{{col div}}

• Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
• Burgundian State
• List of chancellors of Burgundy
• Burgundian Netherlands
• Count of Burgundy
• County of Burgundy
• Duchy of Burgundy
• Duke of Burgundy
• Kingdom of Burgundy
• King of Burgundy
• House of Burgundy
• Timeline of Dijon
• Burgundian Circle
• Spanish Road
• Middle Francia

{{col div end}}

{{reflist|2}}

{{Refbegin|2}}

• {{Cite book|last=Bouchard|first=Constance B.|title=Sword, Miter, and Cloister: Nobility and the Church in Burgundy, 980-1198|year=1987|location=Ithaca and London|publisher=Cornell University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hpfHfnm2hjkC&pg=PA3}}
• {{Cite book|last=Bouchard|first=Constance B.|chapter=Burgundy and Provence, 879–1032|title=The New Cambridge Medieval History|volume=3|year=1999|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=328–345|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-SsbHs5zTAC&pg=PA328}}
• {{Cite book|last=Haemers|first=Jelle|title=For the Common Good: State Power and Urban Revolts in the Reign of Mary of Burgundy (1477-1482)|year=2009|location=Turnhout|publisher=Brepols|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IvrAAAAMAAJ}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Hauff|first=Andrea|title=The Kingdom of Upper Burgundy and the East Frankish Kingdom at the beginning of the 10th century|journal=History Compass|year=2017|volume=15|number=8|pages=1–12|url=https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hic3.12396}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Hauff|first=Andrea|title=Carolingian Traditions and New Beginnings: The Coronation of Rudolph I of Upper Burgundy|journal=Bulletin du centre d'études médiévales d'Auxerre|year=2018|volume=22|number=1|pages=1–13|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231118144216if_/https://journals.openedition.org/cem/pdf/14839}}
• {{Cite book|last=MacLean|first=Simon|title=Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the end of the Carolingian Empire|year=2003|location=New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Icl9qL3FnMC}}
• {{Cite book|last=McKitterick|first=Rosamond|author-link=Rosamond McKitterick|title=The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751-987|year=1983|location=Harlow|publisher=Longman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wtNnAAAAMAAJ}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Saenger|first=Paul|title=Burgundy and the Inalienability of Appanages in the Reign of Louis XI|journal=French Historical Studies|year=1977|volume=10|number=1|pages=1–26|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/286114}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Schneider|first=Jens|title=Spatializing Meersen: Monasteries in Jurassian Burgundy (6th-9th c.)|journal=Bulletin du centre d'études médiévales d'Auxerre|year=2018|volume=22|number=1|pages=1–20|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250531002316/https://journals.openedition.org/cem/pdf/15084}}
• {{Cite book|last=West|first=Charles|title=The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom: Lotharingia, 855–869|year=2023|location=Toronto|publisher=University of Toronto Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sp_UEAAAQBAJ}}

{{refend}}

{{EB1911 poster|Burgundy}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090215010535/http://bible.tmtm.com/wiki/Burgundvy_(Catholic_Encyclopedia) Burgundy in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia at BibleWiki]
• [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03068a.htm Burgundy in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia at NewAdvent.org]
• {{in lang|en|fr}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20190629224855/http://burgundyeye.com/ Burgundy Tourism]
• [http://www.insee.fr/fr/insee_regions/bourgogne/zoom/ries/pdf/can00.pdf Départements, arrondissements & cantons of Burgundy] (INSEE site)
• {{in lang|fr}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20140915013547/http://www.netbourgogne.com/ Netbourgogne, site sur la Bourgogne]