book 1, chapter 2.

BURGUNDY: A. D. 1032. The Last Kingdom. Its Union With Germany, And Its Dissolution.

The last kingdom which bore the name of Burgundy--though more often called the kingdom of Arles--formed, as stated above, by the union of the short-lived kingdoms of Provence and Transjurane Burgundy, became in 1032 nominally united to the dominions of the Emperor-King of Germany. Its last independent king was Rudolf III., son of Conrad the Pacific, who was uncle to the Emperor Henry II. Being childless, he named Henry his heir. The latter, however, died first, in 1024, and Rudolf attempted to cancel his bequest, claiming that it was made to Henry personally, not as King of the Germans. When, however, the Burgundian king died, in 1032, the then reigning Emperor, Conrad the Salic, or the Franconian, formally proclaimed the union of Burgundy with Germany. "But since Burgundy was ruled almost exclusively by the great nobility, the sovereignty of the German Emperors there was never much more than nominal. Besides, the country, from the Bernese Oberland to the Mediterranean, except that part of Allemannia which is now German Switzerland, was inhabited by a Romance people, too distinct in language, customs and laws from the German empire ever really to form a part of it. ... Yet Switzerland was thenceforth connected forever with the development of Germany, and for 500 years remained a part of the empire."

_C. T. Lewis, History of Germany, book 2, chapter 6-7._

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"The weakness of Rodolph-le-Fainéant [Rodolph III., who made Henry II. of Germany his heir, as stated above], gave the great lords of the kingdom of Arles an opportunity of consolidating their independence. Among these one begins to remark Berchtold and his son, Humbert-aux-Blanches-Mains (the White-handed), Counts of Maurienne, and founders of the House of Savoy; Otto William, who it is pretended was the son of Adalbert, King of Italy, and heir by right of his mother to the county of Burgundy, was the founder of the sovereign house of Franche-Comté [County Palatine of Burgundy]; Guigue, Count of Albon, founder of the sovereign house of the dauphins of Viennois; and William, who it is pretended was the issue of a brother of Rodolph of Burgundy, King of France, and who was sovereign count of Provence. These four lords had, throughout the reign of Rodolph, much more power than he in the kingdom of Arles; and when at his death his crown was united to that of the Empire, the feudatories who had grown great at his expense became almost absolutely independent. On the other hand, their vassals began on their side to acquire importance under them; and in Provence can be traced at this period the succession of the counts of Forcalquier and of Venaissin, of the princes of Orange, of the viscounts of Marseille, of the barons of Baux, of Sault, of Grignau, and of Castellane. We can still follow the formation of a great number of other feudatory or rather sovereign houses. Thus the counts of Toulouse, those of Rouergue, the dukes of Gascony, the counts of Foix, of Beam, and of Carcassone, date least from this epoch; but their existence is announced to us only by their diplomas and their wills."

_J. C. L. de Sismondi, France under the Feudal System, chapter 2._

See, also, PROVENCE: A. D. 943-1092, AND FRANCHE COMTÉ.

BURGUNDY: A. D. 1127-1378. The Franco-Germanic Contest For The Valley Of The Rhone. End Of The Kingdom Of Arles.

"As soon as the Capetian monarchs had acquired enough strength at home to be able to look with safety abroad, they began to make aggressions on the tempting and wealthy dependencies of the distant emperors. But the Rhone valley was too important in itself, and of too great strategical value as securing an easy road to Italy, to make it possible for the emperors to acquiesce easily in its loss. Hence a long conflict, which soon became a national conflict of French and Germans, to maintain the Imperial position in the 'middle kingdom' of the Rhone valley. M. Fournier's book ['Le Royaume d' Arles et de Vienne (1138-1178)'; par Paul Fournier] aims at giving an adequate account of this struggle. ... From the times of the mighty Barbarossa to the times of the pretentious and cunning Charles of Luxemburg [see GERMANY: A. D. 1138-1268, and A. D. 1347-1493], nearly every emperor sought by constant acts of sovereignty to uphold his precarious powers in the Arelate. Unable to effect much with their own resources, the emperors exhausted their ingenuity in finding allies and inventing brilliant schemes for reviving the Arelate, which invariably came to nothing. Barbarossa won the hand of the heiress of the county of Burgundy, and sought to put in place of the local dynasties princes on whom he could rely, like Berthold of Zäringen, whose father had received in 1127 from Conrad III. the high-sounding but meaningless title of Hector of the Burgundies. But his quarrel with the church soon set the clergy against Frederick, and, led by the Carthusian and Cistercian orders, the Churchmen of the Arelate began to look upon the orthodox king of the French as their truest protector from a schismatic emperor. But the French kings of the period saw in the power of Henry of Anjou [Henry II., of England--see ENGLAND: A. D. 1154-1189] a more real and pressing danger than the Empire of the Hohenstaufen. The result was an alliance between Philip Augustus and his successors and the Swabian emperors, which gave Frederick and his successors a new term in which they could strive to win back a real hold over Burgundy. Frederick II. never lost sight of this object. His investiture of the great feudal lord William of Baux with the kingdom of Arles in 1215; his long struggle with the wealthy merchant city of Marseilles; his alliance with Raymond of Toulouse and the heretical elements in Provence against the Pope and the French; his efforts to lead an army against Innocent IV. at Lyons, were among the chief phases of his constant efforts to make the Imperial influence really felt in the valley of the Rhone. But he had so little success that the French crusaders against the Albigenses waged open war within its limits, and destroyed the heretic city of Avignon [see ALBIGENSES: A. D. 1217-1229], while Innocent in his exile could find no surer protection against the emperor than in the Imperial city of Lyons. After Frederick's death the policy of St. Louis of France was a complete triumph. His brother, Charles of Anjou, established himself in Provence, though in later times the Angevin lords of Provence and Naples became so strong that their local interests made them enemies rather than friends of the extension of French power on their borders. The subsequent efforts of the emperors were the merest shams and unrealities. Rudolf of Hapsburg acquiesced without a murmur in the progress of Philip the Fair, who made himself master of Lyons, and secured the Free County of Burgundy for his son [see FRANCHE-COMTÉ]. . . . The residence of the Popes at Avignon was a further help to the French advance. ... Weak as were the early Valois kings, they were strong enough to push still further the advantage won by their greater predecessors. The rivalry of the leading states of the Rhone valley, Savoy and Dauphiny, facilitated their task. Philip VI. aspired to take Vienne as Philip IV. had obtained Lyons. The Dauphin, Humbert II., struggled in vain against him, and at last accepted the inevitable by ceding to the French king the succession to all his rights in Dauphiny, henceforth to become the appanage of the eldest sons of the French kings. At last, Charles of Luxemburg, in 1378, gave the French aggressions a legal basis by conferring the Vicariat of Arles on the Dauphin Charles, subsequently the mad Charles VI. of France. From this grant Savoy only was excepted. Henceforth the power of France in the Rhone valley became so great that it soon became the fashion to despise and ignore the theoretical claims of the Empire."

_The Athenæum, Oct. 3, 1891, reviewing "Le Royaume d'Arles et de Vienne," par Paul Fournier._

[Image: POSSESSIONS OF CHARLES THE BOLD, DUKE OF BURGUNDY, ABOUT 1475.]

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BURGUNDY: A. D. 1207-1401. Advance Of The Dominions Of The House Of Savoy Beyond Lake Geneva.

See SAVOY: 11TH-15TH CENTURIES.

BURGUNDY: A. D. 1364. The French Dukedom. The Planting Of The Burgundian Branch Of The House Of Valois.

The last Duke of Burgundy of the Capetian house which descended from Robert, son of King Robert, died in December, 1361. He was called Philip de Rouvre, because the Château de Rouvre, near Dijon, had been his birth-place, and his residence. He was still in his youth when he died, although he had borne the ducal title for twelve years. It fell to him at the age of four, when his father died. From his mother and his grandmother he inherited, additionally, the county of Burgundy (Franche Comté) and the counties of Boulogne, Auvergne and Artois. His tender years had not prevented the marriage of the young duke to Margaret, daughter and heiress of the Count of Flanders. John II. King of France, whose mother was a Burgundian princess, claimed to be the nearest relative of the young duke, when the latter died, in 1361, and, although his claim was disputed by the King of Navarre, Charles the Bad, King John took possession of the dukedom. He took it by right of succession, and not as a fief which had lapsed, the original grant of King Robert having contained no reversionary provision. Franche Comté, or the county of Burgundy, together with Artois, remained to the young widow, Margaret of Flanders, while the counties of Boulogne and Auvergne passed to John of Boulogne, Count de Montfort. A great opportunity for strengthening the crown of France, by annexing to it the powerful Burgundian dukedom, was now offered to King John; but he lacked the wisdom to improve it. He preferred to grant it away as a splendid appanage for his favorite son--the fourth--the spirited lad Philip, called the Fearless, who had stood by his father's side in the disastrous battle of Poitiers, and who had shared his captivity in England. By a deed which took effect on King John's death, in 1364, the great duchy of Burgundy was conferred on Philip the Fearless and on his heirs. Soon afterwards, Philip's marriage with the young widow of his predecessor, Philip de Rouvre, was brought about, which restored to their former union with the dukedom the Burgundian County (Franche Comté) and the county of Artois, while it gave to the new duke prospectively the rich county of Flanders, to which Margaret was the heiress. Thus was raised up anew the most formidable rival which the royal power in France had ever to contend with, and the magnitude of the blunder of King John was revealed before half a century had passed.

_Froissart (Johnes) Chronicles, book 1, chapter 216._

ALSO IN: _F. P. Guizot, Popular History of France, chapter 22._

BURGUNDY: A. D. 1383. Flanders Added To The Ducal Dominions.

See FLANDERS: A. D. 1383.

BURGUNDY: A. D. 1405-1453. Civil war with the Armagnacs. Alliance with the English.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1380-1415; 1415-1419; 1417-1422; 1429-1431; 1431-1453.

BURGUNDY: A. D. 1430. Holland, Hainault And Friesland Absorbed By The Dukes.

See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND AND HAINAULT): A. D. 1417-1430.

BURGUNDY: A. D. 1467. Charles The Bold. His Position, Between Germany And France. His Antagonism To Louis Xi. The "Middle Kingdom" Of His Aims.

Charles, known commonly in history as Charles the Bold, became Duke of Burgundy in 1467, succeeding his father Philip, misnamed "The Good." "His position was a very peculiar one; it requires a successful shaking-off of modern notions fully to take in what it was. Charles held the rank of one of the first princes in Europe without being a King, and without possessing an inch of ground for which he did not owe service to some superior lord. And, more than this, he did not owe service to one lord only. The phrase of 'Great Powers' had not been invented in the 15th century; but there can be no doubt that, if it had been, the Duke of Burgundy would have ranked among the foremost of them. He was, in actual strength, the equal of his royal neighbour to the west, and far more than the equal of his Imperial neighbour to the east. Yet for every inch of his territories he owed a vassal's duty to one or other of them. Placed on the borders of France and the Empire, some of his territories were held of the Empire and some of the French Crown. Charles, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders and Artois, was a vassal of France; but Charles, Duke of Brabant, Count of Burgundy, Holland, and a dozen other duchies and counties, held his dominions as a vassal of Cæsar. His dominions were large in positive extent, and they were valuable out of all proportion to their extent. No other prince in Europe was the direct sovereign of so many rich and flourishing cities, rendered still more rich and flourishing through the long and, in the main, peaceful administration of his father. The cities of the Netherlands were incomparably greater and more prosperous than those of France or England; and, though they enjoyed large municipal privileges, they were not, like those of Germany, independent commonwealths, acknowledging only an external suzerain in their nominal lord; Other parts of his dominions, the Duchy of Burgundy especially, were as rich in men as Flanders was rich in money. So far the Duke of Burgundy had some great advantages over every other prince of his time. But, on the other hand, his dominions were further removed than those of any prince in Europe from forming a compact whole. He was not King of one kingdom, but Duke, Count, and Lord of innumerable duchies, counties, and lordships, acquired by different means, held by different titles and of different overlords, speaking different languages, subject to different laws, transmitted according to different rules of succession. ... They lay in two large masses, the two Burgundies forming one and the Low Countries forming the other, so that their common master could not go from one capital to another without passing through a foreign territory. {333} And, even within these two great masses, there were portions of territory intersecting the ducal dominions which there was no hope of annexing by fair means. ... The career of Charles the Bold ... divides itself into a French and a German portion. In both alike he is exposed to the restless rivalry of Lewis of France; but in the one period that rivalry is carried on openly within the French territory, while in the second period the crafty king finds the means to deal far more effectual blows through the agency of Teutonic hands. ... As a French prince, he joined with other French princes to put limits on the power of the Crown, and to divide the kingdom into great feudal holdings, as nearly independent as might be of the common overlord. As a French prince, he played his part in the War of the Public Weal [see FRANCE: A. D. 1461-1468], and insisted, as a main object of his policy, on the establishment of the King's brother as an all but independent Duke of Normandy. The object of Lewis was to make France a compact monarchy; the object of Charles and his fellows was to keep France as nearly as might be in the same state as Germany. But, when the other French princes had been gradually conquered, won over, or got rid of in some way or other by the crafty policy of Lewis, Charles remained no longer the chief of a coalition of French princes, but the personal rival, the deadly enemy, of the French King. ... Chronologically and geographically alike. Charles and his Duchy form the great barrier, or the great connecting link, whichever we choose to call it, between the main divisions of European history and European geography. The Dukes of Burgundy of the House of Valois form a sort of bridge between the later Middle Age and the period of the Renaissance and the Reformation. They connect those two periods by forming the kernel of the vast dominion of that Austrian House which became their heir, and which, mainly by virtue of that heirship fills such a space in the history of the 16th and 17th centuries. But the dominions of the Burgundian Dukes hold a still higher historical position. They may be said to bind together the whole of European history for the last thousand years. From the 9th century to the 19th, the politics of Europe have largely gathered round the rivalry between the Eastern and the Western Kingdoms--in modern language, between Germany and France. From the 9th century to the 19th, a succession of efforts have been made to establish, in one shape or another, a middle state between the two. Over and over again during that long period have men striven to make the whole or some portion of the frontier lands stretching from the mouth of the Rhine to the mouth of the Rhone into an independent barrier state. ... That object was never more distinctly aimed at, and it never seemed nearer to its accomplishment, than when Charles the Bold actually reigned from the Zuyder Zee to the Lake of Neufchâtel, and was not without hopes of extending his frontier to the Gulf of Lyons. ... Holding, as he did, parts of old Lotharingia and parts of old Burgundy, there can be no doubt that he aimed at the re-establishment of a great Middle Kingdom, which should take in all that had ever been Burgundian or Lotharingian ground. He aimed, in short, as others have aimed before and since, at the formation of a state which should hold a central position between France, Germany and Italy--a state which should discharge, with infinitely greater strength, all the duties which our own age has endeavoured to throw on Switzerland, Belgium and Savoy. ... Undoubtedly it would have been for the permanent interest of Europe if he had succeeded in his attempt."

_E. A. Freeman, Charles the Bold (Historical Essays, 1st series, no. 11)_.

BURGUNDY: A. D. 1467-1468. The war of Charles the Bold with the Liegeois and his troubles with Louis XI.

"Soon after the pacification of the troubles of France [see FRANCE: A. D. 1461-1468], the Duke of Burgundy began a war against the Liegeois, which lasted for several years; and whenever the king of France [Louis XI.] had a mind to interrupt him, he attempted some new action against the Bretons, and, in the meantime, supported the Liegeois underhand; upon which the Duke of Burgundy turned against him to succour his allies, or else they came to some treaty or truce among themselves. ... During these wars, and ever since, secret and fresh intrigues were carried on by the princes. The king was so exceedingly exasperated against the Dukes of Bretagne and Burgundy that it was wonderful. ... The king of France's aim, in the meantime, was chiefly to carry his design against the province of Bretagne, and he looked upon it as a more feasible attempt, and likelier to give him less resistance than the house of Burgundy. Besides, the Bretons were the people who protected and entertained all his malcontents; as his brother, and others, whose interest and intelligence were great in his kingdom; for this cause he endeavoured very earnestly with Charles, Duke of Burgundy, by several advantageous offers and proposals, to prevail with him to desert them, promising that upon those terms he also would abandon the Liegeois, and give no further protection to his malcontents. The Duke of Burgundy would by no means consent to it, but again made preparations for war against the Liegeois, who had broken the peace." This was in October, 1467. The Duke (Charles the Bold) attacked St. Tron, which was held by a garrison of 3,000 of the men of Liege. The Liegeois, 30,000 strong, came to the relief of the besieged town, and were routed, leaving 6,000 slain on the field. St. Tron and Tongres were both surrendered, and Liege, itself, after considerable strife among its citizens, opened its gates to the Duke, who entered in triumph (Nov. 17, 1467) and hanged half-a-dozen for his moderate satisfaction. In the course of the next summer the French king opened war afresh upon the Duke of Bretagne and forced him into a treaty, before the Duke of Burgundy, his ally, could take the field. The king, then being extremely anxious to pacify the Duke of Burgundy, took the extraordinary step of visiting the latter at Peronne, without any guard, trusting himself wholly to the honor of his enemy. But it happened unfortunately, during the king's stay at Peronne, that a ferocious revolt occurred at Liege, which was traced beyond denial to the intrigues of two agents whom king Louis had sent thither not long before, for mischief-making purposes. The Duke, in his wrath, was not easily restrained from doing some violence to the king; but the royal trickster escaped from his grave predicament by giving up the unhappy Liegeois to the vengeance of Duke Charles and personally assisting the latter to inflict it. {334} "After the conclusion of the peace [dictated by Charles at Peronne and signed submissively by Louis] the King and the Duke of Burgundy set out the next morning [Oct. 15, 1468] for Cambray, and from thence towards the country of Liége: it was the beginning of winter and the weather was very bad. The king had with him only his Scotch guards and a small body of his standing forces; but he ordered 300 of his men-at-arms to join him." Liége was invested, and, notwithstanding its walls had been thrown down the previous year, it made a stubborn defense. During a siege of a fortnight, several desperate sallies were made, by the last one of which both the Duke and the King were brought into great personal peril. Exhausted by this final effort, the Liegeois were unprepared to repel a grand assault which the besieging forces made upon the town the next morning--Sunday, Oct. 30. Liege was taken that day almost without resistance, the miserable inhabitants flying across the Maes into the forest of Ardennes, abandoning their homes to pillage. The Duke of Burgundy now permitted King Louis to return home, while he remained a few days longer in desolate Liege, which his fierce hatred had doomed. "Before the Duke left the city, a great number of those poor creatures who had hid themselves in the houses when the town was taken, and were afterwards made prisoners, were drowned. He also resolved to burn the city, which had always been very populous; and orders were given for firing it in three different places, and 3,000 or 4,000 foot of the country of Limbourg (who were their neighbours, and used the same habit and language), were commanded to effect this desolation, but to secure the churches. ... All things being thus ordered, the Duke began his march into the country of Franchemont: he was no sooner out of town, but immediately we saw a great number of houses on fire beyond the river; the duke lay that night four leagues from the city, yet we could hear the noise as distinctly as if we had been upon the spot; but whether it was the wind which lay that way, or our quartering upon the river, that was the cause of it, I know not. The next day the Duke marched on, and those who were left in the town continued the conflagration according to his orders; but all the churches (except some few) were preserved, and above 300 houses belonging to the priests and officers of the churches, which was the reason it was so soon reinhabited, for many flocked thither to live with the priests."

_Philip de Commines, Memoirs, book 2._

ALSO IN: _J. F. Kirk, History of Charles the Bold, book 1, chapter 7-9;