| 933–1378 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 The Kingdom of Burgundy within Europe at the beginning of the 11th century | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 Burgundy in the 12th–13th century: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Status |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Capital | Arles | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| King | |||||||||||||||||||||||
• 912–937 (first) | Rudolph II | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1346–1378 (last) | Charles IV | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | High Middle Ages | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 933 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
• Rudolph III pledged succession to KingHenry II of Germany | May 1006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• Rudolph III died without issue; kingdom inherited byEmperor Conrad II | 6 September 1032 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• Emperor Charles IV detached theCounty of Savoy | 1361 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• Dauphin Charles made Imperial Vicar of Burgundy | 7 January 1378 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 27 April 1803 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Today part of | |||||||||||||||||||||||
TheKingdom of Burgundy, known from the 12th century[1]: 140 as theKingdom of Arles,[a][2] was a realm established in 933 by the merger of the kingdoms ofUpper andLower Burgundy under KingRudolf II. It was incorporated into theHoly Roman Empire in 1033 and from then on was one of the empire's three constituent realms, together with theKingdom of Germany and theKingdom of Italy.[1] By the mid-13th century at the latest, however, it had lost its concrete political relevance.[2]: 35
Its territory stretched from theMediterranean Sea to theHigh Rhine River in the north, roughly corresponding to the present-dayFrench regions ofProvence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur,Rhône-Alpes andFranche-Comté, as well as westernSwitzerland. Until 1032 it was ruled by independent kings of theElder House of Welf.[3]
Since the conquest of theAncient Kingdom of Burgundy by theFranks in 534, its territory had been ruled within theMerovingian state, and later theCarolingian Empire. In 843, the three surviving sons of EmperorLouis the Pious, who had died in 840, signed theTreaty of Verdun which partitioned the Carolingian Empire among them: the former Burgundian kingdom became part ofMiddle Francia, which was allotted to EmperorLothair I (Lotharii Regnum), with the exception of the laterDuchy of Burgundy, the present-dayBourgogne, which went toCharles the Bald, king ofWest Francia. KingLouis the German receivedEast Francia, comprising the territory east of theRhine River.
Shortly before his death in 855, Emperor Lothair I divided his realm among his three sons in accordance with theTreaty of Prüm. Much of his Burgundian domains would pass to his younger sonCharles of Provence, who ruledLower Burgundy with Provence as a king (855–863), whileUpper Burgundy was given to his brother, kingLothair II. Upon the death of Charles in 863, his domains were divided between his brothers: EmperorLouis II took Provence, while Lothair II received the rest. In 869, Lothair II died without legitimate children, and in 870 his uncles Charles the Bald and Louis the German concluded theTreaty of Meerssen and partitioned his territory: much of the Upper Burgundy, the territory north of theJura mountains (Bourgogne Transjurane), went to Louis the German. The western regions went to Charles the Bald, while emperor Louis II kept Provence and parts of Lower Burgundy. In 875, the emperor died, and his domains in Lower Burgundy and Provence were taken by Charles the Bald and incorporated into his domains.[4][5]
In the confusion after the death of Charles' son, the West Frankish kingLouis the Stammerer in 879, one of his most powerful nobles - countBoso of Provence (d. 887) refused to submit to Louis' heirs. At theSynod of Mantaille, Boso was proclaimed king, thus establishing a distinctive Kingdom in the regions of Provence andLower Burgundy (Bourgogne Cisjurane), centered at Arles andVienne, but his realm was much reduced by 882. His son and heir, kingLouis the Blind (d. 928) succeeded to consolidate the realm in 890, and even managed to capture northern Italy, becoming the emperor in 901. Blinded in 905, he gradually transferred the governance to his cousin, countHugh of Arles.
In the meanwhile, a separate kingdom was created in Upper Burgundy. In 888, upon the death of the EmperorCharles the Fat, countRudolph of Auxerre,Count of Burgundy, founded the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy atSaint-Maurice which included the County of Burgundy, in northwestern Upper Burgundy.
In 933,Hugh of Arles ceded Lower Burgundy toRudolph II of Upper Burgundy in return for Rudolph relinquishing his claim to theItalian throne. Rudolph merged both Upper and Lower Burgundy to form the Kingdom of Arles (Arelat).
In 937, Rudolph was succeeded by his sonConrad the Peaceful. Inheritance claims by Hugh of Arles were rejected, with the support of EmperorOtto I. The kingdom was simulteously invaded byMagyar and Arab raiding parties in 954 and Conrad sent envoys to both parties to attack one another and sent expeditions toProvence in raiding Arab settlements in the 960s.[6]
In 993, Conrad was succeeded by his sonRudolph III, who in 1006 was forced to sign a succession treaty in favor of the future EmperorHenry II. Rudolph attempted to renounce the treaty in 1016 without success.
In 1032, Rudolph III died without any surviving heirs, and, in accordance with the 1006 treaty, the kingdom passed to Henry's successor,Emperor Conrad II from theSalian dynasty, and Arelat was incorporated in theHoly Roman Empire, though the kingdom's territories operated with considerable autonomy.[3] Though from that time the emperors held the title "King of Arles", few went to be crowned in the cathedral of Arles. An exception wasFrederick Barbarossa, who in 1157 helda diet in Besançon and in 1178 was crowned King of Burgundy by thearchbishop of Arles.
TheVivarais see ofViviers was the first of the kingdom's territories to be annexed to theKingdom of France, gradually during the 13th century with formal recognition in 1306.[2]: 37 TheLyonnais had been practically beyond the reach of the Empire since the late 12th century. Its incorporation into France was the result of internal conflicts between theArchbishop of Lyon, the cathedral chapter and the city council. It was cemented in the early 14th century and formalized in a 1312 treaty betweenArchbishop Peter of Savoy andPhilip IV of France.Emperor Henry VII protested against this but did not seriously challenge it.[2]: 37 TheDauphiné was effectively annexed by France through a series of largely accidental developments between 1343 and 1349, but the issue of whether the king or emperor had ultimate sovereignty over it was left unclear until well into the 15th century.[2]: 39-40 . TheCounty of Provence was ruled by junior branches of theHouse of France from 1246 onwards, but only became formally part of the Kingdom of France with the death ofCharles du Maine on 11 December 1481.[2]: 41
A stillborn attempt to revive the kingdom of Burgundy/Arles was made byCharles of Anjou in coordination withPope Nicholas III. Between 1277 and 1279, Charles, at that time alreadyKing of Sicily,Rudolf of Habsburg, King of the Romans and aspirant to the Imperial crown, andMargaret of Provence, queen dowager of France, settled their dispute over the County of Provence, and also over Rudolf's bid to become the sole Imperial candidate. Rudolf agreed that his daughterClemence of Austria would marry Charles's grandsonCharles Martel of Anjou, with the whole Arelat kingdom as her dowry. In exchange, Charles would support the imperial crown being made hereditary in the House of Habsburg. Nicholas III expected Northern Italy to become a kingdom carved out of the Imperial territory, to be given to his family, the Orsini. In 1282, Charles was ready to send the child couple to reclaim the old royal title of Kings of Arles, but theWar of the Sicilian Vespers frustrated his plans.[7]
On 4 June 1365,Charles IV was the last emperor to be crowned king at Arles, after a gap of nearly two centuries following the previous Arlesian coronation ofFrederick I in 1178.[8] That attempt to revive the imperial hold on the kingdom did not succeed, however, and as a consequence Charles annexed theCounty of Savoy to theKingdom of Germany.[2]: 36 [verification needed] Charles IV ceded his rights to the crown of Arles toLouis I of Anjou the following year. During his visit to Paris in early 1378, Charles IV granted the title ofImperial vicar over the Kingdom of Arles to the nine-year-oldDauphin Charles of France, later King Charles VI, but only for his lifetime (i.e. notlineally).[9] This was seen as an effective renouncement of imperial authority over the old Burgundian regions, thus initiating the final stage of institutional dissolution of the Kingdom as a distinct entity. The core of the Kingdom, the County of Provence (without theCounty of Nice, which had been passed to theHouse of Savoy), would eventually be united with the French crown in the 1480s, after it was willed to the French king byCharles IV of Anjou, Count of Provence.
In 1421, EmperorSigismund appointedLouis II of Chalon-Arlay as theImperial vicar of Burgundy, in hope to restore some imperial authority over Dauphiny, Viennois and Provence. Those efforts were directed against rising ambitions of powerful Burgundian DukePhilip the Good.[10] In 1463, the title of Imperial vicar was offered to Duke Philip himself, by EmperorFriedrich III, as part of a proposed dynastic alliance between the houses of Burgundy and Austria, but no final agreement was reached, and thus the appointment was not accepted. The Dauphiny and the Provence were annexed into theCrown lands of France by the end of the 15th century, but those changes were not formally sanctioned by the Holy Roman Emperors.
Thus in 1524, imperial troops invaded Provence during theItalian War of 1521–1526, but failed to capture the region. In 1525, during the peace negotiations between EmperorCharles V and French KingFrancois I, it was proposed that a realm centered on Arles and Provence could be renewed forCharles III, Duke of Bourbon (d. 1527), but those plans were abandoned and not included into theTreaty of Madrid (1526). In the summer of 1536, during theItalian War of 1536–1538, Emperor Charles V personally led the invasion of Provence. He tookAix-en-Provence on August 5, affirming there his rights to the Kingdom of Arles, but those gains were soon lost, and the war ended by theTreaty of Nice (1538).[11]
Burgundian royal traditions were briefly revived in 1784, following theWar of the Bavarian Succession (1777-1779), when emperorJoseph II (d. 1790) proposed to the new Bavarian prince-electorCharles Theodore to exchangeBavaria for theAustrian Netherlands, offering him the title "King of Burgundy". The proposal was not accepted, and thus the plan failed.[12]
By that time, the title of Imperial vicar of Burgundy became extinct, while the title "King of Arles" remained one of the Holy Roman Emperor's official subsidiary titles until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. TheArchbishop of Trier continued to act as theImperial Archchancellor of Burgundy/Arles, as codified by theGolden Bull of 1356. The remnants of the Kingdom of Arles became part of theimperial circles unlike Italian,Bohemian orSwiss territories. All remaining Imperial states but Savoy were conquered byLouis XIV (r. 1643–1715).
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Poupardin, René (1911).Chisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 557–558.{{cite encyclopedia}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)