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The Duchy of Burgundy was a feudal territory once existing within the Kingdom of France. It roughly conforms to the modern Bourgogne. Existing between 843 and 1477, the Duchy was ruled by a succession of dukes, whose extinction with the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 led to the Duchy being absorbed into the French crown by King Louis XI.
The Duchy is not to be confused in historiography with the Palatine County of Burgundy or Franche-Comté, with which it was sometimes linked, or with the preceding two medieval Kingdoms of Burgundy (the last ended in 1378), when the remnants were absorbed by France spawning the duchy.
Origins
The origins of the Duchy lie in the far older Kingdom of Burgundy. The kingdom had evolved from the territory ruled over by the Burgundians, a Scandic people who settled in Gaul in the late 4th century; they lived in the area around Dijon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Mâcon, Autun, and Châtillon-sur-Seine, and their name was applied to the region. This first Kingdom of Burgundy would be annexed to the dominions of the Merovingian Kings of the Franks in the era of Clovis and his sons; it would, however, be recreated on several occasions whenever it was necessary to divide the Frankish territories between the sons of a deceased Frankish King.
Although the Kingdom of Burgundy did not always exist as an independent entity during this time, it continued a semi-autonomous existence as a part of the Kingdom of the Franks: the Burgundians maintained their own law codes, the Loi Gombette, whilst the people developed the agricultural and viticultural wealth of the territory. But southern Burgundy was pillaged by the Saracen invasion of the eighth century; and when Charles Martel had driven the invaders out, he divided Burgundy into four commands: Arles-Burgundy, Vienne-Burgundy, Alamanic Burgundy, and Frankish Burgundy, appointing his brother Childebrand as governor of this last. Under the Carolingians, Burgundian separatism lessened; Burgundy became a purely geographical term, applicable only to describe the territory the counties replacing it governed.
From these counties would emerge both the Duchy of Burgundy and the County of Burgundy, aided by the collapse of Carolingian centralism, and the division of the Frankish domains brought about by the Partition of Verdun in 843. In the midst of this confusion, Guerin, Count of Macon, attached himself to Charles the Bald, youngest son of Louis the Pious, and aided him in the Battle of Fontenay against Charles' eldest brother, Emperor Lothar. When the Frankish kingdom in the west was divided along the boundary of the Saone and Meuse (neatly dividing geographical Burgundy in the process), Guerin was rewarded for his services by the King (a move as much a recognition of the circumstances in Burgundy) by being granted the administration of the Counties of Chalon and Nevers, in which he was by custom expected to appoint Viscounts to rule as his deputies. As a vital military defender of the West Frankish border, Guerin was sometimes known by the Latin term for 'leader' - Dux, or Duke.
The Beneficiary Dukes
By the time of Richard the Justiciar, the Duchy of Burgundy was beginning to emerge. Richard was officially recognised by the King as a Dux; he also stood as individual count of each county he held (if it was not held on his behalf by a viscount); as Duke, he was able to wield an increasing amount of power over his territory; and to the collective body of his territory there came to be applied the term Ducatus, meaning in this case not only Richard's status as Duke, but the status of his territory. Included in the ducatus of Richard were the regions of Autunais, Beaunois, Avalois, Lassois, Dijonais, Memontois, Attuyer, Oscheret, Auxois, Duesmois, Auxerrois, Nivernais, Chaunois and Massois. Under Richard, his territory was also given law and order, protected from the Normans, and acted as a haven for persecuted monks.
Under Ralph, the son of Richard, Burgundy was briefly catapulted to a prime stance in France; for Ralph, acceding to the Burgundian territories in 921, became King of France in 923, and it was from his territories in Burgundy that he drew the resources needed to fight those who challenged his right to rule.
Under Hugh the Black came the beginning of what would, for Burgundy, be a long and troubled saga. His neighbours were the Robertian family, who held the title of Duke of Francia; this family, wanting to improve their standing in France and against the Carolingian kings, attempted to subject the Duchy to the suzerainty of their own Duchy. They failed; eventually, when they appeared close to success, they were forced to scrap the scheme, and instead maintain Burgundy as a separate Duchy. Two brothers of Hugh Capet, the first Capetian King of France, took up the rule of Burgundy as Duke; first Otto and then Henry the Venerable maintained the Duchy's independence, and the death of the latter without children proved a defining moment in the history of the Duchy.
The First Succession Crisis
Henry the Venerable's death, at Pouilly-sur-Saone in 1002, left two potential heirs: his nephew, Robert the Pious, King of France; and his stepson, Otto-William, Count of Burgundy, a vassal of the Emperor, whom Henry had adopted and named his heir some time before. Robert claimed the Duchy by his dual rights as feudal overlord and nearest blood-relative of the deceased; Otto-William disagreed, and sent soldiers into the Duchy, and war broke out.
Had the two Burgundys been united, history would undoubtedly have taken a different course; a Burgundy united under the German Otto-William would have been within the sphere of influence of the Empire, and would have affected the balance of power between the French and the Germans. However, it was not to be; although it took him thirteen years of bitter and prolonged battle, Robert eventually secured the Duchy for the French crown by gaining control of all the Burgundian counties west of the Saone, including Dijon; prospects of a united Burgundy evaporated, and the Duchy became irreversibly French in outlook.
For a time, the Duchy formed part of the royal domaine; but the French crown could not hope, at this time, to administer such a volatile piece of territory. The realities of power combined with Capetian family feuding: Robert the Pious gave the territory to his younger son and namesake, Robert; and when Henry I, acceding in difficult circumstances, found it necessary to secure the loyalty of Robert of Burgundy, his brother, he further heightened the rights given to his brother. Robert was to be Duke of Burgundy; as ruler of the Duchy, he would “enjoy the freehold thereof”, and have the right “to pass it on to his heirs”; the Duke would owe allegiance only to the crown of France, and be overlords of the Duchy beneath the ultimate authority of the Kings. Robert gladly agreed to this arrangement; and the era of the Capetian Dukes began.
The Capetian Dukes
It was, Robert found, a largely theoretical power that he had been granted. Between the reign of Richard the Justiciary and Henry the Venerable, the Duchy had fallen into anarchy, a condition heightened by the war of succession between Robert the Pious and Count Otto-William. The Dukes had given away most of their lands to secure the loyalty of their vassals; consequently, they lacked power in the Duchy; consequently, they lacked the support and obedience of their vassals; consequently, the Duchy was an anarchic mess.
Robert and his heirs were faced with the task of restoring the ducal demesne and strengthening ducal power. In this, it would be seen, the Dukes were well-suited to the task: none were remarkable or outstanding men who swept all opposition away before them; rather, they were persevering, methodical, realistic, able and willing to seize any opportunity presented to them. They used the Law of Escheat to their advantage: Auxois and Duesmois fell into ducal hands through reversion, these feudatories having no heir able to administer them. They purchased both land and vassalage, which built up both the ducal demesne and the number of vassals dependent upon the dukes. They made an income for themselves by demanding cash payments in exchange for recognition of a lord’s feudal rights within the Duchy, by skillful management of loans from the Jewish and Lombard bankers, by the careful administration of feudal dues and the ready sale of immunities and justice.
The Duchy itself benefited from the rule of the Capetians. As time passed, the state was built up and stabilised; around the Dukes grew up a court in miniature of the royal court at Paris; at Beaune sat the Jours Generaux, a replica of the Paris Parliament; over the provosts and lords of the manor responsible for local government were imposed bailiffs, whilst the Duchy was divided into five Bailiages.
Under the competent leadership of Robert II, one of the more notable Dukes of the Capetian period, Burgundy reached new levels. Previously, the development of the duchy had been impeded by the bestowal of minor lands and titles on younger sons and daughters, diminishing the ducal fisc; Robert firmly ended this practice, stating in his will that he left to his eldest son and heir, Hugh, and after Hugh to his heir, “all the fiefs, former fiefs, seignieuries and revenue…belonging to the Duchy”. The younger children of Robert would receive only annuities; since these annuities derived from property held by Hugh, these younger children would need to owe liege homage to ensure their income.
Hugh V died; his brother Eudes IV succeeded. Himself the grandson of Saint Louis by his mother, Agnes of France, he would also be the brother-in-law of two French Kings – Louis X, married to his sister Marguerite, and Philip VI, married to his sister Jeanne – and the son-in-law of a third, Philip V, whose daughter Jeanne de France he married. Previous attempts to gain territory through marriage – Hugh III and the Dauphiné, Eudes III and Nivernais, Hugh IV and the Bourbonnais – had failed; Eudes IV’s wife, however, was sovereign Countess of Burgundy and Artois, and the marriage reunited the Burgundys again.
They were not, however, reunited for long. The marriage of Duke Eudes and Countess Jeanne produced only one surviving child, Philippe; he married another Jeanne, the heiress of Auvergne and Boulogne, but they again only produced a single surviving child, Philippe of Rouvres. The elder Philippe predeceased both of his parents in an accident with a horse in 1346; Jeanne de France followed him to the grave a year later, and the death of Eudes IV in 1349 left the survival of the Duchy dependent upon the survival of the young Duke, a young child of two and a half, and the last of the direct line of descent from Duke Robert I.
By inheritance, Philippe of Rouvres was Duke of Burgundy from 1349. He had already been Count of Burgundy and Artois since the death of his grandmother, the Countess, in 1347; in practice, though, the Duke his grandfather had continued to rule over these counties as he had done since his marriage to Countess Jeanne, Philippe of Rouvres being only a baby. With the old Duke’s death, the Duchy and its associated territories were governed by the young Duke’s mother, Jeanne de Boulogne, and by her second husband, King John the Good of France.
Richer promises were made to the young Duke. His mother was Countess of Auvergne and Boulogne, and he could expect to inherit those territories on her death; and a marriage was arranged between himself and the young heiress of Flanders, Margaret of Dampierre, who could promise to eventually bring Flanders and Brabant to her husband. By 1361, aged 17, he appeared to be on track to continue the Duchy’s steady rise to greatness.
It was not to be, however. He became ill with the plague, a disease that all but inevitably promised a swift and agonising death; fully expecting to die, the young Duke made his last will and testament on 11 November; ten days later, he was dead, and with him, his dynasty.
The Second Succession Crisis
Even before his death, France and Burgundy had begun considering the knotty problem of the succession. By the terms of his will, the Duke had stated that he directed and appointed as heirs to his “county, and to our possessions whatever they may be, those, male and female, who by law or local custom ought or may inherit.” Since his domains all practiced succession by primogeniture, there was no question of his dominions passing en bloc to any one man or woman – they had come to Philip of Rouvres by different paths of inheritance, and so by the customs of the territories, they were required to pass to the next in line to inherit in each respective territory.
The Counties of Auvergne and Boulogne – inherited by Philip upon his mother’s death a year earlier – passed to the next heir, Jean de Boulogne, the brother of Philip’s grandfather William XII of Auvergne. The Counties of Burgundy and Artois passed to the sister of Philip’s grandmother Countess Jeanne, Marguerite de France, herself the grandmother of Philip’s young bride Margaret of Dampierre.
The Duchy of Burgundy, however, proved a greater challenge to jurists. In the Duchy, as in much of Europe at this time, two principles of inheritance were held valid: that of primogeniture – as in the case of the English crown in 1377, which at the death of Edward III was inherited by his grandson Richard of Bordeaux, the eldest son of his deceased eldest son Edward, rather than by his son John of Gaunt, the eldest of Edward III’s sons still living; and that of proximity of blood – as in the case of Artois, which had on the death of the Count in 1302 had been inherited by Mahaut, his eldest living daughter, rather than by his grandson, Robert, the eldest son of the Count’s already deceased son. In some cases, the two principles were able to mesh together: in the case of Boulogne and Auvergne, for example, Jean was the second son of Robert d’Auvergne, Philip’s great-grandfather, and the nearest ancestor to Philip to have surviving lines of descent following Philip’s death; Jean was therefore both the most senior heir to Robert following Philip’s death, and also the closest to Robert by descent. In the same manner, Marguerite de France was the closest heir by both primogeniture and proximity to her mother, Jeanne de Chalons, Countess of Burgundy and Artois, Philip’s great-grandmother and, again, the nearest ancestor of Philip to have lines of descent surviving the Duke’s death.