From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia List of Kings of Burgundy
List of Kings of Burgundy
The following is a list of the Kings of the two Kingdoms of • Charlemagne, 771–814
Burgundy, and a number of related political entities de- • Louis the Pious, 814–840
volving from Carolingian machinations over family rela- • Lothar I, 840–855, king under his father since 817
tions. The sons of Louis the Pious divided the Frankish kingdom in
the treaty of Verdun in 843. Burgundy was divided between the
brothers
Kings of the Burgundians • Charles the Bald, who received the smaller part, west
The Burgundians had left Bornholm c. 300 and settled of the river Saône. This entity was officially called
near the Vistula. Jordanes relates that in this area they regnum burgundiae (kingdom of Burgundy), but since
were thoroughly defeated by the Gepids in the 4th centu- the King of France delegated administrations to
ry and then moved to the Rhineland. Dukes, the territory became known as the Duchy of
• Gebicca (late 4th century – c.407) Burgundy or Bourgogne.
• Gundomar I (c.407 – 411), son of Gebicca • Lothair I received the larger part, east of the river
• Giselher (c.407 – 411), son of Gebicca Saône, which retained the name of Kingdom of
• Gunther (c.407 – 436), son of Gebicca Burgundy
Flavius Aëtius moves the Burgundians into Sapaudia (Upper After Lothar’s death in 855, his realm was divided be-
Rhône Basin). tween his sons. The Burgundian territories were divided
• Gunderic/Gundioc (436–473) opposed by between:
• Chilperic I, brother of Gundioc (443–c.480) • Lothair II, who received the northern parts.
• division of the kingdom among the four sons of • Charles of Provence, who received the southern
Gundioc: parts including Provence, Lyon and Vienne. His
• Gundobad (473–516 in Lyon, king of all of realm was called the regnum provinciae (kingdom of
Burgundy from 480), Provence).
• Chilperic II (473–493 in Valence) For the kings of Provence before its (re)union with the
• Gundomar/Godomar (473–486 in Vienne) rest of Burgundy, see the list of dukes, kings, counts, and
• Godegisel (473–500, in Vienne and Geneva) Provence.
margraves of Provence
• Sigismund, son of Gundobad (516–523)
• Godomar or Gundimar, son of Gundobad (523–532) Kingdom of Upper Burgundy
Further information: Upper Burgundy
Burgundy under Frankish • Lothar II, 855–869
Lothar subsumed his portion of Burgundy into the King-
Kings dom of Lotharingia and at his brother Charles’ death,
Gradually conquered by the Frankish kings Childebert I and gained some northern districts of the deceased’s king-
Clothar I from 532 – 534 dom. When Lothar II died in 869, his realm was divided
between his uncles Charles the Bald and Louis the Ger-
Merovingian Kings man in the Treaty of Mersen.
When Emperor Charles the Fat, who until 884 had
• Childebert I, 534–558 (central parts) reunited all Frankish kingdoms except for Kingdom of
• Theudebert I, 534–548 (northern parts) Provence, died in 888, the nobles and leading clergy of
• Chlothar I, 534–561 (southern parts), eventually Upper Burgundy assembled at St Maurice and elected Ru-
uniting the entire kingdom dolph, count of Auxerre, from the Elder Welf family, as
• Guntram (561–592) king. At first, he tried to reunite the realm of Lothar II,
• Childebert II, 592–595 but opposition by Arnulf of Carinthia forced him to focus
• Theuderic II, 595–613 on his Burgundian territory.
United with Neustria under one king, but with separate admin- • Rudolf I (888–912)
istration (613–751) • Rudolf II (912–937)
In 933 Rudolph ceded his claims to the Kingdom of Italy to Hugh
Carolingian Kings of Arles and in return gained the Kingdom of Provence, thus re-
• Pippin the Younger, 751–768 uniting the two territories.
• Carloman, 768–771
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia List of Kings of Burgundy
• Conrad I (937–993) Rectorate of Burgundy
• Rudolph III (993–1032) [1]
Under the kings Conrad I and Rudolph III, royal power
In 1032 the Kingdom of Burgundy was incorporated into the
had weakened while local nobles, such as the Counts of
Holy Roman Empire as a third kingdom, the Kingdom of Arles,
Burgundy, had gained prominence.
with the King of Germany or Emperor as King of Burgundy.
After the early death of Emperor Henry III, his widow
Agnes of Poitou acted as Regent for his young son Henry
Kingdom of Burgundy (Arelat) IV. She made Rudolf von Rheinfeld duke of Swabia and
also conferred on him the regal powers over Burgundy.
as part of the Holy Roman Em- However, when Rudolf was elected anti-king, Roman
pire king Henry IV in 1079 stripped him of his powers and del-
egated them to the Prince-bishops of Lausanne and Sit-
ten (both in present Switzerland).
When William III, Count of Burgundy was assassinat-
ed in February 1127, King Lothar III supported the claims
of William’s uncle Duke Conrad of Zähringen, grandson
of Rudolf von Rheinfeld to the countship and conferred
on him the regal powers over Burgundy.
Lacking a proper title, the Zähringer called them-
selves dukes and rectors of Burgundy, in order to gain the
status of dukes of Burgundy. The royal chancellory how-
ever consistently avoided this term and the effective
power of the rector (in Roman law, a generic term for
provincial governor) was restricted to the possessions of
the Zähringer east of the Jura.
Any attempts to enforce the Zähringer’s claims and
to extend royal authority into the western and southern
parts of the kingdom failed, most notably a military cam-
paign in 1153. After these failures, Emperor Frederick I
Barbarossa, gained a firm hold of the western districts
The Kingdom of Arelat in the 12/13th century in 1156 by marrying Beatrice, heiress to the countship
of Burgundy. This success permanently confined the
Further information: Kingdom of Arles Zähringer between Jura and Alps, where they used their
regal powers to expand their possessions. In 1218,
Salian (Frankish) Dynasty Berthold V of Zähringen died without issue.
After this, King Frederick II conferred the title of the
• Conrad II, king 1032-1039, emperor since 1027
rector of Burgundy on his young son Henry, in order to
• Henry III, king 1039-1056, emperor 1046-1056
keep the heirs of Zähringer possessions away from the
• Henry IV, king 1056-1105, emperor 1084-1105
regal powers associated with that title. This appointment
• Henry V, king 1105-1125, emperor 1111-1125
was only of momentary importance and after Henry had
been elected king of Germany in April 1220, the title dis-
Supplinburger appeared for good. Also, the decline of royal power inside
• Lothar III, king 1125-1137, emperor 1133-1137 the kingdom of Burgundy remained irreversible.
Staufen (or Hohenstaufen dynasty)
• Conrad III, king 1138-1152
References
• Frederick I Barbarossa, king 1152, emperor 1155-1190 [1] Britannica (1922). The Encyclopædia Britannica: A
• Henry VI, king 1190, emperor 1191-1197 Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature. Original from
• Philip of Swabia, rival king 1198-1208 Harvard University: Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Otto IV of Brunswick (House of Welf), rival king p. 821. http://books.google.com/
1208-1215, emperor 1209-1215 books?id=KHrJ00s_qs4C&pg=PA821&dq=%22King+of+Burgundy%2
• Frederick II, king 1212, emperor 1220-1250 a.
• Conrad IV, king 1237-1254 (until 1250 under his
father) See also
• Queen of Burgundy
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia List of Kings of Burgundy
• Duchy of Burgundy • Count of Burgundy
• Duke of Burgundy • Dukes of Burgundy family tree
• County of Burgundy
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Kings_of_Burgundy&oldid=424874003"
Categories:
• Kings of Burgundy
This page was last modified on 19 April 2011 at 16:00. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of
the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact us
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
3